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.