Flatford Road Gasworks
OO Gauge DCC
The OO Gauge group have embarked on a new project, fully DCC and using JMRI as well, the layout is called "Flatford Road Gasworks" based very loosely on a plan one of our members produced of the old Gasworks & Malthouse at Brentwood, modellers license applies here as space limitations always get in the way. Baseboards have been sourced from Grainge & Hodder in the West Midlands, being laser cut for absolute accuracy giving us a secure and stable base to work with.
The build is already underway and you can follow the progress here and on our social media feed, It is hoped to have at least some of the layout operational with some place holder basic buildings for our next show in August 2024, but with any layout build its not guaranteed, its a very tight schedule for such a large undertaking, but we will do our best! and it is our intention to add to the images below to show progress as progress is made.
You too could also become involved by joining the club, pop over to the contact us page to arrange a visit.
Scenic section progress!
Thursday 11th April, a small team down the clubhouse, continued work on the track laying, completing the first curve between the scenic section and the fiddle yard, this section has taken a number of hours to get completely right and is critical for reliable running, with this end done, the guys will move to the other end and repeat the works there, once this is completed we will be able to be erect the end boards independently of the fiddle yard and scenic sections, for extensive testing. This evening even saw the first DCC powered loco running on the track, the fiddle yard track is somewhat dirty and has now been cleaned but the initial tests look very encouraging as everything worked as expected.
First Track down!
Thursday 28th March saw a small team down the clubhouse, starting work on laying track, deciding to start on the most challenging bit first, the interface between the scenic section and one of the curve boards, this area is critical to be correct and it underpins the bigger picture. Which is that the end circular boards will when completed be able to be erected independently of the fiddle yard and scenic sections. The primary Gas Holder is slowly taking shaped as is part of the main retort, the chimney, there is a very long way to go with the structures and whilst these are underway we hope to bring you regular progress updates as we go....
Underlay on the curved boards nearly completed!
Monday 11th March saw the underlay on the curved boards being cut, glued and laid, the work on the primary Gasholder has started. Only 11 more sides to go. Once main frame built, cylinders come next then finishing touches such as hand rails and top tension wiring, all the track for the scenic section has now been acquired and is ready to be laid once the track on the 6 curved boards is done, we have decided to do that first, so we theoretically have a circle completed that members can start using in the next few weeks, this will help with the members giving there DCC stock a run, hopeful ironing out any running issues as we go....
Trackwork build continues
Monday 4th March saw the trackwork build continue and as we said on the last update "success of any track are its underpinnings", we continued to lay underlay, as you will see in the pictures. More building have appeared and some fettling needed to be undertaken, So, the fiddle boards have been fitted with there underlay, just the curve boards to go.
Trackwork build started
Monday 12th February saw the trackwork build start, as with any layout the success of any track are its underpinnings, we have chosen to use a very light and yet stable product for our underlay, 5mm XPS extruded foam, very easy to work with the underlay started to be cut and fixed to the scenic section boards. We will have more pictures of that next time,
In further developments yet another parcel is winging is way to us as you read this, this parcel contains the two custom 2into6 turnout assemblies we commissioned to have built.
These feature 2 tracks into 6 tracks in around 18inches the shortest possible length that it could be. and features 2 double slips, 2 three way and a short crossover all expertly blended together to make a single homogenous unit. These are ready to lay, fully wired and tested both for DC or DCC operation, and whilst reasonably expensive do actually represent very good value for the money, being not much more than the actual price of the individual parts prices.
Three More Curved boards
Friday 9th February saw another parcel arrive from our friends at Grainge & Hodder, This parcel contained the final three curved boards essentially completing the full circuit, Three of the team met of Friday late afternoon and made very short work of assembling them, in fact we were so busy putting them together we totally forgot to take any pictures. But look back to the previous post on Curved Baseboard and you'll get the idea.
Update - 30-01-2024
Trackplan Finally Discussions
Monday 30th January saw members of our team discussing the final track plan, having decided on the tweaks we felt were required the final track plan was shown in place on the boards, along with few temporary building placed with a few pieces of stock added for scale.
Trackplan Discussions
Monday 15th January saw members of our team discussing the track plan, we have decided that it needs a few tweaks here and there. These will be attended to and a further track plan produced for discussion and hopefully finalisation. as the pictures show there was a quite number of members involved and every viewpoint was listened to.
Further legwork for the fiddle and curved Boards
Tuesday 2nd January saw two members our the team attended to the rest of the legs, for the 1200mm x 400mm fiddle boards and also the three curved boards, they have produced the legs for these boards in the same way as the previous boards, making the whole structure very rigid indeed.
Baseboard Legs
So, as the club is officially closed for Christmas and New Year celebrations, three of the team being at a loose end decided that they would pop down and make a start on constructing the legs for the boards, as you can see we made some headway on the leg assembly. We had already decided that traditional 2"x1" PAR would be sufficient along with two cross braces, these braces being 9mm ply, these braces also carry the load from the side frames, rather than the tops of the legs pressing on the underside of the boards top surface, as we do not want any vertical loading deforming the tops of the boards.
So as you will see, we had a productive day, managing to get the front boards completed and standing on there legs.
The pictures show some of the steps taken to achieve that, we however still have 6 more boards to do, three straight and the 3 curved baseboards, These curved boards need a bit of thinking about as we cannot apply the same as we have applied to the straight boards.
Curved Baseboards
So moving on to the Curved baseboards, These are very cleverly designed, Curving baseboard side frames is known for its difficulty, but the strengthening that has been designed in from the get go and the use of thinner MDF sections for the side frames on the curves made this much easier to do, as can be seen in the pictures. That said it still took two club nights to complete mainly due to allowing glue to set, even though these are the only boards that are pinned. It was also that we decided to do them on Monday club nights and with so many distractions taking place slowed progress right down, but other team members were very interested in the construction and we did not want to deny them learning something new.
By the end of the second Monday meeting we got that task completed.
Once most members having gone home, we also set out the boards on the floor to get a better idea of the footprint, Wow.
Basic Assembly of the Boards
Since the delivery of the boards and following on from a dry build of the 1200 x 600 boards and looking over all the parts, we moved on to assembly of the straight boards first.
Now it can be very busy in the clubhouse, with many members all taking a very strong interest in what's going on, so it was decided that a few members would gather on a Saturday and start assembly, space allocated and tools as required were gathers, and we cracked on with the task.
As you will see in the pictures we did not hang around, by the end of the first Saturday work party we had all the straight boards completed.
Grainge & Hodder Baseboards
As a team we had some very lengthy discussions about the project, it was agreed that from the very outset that we wanted total accuracy with the baseboards as well as lightweight as none of us are getting any younger, this was achieved with the fantastic laser cut plywood baseboards from Grainge and Hodder in the West Midlands.
Once we were absolutely clear what we required from our extensive planning, we placed our order, as with anything specially ordered in there is a lead time, this was very reasonable.
The parcel duly arrived in perfect condition although we don't think the delivery person was particularly happy or healthy after delivering the box, considering it weighed in at 25kg and was 1200mm x 600mm in size.
We have included some pictures showing the 3d CAD renders, these helped enormously in the decision making process as did many photos around the interwebs of the boards, and matched the actual boards that were received.
We could not believe that 9 baseboards fitted in that box, outstanding packing from the tetrix wizard at Grainge and Hodder, well done Grainge and Hodder.
We are very pleased...
