Dock Street Foundry a working title Gauge 1 industrial railway now turning into Prudence Works a G1 Micro

[Beatty 139]

For some time I have been working on producing my own small railway that covers my own interests of modelling in Gauge 1 and industrial railways. Everything is Gauge 1 is big not as big as G3 or the GL5 chaps who were demonstrating at Warley the other week but its still big and normally occupies the garden, something that I am not particularly blessed with my current residence.

 

Having been very impressed what can be done in small spaces with the likes of Reely Grate and BSC River Don Works, I have been doodling for a while and have a plan!

 

 

Things have changed since the first draft and the baseboards sizes have been revised, all I need to do is now work the track work back into the layout.

 

The main idea behind the railway is that it is operated from the front, no wiring using radio controlled battery or live steam locomotives, point work operated by rods or local point levers, and the operators have a chance to talk to the public while shunting the works, a second support operator would be back of house in the fiddle sidings or internal to the buildings.

Some of the features of industry I would like to reflect.

 

The rational for the base board layout is as follows left to right,

1' wide stop board, allowing for future expansion if i don't get board with it.

2x 3' wide by 4' long boards and a 1' wide scenic strip to rear

a second 1' wide transition board to allow for future transition board so the railway can be operated stand alone or added to one of the bigger round and round G1 exhibition layout, or to terminate as a stand alone exhibition line.

3'x4' fiddle and storage/preparation area with tiered display area above for G1 main line locos, stock video display etc etc.

 

I have been so rash as to order the materials to build the base boards this week using ply faced foam core.

 

The layout still need some tweaking I think the power house should have a kick back siding for the delivery of coal etc, and one of the chaps i know seams keen on building a working gantry crane, and the shed will most likely have to go down to a single road.

 

So what do the RMWebers think? I'm much more used to building loco's, stock and structures so this will be my first layout in 24 years since I built a O16.5 railway on a window cill, what do the voices of experience say?

 

 

[65243]

This should be interesting. My only concern is that 4'x3' boards might prove a bit unwieldy, even if the intended method of construction should be pretty lightweight.

 

As to how much will fit in the space - I have no real concept of just how big G1 is. I know the scale, but exactly how that translates into 3 dimensions is proving hard for me to get my head around.

[Beatty 139]

The main grid on the drawing are 12" squares, so yep it's big, the intention is to build a cupboard on wheels as such, that's weather proof, so it can be wheeled on to trailer for transport, then into venue.... Presuming double doors. Then the main boards should be slid out onto trestles, a good two or three man lift but my worry was any smaller and you end up with more joints in the boards fouling turnouts etc.

I have ordered 100mm thick insulation boards with 3mm ply top and bottom and was looking at using 200 faces to the edges to allow extra scope for bracing underneath if the weight started moving the boards too much.

 

The sheer heft of the scale is why I have gone for 4' depth in total with 3' deep operating area, the pratical limit of what I think can be reached by an operator (about 2'8" in reality with position of the roads) any less and I am sure you end up with a railway on a shelf look that I want to avoid, with the building to the rear coming out at about 2' tall back drop shouldn't be needed to project a feeling of scale.

 

Although G1 is only 2.5 times as big as 4mm the weight and volumes go up by a cube. The logistics of moving a layout in G1 is always an issue and most of the tracks that are seen normally take a Luton to move so modest trailer or transit sized layout shouldn't be too bad for a small operating team.... I hope!

[Arthur]

 

Looks good to me, especially in G1, that will be both different and impressive.

 

Where were the prototype photographs taken? They certainly provide inspiration and give a good feel to what you could achieve here.

 

Good luck with it, I'll follow with interest.

[Beatty 139]

Hi Arthur

 

They are all around Vulcan Street Middlesbrough, the shed scene is inside the works and has Blocklow Vaughan loco Beatty 139 (HL 3240/1917) sticking her nose just out of the shed, you can just see the nose of one of the two Planet SCW class locos on the other road, this could be the one that's now at Bideford that replaced Beatty and the older Black Hawthorne that was scrapped when they arrived, as far as I have found this is the only image of Beatty in working days on Teeside, not that she was that much of a reserve loco once you have to put the wagon back together! I should say the Image is courtesy of the Chasewater Railway Museums collection who kindly let me have permission to use it.

 

The Blast furnaces at Vulcan works were finished after the first war but the site survived producing castings and parts to service the rest of the DL empire, I have no idea why but the staff from Corus always referred to the site as Dock St Foundry not its proper name.

 

Vulcan St was somewhat industrial. as per these couple of flicker images

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bolckow/2357594688/in/photostream/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bolckow/2357594602/in/photostream/

 

There a coupe of nice aerial photos of the site on the net where the main feature is the Transporter bridge but the Ironworks are in the background.

 

I spent some time around there recording the various bits of railway lines disappearing into factory yards etc, a network that went everywhere, if you look back at old maps the area was a revelation. I have 20 or 30 images of the area.

 

The main building in the other images is that of the North East Engineering Company who were makes of bits for ships boilers, engines etc, and appear to be the other big company in the area.

 

The shame was I went back a few years ago to get some more photos and stuff to find the whole area had been raised to the ground as urban regeneration except for one original brick building on the DL site, the Vulcan wall as its known and the original set of gates at the Dock St end of the site.

[Arthur]

Thanks for that, some really good scenes of heavy industry there. A while back I kicked off this thread, there's a number of images of Teesside steel making in it.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28937-steel-making-on-teeside/

 

Your layout idea is just my kind of thing, I built this (only in 4mm I'm afraid!) for the RMweb modular layout. Large industrial buildings provide an excellent backdrop for small shunting layouts with intricate track work.

 

[Beatty 139]

A few more images of industrial desolation

 

 

These are the gates to the Vulcan Ironworks site off Dock st itself the large black buildings are those that can be seen to the back of the engine shed, now gone.

 

 

The other side of Vulcan St.

 

 

 

facing towards the town from memory.

 

I have found the modelling on the Industrial section and RMweb as a whole very inspiring and just hope I can do justice to atmosphere I am trying to create.

 

I just had a dig around for an aerial photo of the site, I know in the past I have found one from the early days of the transporter bridge which still shows the row of blast furnaces that were located between the bridge and large sheds, unfortunately I can track it down.

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw032536

 

This image has the site on the right hand side of the image by this time the entire site of the original bast furnaces approach ramps etc have been cleared.

[Beatty 139]

I have been sketching things out in view of the revised base board layout I have decided to use and also trying to make the layout work as a module with the G1MRA area groups round and round layouts.

 

This is where my thoughts have taken me.

 

 

The first 1' wide board now will contain a part section of a 'power house' with a spur into it for unloading coal, this board could be a 'transition' board if the model is connected to another line at that end or will allow for expansion. Yhe other end has the other 12" wide 'transition' board that will change depending on which railway its adapted to if connected at that end, but when operating stand alone will form a scenic break before the railway enters the fiddle sidings / preparation area / G1MRA display.

 

I want the railway to be dictated by the buildings it serving not the other way around, the other thing I would like to show is a site that has evolved with old and newer buildings, brick and steel chimneys.

 

I have only added key things on the drawing to date to try and get a feel, I am sure a lean to can be added to the loco shed to house a weighbridge for in coming and out going traffic, and various other decrepit structures that factories tend to acquire like sub stations, pump houses etc.

 

I am feeling much more happy with the general layout of the site now, its a real struggle to try and keep the size down and stop it spreading, one reason I have set the base board dimensions for force myself to work within them

[Beatty 139]

I have given this a bit more thought today while various other things have been going on and been swapping a few PM's about various ideas.

 

I have revised the building layout to bring the power house forwards and include an approach ramp for drop bottom wagons to discharge, the power house is just a section in this form of the railway, and if ever extended would be built into its full size. the idea is that the railway will pass behind it and under various pipe bridges etc all hopefully adding to the illusion of size and focusing the viewer into the heart of the railway.

 

One though is that for future extension the additional boards would be added at right angles so turning the railway into an L format, all pie in the sky right now but well worth thinking about at this stage and saving a load of work later.

 

 

Time to start thinking about where to put the railway and other infrastructure.

 

As my other half has a show shes attending next weekend if I can get my commercial commitments out of the way I might have a chance to start some woodwork.

[Beatty 139]

It's been a busy week, including my desk top PC power supplies giving up the ghost so I have had some time on my hands and started to explore Templot and how to make use of it as a design tool.

 

I want to reflect the mass of trackwork that used to look so fascinating and to be honest a pway gangs nightmare.

 

This is in reality a shunting puzzle, and while it is purposed to 4' wide and 10' long in 10mm scale it is a micro still.

 

My thoughts on the site arrangement is that the main site is either side of this section, with the power house to the front left hand side and the loco shed and millwrights right, the works looming over all in the background.

 

Much more work on Templot to go, I have thought that the track work is too fussy but its a toy to play with and each crossover etc has a function to allow stock to move around the site its just possibly over compressed.

[Beatty 139]

After sitting looking at the mountain of ply and Styrofoam that is sitting in my workshop I though I had better get everything 100% certain in my mind before cutting something I don't want to have to make (and replace) twice.

 

One of the key things it to design into this layout is handling and storage, and for this to be  infrom the start, I also want keep cutting the Styrofoam to a minimum as I have opted to use the highest density 100mm thick, so a few design changes for a start I have adjusted the length of the boards to match the Kingspan boards so the overall length is now 1286 allowing for the 18mm ply framing.I have also now intend to make the transition boards at each end 468mm wide as opposed to 1ft this means that they can bolt together and be store in the same storage/transport frame.

 

This has had the affect to make the whole things a little bigger, something I was desperate to avoid but will not actually take up anymore storage space and make the head shunts a little longer which cannot be a bad thing, the overall operating area has now stretched from10'x4' to 11' 6"x4' 2 1/2".

[65243]

Looking at your proposed plan, I'm wondering what purpose having two loops serves. I think you can remove one of them - the central one is my current favourite - and retain all the operational felxibility of the scheme. This would have the added benefit of opening up space to ease some of the curves a little. Just some thoughts - and worth at least as much as you've paid for them.

[Beatty 139]

The layout of the railway is still very much flexible, and will be until the turnouts are made, something that will be a new experience to me and a challenge I am quite looking forwards to.

 

The basic layout of trackwork is taken from a real site, then mirrored and twisted, the original shed was two road, and a coalling bank adjacent to it with another loop running around the rear of the shed as well, so a total of 4 interconnected running lines with the running shed in the middle. This would not be feasiable in the space I have given myself, so I went swinging the axe though it.

 

I left the second loop in based on the following rational, to keep things moving in a small space and allowing for the inbuilt flexibility of self powered (battery or live steam) radio controlled loco (and avoids any form of wiring!) at least two locos could be in use at once so even if some wagons had been left on the departure road more could be drawn into the reception road from the fiddle sidings and still run round or gain access to the power house.

 

Something I did change from my first thoughts and I am very uncertain about in my own mind is should I only run a single line through the bridge, while I was first considering the layout of trackwork I did only have a single track entering and leaving from the storage area, then added a head shunt, then came the thought of a double track bridge, part of my thought process is that this is only a small part of a bigger site so a double running line through the site would make sense, I would also further justify the fact that locos can depart the shed in either direction.

Is this a valid train of thought? As I have said at the start of the post I build loco's stock and buildings but I have never built my own railway so all suggestions on layout are welcome.

[Beatty 139]

I haven't posted on progress for a while now, but things have been moving forwards, slowly because of the development of my G1 Planet shunter into a commercial kit but progress non the less.

 

Things have taken a radical change, having given it all a long hard think there was a very steep learning curve ahead of me and I want results in a reasonable timescale not a project that is destined to take years to show results so things were scaled back to form a test bed for various ideas that will later transfer to something much larger.

 

Firstly the new railway is 2'6" wide and 9'9" long, having been inspired by a quickie out of doors thread the core of the base board has been formed from interior doors, with addition work around them.

 

Track work has been drawn in Templot, converted to DXF and adjusted as necessary in AutoCAD, turnouts have been built to a modified G1 corse standard but with reduced flangeway to the crossing, all being laser cut for plug in chairs so they are built without gauges but work first time, which no one was more supprised than me about. Laser cut single use jigs were also made for grinding and frabricating the crossings, switch rails etc.

 

The track is all fabricated from Cliff Barkers code 180 stainless steel rail.

 

I will post some images of progress later, but the key items included are a single road engine shed, oil discharge siding, and boiler house with coal siding. A small display area is included that sits over the fiddle siding.

[Beatty 139]

This is the middle of the 3 boards and the one which contains all the turnouts except for the switch on one which just wouldn't fit and is now on the first board.

 

 

The top left road is heading off to a small single road shed the right to a head shunt.

 

While the bottom left road will be a oil discharge siding, centre will go to fiddle yard diving under a pipe bridge to go off scene while the bottom right will again pass to the fiddle yard area but by entry to a large industrial building.

 

The thought is that this is the forgotten fag end of a large industrial site and is largely occupied by the Millwrights and boiler house.

 

the turnout to the far right is not timbered this forms the kick back into the boiler house sufficient to take a couple of coal wagons and will be buried in something to resemble black ash accumulated over many years.

[Beatty 139]

I have had less time than I wanted over the last weekend, largely due to shopping for a new car but some progress has been made, the second turnout is complete, although only the crossing is on the centre base board.

 

As stated before the trackwork has been drawn on Templot exported into AutoCad as a DXF and the the Turnouts adjusted, Gauge 1 coarse scale is an age old standard that will allow everything to run on it going back to the Victorian stuff and cause numerous issues with turnouts one of our G1MRA members has looked into this quite closely and came up with reducing the clearance for the crossing to 2mm from the standard 3mm the stock rail check rail remains as 3mm as long as 40mm back to back is maintained this appears to work very well.

 

I am working with code 180 stainless steel rail, its tough stuff to work but holds a bend well but filing is hard work that has been delegated to my small disk and belt sander, to get this right I have laser cut a few single use jigs from 3mm mdf.

 

 

to form the parts of the crossing, bending them first and filing them flat to ensure a solid nose.

 

 

to hold the nose of the crossing while soldering, the fist was soft soldered, the next I have silver soldered but I need a flux that more aggressive to make a cleaner job so have put some on order with Cup Alloys.

 

 

Shows progress to date, I hope to have the other two turnouts complete this week, the other two boards basically have plain track except for the switch on the one turnout so they will be completed very quickly, then time to start planning some structures, that will be put on hold for a few weeks as I get ready for the Gauge 1 North show at Bakewell next month, I need to make sure my 12' of trade stand is well filled!