Ressaldar
Western Thunderer
Continuing on from Chester Street & the Merseyside MRS, we now March 2010, become the Wirral O Gauge Group and move into primary school premises with a lock up shed to house a layout that has yet to be designed
Because of the requirement to erect/dismantle the layout at every twice weekly meetings, a lightweight construction was decided upon and then a test track style layout designed - ie no scenery to get damaged each time the layout came out/went away - which produced this
albeit without the double junction off of the inner circuit in the lower left. The outer two lines are completely independent of each other but the inner pair of lines have 3 pairs of crossovers. As constructed - using Peco track, the layout had manual operated points and was DC controlled.
As the layout was to be erected/dismantled at each meeting, it was decided to use 75 thick Styrofoam as the core material, bonded to 9 birch ply sides and ends with solvent free 'no nails'
Having basiscally getting things running, we were then again faced with finding new premises, which fortunately did not take too long - a former fitness suite, still with all of the equipment installed, but exactly the right size to fit the layout in lengthways and give us over ten feet to the side when the layout was erected against the wall. The really good thing was that as sole user, we were able to have the layout up 24/7. Like a lot of 'good things at the time' this location lasted just 12 months and we were on the move again.
We are now located in the old printing room of what was the headquarters of the Blue Funnel Line - (cue for model of 35013) a room approx 45' x 22' which with the layout against two walls gives us plenty of room for general circulation.
Hopefully, if we can continue paying the expensive rent, we will be settled for a good while yet. To this end, we have decided to add a station area to the open side of the layout, serving all four running lines - following our move, the inner two have now been converted to DCC (Digitrax Super Chief 8)
We have also embarked on an end to end layout based on the layout of the local New Brighton station and it's approaches, with the idea of exhibiting at local events - it measures 39' x 4' at its extreme
and the idea is to have the station and immeadiate approach to be plugged into a double junction off of the inner tracks of the continuous run.
This time we have gone for 9 birch ply construction throughout - easier to attach point motors etc to the underside We have just finished the baseboard construction and will be starting to insert the pattern makers dowels and overcentre catches this week. The boards will then be painted, followed by construction of the trackwork - all C&L and points operated by Tortoise motors.
That just about brings you up to date, further episodes will follow in due course.
cheers
Mike
Because of the requirement to erect/dismantle the layout at every twice weekly meetings, a lightweight construction was decided upon and then a test track style layout designed - ie no scenery to get damaged each time the layout came out/went away - which produced this
albeit without the double junction off of the inner circuit in the lower left. The outer two lines are completely independent of each other but the inner pair of lines have 3 pairs of crossovers. As constructed - using Peco track, the layout had manual operated points and was DC controlled.
As the layout was to be erected/dismantled at each meeting, it was decided to use 75 thick Styrofoam as the core material, bonded to 9 birch ply sides and ends with solvent free 'no nails'
Having basiscally getting things running, we were then again faced with finding new premises, which fortunately did not take too long - a former fitness suite, still with all of the equipment installed, but exactly the right size to fit the layout in lengthways and give us over ten feet to the side when the layout was erected against the wall. The really good thing was that as sole user, we were able to have the layout up 24/7. Like a lot of 'good things at the time' this location lasted just 12 months and we were on the move again.
We are now located in the old printing room of what was the headquarters of the Blue Funnel Line - (cue for model of 35013) a room approx 45' x 22' which with the layout against two walls gives us plenty of room for general circulation.
Hopefully, if we can continue paying the expensive rent, we will be settled for a good while yet. To this end, we have decided to add a station area to the open side of the layout, serving all four running lines - following our move, the inner two have now been converted to DCC (Digitrax Super Chief 8)
We have also embarked on an end to end layout based on the layout of the local New Brighton station and it's approaches, with the idea of exhibiting at local events - it measures 39' x 4' at its extreme
and the idea is to have the station and immeadiate approach to be plugged into a double junction off of the inner tracks of the continuous run.
This time we have gone for 9 birch ply construction throughout - easier to attach point motors etc to the underside We have just finished the baseboard construction and will be starting to insert the pattern makers dowels and overcentre catches this week. The boards will then be painted, followed by construction of the trackwork - all C&L and points operated by Tortoise motors.
That just about brings you up to date, further episodes will follow in due course.
cheers
Mike
