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Restoration And Extension

4 Designing The Extension

Our first task in designing the extension was to find a credible location for "Inkerman Street" in Salford. Unfortunately, the implied topography of the layout was very much at variance with that of the real Salford and a realistic compromise seemed well nigh impossible. After much head scratching and turning a "blind eye" to the anomalies, we decided that "Inkerman Street" would be vaguely towards the western end of Regent Road which gave convenient alignments to Salford Gas Works, Pomona Dock and the Windsor Bridge to Castlefield Junction route. The latter would initially run southwards before turning slightly north of east to reach Castlefield over a distance of 1� to 1� miles.

The gas works would be at the left hand end as viewed by the public while Pomona Dock would be at the right hand end.

In order to maximise the number of different trains that could be used at an exhibition, it was decided to use cassettes to store and change over trains at all but Pomona where three sidings with run-round facilities and a kick-back into a private siding would be provided. At the extremities, the tracks have been separated to front and rear of the respective baseboards in order to give maximum space to the cassette operators, also ensuring that no cassette entry/exit involved more than a double track.

"Inkerman Street" will become a junction with a sharply curved double track branch leaving the rear of the baseboard to enter a short cassette at an angle of 36�. Hypothetically, this leads to Windor Bridge No.1 signal box and ultimately to Manchester Victoria. It will be used by the London Road and Victoria motor train service, which calls at Oxford Road, Knott Mill, Inkerman Street and Salford, hence the short cassette, being for 2 coaches and a small tank locomotive.

The island platform will be extended over the street, necessitating the relocation of the iconic shops and pub. The proposed location at the left hand end will enable the detail modelling of these to be viewed directly rather than obliquely as at present.

The grass embankment, never likely in 1930's Salford, will be replaced with walling and arches and the formation moved forwards so that the base of the walling coincides with the longitudinal baseboard joint. The station building will be moved forward similarly. The erstwhile scissors crossover will be replaced by one of the trailing variety in the same relative location in respect of the platform.

Carl Legge's signal box will move to the opposite side of the LNWR viaduct to oversee the junction. As it will now stand on the formation, the timber supports will be redundant and will be removed.

All the turnouts on the upper level will be LMS semi-curved switches although space restraints on the model mean that these will be 'B' or 'C' types with mostly 1 in 7� crossings. Standardisation of the crossing angle means that one crossing jig will be needed, although the diamond crossing will necessitate other "one-off" jigs.

On the single line low level, the existing layout will be retained, the two coal yard sidings being brought together in a headshunt on the left hand extension. At this side, the single line, ostensibly from Windsor Bridge No.2 signal box, will appear from the rear beneath the high level line to join the existing formation and then proceed across the front of the layout to the Dock sidings at the right hand end. A single track branch into the gas works will leave in the vicinity of the viaduct to enter its own cassette at the left hand end. Straight 1 in 7�, 15 feet switches have been specified at the gas works end and 1 in 6, 12 feet switches at the dock end.

One of the problems identified at Aylesbury was that, although shunting occurred at the coal yard, little traffic went down to the dock end. Therefore it has been assumed that the gas works sidings would be devoid of run round facilities, thereby necessitating the empty coal wagons leaving the works being taken down to Pomona to run round before setting off back to Windsor Bridge No.2 and Brindle Heath. This will ensure that spectators at the right hand end will have some activity to watch.

The acquisition of a copy of a rating plan of the area has enabled the size and purpose of typical industrial premises adjacent to the railway in Salford to be ascertained and this information will be used to site suitable buildings on the layout. Tall buildings will be used to hide the cassette entries and working areas. The society's display stands will conceal the cassette area at the left hand end, while the large L&Y warehouse by Bridge 3 at Ordsall Lane will conceal the right hand cassette area.

Terraced houses and shops will also feature to portray inner city Salford. Some photographs of the remaining features have been taken but many more are planned.