Aldeburgh Harbour, A Suffolk branch, Gauge 3 indoors.

Mike W

Western Thunderer
That would be the big Gauge 3 exhibition at the Weatherley Centre in Biggleswade on Saturday 21st February then Geoff? The one where everyone in Gauge 3 needs to be and which is open to everyone with an interest in large scale railway modelling? (unashamed plug!)

Mike
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
All the setts have been laid on the wharf. I have to own up to the photo being a bit of a plug for Williams Models.co.uk, and my involvement with that organisation. The wagon, sett panels, wagon turntable and barrels are all from Mike's range, and I made the patterns for the first three. He did the barrels himself. The wagon sheet rail works just like the real thing.
Unfortunately the photography is all my own work.
As the layout is to be portable, the sett panels were screwed down with no 2 screws, each countersunk into a sett, to be filled later. B& Q only had them in brass, but somehow it implies more craftsmanship.
I moved the gate so it opens inward onto the siding, there's no possibility of it swinging onto the main line. We have someone in our Club who works on the railway and is a stickler for operational accuracy. Having him around does make you think all the time, 'is this right?' I think it makes for a better layout.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
I'd been thinking a brick wharf wasn't right, and last week scrapped it and replaced it with one built of wood (actually balsa). Two days later, at the Great Eastern Soc AGM I picked up some MRJ's second hand and found an article by Trevor Nunn describing "the Quay to East Lynn" (issue no 171)
His layout is pretty much what I'm trying to do, and features a wooden wharf frontage, so I feel vindicated.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
Today I sawed my layout in half!
Okay, that was mostly said for shock comic effect, but it's partly true. The scenic 2.1m of the layout consists of two board modules joined together. I bought the modules from Elite baseboards and they are rather solid. After I'd joined them together and fitted the backscene, we managed to carry them upstairs to the railway room. However, now there's a bit of scenery, and the track, they seem really heavy. And that's before I add 3 kilos of ballast.
The original reason for fixing the boards together was because they are straddled by a turnout. Fortunately all the moving parts are safely on one side of the join. So, I separated the boards. This meant sawing the turnout in half, which does appear to have been successful. Sawing the backscene in two was not quite so successful. The kerf (thank you Philip Healey Pearce, I said I'd use it) is about 2mm so I'm going to have to re-read Gordon Gravett's article about concealing baseboard joins in MRJ.
All this hard work is the fault of MRJ. An article in the latest issue about laying grass, says you should do it under the lighting the layout will normally receive, or it will look wrong. so I thought I'd install the lighting ( a 1.5m fluorescent) . Which meant fitting the legs, which meant lifting the board...

Elsewhere, the setts in the gutters, and the kerbstones have been laid. If the weather is like this on Monday, I'll be laying paving slabs. Mike Williams reminded me that the wagon turntable will need capstans. I'm sure MRJ will have devoted a whole issue to these mundane, but vital features, I just haven't found it yet.
In the meantime, if anyone out there knows of any good photos or drawings of capstans, please drop me a line. (Great Eastern preferably, but failing that LNWR, for Mike)
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
A great looking layout, Geoff :thumbs:, especially the late LBSCR Open A. Your coaches look very impressive too and can't wait to see them finished. Not sure if you read one of my posts re early spring hangers but, I would like to see what the ones on your coaches look like. It just may be that they are very similar to the ones that I'm looking for.

Regards
Jon
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
I've uploaded a photo of the springs that came with the GER four wheelers Dan Pinnock blow up from 7mm for me. The whitemetal springs are the standard GER 7' 0" pattern with hangers. very nicely cast too. But I don't think they'd suit early coaches.
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Dear Geoff

Thanks for the picture unfortunately, they are too long and the hanger is quite different too, never mind. I'll just have to keep my eyes open on this one.

Regards
Jon
 

unklian

Western Thunderer
Geoff ,
A couple of questions on Great Eastern stock for you, following on from the above. The GER 4 wheel coaches featured by D&S, is there a 5 compartment all 3rd in the range, and if so would it be 27 feet long ? Also do you have any details/drawings of 16 foot 7 ton GER horseboxes built before 1906 ?

Regards Ian
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
I've just changed the name of this thread.
A couple of photos showing progress on Aldeburgh Wharf, my 'proper' 'big' layout. I was pleased with my efforts painting the setts on Lea Siding, so I had a go and the much larger area on Aldeburgh Wharf. Not such a good result, but I think it's okay. The cream coloured area is the undercoat for pavement, the site of the fish market, hence the cast iron awning. I finally found some drawings of a suitable station: Quy (pronounced kwai) on the Mildenhall branch. I give up looking for embossed bricks for the platform and downloaded a pattern from http://paperbrick.co.uk/
I still haven't got round to adding lettering to the wagons yet, in the smaller scales it's often said that a layout is never complete, in gauge 3 this applies to individual wagons and carriages.

20161101_192500.jpg 20161101_191859.jpg
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
It's all Cliff Barker track, the nearer turnout is a 'Y' the other a left hand. Both 3m radius, the standard I've adopted for all my stock. Using the 'Y' shortens the crossover and makes the track layout more interesting.
 
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geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
I wasn't sure about the height of the proscenium arch, so it showed the layout to my second operator, Roy. His response was blunt. So I tried raising it an extra foot or so. 20170912_183300.jpg
Much better, and the LED lighting is still sufficiently strong even with the arch at 6 feet. The following shows how the self adhesive LED lighting strip was attached to the arch
20170912_183033.jpg
The lighting is fixed under the angle, the white stuff was cut from some angled guttering which I had used as a fiddle yard cassette on a previous layout. The angle means the whole layout is evenly lit, but the height means people standing behind the layout would be blinded. Fortunately it will be operated from the front.
The new backscene is being filled prior to painting. It will be just sky. In its Aldeburgh Wharf incarnation the background would be the sea. I visited the Parliamentary archives last month and examined the plans attached to the two Aldeburgh Pier and Railway Acts, 1864 and 1871. The first proposed a pier close to the Moot House with a branch South to just beyond Slaughden Quay. The second proposed the same branch, no pier, but a harbour on the coast opposite Slaughden quay, with a lock allowing boats to pass through to the river Alde. The way my layout is oriented means north (aldeburgh town) is the left end, so the wharf fronts on the river, and the backscene is the open sea.
In reality the harbour was never built, and they ran out of money when the pier was half built.
I can recommend visiting the Parliamentary archives and examining the actual paperwork concerning when planning a layout based on a what if scenario, this paperwork includes a list of all affected land and property giving details of current use and ownership. Security is obviously strict, but once you're in, they look after you, and there's a breakout room, and free tea and coffee.
 
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BG Rich

Member
Great to see your progress, Geoff and all looking really good. I sent the drawings of the four-wheeler and an e-mail of a rare photo of a 2-2-0 from the Stockton & Darlington. Did they arrive or have I your addresses ( real and e-mail) wrong? If not I will have a go at sending them again.
Best wishes
Rich
 
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