Rockvilla Pre-visited is a layout set in an urban/industrial enviroment on the Forth & Clyde Canal in the Possil area of North Glasgow, set in 1924.   The timescale chosen allows the mix of Caledonian Railway liveried stock to mix with the new LMS livery, slowly being applied.  

The layout features a good shed, timber yard, and rolling stock paint shop, along with the platform for a factory that ships in its workers by rail. The urban atmosphere is compounded by the surrounding overbridges and industrial buildings, built to 4mm scale with OO gauge trackwork.  Control is DCC, provided by NCE PowerCab.

Reality

Rockvilla is a small area of North Glasgow on the north bank of the Forth & Clyde Canal, next to Hamiltonhill (within the general district of Possil).  This area around the canal in North Glasgow was a busy place with an abundance of sawmills, distilleries, foundries and general warehouses.  Rails reached Port Dundas from the east via St Rollox on the Caledonian Railways network of lines in the area.   

Alternative Reality

It has been assumed that the CR extended the branch past Craighall Goods Depot, under Possil Road and Applecross Street to reach Rockvilla, a small yard was built here serving the various industries alongside the Forth & Clyde Canal.  The facilities at both Craighall and Rockvilla grew and as such they have in effect become one yard.  Further branches from this line were provided westwards to Western Sawmills and Firhill Iron works on the canals Firhill Basin.  

It is also planned to project this layout forward to 1963 but assuming that grouping and nationalization did not take place. I can then run a modern image Caley scene. The new rolling stock is a work in progress at the moment.

Description

Rockvilla is located north of the Forth & Clyde canal, west of Possil Road.  The track work in the area includes a sidings for the good shed, timber yard, factory workers platform and a rolling stock paint shop.  All of these are tied together with a run-round loop.  A sector-plate handles the off-stage movements.

Baseboards, Trackwork & Electrics

The 2 baseboards, each are 4′ 6″ by 24″ in size, of open frame construction from 9mm plywood sandwiching blocks of softwood, allowing the trackbed to be set at differing levels.   The baseboards are located by dowels and held together using coach bolts and nuts.  

All trackwork is SMP Code 75 with handbuilt points, operated by Megapoints controlled servos, with uncoupling taken care of  Kadee under-track electromagnets.  

Please visit the Rockvilla Pre-Visited Updates page for the latest news.