Inspiration Layout: Gasworks Basin
Memories of a school trip prompted David Vaughan to create this city gasworks.
“What makes this layout great?
Making a model railway can be a challenge at any time, but when you elect to make everything from scratch it will undoubtedly make the task longer and more challenging. The rewards are high though, as David has proved with ‘Gasworks Basin’. The layout is unique and is a testament to the many hours he’s put in. ”
Everyone will have memories of school trips, days out to castles, museums and galleries. But, in the 1950s, heavy industry was considered a suitable place to take a class of children! One such visit made a huge impression on David Vaughan.
“The school trip which really stuck in my mind and led to the creation of ‘Gasworks Basin’ was one to an inner-city gasworks,” he recalls. “We got up close and personal with all of the machines and the steam locomotives bringing in the coal and were shown round the retort house with its roaring furnaces, my senses heightened by the distinctive smells and the grime around the place.”
Layouts of this nature have always appealed to David, with a loft layout dating back to 1980 and an ‘O’ gauge layout both depicting industrial scenes. This latest creation fits onto three 4ft by 2ft Tim Horn laser-cut baseboards with the right-most board housing a cassette fiddleyard.
“I find that using Tim Horn’s baseboards makes life really simple because they’re easy to put together and I know I’ll get a smooth transition between boards. This means that I can spend more time doing what I enjoy – scratchbuilding.”
As soon as you view ‘Gasworks Basin’ your eyes are drawn to the gas holders. David used everything he could lay his hands on to make these buildings, including bits of drainpipe, Plastruct sections, brass tube, and bits from his odds-and-ends boxes. But, as he explains, the building wasn’t the most difficult part of the build.
“For some strange reason, when people were taking photographs of a gasworks they focused on the locomotives rather than the buildings. Goodness knows why! I find that doing the research is half the fun of building a layout, but it did take long to gather enough photographs, including some aerial shots of the very same gasworks I visited while at school, to make the buildings look right. When it comes to making the structures I often use Scalescenes downloadable papers. I have used embossed plastic building sheets with a variety of techniques, including using artists’ pastels and pencils and dry-brushing, but I find that, in
‘OO’ gauge, it is a bit tedious to paint individual bricks or stones, and I couldn’t get the level of detail I wanted. Using the large variety of Scalescenes paper ensures that I get neat, crisp mortar lines.”
“When it comes to making the structures I often use Scalescenes downloadable papers”
“During the exhibition I usually let my friends operate while I talk to the viewers, particularly the children who don’t understand what’s happening straight away”
The gas holder was once a familiar landmark in every town. Gas was created by heating coal but, as you might imagine, it was a dirty, labour-intensive process. The discovery of natural gas under the North Sea spelt the end of the town gasworks. Consequently, there are generations for whom the gas holder is a strange and alien structure.
History, therefore, has come full circle for, having been inspired on a school visit, David now uses his miniature gasworks as an educational tool.
He says, “During the exhibition I usually let my friends operate while I talk to the viewers, particularly the children who don’t understand what’s happening straight away, as these gasworks just don’t exist any more. This way, if asked what the layout is about, I can talk them through the process as the coal is brought in and the wagons are unloaded using a magnet on a stick and a magnet on the underside of the coal load in the wagon. Once the train has arrived at its destination the coal loads are removed and safely stored behind the layout.
“Likewise, empty coke wagons are similarly filled under the coke hopper in the gasworks. Once the train has re-entered the fiddleyard it can be loaded up again to repeat the process. The down side is that you see a stick come down from the sky, but it makes it look more like an operational gasworks rather than having a train leave with a full load of coal.
OLD SKILLS, NEW TECHNIQUES
Throughout the half a century David has been modelling, including the two decades during which he ran a model shop, there have been a lot of changes
to the hobby. Not one to shy away from this, David has mixed his traditional scratchbuilding skills with the latest technology available to modellers.
“To save my sanity (and fingers) in making lots of small windows I’ve used both the etched brass offerings from Brassmasters and the laser-cut windows from York Modelmaking. As with any off-the-shelf products it was more expensive than making them myself but it saves a lot of time and effort! I’m also fortunate enough to have a friend who owns a 3D printer, so when I wasn’t happy with the design of the jib on the dockside crane I had made I designed my own. My friend sent me back a sample and I was so impressed with it I wanted to put it straight onto the layout. He had to remind me that it was only the sample and better was still to come! I wait with excitement to see what 3D printing can do in the next few years.
“Despite the size of ‘Gasworks Basin’, three operators travel to exhibitions to follow prototypical operations as closely as possible as there are two controllers, one for the shuttle that runs the coal trains from the dockside to the gasworks at the front of the layout and one for the remainder of operations. We aim to have a train of one sort or another running at all times.
“While I enjoy doing exhibitions I don’t like the
setting up and putting away as often there are a lot of people trying to do the same thing at the same time and I’m scared something is going to get broken. Once everything is safe I feel a lot happier.”
QUEST FOR REALISM
As well as realistic operations, David has attempted to make his trains appear more realistic by altering the couplings. Initially, he used the tension lock couplings supplied and Heathcote Electronics uncouplers with servos to push the couplings up and allow for separation of the locomotive and wagons. “These work really well normally, but you have to be very precise with where you stop the
train for the servo-operated ramp to uncouple accurately. Since this was causing a bit of a headache at times I’m thinking about making the switch to Hunt magnetic couplings, which simply clip into the existing NEM sockets. These couplings enable closer buffering and eliminate the tendency for hook and bar couplings to override. They do, however, have their downsides as it means that, unless you are operating set rakes of wagons, the ‘hand of God’ will have to reach down and manually separate them, but when there is already a big stick removing wagon loads I don’t think it makes much difference!”
We often see layouts inspired by childhood memories and school trips are a perfect scenario as they often took you to places you wouldn’t normally go. Perhaps with a few packs of figures of children, you could create a version of you and your classmates on an adventure and relive some of your best memories, as David has done. School trips are still occasionally taken by train, so whatever era you are modelling, you can recreate some of your memorable times out with your class.