Shopleigh represents modern day operation, and is set in a urban location, somewhere to the north of London. A regular commuter service, mainly made up of DMU's such as 156's, 158's and Turbostars) can be seen, in a range of operator liveries, and sharing the two platform station.
Occasional freight workings arrive at Shopleigh, to allow locos to run around the train for return journeys, and also servicing the adjacent oil depot.
The large building to the left of the layout serves as a scenic break, and represents an indoor two level shopping mall.
The layout uses "concrete" sleeper Peco flexitrack, and the electrofrog points are all electrically operated by under-board point motors with a capacitor discharge unit situated in the control panel to help give that extra kick required to throw the points fully. Working colour light signals are incorporated along with the illuminated station buffer stops, platform and street lights.
Future work will include further detailing to the shopping centre area, including roof access walkways, cctv cameras, and spotlights illuminating the front of the building. A back scene has been considered, although the tops of the rear wall of arches acts as it's own form of backscene and so it isn't as important as on some layouts - it's also nice at a long exhibition to be able to operate the layout by sitting down in a chair - something which wouldn't be possible with a backscene blocking the view!
Vehicles from the Cararama range are featured on the layout, and are being detailed up further with UK registration plates from the Signs of the times detailing range. Other road vehicles include modern Corgi 1:76th scale buses, and Lledo Cargo Kings lorries which are also the correct scale.
We are currently fitting a dummy 3rd rail to the rear platform line, out under the road bridge in to the fiddle yard and the short spur where the occasional loco or unit is stabed. This should make the operation of the Hornby 466 EMU's units more prototypical. This is hoped to be completed by our next exhibition, although is proving very time consuming to paint, detail and fit - especially when we only get a couple of hours per week to do so.
A full article about Shopleigh was featured in a recent issue of the Double O Gauge Association journal. Shopleigh was exhibited during their 2003 AGM at Keen House in London.
