Jump to content
 

Lisburn North - An 00 gauge layout


Lambeg Man
 Share

Recommended Posts

Many thanks for the kind compliment Kirley.

 

47 minutes ago, kirley said:

Trust you Steve, nothing escapes your eagle eye.

 

Except of course the spacing between the access door and the windows either side.... It should be narrower to the left and broader to the right... Doooh!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

"Lisburn North" is no more and my input to this thread ends.

 

The basic problem was trying to operate an 'oval' layout from the outside of the 'oval'. The original idea was that it would be viewed and operated from the front, with the hidden sidings at the back. This was found to involve frequent 'ducking under' to reach the hidden sidings. At my age and with my back, 'ducking under' was found to be a sometimes painful exercise. An attempt to fit a lifting section at the front revealed the inadequacies of the my original carpentry skills (zero!). After two weeks of messing around trying to resolve the various problems, I said to my wife "You know, I could have rebuilt the whole thing in the time I've spent trying to sort that layout." Reply "Well why don't you?"

 

Another serious issue was that all 22 points related the the hidden sidings were electrically operated from a distance. What was therefore needed was some form of train detection system to effectively operate the layout from that distance. This felt like fitting more gadgets to make the first set of gadgets work.

 

So the the layout was completely dismantled and a rebuild is near completion. Some baseboards have been rebuilt and the new layout will still be an oval with hidden sidings on one side and the scenic section on the other, all operated from WITHIN the oval, obviating the need to power the points working the hidden sidings. A new thread will appear on this site entitled "Belfast Central Junction".

 

In closing may I take the opportunity to say a big thank you to those members of this site who in the past posted many encouraging comments relating to "Lisburn North".    

Edited by Lambeg Man
  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...
On 19/07/2020 at 21:46, Lambeg Man said:

"Lisburn North" is no more and my input to this thread ends.

 

Welcome back. Never say never again! "Lisburn North" is being rebuilt...

 

Following a house move, the new home for the model railway layout is again in the garage. The new garage is 18" longer (or wider if you like) than the previous one, so the hidden sidings boards have been rebuilt to accommodate the extra length. The number of hidden sidings has been reduced to 9 as opposed to 11 in the previous arrangement. In the main, the board width has been reduced to 19", but lateral supports extend to 28" width. The remaining 9" will be used to provide a double track fictional section featuring a wooden platform halt akin to Derriaghy which will provide a viewable section 13' in length in front of the hidden sidings. 5" wide track bed will allow 2" either side for the lines to run on a shallow embankment.

 

Previous negatives about the "Lisburn North" concept have been addressed. The new boards for this section will be 4" wider than before, allowing a greater depth to the vista. The extra length of the new garage means I can build it precisely as it was before, BUT it will be viewed from inside the operating well. Only the four points on the "Lisburn North" section will be motorised, the remainder will be hand operated, leading to much simpler electrics.

 

The flush backwall of the garage allowed easy securing and leveling of baseboards. Baseboards are 9" higher off the floor than before, so infrequent 'ducking under' should not be the problem it was.

 

Photographs to follow when some track has been laid...

 

  

Edited by Lambeg Man
  • Like 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

Some photo's to expand upon what I wrote yesterday.

 

 

image.png.5fd772d4fcee0c93a2ce97e9a33ac855.png

 

The above shows the hidden sidings boards in position against the flush garage wall. The old garage had abutments on a similarly positioned wall. The 'up and over' exterior garage door on the left of the picture had been covered in polythene to improve insulation.

 

image.png.6bb00e467a7931e1a0422d786a360f9f.png

 

Closer view of the boards, showing the 9 hidden sidings laid loose and the lateral extension supports.

 

image.png.a16556182373d739abd73c2f60fbf3ba.png

 

Another closer view of the boards, looking in the opposite direction.

 

image.png.4e410ab867c52ce6e9a1ac085fc561a2.png

 

A mock up of how the new additional double track scenic section in front of the hidden sidings section will roughly look.

 

image.png.962522f93c473d51ed0effa557160001.png

 

Well, you get the idea.....

 

  • Like 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Hunslet,

 

There will be two scenic sections, the one in front of the hidden sidings as indicated and the "Lisburn North" scenario down the middle (it is a double garage) more or less as it was before. Apart from track and signals, there will be little hard modelling, just the Wallace Park back scene as before and the section in front of the hidden sidings running through the countryside on a shallow embankment. Haven't got enough years left to do stations on the grand scale of your superb achievements. Regards, LM

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Some progress. All the baseboards are now up and fitted, including a much desired lifting section to ease my previous comments about back ache caused by repeated 'ducking under'.

 

A general view of the new garage (man cave) interior from the side door showing the revised 'Lisburn North' baseboards in the middle -

  image.png.7061fd5b01e5edc96c066718f534911c.png 

 

View from the opposite corner -

image.png.e671a20f793a6312b48663ede415b540.png

 

Closer view from the same angle -

image.png.ea121c42b9996cad334ec3cf9a5956d8.png

 

View back from the windows -

image.png.8ca26fca26527cdff0bd247e57437303.png

 

View of the lifting hatch in the raised position -

image.png.bd796f3d7e6b388b4dd461c8bf666e64.png

 

It goes without saying that there will be no scenery on this 'lifting' section So, with all the major carpentry bit completed, over to track laying this weekend... 

 

 

 

Edited by Lambeg Man
  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 04/05/2019 at 00:21, Lambeg Man said:

The bridge has been positioned a little further back than where the real thing sits in relation to the trackwork underneath to allow the loop point to be seen.

 

Track laying has started, but was suspended when the polythene covering the north facing external garage door was ripped by the currently prevailing north wind! Stronger material has now been fitted and my star of "The Chase" wife has made curtains to cover the other external garage door, so providing a much more comfortable environment for me to play in.

 

I have quoted my own text in relation to a photograph I have recently bought which was taken looking from Wallace Park towards the Magheralave Road bridge. The bridge abutments were a lot wider than I thought and the loop point was clearly visible underneath the actual bridge. Merde! I did not count on having the loop point this time around, however a rethink may be needed.

 

By the way, am I someone who has OCD???      

Edited by Lambeg Man
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Kirley,

 

A picture of the revised covering.

 

image.png.cfca3ed4b4b0da504c759eb9060f06d1.png

 

By kind permission of Colour Rail, I reproduce two photo's of the Magheralave Road bridge, taken from unusual angles. Each shows that the bridge abutments were quite away from the track edge.

 

 image.png.8c4720e6c0661d807846cb1380d32e96.png

 

image.png.9827fed7ee0c806e19225416ee3cc371.png

 

Hence my erroneous comment about "moving the bridge back to make the loop point visible" on 'Lisburn North' Mk. 1. Now, how to accommodate it now?

 

This picture shows the intended point work and the curve on the lifting section. I have used two 21" radius Peco Setrack curves for the inner track to keep it all tight and as even as possible. 

 

 

image.png.01cefabd69bb947e6c1f78a9db0ee763.png

 

However adding the loop point will require three tracks on this curved section instead of the intended two.

 

image.png.e133e8b75b83a1bb039f36b72b44bf59.png

 

 

 image.png.1929d11a7d18e590c25ef18a2b0704a6.png

 

image.png.17eff1319dc42bc98ad35fe1839865b8.png

 

A rough idea of how the end result might appear.

 

Edited by Lambeg Man
  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Lambeg Man said:

 

By kind permission of Colour Rail, I reproduce two photo's of the Lisburn bridge, taken from unusual angles. Each shows that the bridge abutments were quite away from the track edge.

 

 image.png.8c4720e6c0661d807846cb1380d32e96.png

 

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think that in the very early years of Lisburn station, room was to be allowed there for some sort of a track or pathway to go under that bridge, to Sir Richard Wallace's estate - later Lisburn Technical college. Later replacements retained the width.

  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

 

1 hour ago, jhb171achil said:

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think that in the very early years of Lisburn station, room was to be allowed there for some sort of a track or pathway to go under that bridge, to Sir Richard Wallace's estate - later Lisburn Technical college. Later replacements retained the width.

 

That's interesting. Could this 'right of way' for Sir Richard be the reason for the small archway on the left seen in the second photo? I do know that when the station was first built the Magheralave Road crossed the railway on the level. I don't know when precisely the bridge was built. 

  • Informative/Useful 1
  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Lambeg Man said:

 

 

That's interesting. Could this 'right of way' for Sir Richard be the reason for the small archway on the left seen in the second photo? I do know that when the station was first built the Magheralave Road crossed the railway on the level. I don't know when precisely the bridge was built. 

Yes - it's something to do with that. You're obviously aware that there are potentially TWO road path / laneways under the Magheraleave Road bridge. Time to go into this deeper.

 

Before the railway was built, the "house" which later became the "Tech" has a long garden sloping down to the west side of it, across where Wallace Avenue, Brownlee School and the railway now are, and up into Wallace Park as far as Friend's School; indeed - did Wallace donate the ground for that school to the Quakers?

 

Now, if you were coming DOWN the Magheralave Road towards the town, before the railway was built, is it possible that the entrance and gatehouse which you'd have approached on your left - i.e. directly opposite the stationmaster's house - into what's now Wallace Park, was in fact an entrance from that direction to the back of the "big house"? Or - could it be that roughly where the old Lisburn Courthouse was, had an entrance there to the "big house", and the Ulster Railway had to reciprocate with an entry under the road once they made the bridge?

 

Even if so - and the arched entrance is almost certainly such, then why was there room for a second pathway under the actual railway bridge?

 

During war years, the GNR acquired enough land at certain spot along the way between Lisburn and Adelaide to make a four-track main line to Knockmore Junction, should the American military base near Aldergrove ever require it. As it happened, it didn't, and bits of the fenced off land are still extant if you know where to look, now well outside the railway boundary. Is it possible that this bridge was widened then? The top of it certainly is not original.

 

When Senior first was transferred from Enniskillen to Belfast, a member of staff at Lisburn station, who knew all about it, implied to him that the space on the right, as you're looking from the platform towards Belfast, i.e. just north of the up platform, had been used as, or intended to be used as, some sort of trackway ("trackway" as in pathway, not railway track).

  • Informative/Useful 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

image.png.3c0dd572805ae2cdc66b7395983eb6d0.png

 

Thanks for all that Jon, most interesting. I agree that the top is clearly not original. I wonder if any alteration was made in connection with the 1912 Third Line proposal of the GNR, i.e. the additional arches at Finaghy and Knockmore? Although the abutments are widely set, I think you would have a struggle to get a third line through there. Of course the road itself may have been widened at some point, necessitating a rebuild of the abutments. The water pipe appears to acknowledge 'railway' ownership of the small arch.

 

For the life of me I have no memory of what was the lie of the land was to the left of this picture.

Edited by Lambeg Man
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...