THE NEW LAYOUT
Occupying a space of 16 foot long by 2 foot wide the new layout depicts the area of Blackpool's promenade, with the viewer standing with his/her back to the sea, from Coral Island with the famous Tower looming above it to the Carousel on the backscene. The left hand side scene, as viewed, stretches from North Pier at the rear to the promenade railings at the front. The right hand side scene stretches from the railings by Central Pier at the front to South Pier at the rear. It must be admitted that some buildings which don't have interesting displays on them have been omitted whilst other buildings have not been updated as their displays may not be as interesting as previously. The plans below should help to make sense of the above statement.
The trams in the visible area of the layout will be controlled by relays activated by reed switches between the rails which will allow the maximum number of trams to be moving around the layout at any one time. The trams in the hidden section will be moved, using a manually operated circuit linked to the automatic system to prevent a tram moving into this area before a space is available to receive it.
Using the two rail system of current collection for the traction motors the trams will collect current from the electrified overhead wires to power the interior and exterior lighting systems. Experiments are now taking place to enable fully lit (and flashing) models of the special illuminated trams unique to Blackpool. This will be a difficult problem to solve as light sources, electronic circuits and fibre optic strand connections will have to be fitted into the tram body and not leak any light from joins in the body etc.
The lighting displays on the buildings will feature as before, with additional special electronic circuits to increase the number of sequences being designed and constructed by Derek Burdett of Burdett Electronics. There will also be fully working streetlamps with the features fixed to the prototype also being fitted to the model. Each of these fixtures will be illuminated as will the features spanning the roadway. The festoons of lights running along the reservation between tramway and road and those spanning the road as well as those running along the seaward side of the promenade will also be fully lit.
Special moving features will include the changing advertisments at South Pier and the heads of the "aliens" inside their "rocket powered" flying saucers. A "hot footed" seagull will be perched somewhere for the sharp-sighted visitor to find.
To give exhibition managers the maximum degree of flexibility when planning the floorspace taken up by the various exhibits, "Blackpool in the box Mk 2 and its accompanying display will be built in two modules thus allowing the whole thing to be arranged in straight line, "L" or "7" shaped formations as illustrated below. The display module will also be sixteen feet long by 2 feet wide so will be interchangeable with the layout module.
The New Display
To accompany the new layout the display of Blackpool trams has also been revamped and will be called "Blackpool's Trams - A Model History". Made to the same overall dimensions as the layout, the display will be equipped with professional display equipment such as slat walling and information holders. The display will be constructed and the exhibits arranged and labelled with the help and advice of an acknowledged expert in this field and will consist of no less than eight sections of interest. The history of trams in Blackpool since 1885, which will eventually feature a model of every type of tram which has ever run in Blackpool, including those of the Blackpool and Fleetwood Tramroad Company and Lytham St.Annes. Special trams such as those converted for engineering department useage together with other vehicles used by the tramway department. Trams which have run in Blackpool as part of a celebration or for trials or any other reason will also feature. The models will appear in a variety of authentic liveries including the latest "all over" advertising liveries.
This photograph taken at the Wadebridge exhibition shows the partially completed display module. When finished there will be two sections like the one shown here with, of course, visual aids as well as the models.
After a lot of hard work to strip off the old backscene,the layout appeared at Wadebridge as promised with the new backscene in place - although the "sidescenes" for the ends of the layout haven't been constructed yet - and with the lights on the Tower and more than half of the lighting effects on "Coral Island" in place and working. The layout created a surprising amount of interest given that it is still in the early stages of construction. Here are two photographs of the layout taken at the Wadebridge exhibition. As they were taken using a flash gun there are areas of white where the flash reflected off the layout. The white oblongs pinned to the front of the black "skirt" of the layout give visitors details of this website and the next show we are attending. The left hand photograph was taken from the left hand side of the layout and the right hand photograph was taken from the right hand side.
This view shows the Carousel building at the right hand side of the layout and which is seen when the layout is viewed from the front but isn't properly visible when viewed from the side as in the photograph above. The missing "sidescene" allows the unpainted ply of the "box" to be seen in this view but wil not be visible when construction is complete.
This view shows the Tower and Coral Island buildings. As with the previous photo, these are easily visible when the layout is viewed from the front but, due to the restricted space at every exhibition, it wasn't possible to take a photograph of the whole layout from the front. Unfortunately, the viewpoints used to take the photographs have also introduced a degree of visual distortion whilst the use of a flash gun combined with the very short duration flashing of the lighting effects has virtually "killed" the light from the fibre optics although it is just possible to see those of the tower which flash slower than those on Coral Island.
Len is grateful to a visitor to the Barnsley exhibition for the three views below of the illuminated layout. They were taken without the aid of a tripod and have sufferred from camera shake due to the long exposure needed to show the lights.
This view is North Pier which is situated at the left hand side of the layout
The illuminated tower can just be seen on the left of this view of Coral Island.
In this view of the Sea Life Centre the illuminations on Mr.B's building can be seen on the left hand side of the picture. Unfortunately the lights on the arch aren't visible in the photograph.
Len is grateful to Alan Kirkman for these photographs of the layout taken with flash. Although the lighting effects cannot be seen due to the flash being stronger than the lights, at least the backgrounds are plainly visible.
The track has still to be "paved" and the pavement from North Pier to the track has to be laid and painted the photo shows how the scenery is taking shape. The white "blur" on the backscene is a reflection from the flashgun due to the fact that until the scenery is completed the "sticky back plastic" covering the photographs forming the backscenes won't have the matt coat applied and so is still quite shiny.
Hopefully these photographs will show how work on the layout is progressing although there is obviously much still to be done and work on the layout must be regarded as still being in the early stages. The trams in these photographs are made by Corgi and powered using Bachmann units using the method shown on the "Motorising" page utilising Len's own whitemetal castings which make conversion an easy task.
Whilst taking photographs in conjunction with the experimental automatic control system, which is still being worked on in August 2005, the opportunity was taken to take some photographs of the layout at the same time. Because the photographs were taken with a hand held camera there is still some degree of camera shake but hopefully you will get a better idea of what the layout looks like whilst working. Because the layout is very long (16 feet) and not very high (1 foot) it is very difficult to get an acceptable size picture onto the web page. However, here is a photograph of the whole layout taken when the "illuminations" were working with no additional lighting being provided.
Starting at the extreme left of the layout as viewed,the speck of light on the left hand side of the picture is from the lighting on North Pier and that on the right hand end of the picture is the light from Central Pier. As both these features are facing at right angles to the camera it isn't possible to see any details other than the glow of the lights.
This view shows North Pier with just the top part of the red "brackets" lit up. As the sequence develops the other two "brackets also light up in sequence. The white lights form a chase sequence around the edge of the show advertisments and the "brackets" panels. Unfortunately the 0.5mm diameter "lights" don't show up in this photograph as well as they do in the blurred time exposure photograph above..
Another picture of North Pier showing a different stage in the lighting sequences. The differing intensities of the various red Christmas tree bulbs can be seen in this photograph.
Immediately opposite North Pier on the layout is The Tower and Coral Island. The Tower has white chase sequences going up and down its four "legs" which don't show up too well as the fibre optic strands are only of 0.5mm diameter as are some of those on Coral Island, mainly at the top and sides of the building. The red lights on the canopy of Coral Island - which consists of vertical lines of "bulbs", each line flashing in sequence - have not shown up well in this picture either.
In this view we see the whole of Coral Island, unfortunately the lights don't show up too well but the parrot at the right hand side shows up well. The wings of the parrots over the entrance light up in three stages, starting at the top, to indicate where the entrance is.
Moving along the layout from left to right we come to Mr.B's amusement arcade with its many varied lighting effects.The arches utilise one sequence, the vertical red lights on the canopies another, whilst further sequences appear on the "fans" over the doors and the yellow lights on the fixtures fixed to the canopies either side of the "fans" whilst a green chase sequence appears under the lettering on the canopies and around each individual letter at the bottom of the arches.
This view shows the extent of the Mr.B's building. The lights on the side of the building going along Bonney Road are more evident than those on the "fans" at the entrances to the building
Moving further to the right we come to the Sea Life Centre. The semi circle of lights on the front of the building light up in three stages. The photo on the left shows the effect after the first two stages and the photo on the right shows the building completely lit. The white/pink patches which appear below the buildings will be coloured to match the pavement when that is laid.
Continuing our journey towards the right hand side of the layout the next building is Funland. There are two sequences for the name, red only as seen in the photo on the left and red and white as seen in the photo on the right. There are also white lights in chase sequences up the front of the building and across the roof line.
The next building encountered on our "journey" along "the prom" is Louis Tussaud's Waxworks, beside which are the Beer Keller, Happy Dayz and King Kong Burger Bar. There are two separate, independent, sequences on the Louis Tussaud building. The first is in three steps, step one lights up the word "Louis", step two illuminates "Louis" and "Tussauds" whilst step three iluminates "Louis" "Tussauds" and "Waxworks". After a brief period all these lights go out and the sequence starts again.
The stars light up singly in an apparantly random sequence controlled by an independent circuit powering high intensity light emitting diodes, one diode per star, transmitted - as all the other "lights" are - by fibre optic strands. There are no lights on the Beer Keller. The Happy Dayz lights are in two sequences. The "Happy Dayz" signs flash seven times then remain lit for a period then flash seven times again etc. There is are vertical chase sequences of white lights on the blue canopy. The King Kong Burger Bar sign is surrounded by a red bulb chase sequence which runs around the sign and the vertical white lights on the red canopy flash rapidly.
Unfortunately, having been distracted by other events, no pictures of Fun Palace and Carousel were taken at this time. Pictures will be taken shortly and put on the website as soon as possible.
The right hand side of the layout is the site of Central Pier and is the end of our "journey" along the "prom". From here the track curves away to the rear of the layout to re-appear at North Pier. The lights on Central Pier are arranged in five blocks. Blocks 1 & 5 are at each end, blocks 2 and 4 are in the middle and block 3 is in the centre of the building. Blocks 1 & 5 light up together, then blocks 2 & 4 are also lit and finally block 3 lights up so that the whole frontage is lit. Then block 3 goes out, followed by blocks 2 & 4 and finally blocks 1 & 5 and then the whole sequence starts again. The words "Central Pier" can be seen to be glowing when the blocks of lights are all out.
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