Layouts:
Maristow - 7m ‘0’ Gauge
Maristow is a small town on the Devon bank of the Tamar, a few miles north of Plymouth. One of the ‘Duke’ class of 4-4-0 locos was wanted after the towns. The railway is of course imaginary but sets out to try and recreate a West Country scene at the turn of the century, when the evidence of the recent conversion (1892) from the broad gauge is still very obvious. Specific items are the longitudinal track (the ‘Baulk Road’) recently narrowed from 7ft gauge, the broad gauge clearances on the bridge and tunnel (with the track offset through the bridge after 1 rail was slewed over on conversion)m the height of the platform and the non-independent rotating ground signals, among other things.

All points and signals are interlocked, and all routes are signalled. All rolling stock is from the 1900-1914 period, and the buildings are scratchbuilt, mostly in plasticard, from various West Country prototypes, particularly Abbotsbury and Perramwell. Most of the excellent scenic detail is the work of Bob Deakin.

Hillyers Bridge Junction - 4m EM Gauge
Hillyers Bridge Junction is an E.M. Gauge layout portraying the junction between the London Tilbury and Southend Railway and the Lea Valley Railway. The junction is where the L.V.R. leaves the L.T. & S.R. to serve the hamlets and gunpowder mills long the Lea Valley, terminating at Waltham Abbey. The period is 1912 when the Midland Railway is about to take over the L.T. & S.R. and L.V.R.

Locos and scratchbuilt, Kits, or modified proprietary. Rolling stock is mostly from kits, some coaches are modified Hornby. Couplings are a development of the ‘Royston’ which was published in the E.M. Society Newsletter a while ago. The new coupling, a joint effort by my son Ian and myself and named by Ian the ‘Y.A.C.’, ie Yet Another Coupling.

Cooksvale II
A small country station based on LNWR practice as operated by BR in the early 50’s. The layout allows the retention and use of some 00 roling stock as owner / operator has moved on to a larger scale.

Hartshill Bank - ‘N’ Gauge
Hartshill Bank is a modern image layout. It features a double track mainline with a station and a town scene that is made up of Pola kits and scratch built buildings. From the station to the old traditional market and bus station, the layout contains in the region of 360 people, including 2 mounted police horses, if you can spot them! Also look out for the deer on the hillside by the station. Moving down the layout we come to the diesel depot and on top of the tunnel is the leisure centre. Also notice the canal scene in foreground.

Whilst the layout is owned by Fred, the other three operators contributed their own skills to the construction. All the trackwork is Peco finescale, which was supplied by Kenwater Railways and the scenic materials were supplied by Green Scenes. The rolling stock is mainly C.J.M. Locos and re-sprayed locos by Steve and Fred.

Weybourne (The Poppy Line) - 4mm Finescale
Weybourne was built by a couple of enthusiasts seeking a situation where steam and green diesels could run together yet not look out of place today. Therefore a heritage railway had the answer and what better than a piece of East Anglia’s premier preserved line, the North Norfolk Railway. Situated between Sheringham and Holt, Weybourne is the home of the railway’s workshops and is the only passing place on the line. Consequently, it sees the most movement and was the obvious choice for a model.

Destined for exhibition work, the layout had to be portable and therefore light but strong and quick to erect or dismantle. This has been achieved by using what we think is a unique method of construction and the layout can be up and running or packed for departure in less than twenty minutes (on a good day).

During the exhibition you will see most of the railway’s locomotives in the yard or passing through, together with some of the previous visitors to the line. Of course you can always visit the prototype, sea, sun and steam, idyllic – welcome to Poppy Land.

Riddlesford Junction
Riddlesford Junction is an ‘N’ gauge looped layout with an upper branch terminus station and yard. A lower bi-directional station serves the branch and lower yard. Behind the scenes is a five- road fiddle yard.

This layout was on the exhibition circuit in the 1980’s and built by Derek Foster. The layout was our only ‘N’ gauge layout and Derek had done a good job on the scenics, it was therefore decided just to refurbish. We replaced the track and control box enabling more varied operating conditions. The track plan remains as the original, just a little sprucing up here and there.

East Lynn - ‘S’ scale 1:64
East Lynn is an imaginary small town and seaport situated in North-West Norfolk served by the Great Eastern Railway. Principal trains head south, departing over the single line swing bridge towards a junction some distance away with the main line to London. A branch line heads eastwards across the county and provides a connection to the local gasworks. The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway has running powers over the branch giving it access to East Lynn.

The scene is set in 1903 at a time when the railways were the principle means of transport. Goods traffic is mainly coal and general merchandise coming in, with agricultural produce and livestock going out. In addition, the port handles coal, fish and imported timber, which are carried by the railway. There is a large granary with private siding where the wagons are often chain shunted. We generally run a sequence of trains representing a daily timetable, which takes some two hours to get through.

Modelling in ‘S’ scale requires the majority of items being scratch built. The ‘S’ scale society provides some kits and parts to support this unique scale.

Tedburn St Mary - ‘00’Gauge
Tedburn St Mary is a fictional terminal from the south-west of England, though based on the original plans drawn up by the GWR to expand westwards skirting the fringes of Dartmoor from Exeter St David’s to reach Okehampton. In reality the LSWR made use of a more northerly route via Crediton.

We have assumed that as a result of the severe bombing during the last war, that the government moved a large number of factories and workers to peripheral communities. As a result the second route was started, but only running as far as Tedburn (though the earthworks were completed over the entire route). You will find a variety of stock both originating in the Southern and Western regions. The freight services bringing milk to the BSE Dairy and coal to the local merchants.

Peakdale - ‘N’ Gauge
Peakdale represents a slice of ex LNWR mainline that was constructed through the Peak District of Derbyshire, en route to Manchester. The timescale represented is late 1950s, early 1960s during the steam/diesel transition period of British Railways.

There is no station on the layout, but the line runs through dramatic scenery across a nine arch stone viaduct. The track plan is simple, consisting of a double track main line, slow loops and a branch that diverges to the nearby community of Smalldale.

The viaduct is entirely scratch built and represents over one hundred hours work by club members Dave Barker and Paul Ransome and is a very impressive structure. The locomotives seen are representative of the types that would have been around at the time, including Stanier Black Fives, Jubilees, 4 and 8Fs as well as Sultzer Type 2 and 4 Diesels etc.

Tomy Railway
An ideal layout for the very young girls and boys amongst us to enjoy. A good example of an off the shelf model railway toy set.

Dovey Valley Railway - 4mm scale Narrow Gauge
The Dovey Valley Railway is a fictitious 2’-3” gauge railway running from the terminus of a standard gauge branch at Dinnas Mawddy in Mid Wales to slate quarries 6 miles away at the head of the Dovey Valley. Run down and near closure in the early 1950s, the line has been saved by the traffic for a large dam and hydro-electric scheme on the site of the old quarries.

The model is part of the upper section of the line from near the village of Llanymawddy to Aber Rhiwlech, just short of the slate quarries. The date has been set at summer 1960 when the line is busy with tourist trains as well as freight for the construction site.

Track is by Peco and pointwork is a mixture of Peco and home built; the majority of points are operated electrically by H&M or KTM point motors. Locos and rolling stock number about 130 items and are kit or scratch built.

A feature of the model is the slate fencing which was typical of minor railways in this part of Wales. The lake and the stream are both made from several coats of polyurethane varnish, the lighting adding to the effect

Moose Mountain - 3.5 scale 16.5mm gauge HO
Moose Mountain is based on a layout project which was in the Model Railroader (Dec ’97). The design allows for two different scenes on its 6ft space baseboard. On one side is a logging camp with saw milling and a log pond. On the other side is an iron ore loading facility, which actually loads the ore cars. Both CP and CN motive power is in evidence.

Haverhill South - 2mm Fine Scale
Haverhill South was the terminus of the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway. It was opened in 1863 but services were always very limited, not least because from 1865 most passenger services on the line were directed to the Great Eastern Railway’s Haverhill Station, to which a connection was made that year. The terminus very shortly became a goods only station and remained so until closed in 1965.

To make this quiet rural station on the Essex / Suffolk border more interesting as a model, the station is depicted as it may have been had the passenger survived until the line closed.

The layout is running as it may have been from just after WW2 until it closed, and, bearing in mind part of the line is now preserved, the occasional preservation special. The track work is built to 2mm fine scale standards using components produced by the 2mm Scale Association. Buildings are scratch built or heavily modified ratio carriage sheds. Rolling stock is kit built and re-wheeled Graham Farrish and Peco proprietary models. The locomotives are re-wheeled proprietary models, an easy way to begin in this scale before attempting scratch building.

G.W.R. Stoke Fleming - 7mm to 1ft Fine Scale ‘0’ gauge
This minimum space layout depicts a small part of the fictitious attempt by the disgruntled businessman of Dartmouth to build a railway to Plymouth as an alternative to the GWR line from Kingswear, Devon. When funds ran out a terminus was established at Stoke Fleming in 1870. Not until 1897 did the line eventually connect with its old enemy at Kingsbridge. No longer a terminus, the station continued to service the increasingly popular Blackpool Sands. Virtually destroyed when the surrounding are became a training ground for Operation Overlord c 1943-44, no trace of the line exists, save for the station at Dartmouth.

Hellingly Hospital Railway - 4mm scale 16.5mm gauge
When the new asylum built for East Sussex County Council was completed in 1902, the visiting committee took the revolutionary step of not only retaining the contractors railway used in the construction, but electrifying it, creating one of the most unusual railway lines in the country. Intended to bring coal to the hospital generating stations, it also had a limited passenger service ferrying inmates and visitors from nearby Hellingly Station. Throughout its life, the line had one locomotive and a tramcar, although the latter fell into disuse when the passenger service ended in 1931. The line itself lasted until March 10th 1959.

The model is set during the end of the construction of the line. The contractors, with their own locomotive, are finishing their work and the electric locomotive and tramcar are running.

Bethany Wells Railroad
Bethany Wells Railroad is a fictitious railroad running from Fort Morgan to Colorado Springs in the State of Colorado. Fort Morgan was on the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Lines and Colorado Springs handled Sante Fe and D. & R. G. W. running south from Denver, it is a kind shortcut missing out Denver and is an easy route through the Rockies. The BWRR has long since been swallowed up in the big merger that has taken place in the western states of America. The layout is over a scale mile in length and has three small yards. The layout makes an attempt to show what can be achieved in a small space without becoming too crowded. The layout has recently undergone a major overhaul. A second board has been added, this has enabled us to do away with the original storage yard that was hidden. This allowed us to add a loco facility and the storage yard can now be viewed.

Deer Creek - Hon30 scale
Join us in a journey down memory lane to a bygone age when the lumberjacks were kings of the forest. They could also handle anything by forging parts from raw iron and tough men though nothing of putting in a full day’s work before the rest of the world was up. The equipment required servicing in situ wherever they were and oil, water, sand, slab wood and other supplies were needed to keep things going - The log train supplied these anywhere they were required.

Each wagon had its own specific use so find them if you wish. The engine’s friend the water car (20), the sand car (16), the oil car (18), the pipe and scrap steel car (17), the tool and repair car (19) the gravel car (23), the caboose (9) & the wonderfully cluttered blacksmith’s car (10). The slab cars were also of great importance to the lumber companies for carrying supplies to keep everyone going although, as here, there was always a healthy dose of junk and clutter. Nearly everything here is scratch built, trucks, locos and structures and comes complete with a large amount of imagination.

Foxup - 4mm/foot to P4 Standards
Foxup is a small branch line set in the early years of the last century following Midland Railway practices. This includes the Midlands love of complex point work. Three-way, three throw and double slip are to be seen. The owner built all you see. All bar one building use Slaters Plastikard all building roofs are slated using thin paper. Couplings are the owner’s interpretation of the Alex Jackson design. They use handrail wire for hooks and vehicle windscreen wiper blade rubber for the flexible hinge.

Grey’s Steel Works - 4mm Scale
Depicting a small part of an integrated steel works, this layout provides the opportunity to operate a variety of industrial locomotives, both steam and diesel in a suitable setting. Traffic includes raw materials (iron stone, coal and limestone), internal traffic (coke, liquid iron, steel ingots, part rolled billets and slag) and outward traffic (rolled steel sections and by-products).

A number of special wagons are required including the large ‘torpedo’ wagons which carry 200 tonnes of molten iron from the blast furnace to the Basic Oxygen Steel (BOS) plant and also the ingot wagons which take steel from the BOS plant to the rolling mills.

The rolling stock is a mixture of scratch built, kit built and adapted proprietary models. Each of the buildings uses a different constructional technique for evaluation purposes.

Hedge Lane - 3mm
This layout has been built for exhibition purposes by the South West Essex Group of the Three Millimetre Society and is intended to be a trainspotter’s paradise! It is not based upon any particular railway company and is set vaguely in the 1950’s when the occasional diesel loco could be seen amongst the still reigning steam locos.

It has been designed for the family rather than purist viewing – there’s no timetable working against a speeded up clock here! Just a procession of trains to maintain public interest and when children appear then sometimes so do Thomas and James, Annabelle and Clarabelle. O.K., so they weren’t around in the 50’s but the kids don’t know that!

Traders, Societies and Demonstrations:
Leighton Buzzard Railway
Friends of the National Railway Museum
Nine Elms Models
Ten Commandments
K.R.S. Model Railways
Modellers’ Mate (Model Accessories)
Bob Pearman Books
Electronix
John Hunt Model Railways
Thameshead Models
Totally Trains Limited
45163 Restoration Group
M & B Models
Wagon and kit building demonstrations.