Bae Tabuk Club Saudi Arabia History 2000-2008

[dick rowland]

Somewhat ancient history I know, this should have posted years ago. It may be of interest anyway.

 

Terry Moore and I had joined the club in 2000. Terry had been asked to build some track and point work for the club. I was ‘volunteered’ as an assistant, having been heavily involved with track and electrical work at the Dhahran Model Railway Club. A complex, although not particularly large, layout was constructed in the Connex over the next couple of years. This got to the stage where it worked well, on a good day! At this time retirements, plus some personality clashes, had reduced the effective membership to Dave Dacre, Pat Kane and I.

We moved into the new clubroom, somewhat daunted by the twenty-nine foot by nineteen foot space at our disposal. Ideal for my own ambitions in German N Gauge but that has had to wait a while longer! Dreams of 44s with scale length trains, on virtually scale curves, might just materialise one day. We had a separate room for a workshop as well.

At this stage we had the track, point work and relay panels from the old layout, but no wiring diagrams. As the ‘leckie’ I said that I didn’t have some two years of spare time, plus the inclination, to reverse-engineer wiring diagrams from the relay panels. If the guys wanted a layout I would wire it. However it wouldn’t be a four-track mainline and the wiring would be as simple as possible while being guaranteed to function properly. There would be a minimal amount of relays in use, mainly for the double junctions and a double exit bay platform at the main line station.

We discussed what we wanted to do. It was suggested that it might be a good idea if the layout was designed to be reasonably easy to remove if necessary. This was not done as it was felt that the whole approach would take too long. If we had to move it would be highly unlikely that we would get the use of another room of the same size or larger.

The ‘plan’, in as far as we had a plan, was basically for a double track mainline with a ‘ladder’ staging or ‘fiddle yard’ area. One end of the fiddle yard would be disguised as the entrance to a large main line station, the staging tracks actually being the platform roads. The fiddle yard consisted of eight staging loops in each direction; we thought we’d never fill them!

Pat had a fixation with installing point motors under the baseboard.

I said ‘O.K. but you make sure they work properly both mechanically (in that they moved the point) and electrically (in that the integral switch changed the electrical polarity of the point ‘Frog’ or ‘Vee’).

Needless to say the electrical side needed a long of adjustment before a few short-circuits disappeared. ‘Elastictrickery’ was not Pats strong point!

I carried on doing most of the wiring on the rest of the main line plus finishing off the ad-hoc wiring of a steam M.P.D.

A ‘sort-of’ wagon works appeared alongside the main line at the far end of the room.

It was more-or-less agreed that Pat and Dave would build a branch line in the usable space enclosed by the mainline while I ‘fettled’ the rest. Some rudimentary scenery, mainly salvaged from the old Connex layout, appeared at this time. By this time Pat had retired to sunny Scarborough. We actually completed the continuous main-line run in time for Pat Kane to run his presentation Brit before he sadly had to retire. As the branch materialised, it became evident that we would not have one ‘duck under’ but three to contend with. None of us were teenagers any more!

The consequence was that very little was happening at the far end of the room apart from track cleaning when it was absolutely necessary. About this time Robbie Burns appeared on an air traffic control radar commissioning project. Robbie was an ‘N-gauger’ but agreed to help try to complete the branch. The trade-off was that, in the short term, there would be room for an ‘N’ gauge test track in the branch area. The bench work appeared for the branch, and track started to appear heading in the general direction of the branch terminus. This terminus had been salvaged from the old layout. There was some trepidation concerning the quite fierce gradient on this part of the layout. The extra ‘duck unders’ were inhibiting progress as well. Robbie impressed us with his ‘N’ gauge stock and his re-lettered goods stock. The year that he was with us passed all too quickly.

In the meantime we acquired John Ward-Davies and Jules Hayes as members.

In the meantime the wagon works evolved into a diesel M.P.D. Both M.P.D.s worked pretty well. The main line station had been christened ‘Grantchester’ by this time. In fact a fair-sized chunk of Grantchester had materialised around the station.

Some buildings were salvaged and ‘fettled’, others were new and did wonders for Metcalfe’s profit margin. ‘Commercial Road’ appeared about this time, followed by ‘Malfunction Junction’ and the allotments area. The first of two Photojenic backdrops, from Jenny Drake, appeared. Now we had a model railway! What a difference it made!.

Robbie left for Abergavenny and Terry Moore had, by now, rejoined the club.

Some sort of branch had always been planned. However, as referred to previously, the first effort incorporated some fairly fierce gradients, sharp curves and two duckunders. A combination of these duckunders, and the advancing years of the club membership, determined that the double track Denton branch was drastically re-aligned to become something much more practicable. We could never decide how to scenically treat the branch junction. The branch scenically, and practically, did not ‘gel’ properly.

An executive decision was made: good bye to the duck-unders from Hell, and the branch was realigned to curve in more-or-less alongside the main line before crossing a river valley.

All sorts of weird ideas about the scenic treatment of the branch junction became, on Terry’s suggestion, a simple through station on the branch. ‘Chivenhall’ was born! A combination of my father’s last posting in the RAF at Chivenor and my home town, Mildenhall in Suffolk.

An old mock-up main line bridge was replaced by a Metcalfe nine-arch stone viaduct. The branch would cross the river at a slightly lower level on a ‘girder/ cast iron pillar’ type steel/iron bridge, generally inspired by the one at Camelford.

Meanwhile the old branch terminus was dismissed as being unworthy and the whole branch alignment, after the river bridge, rationalised to a curve into the terminus. Terry’s task was to build and wire the branch terminus.

Various locations and buildings on the layout had been inspired by T.V. programmes. The branch terminus was to be ‘Denton’, after the fictitious location for ‘A Touch of Frost’. Denton-on-Sea station became, after due deliberation, christened as Denton (Riverside). The line approaching Denton did, after all, cross a river valley. The two river bridges were completed and in a frenzy of activity the mainline line was scenically completed all the way up to and around Rowland’s Hill Tunnel.

A second Photojenic backdrop had been specially commissioned. Installed behind the river viaducts, this worked perfectly.

The Midland Railway style of Chivenhall station blended well with the road bridges and Pats Café on the main road on the other side of the main line.

‘Only the branch to finish now’ we thought. That was over two years ago and we haven’t finished yet.

By now the terminus track was all installed, including the famous scissors crossing at the station throat. The electrical work in this area was complete as well.

By now Terry had decided to terminate and retire to sunny Portugal. Before he left we had completed the retaining wall at the back of Denton station, the platforms were complete and the modified Metcalfe station building was in place. Terry’s last project was a rail-served warehouse.

That was the situation in November 2004.

Low relief offices and shops finished off Denton Station Road. Alex Bowie’s model shop from Norwood was re-incarnated, as the sort of ‘nose-pressed-against-the-glass’ model shop we all think that we like to remember from when we were kids. At Denton the industrial/dock siding ran perilously close to the edge of the board. I found a book which I thought I’d lost about twenty years before, a Peco book about modelling British canals. A canal basin was suggested as a scenic feature but also as a safety feature to stop any runaway stock from a long drop to the floor. The Peco canal book was a real ‘bible’ for the next few months. We had nebulous plans for a warehouse area at one end of the canal basin (later christened Clinker lane basin for some reason) with road/rail access. The other end would feature a pub alongside a lock. The lock side pub was a small Metcalfe station building with some alteration to blend it in to the lock wall. One day it will hopefully be christened the ‘Navigator’ inn. With the help of a serious amount of Metcalfe red brick printed card, this lot was built by November 2005. The lock especially owed a lot to the Peco book. The industrial area by the canal is a detailed Bilteezi factory, with such additions as solder drain pipes, surrounded by scratch built structures and heavily rebuilt Metcalfe warehouses. The lock gates are card, the water is varnish.

The narrow boats, with the exception of one Langley white-metal boat, are Canalscene balsa kits with some card and printed paper overlays. Not expensive, largely pre-coloured and extremely effective. Extra detail is possible according to taste.

Now building activity moved to the far end of Clinker lane. A ‘chippy’ had been more-or-less planned for a long time. This modified Alphagraphix card kit now appeared behind Denton signal box as F.W.Snushalls Café selling fish, chips and hot pies. There was still space left so the odd-shaped ‘Cross Keys’ pub appeared along with a betting shop.

Next to receive attention was the area around Waterloo Farm, on the slopes of Rowland’s Hill. This hadn’t been touched for about a year. The old Bilteezi Tithe Barn kit was completed with extra detail, Waterloo Farm acquired a couple of tractors and some livestock.

Extra goods loops were planned for the fiddle yard area. This project involved some alteration to the Grantchester Meadows end of the ladder fiddle yard. ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’: we wanted to fettle various area of trackage on this side of the layout anyway so we took the plunge. In the event the work did not take very long.

Some of the point work at the tunnel end of the fiddle yard was realigned to give better running. A horrible dogleg on the outer main line at Granchester Meadows was realigned as well. We had had a lot of trouble with more recent coaches in this area, especially some of the new Hornby Pullmans. A second crossover was installed, making it possible to have more flexible operation with direct access to all platforms for both arriving and departing trains at the ‘modelled’ end of the station.. Mutterings were heard concerning the possible installation of another crossover at the ‘country’ end of the fiddle yard area. It was a question of drastic track realignment or the use of a Peco ‘Locolift’. The ‘Locolift’ works very well to transfer locos from one loop to another!

A couple of the more ‘tired’ Peco points, which had seemed O.K. when first laid, were replaced as well. The whole station throat trackage now looked a little more like hand built track with the visible geometry being vastly improved.

The retaining walls were replaced by the excellent although delicate Merkur products from Germany. A vast improvement.

Of the wiring under certain areas perhaps the less said the better. ‘Bodge-it-and-scarper’ optimism could perhaps be the best description.The worst was under the ‘pull-out’ Grantchester Meadows control panel. Extensive renovation/rewiring was the order of the day, in fact a complete new panel with severely rationalised wiring was completed by April 2006.

Flush with success, similar although not quite so draconian steps were taken to tidy up the wiring under the Steam MPD area. Various odd bits of cable were rerouted to look like a half-decent electrical loom. The next job was to install isolation sections for each fiddle yard road. This was complete by the middle of May 2006.

It was then declared that, barring ‘wear and tear’ maintenance, the electrical work on the entire layout was complete. ‘Hoo-ray’!

In a move to generally tidy things up basic shelving was installed under the boards. Mainly for storage, but also to be able to get rid of any scraps of timber that we really don’t need. By this time we wanted to take some definitive photos of the whole layout; we didn’t need cardboard boxes and assorted paraphernalia in full view.

Having a fairly small club membership with diverse railway interests the layout has no specific theme, although by default it has more-or-less evolved into a British Railways early 1960’s layout. The double track mainline has a generic Southern Region flavour, while the secondary Denton route through Chivenhall is finished off London Midland style. In truth, anything that can run on a track gauge of 16.5 mm is welcome. It has been proved in practice that the platforms at Grantchester do have enough clearance for a ‘HO’ Rivarossi Allegheny! Purists we ain’t!

The track is Peco Code 100, with certain scratch built items such as the station throat scissors at Denton and the long crossing portion of the double junction at Rowlandsmoor junction.

Terry Moore built the scissors at Denton, while I built the long crossing for the double junction. We used the conventional method of Code 100 rail soldered to PCB sleepering. The permanent way engineers had alignment problems when rebuilding the throat track work at Granchester. A ‘super-long’ Peco point was needed to give a smooth curve into one of the platform roads. In this case the ‘toe’ (tiebar) end of a Peco medium radius point was joined to a scratch built ‘Vee’ (frog) end. We wanted to keep the original Seep point motor installation as we didn’t want to disturb any more track than was absolutely necessary.

All point work is ‘live frog’. Speaking personally I gave up on ‘dead frog’ point work a long time ago. An ‘all-metal’ point is marginally more complex to wire up but the performance, especially for low speed shunting movements with a short wheelbase loco, is so much better.

As a general case, the accessory switch on the Peco or Seep motor switches the frog polarity. In the case of the double junction the point motor accessory switch powers a 12volt relay, which in turn switches the polarity of the point frog and the two long crossing frogs. A second relay changes over the controller feed, from one main line controller to the other, connected to the live rail of the long crossing itself. For the bay platform at Grantchester, the point motor accessory switch operates two relays which switch the point frogs as required. Depending on the road settings the bay is fed from the outer or inner mainline controller. Operation of either of the crossovers at Grantchester involves a relay, in order that a train may run through from one main line to the other on one controller.

The Denton scissors, and general station area, uses multiple relays documented on a rather complex diagram. Terry liked relays! In total, there are five Gaugemaster controllers installed on the layout. One double unit handles the main line. Trains to and from Denton can use the main line controllers, using changeover switches mean that the branch can be operated independently using a second double unit. Grantchester steam MPD has a single unit, as does the diesel MPD.

At Denton, a walkround unit can operate the small MPD area or the canal side trackage on the other side of the terminus. As the membership, at the moment, only numbers four this means that certain areas can be rather quiet. However, a basic ‘tailchase’ can take place on the main line while a couple of us operate the Denton branch.

The benchwork is a fairly conventional blend of ply on a softwood or ply frame. Scenery owes much to card, Noch scenic grass sheets, Woodland Scenics, Javis and Anita Décor products. All held together, on a good day, with a frightening amount of watered-down Elmers PVA glue. A good method of securing foliage, etc, is to spray the whole thing with heavily diluted PVA (plus a dash of washing up liquid) once you have the effect you want. This can look a little drastic like a liquid snow storm, but once it has dried out the result looks excellent and is very durable. We use a similar method to secure ‘N’ size granite ballast, once it has been spread properly.

This is a ‘company’ club. We’re not referring to railway companies, but the fact that this layout is resident on a BAe Systems compound in Saudi Arabia. This means that, if the job contract folds for us, then the club folds. With a small membership anyway, this may help to explain why we wanted a more-or-less complete layout ready in a reasonable space of time. This meant a ‘Pendon’ could only be an inspiration, we could never match their standards. Consequently most buildings are standard or altered Metcalfe, Superquick or Bilteezi. Numerous buildings have been scratch built along similar principles.

We have a source of good quality strong white card at one of the stationers in downtown Tabuk!

In many cases a floor has been taken out to lower the building. Sometimes two kits are combined, as in the case of the ‘Great Central Hotel’ which ended up as an ‘L’ shaped building to suit the site opposite the station building at Grantchester.

The station building itself is a combination of two Superquick large station kits. Basically a two-gable building is now a three-gable building, with the clock tower repositioned and extra chimneys. Grantchester old town gate is based on drawings of a gate at Canterbury. Very simple really: a basic structure of white card, well braced, covered in stone paper and a few details added. More an impression than fine detail but it is effective.

The excellent Superquick Guild hall kit didn’t need any changes. This is an excellent example of their more recent kits. Amongst buildings worthy of note is the diesel MPD shed, built by Pat Kane some years ago with a fully detailed interior down to individual lockers and toolboxes. Bilteezi kits have been around as long for as long as I can remember. My dad used them on our old Hornby Dublo three-rail 6 X 4 trainset! Jerry Freestone handles them these days. I’d almost forgotten how good the printing was on these old thin-card kits. With good bracing they are very effective. With simple 3-D work, recessed windows and some alterations they are even better.

The high-level half relief street alongside Denton station is extremely effective, considering that it only took a couple of weeks of spare time to complete. Denton station building itself is the recent Metcalfe large station kit. I had to ‘cut-and-shuffle’ the platform side as I wanted the street level to be the same height as the platform surfaces. The Metcalfe Coaching Inn is excellent, needing no modification at all. A few more buildings then appeared along Clinker lane, by the war memorial.

The ‘Hamilton Arms’ is a detailed Superquick pub, with extra card overlays. One of fourteen pubs on the layout: why so many, the club location is a clue.

A row of Superquick terrace houses finish this area.

The old Engineering works by Rowlandmoor Junction was replaced, the new one featured lots of Metcalfe red brick with plastic corrugated sheet for the roof and canopy. In January 2007, the ‘last’ new building was the Grantchester MPD Water Softening plant. This was inspired by drawings in a very old Ted Beal book that was older than me! Apparently based on a GW prototype, it looks the part. One of the models I wanted to make back in the 1960’s but never got around to realizing until now.

‘Commercial Road’ was then renovated. The Metcalfe half-relief shops kept their upper storey, although well braced internally. However, the standard ground floor shop fronts were reworked using some original parts, but mainly using card off-cuts with thin card overlays to give them some individuality. We had a bag of odd glazing sheets from various old kits which came in very handy.

Most layout articles seem to feature a stock list. The club ‘owns’ some items but most of the rolling stock belongs to individual members. We’ve thoroughly appreciated the offerings from Hornby, Bachmann and Heljan over the last few years. What a change from the dubious-at-best 4mm RTR offerings from only ten or fifteen years ago. For instance we find that the Bachmann Mk1s run perfectly with the supplied close coupling links.

Our minimum radius is a nominal three feet.

The Hornby Pullmans are well sorted now. The Stanier coaches are nice as well. The Maunsells from Hornby are eagerly awaited. Updated flush-glazed Bulleids from Bachmann would be nice as well. The nicely engineered rear carrying axle on the new Britannia and A3 are a welcome change from unwanted daylight where there shouldn’t be any. These days we find that criticism of new models can verge on the ridiculous. We personally cannot see a problem with the Bachmann Jinty 3F or Hornby M7 chimneys, and don’t see the point in replacement with a white-metal lump. Neither do we agree that the safety valve on the Hornby Grange is the wrong height. So much criticism seems to be pure opinion these days.

 

For an impression of the layout, let’s imagine that we are back in the period set out in the opening paragraphs. We are supposing that the general theme of our layout is loosely something like the Midland & South Western ‘writ large’!

Our Spamcan-hauled train of green Mk1s is a couple of miles from Grantchester, approaching from the north east. Vacating the rest of British Railways, namely the ladder style fiddle yard area, we exit the west portal of Rowland’s Hill tunnel, the hut on the right disappearing in the swirl of smoke and steam. Almost immediately the boundary wall of Bailey Park is visible on the right, as we leave the cutting below Waterloo Farm the Denton branch sweeps in to cross the river on a cast iron bridge. Our mainline parallels the branch on a masonry viaduct;

if we are quick we may catch a glimpse of the interestingly-shaped Kane’s Folly high on the hill to the right.

Slowing now for the approach to Grantchester, sliding under Chivenhall’s notable double road bridge we pass the recently completed diesel MPD, on the site of the old Midland shed, on the right with the Denton branch running through Chivenhall station on the left.

It’s possible that we might have caught a fleeting view of the remains of another old branch junction which headed north until a few years ago. We didn’t rattle over the junction points here as there aren’t any! The embryonic Preservation Society has not yet secured an agreement to regain access to British Railways, although that might yet happen. They have high hopes: for the moment. The branch exits the single tunnel mouth and terminates just short of the mainline. The Preservationists have apparently established their headquarters at the other end of the tunnel, from where they are believed to have rescued a further two miles of track bed. A reasonable run for their Midland red 3F tank with its attendant brakevan.

In a matter of moments we’re over the pointwork for the junction with the Denton branch, today if we are quick we can see what looks like an N Class Mogul on a parcels train, waiting at Chivenhall for us to clear the section. Although Denton is still very much a Midland/LMR station Southern stock frequently works through from Grantchester.

The origins of our mainline are indicated by the fleeting impression of a L.& S.W.R. Type 4 signal box controlling this junction, known as Rowlandmoor.

The industrial area of Grantchester is very much in evidence here, fronted by some productive allotments.

As we are due to leave the train at Grantchester we quickly retrieve our luggage from the racks above our seats. We may be able to see the railway permanent way engineering shed on the left which occupies party of what used to be Chivenhall goods yard until the alterations of the late 1930’s. Chivenhall is a smaller station than formerly, when it was a watering point for thirsty locos that had climbed the incline from Denton.

Slowing still more the vast bulk of the E.C.Lambert engineering works looms up on the right, dominating the steamy confines of Grantchester steam MPD. Through the mist there is usually an eclectic mixture of Southern, Midland, Western and BR Standard locos in evidence. An A3 has been noted on one occasion.

The carriage sidings are briefly visible on the left, overlooked by the ‘Swan’ inn, one of Grantchesters ever-popular pubs.

Now in the cutting approaching Grantchester Meadows station throat, we pass under Kane Street bridge.

Above massive retaining walls either side of us, Meadow Park and the cemetery are on the right while Grantchester East signal box is backed by the bustle of Commercial Road. Rumbling through the station throat we pass under the huge bridge girders of Station Road bridge and we are at the multi-platform station of the cathedral town of Grantchester. This train will shortly continue westwards, towards the rest of British Railways (the fiddle yard!).

We have a couple of hours before our train to Denton, the Great Central Hotel is rumoured to serve an excellent pint!

Back on the bay platform at Grantchester, our Denton train is already waiting. This time four BR red Mk1 suburbans with a workstained 4MT Standard tank at the head. Soon we are off, retracing our steps to Rowlandmoor Junction where we slow for the halt at Chivenhall. Real Midland atmosphere here, the buildings are redolent of Midland stations much further north. However they blend well with their surroundings in this part of England. The old water tank is still here, although regular use is a memory. Not much is happening at Chivenhall, it’s that sort of place.

A Black Five on a freight rumbles through with a clear road to Grantchester. Meanwhile our train gets the ‘right away’, we are under the old Victorian cast-iron road bridge and on the way down to Denton. The light flickers as we rattle through the high girders of the river bridge. The valley here is reputed to be a favourite with courting couples, but our salacious eyes don’t see anything that might upset the locals.

Taking the curve, Waterloo Farm is once more visible, backed by rough pasture up to Rowland’s Hill and beyond.

An attractive row of stone cottages plus the imposing ‘Crown’ inn lead us towards the canal and seaport town of Denton. A couple of Pullmans are in the spur at Denton, probably for use on a special during Denton race week.

Past Denton Riverside box on the left, then a quick glance at the MPD, dominated by its huge LMS coal bunker, to see what is on shed today

Looking again to the left we can see the warehouse of ‘J.Ward-Davies, Importers of fine Sugars & Molasses’ straddling the canal leading to Clinker Lane basin. There are usually a few colourful narrow boats in evidence here, working this still-thriving canal.

On the right the church of ‘St Martins next the field’ immediately followed by the field in question, marked by the stands serving the Denton football club grounds proudly proclaiming that Denton won the Southern League play-offs in 1961.

By now the brakes are squealing, signifying our arrival at Denton Riverside. There is evidence that an overall roof once graced the terminus. This was the case until July 17th 1941, when a couple of Ju88’s on a ‘Baedeker’ raid took out the centre of the station plus some damage to the area now occupied by the post-war bus garage!

Denton is well known for its seaside attractions. If you’ve forgotten your bucket and spade, ‘Alex Bowies Models & Toys’ nearly always stock them. Perhaps that 7½ inch gauge Princess is still in his window.

 

Note: as for the photographs, the lighting could be better. They are not exactly professional quality, the camera can be cruel sometimes, but they hopefully give an impression of the character of our layout in the sands of the desert! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by dick rowland
Unsatisfactory photo uploads

[Bogie]

That has to be the longest introduction to a thread I have ever read!

[dick rowland]

A few more photos!

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by dick rowland

[dick rowland]

A few more pictures, if anybody is interested. I'll post them anyway!

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by dick rowland

[dick rowland]

A few more!

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by dick rowland

[TheQ]

Now why didn't I know about that club.. I left Tabook in 2001... I was At Dhahran before that too, Didn't know about a club there either..

 

AI24 Radar bay,  technician..

[Ducking Giraffe]

What a great layout,well done! I was there BAe Tabuk 1985 - briefly - as a base photographer with the Lightnings , only stayed for three months before being made redundant when the Tornados arrived and we weren't needed any more! Bit of a strange job anyway being a photographer in a location where you aren't allowed to take photos.  Went to Riyadh HQ print room (you're a  photographer , it's got a darkroom...) in 1986 for a couple of years, brewing "wine" for the hotel bar and buying chea p photo gear.... 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Ducking Giraffe