Bairnsdale Station Modules Part 1

Over the last few weeks we have been working on the three modules that make up Bairnsdale.

This picture shows current status with the track in place on two modules, wired up and painted; however the points are not yet operational... more on that another time! Note the blue foam extension on the top right. We still have to add one loop track and the track into the freight gate... still working on the alignments for that!

Here is a photo before we got to this stage. In the foreground is the traverser module, then comes the three Bairnsdale modules. The closest will have the timber siding on the left with crane, and stock yards and fuel siding on the right.

Here is the station area with a mock up of the station. This is to help check that we have enough room... with these and cut outs for the goods shed and freight gate area we found that we don't have enough room. We subsequently added the blue foam extensions!

Here is a shot showing the templates.

And here is the yard through going east towards Nowa Nowa. Every track of the prototype is in there!

Further work on these modules is on hold while I work on the modules leading to Bairnsdale, but now if we like we can shunt Bairnsdale to Nowa Nowa :)

Warf Line Shed Number 1

Part of my plan for building the Bairnsdale modules is to build the buildings as I go along, rather than focus on the benchwork and trackwork exclusively. This way it should all come together... well that's the plan!

At the East end of the station area the old warf line curved towards the south east. It was truncated back in the 1950's. Several sheds were built on this stub and by the period I'm modelling two were in location, while externally similar they differ in details. One of these has recently been demolished, however the other is still standing and thanks to John O'Kelly I have good pictures and measurements, so I've built this one first :) I can use these measurements to estimate the other shed.
 

This is the shed in 2009. the one to the right has been demolished in 2011.

 The 1976 station drainage diagram shows the two shed were leased to Tulloch Jenkins Pty Ltd, who owned service stations and a oil wholesaling business's in the Gippsland region. I remember bitumen wagons parked there in the 1980's. It appears to have been the office/administration building.

For a while I was confused how many buildings were there, some photos from the side showed a peaked roof building. Finally I noticed in this picture from 1975 that there were clearly 3 buildings there in 1975, with the last one being the peaked roof building. The peaked roof building appears to have been demolished  by 1976.

Peter Vincent 1975

 So off to work using fantastic photo's and measurements from John. Note the discoloration caused by fire damage.

2011 John O'Kelly photo

Both sides are the same John O'kelly photo

Under construction. A wall was added internally.

Interior painted black, roof on

Undercoated

Now back to the half finished goods shed as thanks to John I now have good photos of the roadside of the building, not just the rail side!.

Cheers
Rob

Bairnsdale Station Building Part 2

Late yesterday and into the evening I assembled the mock up of the station. The purpose is two fold, first to check the dimensions and assembly concept for the station building. Second to see how it fits on the module, and if any compromises need to be made.

Here is a picture from the rail side showing the approximate locations of the yard tracks and the station. The van goods building is in the extreme right, then the deep parcels office. The parcel office fits, just!

Here is a picture from road side.

And finally an overall view.

I need to do some minor adjustments, and complete the road side window layout, at almost 30 cm long it is an imposing station!

The mock up has achieved its purpose and now fewer mistakes will be made on the finished product.

Now need to mock up the goods shed... the space on the module will be full!

Bairnsdale station Building Part 1

Well I've finished doing the first draft of the Bairnsdale station building. I drew the artwork up in Corel Draw from plans and photos, then scaled it then print out in N scale. From there I will paste to styrene and cut it out.

I'm finding the building more complicated history wise than I thought, so I've done a preliminary print, which I'll assemble as a mock up to help visualise the station area and the building so I can make a better (Final?)one. The file at the moment is the rail side facade x2 and the sides and ends for the station itself and the parcels office and attached van goods.

I need to do etchings for the canopy, windows and doors.

Off to start assembly!


Of and the points arrived today... but need to finish off some other modules first.

Cheers

Rob

Modules built

Well thanks to my dad who works well under supervision :) all the modules are now complete. Bairnsdale is basically flat, with only a little relief for some open drains

Two modules feature 12mm decks, 6mm sides and the 19mm "FormPly" ends. The ends are cut down so that the 12mm deck runs the entire length of the module. The deck and ends are reduced in width so that the 6mm side is flush with the top of the deck and will present a smooth finish. The plan was to lay the track direct to the deck, however I've just realised I've stuffed up by 3mm, so I either need to add a 3mm roadbed on top of the 12mm, or just add 3mm to the bottom of the end plates to raise them... Will think more.

The third module has a 9mm deck, in part because I wanted a 3mm roadbed, and part because I was trying to utilise the ply I have been collecting for years, rather than buy more! It will now need a 6mm roadbed.

Anyway here is the picture of the modules in the shed, Bairnsdale will be 3.6m long, the traverser yard is 1.2m and the corner modules 900 square.

Welcome!

Welcome to the next stage of my Australian Free-moN based layout, Nowa Nowa.

As the Nowa Nowa module nears completion, we have been thinking about the next stages of the layout.

We will be building a few scenic modules, including two 90 degree corners to provide a 180 degree turn around, however we needed to decide on the next major station to help tie it all together.

There were three options under consideration:

1. "Old Sale". The old Sale Station was a dead end station where all trains entered the station, then the locomotives had to run around the train before heading east to Bairnsdale/Nowa Nowa/Orbost or West to Traralgon/Melbourne. It was reasonably compact and would have provided a lot of operations in a small space as the trains would have had a lot of movements. However the linkage to Nowa Nowa was poor as historically the freights from Orbost/Nowa Nowa/Bairnsdale generally took the Maffra line and did not go through Sale. It also didn't fit well into a space in my shed, or at model railway exhibitions.

Sale Looking south - Western Langford Photo

Sale 1979 Steve Cullen Photo

2. Traralgon. Traralgon was another option. It was the end of the electrification from Melbourne which meant that most trains changed locomotives. It had a turntable and roundhouse and was reasonably compact. However fitting the turntable and round house in would make the modules quite deep, there are no suitable mechanisms for the "L" class locomotives, although the train density was considerably higher than Sale or Bairnsdale.

Traralgon Loco - Steve Cullen

Traralgon 1964 L class Loco heading west Western Langford

3. Bairnsdale. Bairnsdale was the next major station west of Nowa Nowa towards Melbourne. It was the terminus of the twice daily "The Gippslander" passenger train, and featured a fairly busy compact yard. At times three trains would be in the yard (The Gippslander and the crossing of freights to and from Orbost). As a kid I used to drive by the station on my way to and from school gazing at the T's and the Y's. Some quick designs indicated it could fit in 3.2-3.6m of length. The total layout would be 6x3m in a U shape.

Bairnsdale 1975 Peter Vincent

East from Footbridge 1996 Peter Vincent

West from Footbridge 1996 Peter Vincent

With a bit of sketching in Corel Draw we were able to come up with the following concept for it fitting into the shed. Green is already completed modules