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HASSELL HARBOUR BRIDGE
Hassell Harbour Bridge is
the new O Gauge layout from the members of Alsager Railway
Association.
Our previous layout “Hassell Road” has been exhibited at a number
of exhibitions throughout the country over the last 10years and
was getting past its sell by date.
The new layout uses a few of the boards from the old layout, which
have now been revamped. The layout still maintains its original
size of 41 ft long by 15ft wide.
The front of the layout has been redesigned and completely
rebuilt.
This includes two viaducts and a Hog Back girder bridge that spans
over a river and harbour scene. The Girder Bridge alone is 5ft 6
inches, long and is loosely based on one at Sunderland. Although
it is not a direct copy, it is constructed as it might have been
in the early 1900’s. We have had a lot of advice on its
construction by a retired Civil Engineer, even down to the size of
the rivets.
We are going to put the River and harbour board close to floor
level to give it a good visual appearance. The girder bridge will
be 3ft above the River scene, which in real life would be 130ft.
This gives us a dramatic set piece to run our trains over, after
all this is what the viewers like to see, (we hope) trains going
by in the landscape.
We are planning to have real water in the River, which will flow
in and out exposing the mud banks, just like the tide would.
Although we can only use this effect with the permission of the
various exhibition hall managers, due to there being water close
to the floor.
The Girder Bridge has been constructed out of 18mm ply, cut by
laser with card overlays with plastic truss beams added. All the
rivets have been put in one at a time (no joke), which has been
worth the effort, as it looks good. Everything you see from the
viaducts, Girder Bridge, river area, buildings and scenery were
all scratch built.
We have ten storage sidings at the back of the layout and this is
covered over with new boards depicting a coal mining area based on
examples from the Staffordshire area.
The trains we run will
be a mixture of LNER, LMS, GWR, LSWR, SR and some North
Staffordshire and Caledonian from the 1940’s. This allows the club
members to run their own stock on the layout. We have found this
also pleases the viewers who have there own favourites.
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