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SouthernRegionSteam

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 A huge thanks to those who have given me ideas; including users from TwitterRMweb, and Blogger. I've been quite surprised by the positive feedback, and the suggestions made have all been taken on board and implemented into the next version. A special mention to those on RMweb for their photos in the previous entry of ship breaking and repair yards. @petethemole's selection of photos in particular have been incredibly helpful getting a taste for what such a site looked like, and how it functioned.

 

To that end, the ship breakers (now specifically a barge breaker/repair yard) has had a revamp, and has been enlarged by 100mm with two new prototypical buildings. I knew that I wanted to include such structures, but I could not for the life of me find anything suitable; suddenly I have two to model!

 

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Above: First things first, I haven't bothered making the track less wonky or changing the hands of points etc. It's too time consuming to remedy that at this stage, and not really worth doing until I've physically tested the track plan out. The only change in this department that I've carried out is to ease the curve to the ship breaker's building.

 

Note how I've actually narrowed the right hand end of the layout by 50mm, and squared it off. The decision to narrow it was to reduce the amount of sea modelled, but I might change my mind when it comes to the mock up if I find things are a little tight. The backscene has also been angled a little bit more to make it less obtrusive. Meanwhile, the left hand end has been widened by 100mm to allow more room for the breaker's yard. Let's go through a few more changes...

 

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Above: As pointed out by a few people, the angle that the track originally went into the breaker's boathouse/workshop was too sharp, resulting in it looking very weird as it was obvious that in real life the track would end up going through the side of the building a few metres in. The curvature of the track itself was reduced, and the building placed at less of a severe angle now that it didn't need to align to the slipway. Note the new (red) sign!

 

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Above: To give a little more room for an extra building in the yard, the curvature of the stream was also reduced. We'll get onto the new brick building that required the change later, but note how I've added another girder and a small gate for pedestrian access to the yard. Looking at it now, perhaps these should both be the other (near) side of the railway, next to the old military gate house! Note the new path taking pub patrons to the road at the rear.

 

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Above: On first glance, it might not appear that much has changed here, but there have been modifications. The rock armour is more prominent; going right down to the shoreline, and the right hand sea defence now curves around to go in front of the backscene. This allows more room for the sand dunes directly behind the coastal path (the defences clearly installed in more recent years, hence the presence of sand dunes behind them). The hill that the lighthouse sits on is also a little higher, and the whole lot a little closer to the board edge than before.

 

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Above: With 100mm added onto the front of the breaker's yard, we have more space for buildings and the slipway. It also gives us more room to show more of the wharf; seen here with a mix of brick, concrete, and steel sheet piling. The small stack of sleepers will be surrounded by clutter and weeds on the model.

 

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Above: The new brick building is much larger than the small corrugated iron hut it replaces (the hut can be seen tacked onto the boathouse on the left). This is a copy of that found in Pete's photos (see here), but with two major changes. The most obvious being that I've angled part of the front wall to allow sufficient clearance for the railway. The second change being that I've flipped the building so that the garage is not on the new angled wall. The blue doors will likely be pretty wonky and weather beaten!

 

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Above: The other major additions are on the far left of the yard; all once again copied from Pete's photos. We have a small barge being scrapped, and this relatively large rope house for winching the boats onto the slipway. I haven't modelled it, but I also plan to add the cradle as found in Pete's photos. Note the additional ironwork reinforcing the shed, and the large concrete plinth with support beams holding up the winch. I'm hoping to be able to turn this winch on the lathe, although time will tell if I manage it! Either way, all dimensions will be roughly calculated, and as always I'm aiming more for a general feel than a precise re-enactment. Note the new fence behind the shed to hide the backscenes close proximity.

 

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Above: A rendered image showing a general overview. As none of the model has proper textures added (only colours), it won't look particularly good being rendered; hence the decision just to screenshot the raw 3D model except for this one image. Hopefully it gives a glimpse of what is to come though.

 

And that's about as far as I should take this 3D model; at least until the physical mock-up has been made, tested, and works as it should. One final thing to note is that I haven't bothered modelling the fiddle yard, simply because I'm not decided on what approach to take as of yet. I'm not particularly worried about that right now, but it might be something that the mock-up will help me make a decision on.

 

Next stop; the mock-up!

 

As always, thoughts, photos, and suggestions all welcome.

Edited by SouthernRegionSteam

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I think the plan looks great. I don't know if it is of any use but I modeled up a barge in CAD earlier this year and printed one out in 4mm, just about 1' long.

Happy to share .STL if you want it.

David

IMG_8185a.jpg.406f6211c329eceaff74493bb0fafb3f.jpg

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31 minutes ago, Fen End Pit said:

I think the plan looks great. I don't know if it is of any use but I modeled up a barge in CAD earlier this year and printed one out in 4mm, just about 1' long.

Happy to share .STL if you want it.


Thank you David, that's very kind of you, although I don't plan to be 3D printing anything (as much as that would save some effort!). 300mm is also a little on the large size for this layout as you might be able to tell!

It is a great looking model though, and I ought to do some more research on kit or scratch-building possibilities for the barge(s).

Edit: "Anyscale Models" seem to have quite a number of useful possibilities, including half submerged and full barges of around a suitable size. Cheap, too! Even if they're not as detailed as other models, they seem to fit the bill nicely so might give them a go.

Edited by SouthernRegionSteam
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Looking good! I may have missed your previous update, but what are you planning to do in terms rolling stock/locomotives for the line? 

I must say this reminds me very much of Pounds Shipbreakers of Portsmouth, I remember looking out to see what was in the yard on trips to Portsmouth when I was growing up. They have a Facebook with photos here: https://www.facebook.com/Poundsscrapyard/

 

If you were to go more in the direction of a repair yard, you might want to take inspiration from Ridge Wharf on the Furzebrook railway. As well as being a transhipment point for Ball clay, this was also used as an area for maintaining the companies tugs and barges which took ball clay alone the River Frome to Poole Harbour.  There are some good shots in the book 'The Furzebrook Railway' of boats being hauled out of the water by some of the narrow gauge locomotives. It shouldn't take too much modellers license to find a similar excuse for your layout. 

 

Hope that is of some use!

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35 minutes ago, LBSC123 said:

..what are you planning to do in terms rolling stock/locomotives for the line? 

 

Presently, stock consists of:

  • A Standard class 2 tank (2-6-2)
  • A class 04 diesel
  • A "Terrier" (wrong livery though!)
  • A "Pug" (not really the right geographical area, but hey, how can I resist such a tiny loco?!)

There are also a few large tender locos that may be seen on the run-around loop, but perhaps not so much on the quayside! These include a Q1.

 

I'm keen to get hold of (in order of importance):

  • A B4 tank loco
  • A "USA" class tank loco
  • Perhaps an O2 as well, although it's not high priority

Rolling stock will be almost entirely four wheeled goods stock; the typical vans, lowfits, the occasional tanker for boat fuel, and whatever else I have in my collection that hasn't seen the light of day in 9 years!

As for the link, thank you very much; some really atmospheric photos hidden there. The wharf near Furzebrook sounds very interesting, and the area was something I was originally considering; having recently rediscovered the various narrow gauge lines around the Purbeck area (and their wharves in particular). Cheers for the recommendation, I might just have to do some more research! Might be useful for the next layout, even if not for this one.

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Hi Jam,

I’ve move to this thread to answer your previous message.

No need to apologize for the length of the reply, I am pleased you made such an effort. I really appreciate the words.

Took a look at the link you sent, love the 3D images, very cool. 2D AutoCAD and Anyrail is my limit !!

Back in March 2020 my initial plan was just a diorama based on Bursledon Station, formulated during the first lockdown, I even scratch built the signal box from a period B&W photo. Summer was taken up working on the bungalow I’ve just moved into, but with Lockdown II, I turned my thoughts back to the diorama. By then I had realised that I needed more interest than just a station, So I developed the plan to incorporate a bit of Southampton docks, but to that end I would need to use the loft space. Being that the loft would need extensive insulation work first, I figured I could build the dock scene as a module in the warm spare room while insulation work was put in place. Unfortunately, even given the space, I just couldn’t make it work nicely. I did consider N gauge right at the outset, back in March 2020 and planned to go to the Alley Pally exhibition to see N scale in the flesh then make up my mind. That of course was cancelled and now appears not much hope of getting to a local shop let alone any shows being put on, not for a long while either. So, last week I went out on a limb and ordered some FiNetrax track from British Finescale to be getting on with.

Will a diorama work in N scale?

At least with the change in scale I can achieve that view across the Hamble that I like. Also, with the modular approach I can just concentrate on one bite size bit for now. Don’t get me wrong though, it won’t be a grandiose layout in the loft, simply an end to end with a loop each end, Bursledon station, and branch off to the dock terminal and goods yard. Difficulty now is making the dock scene into a stand-alone diorama, just in case. Also finding suitable rolling stock in N scale. 'USA' class is a must for the dock.

 

So, at the moment, I’m fighting with my conscience, is a trip to the timber yard considered a necessity in these times……

Meantime, I’ve just received two books for reference, Ian Drummonds books on railways around Southampton and the docks. So, a bit of light reading.

Anyway, I won’t keep you from the paying work,

Keep Safe

Paul

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20 hours ago, paul59 said:

Will a diorama work in N scale?

At least with the change in scale I can achieve that view across the Hamble that I like. Also, with the modular approach I can just concentrate on one bite size bit for now. Don’t get me wrong though, it won’t be a grandiose layout in the loft, simply an end to end with a loop each end, Bursledon station, and branch off to the dock terminal and goods yard. Difficulty now is making the dock scene into a stand-alone diorama, just in case. Also finding suitable rolling stock in N scale. 'USA' class is a must for the dock.

 

Hi Paul,
I do enjoy making these 3D models to give an idea of composition, but they are not accurate enough to use on their own and still expect to get everything fitting in perfectly (well, mine certainly aren't!), especially with regards to trackwork. I did have a quick test with spare track I had lying around, and it looks a little too tight so compromises may have to be made here and there; the headshunts in particular look to be very restricted. That's why I always advise people to use a variety of planning methods, with an emphasis on full size cardboard mock-ups and old track.


With regards to your situation, it sounds like you have thought things through very logically. It is a shame you can't fit what you want in the space and scale that you originally envisioned, but that is sadly often the case! I must admit, that is why I originally moved from OO gauge to 009, and thus standard gauge to narrow gauge; the scale was still the same (so I would have no problem building structures), but the trackwork took up less space. Of course, 8 years later and I now have a desire to make a small OO layout, with at least one local theme. Whilst I'd love a huge layout, experience has taught me that not only is it impractical and very costly, but you can still get a lot of enjoyment out of a tiny layout.

 

You mention dioramas, and I do think it is a very good way to get started. I've been building loads for BRM in the past year, and as a direct result I've become more confident; learning and experimenting with new scenic techniques has been a lot of fun, too. Technically speaking, two of these dioramas were designed from the start to be joined together if needed (not that I told anyone else!), although in reality I did not have much time to make it perfect, and the board join is a little dodgy where track is concerned.

 

A modular approach to your layout sounds like a sensible option; just make sure you take time and care in the planning stage to ensure things will fit together as they should. Construction of the boards is also very important, and it is crucial you get the ends of each board perfect (especially the alignment of the trackbase!). There are laser cut baseboard kits available from various manufacturers that would be worth their weight in gold, I suspect.

 

I'm sure you've thought about it already, but make sure the modules are small enough to fit through the loft access, and easy enough to maneouvre (weight, dimensions etc.). I've heard a few horror stories of people having to take power tools to a finished layout because they didn't plan things out in advance!

 

Whatever you end up with, it sounds like you have some solid ideas forming, and as you say, plenty of inspiration. I really hope you start a topic or such on RMweb so that you can share your progress and ideas further, as well as getting advice. This forum is a broad church, and you'll find loads of willing and knowledgable people here!

All the best,
Jam/Jamie

Oh, and for everyone else, I do plan to return to Coastguard Creek, so don't feel I have abandoned it. I do apologise for the lack of progress though!

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