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Layouts

Shark Fin Yard N

Courthare Junction '00'

Courthare Junction

Owned by Andrew Dancy and built to 4mm/ft scale 16.5mm gauge '00'.


This 1ft x 4ft layout is the first that Andy has completed despite years of armchair modelling. he has managed to get the maximum number of train movements into a minimum of space.


Portrayed is a fictitious junction set on the borders of the Great Western Railway and Southern Railway.


Plan of Layout - Courthare Junction

The GWR occupies the higher level, naturally so, as it is God’s Wonderful Railway. Goods shunted on the Southern lower level are exchanged with the GWR via a wagon hoist.


This wonderful machine, hidden in a brick building on the right of the layout raises and lowers loaded and unloaded wagons from one level to another as if by the hand of God.


 

Elmgate '00-9'

Elmgate

Owned by Tim Sanderson and built to 4mm/ft scale 9mm gauge '00-9'.


The layout represents part of the fictional Elmgate & Thatcham Light Railway set somewhere in the south east of England. The period is the 1960s where the dwindling goods traffic is mostly agricultural but there is still the occasional diesel hauled train from the local processing works.


A preservation group has taken over the line running the commercial trains along with a recently introduced tourist passenger service hauled by restored steam locomotives.

Plan of Layout - Elmgate

The station has an island platform. The front road is that normally used by passenger trains, whilst the rear loop gives access to the goods yard and via a headshunt to a line to the processing works. At the far end of the platform there is a turntable which allows locomotives to tranfer between the platform roads and the extensive depot which caters for both steam and diesel traction. The layout which measures 10ft long featured in the March & April 2007 editions of 'Railway Modeller'.


 

Harris Yard 'H0'

Harris Yard

Owned by Keith Harcourt and built to 3.5mm/ft scale 16.5mm gauge 'H0'.


A mysterious millionaire from Memphis, Tennessee, Charles T. Harris, who made his money in the steel business and later diversified into building computers, has reused his steel plant to indulge his passion for trains. He has collected boxcars, cabooses and locomotives that he likes the look of. He has them run for him to watch from his office building.


Plan of Layout - Harris Yard

Other members of his entrepreneurial family have built plants for their companies in the yard so some of the boxcars actually deliver raw materials or take away finished goods.


 

Kappa Board Layout '00'

Kappa Board Layout

Owned by Keith Harcourt and built to 4mm/ft scale 16.5mm gauge '00'.


You can’t build a layout out of that stuff, said a friend pointing at the off-cuts of Kappa Board, which has a foam core and card on both sides. That was 11 years ago! The whole layout, with lighting, only weighs in at 28lbs! The main board itself is under 10lbs and is stuck together with PVA glue and contact adhesive. The sky back cloth is a printed sky paper painted with matt white car primer then laminated professionally with matt plastic. The sky and the seemingly solid "picture frame" is all held in place with Velcro.


Plan of Layout - Kappa Board Layout

The layout is '00' finescale and uses three link couplings. Operation is from the front via a hand held unit. Articles on its construction appeared in 'Model Railways Illustrated' (June 96) and in the January 2000 edition of 'Railway Modeller'.


 

Kennet '0'

Kennet

Owned by Brian Wilson and built to 7mm/ft scale 32mm gauge '0'.


Kennet was originally built by Uckfield MRC but is now owned by Brian. This was the Club's first essay in 7mm scale modelling. It originated from the pipe dream of one of our members, whose ambition for a long time had been to build a model of Fairford station in Gloucestershire.


However, the limitations involved in building and running an exact prototype location led to several modifications to both the track plan and the scenic aspect.


Much to the chagrin of several of our members, the operating company remained the same. Thus the model represents a Great Western Railway branch line terminus of rather unusual design, a legacy from the intention to extend the prototype beyond the buffer stops just past the locomotive shed, which in fact never materialised.


In common with most country termini the main traffic is coal, mainly for domestic consumption, along with milk, cattle and general goods. Sometimes at exhibitions you will see salt arrive which is assumed to be for a local blanket factory. The local passenger service portrayed is one in which we would have the viewer believe that the operating company is trying to improve by the introduction of one of its famous diesel railcars.

Plan of Layout - Kennet

The reason that this portrayal of a much modified Fairford was built in the "senior" scale is that the aforementioned Club member received a 7mm kit of a G.W.R. 48XX (14XX) auto tank as a present. A 70ft auto coach soon followed and this inspired other members to build further locomotives and rolling stock, causing the Club's interest in 7mm to snowball. As anyone who has caught the "bug" will tell you, the "7mm condition" is very contagious and in many cases the "patient" never fully recovers. Therefore several of our members are fully committed 7mm scale modellers, whilst Kennet has provided all of us and now Brian with many hours of entertainment, exasperation and education in the art of building better models in all scales. The layout featured in 'Railway Modeller' June 1994.


**For more pictures of the layout please click here.**


 

Mols Coed '00-9'

Mols Coed

Owned by Laurie Maunder and built to 4mm/ft scale 9mm gauge '00-9'.


Originally housed in a loft, this layout is based on Festiniog prototypes. The first part was built about 25 years ago and was exhibited at the 1985 ExpoNG. It has been amended, revised and added to. The Blowe Warfe section was originally part of the Tunbridge Wells 00-9 Group layout. The layout has now come downstairs and lives in the 3rd bedroom along with a computer and several other hobbies. It has been added to once more and now makes a complete circuit of the room.


However this new section which forms the complete circuit has not been designed for full portability and so does not feature at exhibitions.

Plan of Layout - Mols Coed

The layout is constructed from 6mm ply in box sections to provide space for electrical switching and motors. The sections are held together by bolts. Those who are modellers will be able to spot the 3 main sections by the subtle differences in modelling style. The oldest with its H&M turnout motors, the next with Fulgurex motors and the final linking section with any form of turnout operation that came to hand at the time of construction. The main thing to note is that there is no fiddle yard, everything is on display


Plan of Layout - Mols Coed

The layout featured in the October 2003 edition of 'Railway Modeller'.

Plan of Layout - Mols Coed

 

Much Pottering & Flaky Bottom Railway 'Gn15'

Much Pottering & Flaky Bottom Railway

Owned by Laurie Maunder and built to 1:23 scale 16.5mm gauge 'Gn15'.


This layout has been constructed to showcase models which go back to the Festival of Britain in 1951. Roland Emmett built a 15 inch gauge railway based upon his cartoons in Punch magazine and it was visited by a young and impressionable boy who bought the book to make a card model of it.

Plan of Layout - Much Pottering & Flaky Bottom Railway

55 years on and that young boy has finally got around to building it - but using photo copies of the kit as templates to enable items to be made in brass and copper. The layout measuring 6ft 6in x 3ft 6in features a station mounted on rails and a ghost - if you are able to spot him!.


 

Picture This '0-16.5'

Picture This

Owned by Brian Wilson and built to 7mm/ft scale 16.5mm gauge '0-16.5'.


As the name suggests, Brian has tried to create a picture of a small narrow gauge station and goods yard in Wales. As well as providing a passenger and goods service, logs also come in from time to time.


Plan of Layout - Picture This

All the buildings are scratch built. Locomotives are various kits with the rolling stock from Peco kits. All the trackwork is also Peco, which is laid on the baseboard which has been constructed from foam board.


 

Shark Fin Yard 'N'

Shark Fin Yard

Owned by Keith Harcourt and built to 1.9mm/ft scale 9mm gauge 'American N'.


Stroud Chemicals uses the minerals of the Lower Colorado Valley to create paints, industrial chemicals and dyes. This layout represents the furthest outpost of the fictional firm, a remote yard where everything needed for operations in the desert is shipped.


A variety of locomotives, hired as required from the main railroad operators, haul all sorts of cars, of a range of ages, where they are spotted, unloaded and reclassified before leaving for a cooling trip home.


Plan of Layout - Shark Fin Yard

Shark Fin Yard is scenically based on locations in the Sonoran Desert, South West USA, where temperatures can exceed 48 degrees Celsius (120F) and surfaces can reach 82C (180F). People don’t stand out in the sun here and even the trains don’t hang around long. Some diesels can’t even stand still because of air conditioning problems and you may see them shuttling from one end of the yard to the other to keep cool. The buildings have bright aluminium roofs to reflect as much heat as possible.


 

Stourcombe '00'

Stourcombe

Owned by Roger Bradgate and built to 4mm/ft scale 16.5mm gauge '00'.


As a young lad Roger used to visit his grandparents near Bournemouth every August. The only way to get there from his home town was to travel over the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway on the 'Pines Express' and for the young and enthusiastic modeller this became a voyage of unparalled delight and lasting memories.


And so when it came to build a new layout for exhibition use it had to be of the S&D.


The layout measures 16ft a 2ft with 8ft being scenic. Trackwork is Peco Code 100 allowing Roger to run some of his older rolling stock which dates back to the 1960s and therefore has very deep wheel flanges. Turnouts and the Hornby-Dublo signals are electrically powered via capacity discharge units by Gaugemaster who have also supplied the locomotive controllers and track cleaning units.


Plan of Layout - Stourcombe

Buildings are mainly from kits or Hornby's Skaledale range with just the dairy and main timber yard scratch built. Ballast is a blend of fine Woodland Scenic types and most other scenic materials come from the same range. The layout was featured in the February 2009 edition of 'Hornby Magazine'.


**For more pictures of the layout please click here.**


 

Treyarnon 'EM'

Treyarnon

Owned by John Pollington and built to 4mm/ft scale 18.2mm gauge 'EM'.


Treyarnon was originally built by Uckfield MRC but is now owned by John. It was the Club's first attempt at modelling in this gauge of 18.2mm, which is nearer to scale than the popular 16.5mm. (The true 4mm/ft scale track gauge is 18.83mm which is used by those who model to P4 standards).


Treyarnon the model is pure fiction, being inspired by the typical ex-LSWR branch lines in Devon and Dorset, but moved a little farther eastwards to allow some 'Brighton' influence in stock patterns.


We have a habit in Uckfield MRC of generating silly ideas and when a small harbour was proposed one member suggested real water and that the tide should go in and out. After many design changes the tidal harbour succeeded and it is often found that visitors at exhibitions spend more time watching the tide and fishing boat than looking at the trains. So much for railway modelling.!!


Constructionally, Treyarnon pioneered the Club's lightweight plywood baseboard design philosophy which continues in our latest layouts. Trackwork is SMP for plain track with handbuilt turnouts using the ply & rivet "Brook-Smith" method. Most of the buildings are scratchbuilt from card and plastic, and the scenery materials from modelshop packs. The rotating storage sidings were again a pioneering attempt to save space and minimise 'crane-shunting' or manhandling of stock in the fiddleyard.


Plan of Layout - Treyarnon

Locomotives and rolling stock are from the present owner and two other Club members, who also model in this scale. Treyarnon was featured in the September 1992 issue of 'Model Railways' magazine. It has been exhibited many times over the years, both as a Club layout and under its present ownership, with little modification until recently when the SR's third rail has finally ventured from sleepy suburbia to one of its smallest branch lines.


**For more pictures of the layout please click here.**


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