Layouts 2024

The following layouts are expected to be at our 2024 exhibition. Click on any of the layout names to see pictures or videos of the layout.

Bristol Goods Shed (O/50mm, Peter Boyce)  is a model of art of the broad gauge/standard gauge goods shed in Bristol as it was around 1850. The Goods Office is based on the existing offices adjoining the goods shed at Stroud.  In the model, this office can receive coal directly to the adjacent siding; clearly a cosy place to be in winter. The waggon turntable and line running across the main rails is based on the original, and would have led to the dock – waggons likely being drawn by horse.

Brief Encounter (OO, Dawn Quest) is a monochrome model railway based on the 1944 David Lean film. The concept was to recreate a monochrome style evocative of that era so the observer can see the layout as if they’re viewing an original black and white photograph.  A problem I quickly discovered was that grass, foliage and trees are not readily available in black, white… or grey! For the static grass I went online and bought a black and a grey nylon wig for about £6 each and spent 30 mins cutting it into thin strips and then pushing it through a fine sieve.

Bridport Town (O/16.5, David Taylor)  is the headquarters of the fictional Marshwood Vale Railway, located in the town of Bridport, Dorset. Featured are the main terminus station, with loco-sheds and workshops, and GWR exchange sidings. Bridport in Dorset was historically the centre of the rope and net manufacturing industry, and has some fine old industrial buildings. All non-railway buildings on the layout are based on Bridport structures.

Brixcombe (P4, Farnham MRC) depicts a busy seaside terminus located somewhere in the Torbay area, and catering for both freight and passenger traffic. The new harbour extension board will be exhibited for the first time. It extends the standard gauge line down to a harbour which is also served by a narrow gauge (OO9) railway.

Chwarel Tegid (OO9, Tim Williams) is a representation of some aspects of slate quarry operation, it is not intended as a fully authentic recreation of a slate mine. The period of the layout is “indistinct”, it could either be an operating quarry nearing the end of it’s working life (approx 1950’s), or a “present day” mining museum with working exhibits demonstrating quarry operations and occasional slate extraction for the production of souvenirs. The two main features are the fully operational and shuntable incline and inclined ropeway.

Great Bardfield (P4, David Hawkins).  Essex had its fair share of proposed lines which never came to fruition. Great Bardfield is a “might have been” station on a fictitious extension to the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway. The line connected Great Yeldham on the CV & H to Ongar on the Great Eastern Railway, thus providing a direct, if slow, link to London. The operating schedule covers the period from 1955 to 1962. Initially all trains are steam hauled and some mixed trains run. By 1958 diesel locomotives begin to appear on goods services although passenger trains continue to be steam hauled. Following a brief, but unsuccessful attempt to introduce rail buses, diesel multiple units take over the passenger service until closure.

Haxton Castle (N, John Wilson) is a computer controlled, push button operated layout, with various animations. It was made for children aged from 5 to 95. It uses many different MERG (Model Electronics Railway Group) electronic kits to automate features.

 

 

Kingsbury (O, Barnhill MRC)  is a fictional country station just bordering on the edge of the suburbs of Bristol. It has a single track branch line with a passing loop, a bay platform (to serve a second route), a few sidings, a small engine shed and something we always try to include into a layout – some water. This was to be the canal that runs for 20ft along the front of the layout. It is set between 1947 and 1950.

Leicester Belgrave Road (OO,Abingdon MRC)  The Great Northern entered Leicester from the east in 1883 with grand ideas, and built a six track station with twin overall roof like the one at Kings Cross. In real life passenger traffic was never a success, but on the model it is with express trains to Kings Cross. Freight was more successful. The station entered the diesel age with a refuelling and service depot and this is the period we choose to model (1950’s and 1960’s) when steam locos in their twilight rubbed shoulders with the new diesels in resplendent green.

Lisworth Bay (N, John Spence).  The London and South Western Railway forged its way south-west during the railway age of the 19th century, sprouting branches to coastal towns on its way; Lisworth Bay was one of these. Originally a terminus, during the Great War the line was extended to serve a nearby ordnance depot and the road access to the station was interrupted by a level crossing across this extension. The whole branch was closed as part of the Beeching Report and trains last ran in the early autumn of 1966.

Moors View (N, Paul Holwill)  is a fictitious station on the ex-LSWR line between Exeter and Plymouth which skirts the north edge of Dartmoor. It is somewhere between Lydford Junction and Tavistock North station. It is set in winter in the snow, and can be run either with steam in the 1950s or diesel 40 years later. The centrepiece of the layout is the nine arch viaduct which has been built on a gentle curve.

Norge (HO, Mike Carter).  A Norwegian harbourside railway scene, inspired by the Flam railway. It has cyclists moving round the town, using the Magnorail system.

 

Northport Quay (O/36.75, Dave Holman)   is an Irish broad gauge (5′ 3″) layout set somewhere in the northwest of Ireland. The boat in the harbour is a modified Clyde puffer kit. It can operate in various eras, from 1900 to the 1950s.

 

 

Okehampton (N, Farnham MRC) is Farnham clubs new N gauge layout, still under construction and a long way from completion. We will have all 7 boards on display and hope that at the very least the 2-track mainline and both fiddle yards will be operational, we may even have started on scenery! It is being modelled in summer 1961, just before the T9 locos were withdrawn, and our intention is to be able to run thee full timetable.

Sandford and Banwell (P4, Pete and Jeff Day)  based on the through station on the Cheddar Valley Line as it would have appeared in the early 1930s under Great Western Railway ownership. he Cheddar Valley Line ran through the County of Somerset running between Yatton and Witham, becoming known as The Strawberry Line because of the volume of locally-grown strawberries that it carried. At Sandford & Banwell considerable traffic was generated from a nearby quarry, which had a short tramway branch south-east of the station.

Sheepcroft (EM, Stu Davies) is a first attempt at building an EM layout with limited space and resources.  The layout doesn’t require much stock, which is largely modified RTR, and can be happily operated with a loco, brake van and a handful of wagons. A freight only line it is set in the south west in the early 70’s and is very loosely based on a real location..

Tan-y-Llyn (OO9, Steve Flay)  A freelance creation, the layout is particularly inspired by the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways. Built in an ‘L’ shape, it consists of a lower terminus Rhyd in a small town and a scenic section around the passing station at Tan-y-Llyn, including a dramatic curve on a hillside ledge above a lake.

Tarley (3mm, Paul Tarrant and Tim Casserley).  Two of our club members are constructing this small 3mm gauge layout, being displayed still in its early days of construction.

Tittlesworth (OO9, MERG South Hants Group)  is a reservoir in the North of the Midlands, which had a narrow gauge railway in use during it’s construction. In our imagined scenario the railway has been taken over as a tourist attraction. The layout was bought at a car boot sale and has been enhanced to make use of and demonstrate various MERG electronic kits.

Tony’s Forest (O/14mm, Robin Edwards)  “Tony was the owner of this forest in the 1890’s and he built a narrow gauge railway to bring timber down to his own saw mill. This was extended during the Great War when there was an increasing need for timber. However it fell out of use afterwards. It saw a new lease of life during World War 2 when parts of it were used to get more timber and quarry stone. This section portrays the line coming up the hillside to a passing loop with the old line forward now disused and overgrown. The line reverses and continues up the hillside while a newer branch leads to a quarry which now supplies Shropshire County Council with road stone. The area is still known as Tony’s Forest but the railway remains known only to a few enthusiasts and the local population.”

Wolfe Lowe (O, Steve Moore and Shaun Horrocks) is a small terminus station located somewhere in Staffordshire Moorlands. The era is LMS pre-grouping but ambiguous as to which constituent company in order to allow the layout to accommodate Midland, LNW and North Staffordshire stock. The layout incorporates a small sandstone quarry and iron ore mine which serves to hide the cassette operated fiddleyard. In the quarry, wagons are filled with stone and hauled by a private railway locomotive down to a headshunt where they are exchanged with mainline railway company engines for the final leg into the station.  The layout’s track plan is inspired by Leintwardine from Ian Rice’s book Light Railway Layout Designs.

Charity Layout (OO, Farnham MRC). Once again club members have built a layout that will be raffled at the show in aid of a charity. This year the charity is “Change of Scene” in Farnham. They provide animal assisted learning for young people (typically 8-18) with a range of complex emotional, social and behavioural needs which cause them to flounder in education. This gives them confidence and self-respect through hard work with the animals.  The children also get involved with carpentry, cooking and other skills.