Being fascinated by the complexity of Darling Harbour and the opportunity that it would provide to model an urban environment was one thing, but would this be a step too far? How could such an enormous location be modelled with any reasonable chance of success?
The Darling Harbour Branch was spread across a very large area. A studied assessment of the multiple track diagrams will quickly convince most modellers, including me, that it might have made a great deal more sense to select another location. However, one of the strengths of this location, from a modelling perspective, was that it was very busy yard consisting a large number of fascinating individual scenes, many could provide an ideal starting point for the design of a small layout.
The very large goods sheds were significant pieces of infrastructure, particularly the iconic double deck goods shed. Obviously, any attempt to model Darling Harbour forces the modeller to be very selective so, perhaps in part because of previous modelling efforts, I was drawn to the area immediately ahead of the large double deck goods shed. Does all this still sound impossible?
The marked-up track diagram heading this page indicates the section which would be the focus of the new layout. Not shown are the significant wool-store buildings together with their hundreds of windows, which would form the backdrop. The final dimensions will be 500 mm deep and 4440 mm in length, 50 mm deeper that my first thoughts. The plan has been designed primarily for visual impact and is ‘bookended’ by the William Henry Street Bridge and a portion of the double deck goods shed. The Up and Down Main are at the front of the layout and will be slightly curved as they pass in front of the goods shed. It will be populated mostly by the 19 class and goods rolling stock, most of which I still need to build, but the main lines will permit at least the test running of all NSWGR locomotives in addition to passenger rolling stock which did occasionally pass through this portion of the yard.
The layout, maybe it is just a glorified test track, will be constructed from three modules with self-contained LED lighting in a fairly traditional staged proscenium arch configuration. The actual modules will be constructed from 50mm extruded polystyrene foam and 100mm deep girders fabricated from 3mm Craftwood (MDF).
On this small modular, somewhat experimental layout I thought there would be a real advantage in first checking if the planned assembly of the entire structure is workable. One of the really great advantages of modular layouts is the opportunity they provide to consider each section of the layout as a model in its own right. It is possible to build the module in a suitable location such as a workbench without being restricted by the limited space that will be available in the final location.
The modules can be worked on from any convenient direction including upside down, ideal when installing the wiring. This will be so much easier than crawling under a fixed bench construction. It is not uncommon to use 3 mm MDF for backdrops but on this occasion it was also planned to use the backdrop to support the upper front fascia and the “ceiling” or “roof”. It would have been possible to increase the thickness of the backdrop to 6 or 9 mm or even use plywood to achieve the rigidity required but that would be have been more expensive and substantially increase the weight. As an experiment I wanted to see if it would be possible to achieve sufficient rigidity and stiffness by adding ribs to the panel. The first experimental backdrop panel for Module (3) is shown below.
Fortunately, at the time of construction there was a considerable amount of discussion on the internet about 3D printing and in particular the Anet A8 3D printer. With a purchase price well below $200 it seemed like a good idea to try something new and the fact that this unit was a kit seemed like an extra bonus for me. It was clear that this project was going to require a larger number of small parts such as brackets, lace girders and lots of windows, maybe 3D printing would provide a solution. Time to expand my modelling skills. It was necessary to clamp the rib to the panel whilst the glue dried but it proved difficult to maintain the 90-degree angle required. The solution was to design a simple holding bracket using SketchUp. Even though I had no real experience using this freely available 3D drawing program it was surprisingly easy to achieve the desired result. It only took about 15 minutes.
The Cura 3D printer slicing program, also freely available produced the final file for use by my recently assembled Anet A8 3D printer. The first test print proved successful so it would have been possible to print the 18 required one at a time. However, again using the Cura slicing program a new print file was produced instructing the printer to produce 6 brackets at the same time. Only one press was required to achieve that result so I think 3D printing is going to prove to be a very useful tool.