BASIN STREET Scale: 4mm - 1ft. Gauges 16.5mm ('00' ) by Graham Wilson & Neil Porter

Size: 16ft x 3ft (plus operator space), Operators: Two, Transport: One car.

BASIN STREET is supposed to represent a Goods Warehouse, originally built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway somewhere on the Eastern edge of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and a Canal Basin absorbed into The North Eastern Railway, which is Rail served. Both Railway Companies built their Lines in total isolation of each other, and unless a marshalling yard is imagined to exist off scene, the two never come together.

The date is April 20th 1954. British Railways is six years old, it is raining, and not particularly warm. Queen Elizabeth was crowned the previous year; Rationing has finally ended, and  Great Britain is beginning to look prosperous once again. British Railways has published The Modernisation Plan, but steam still holds sway in most of the Country; except for the Company built Diesels, in our case LMS shunting engines.

The Track used throughout the Model is S.M.P. Scaleway, with all point work hand built to suit the location using Bullhead Rail and Copperclad Sleepers. The Inset Track in the Canal Interchange Yard was also built on Copperclad Sleepers with Brass Checkrails, then in filled with Wills Granite Setts which was also used for the general Yard areas around the Canal Basin. The two Estuarial Barges were scratch built out of Slater's Plasticard; the Tank-barge from a General Arrangement Drawing, obtained from a local Tanker Owning Company. The General Cargo Barge is freelance with the same Beam and Freeboard but to a Scale 100 feet length between perpendiculars. The majority of the houses on the Layout were built using Wills Sheet Materials and Accessories Packs. The Coaling Stage at the Canal Engine Shed is built using a cut down Slater's Mineral Wagon and Plastruct strip, and the Shed itself is Slater's 2mm Plank Embossed Plastic sheet on a framework of Evergreen 3mm square section supported on Wills doublethickness stretcher bond brick Pad walls.                

The Ex L&Y Warehouse is a combination of Embossed English Bond brick sheet specially run by Slater's to make a sheet three times longer than normal in order to avoid joins in the lower level, where the arched doors were cut out; using a protractor as a template. The Upper levels were built using Walthers Cornerstones Packs of Arch Topped Windows, and Parapets. The slate roof is made using Slater's sheet once again this time 3mm scale roofing. The Canopy over the outside platform is made using Airfix (original not Dapol) Platform Canopies which have had the glazing removed to enable steam locomotives to work underneath when collecting or dropping off wagons.                                                                                                                                                 

The Signal Box at the entrance to the Goods Station is the erstwhile Dapol Kit with the windows modified a floor added and a brick base made from Wills English Bond|Brick sheet.

Contact: Basin Street; using Basin Street as the subject to book the layout for your Show or further details.

Ref:

Looking across the interchange sidings towards the mineral yard	The tankbarge "DUNNO" alongside
A view of the interchange sidings	Looking over the allotments towards the interchange and mineral yard
A view down Basin Street towards Bridge Street and the mineral yard entrance	The "Rising Sun" on the corner of Basin Street and Bridge Street

Site updated 5th November 2019