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Glaisden
Ian Worthington
Glaisden as a concept has been in the planning stage since 1998 when I decided not to pursue completion of my previous layout
and to do something a bit different and slightly bigger. The new layout would be continuous rather than fiddle yard to terminus
and would be based on four boards of 3'6" length and 20" width, giving a frontage of 14' straight plus the curves at the end to
get round into the ten road fiddle yard.
Unfortunately other events got in the way of actual work on the layout, although planning in the armchair did continue. This meant
that although little progress was made for the first eight years or so the track plan did develop and the main baseboards were
constructed. These consisted of the four main boards as above plus four further boards to sit in front of them, these being curved
from end to end and 16" wide at the mid point, while slightly lower, giving a frontage consisting of coal drops and mills with the
main lines and station behind.
The track plan developed to represent somewhere along the Calder Valley with the layout being based in the early 1960s. Research
into the design of stations on this route and also buildings and structures from around the West Yorkshire area has led to the
island platform concept being based on Elland while the station buildings are based on Heckmondwike. The goods shed and coal drops
come from Halifax and the track plan an amalgamation of features from Elland, Ossett and others.
The final development of the overall layout plan came when I took a full size drawing on lining paper and taped it to the floor of
the hall where Rochdale Model Railway Group meet and let the other members have their say. Despite this we are still on speaking
terms but I now have a fiddle yard with twelve tracks and the layout has been stretched to a total length of 35' which gives curves
at the front of 7' radius leading into 5' radius curves at the back into the fiddle yard. This has also allowed the fiddle yard
itself to be made to run from rear curve to curve giving a track length of around 20' split to allow more than one train to occupy
some of the roads. It is in this configuration that the layout is illustrated in the hall on 3rd January 2011.
The other photos show how the station track plan looks, though still under construction, and without the front, dropped, boards.
Also how the Lancashire end curves look as they run round from the station to the fiddle yard. There will be a road over bridge
masking the transition from scenic section to fiddle yard at this end.
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