1. Atherley Narrows - 3.5mm scale Canadian based layout
2. Avon Bridge Junction - 4mm scale junction station layout
3. Lob Ghyll - 4mm scale railway through the Yorkshire Dales
4. Ludlow - 2mm scale layout based on the prototype station of that name
5. Motley Sub Shed - 7mm scale Locomotive shed
6. Northbridge - 4mm scale preserved railway
7. Oakenshaw - 4mm scale layout based in West Yorkshire
8. Remote Depot - 4mm scale layout with a difference
9. Southgate Park - 4mm scale layout based in London in the 1980s
10. Sugar Creek -  N Scale North American modern image layout
11. Temple Bridge - 4mm scale layout based central London in 1950s/60s
12. Todmorden Midland - 2mm scale West Yorkshire based layout

Others being confirmed ..........

Since visiting Toronto in Canada in 1990 and 1994, I have built two layouts based on the trains I saw then and those of the Canadian Pacific Railway of CP Rail as it was by then.  Both Stoney Hill Yard and Stoney Hill West were successful HO Scale layouts and visited many exhibitions including at the Redditch show.  However, there is always a desire to build a better layout and remove some of the irritations with previous plans.  All I needed was some inspiration. It came in the form of a photograph I had taken of a swing bridge at Atherley near Orillia in Ontario. The bridge was already out of use in 1994 when I photographed it and it was a Canadian National line rather than CP Rail but like many modellers, I’ve never been too fussy about absolute authenticity. My initial thought was to build a simple diorama of the bridge and its approach piers, but I soon progressed to grander plans once construction of the bridge started. Operation on Stoney Hill had always been limited because all the industries were accesses off the main line so through trains could not be operated at the same time as industry switching. The track plan for Atherley Narrows allows for industries to be served from loops off the main and in most cases from two separate staging roads in the fiddle yard. Track is Peco code 75 rail, and all points(switches) and crossovers are hand made from rail soldered to copper clad sleepers (cross ties). Points are hand operated by rods attached to electrical switches at the rear of the layout. Control is old fashioned DC. I’ve too many old locos to convert to DCC and I can’t afford the cost of the better sound equipped new locos which are available. Much of my rolling stock is second hand and all the buildings and main scenery elements are scratchbuilt.

Back to Top

The decision to produce smaller layouts that I can handle in my advancing years, has proved to have been the correct decision. they can fit in a Ford Cmax car, or similar, but still open up into a reasonable sized layout and with a 9’ – 0” scenic area can also fit into a moderate sized room in the house. In an effort to reduce the weight without compromising stability I have used lightweight baseboards marketed by Grainge and Hodder Ltd of Cradley Heath, who I have found to be excellent. “Avon Bridge Junction” is a fictitious location and as the name suggests is somewhere near the River Avon. As there are two River Avon’s you can take your pick as to its possible location There is nothing unusual about the layout, but it is modelled as a joint railway either GWR and BRM or GWR and SR or it can be a Heritage line as for this show. There is a mixture of types of infrastructure. Its “theoretical” original location was a Midland line but rationalisation saw GWR signals replacing out of date Midland variety. The layout has code 75 track throughout, Peco points, Seep Point motors, a mixture of “Scenic” readymade buildings, plastic constructed signal box, and scratch build houses. The Signals are from the Dapol range. The trees, I’m afraid, are ready made, my enthusiasm still does not run to trying to replicate Beeches, Cedars and Oaks these days, My favourite period for modelling is the 50/60s for which I have plenty of appropriate stock to run, both steam and early Diesel, but occasionally you may see the odd stranger from another region appear, in particular if run as a Heritage line. I still use screw link and three link couplings for authenticities sake as my hand is still steady enough to handle them.

Back to Top

Lob Ghyll was formed as the rushing torrent of a beck cut through the soft shale on its way to join the River Wharfe near Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales. After many false hopes of a railway up Wharfedale, the Midland and the North Eastern railways decided jointly to build a line to Ilkley. Later the Midland wished to extend further to connect with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at Skipton and eventually to the Settle and Carlisle for a link with Scotland. Lob Ghyll is the result, built to ‘OO’ gauge finescale and featuring scratchbuilt buildings and structures. It sets the scene for a rural outpost in the Yorkshire Dales in the BR steam era with a variety of rolling stock in attendance.

Back to Top

This layout is based on Ludlow in Shropshire, which is on the Shrewsbury to Hereford line. It is set in the late 50's early 60's and depicts both the sidings and the main lines but also incorporates the line from Clee Hill, which is a quarry line. It is a circular layout with the fiddle yard concealed under the embankment to the rear of the layout. It took about two years to build the basic layout but like all models there is always something that you want to improve and add. The only original parts of the railway left in Ludlow are the main lines, the footbridge and the goods shed, which has now become a local brewery. During the construction it was very hard to find accurate photographs of the front of the station and the line so we are always looking for more information so we can continue to improve the layout. See the August 2023 edition of Railway Modeller for a feature article

Back to Top

This is a minimum space 7mm/ft 0 Gauge layout occupying approx. 10ft x 2ft floor space upon which the main scenery is the fleet of locomotives! The collection of locomotives was once described as a ‘motley’ one, so it seemed the natural thing to do, when constructing a layout upon which to display them, to call it ‘Motley’ ! Engines need somewhere to rest until the time of their next working. The sub-shed seen here at Motley provides that space. This is not a large motive power depot, just somewhere to park locomotives between duties and perhaps replenish the tenders or clean clinker from the firebars. So much for the fiction… .the locomotives themselves occupy most of the space on this small layout. Upwards of twenty engines can be seen ‘on shed’ at any given time and they will be seen going on and off shed, and being repositioned to allow others to move. The locomotives are rotated through the course of an exhibition, to allow different models to be on view. Most of the locomotives and other scenic items have been hand built from kits, and we are grateful to Keith Blake, Aidan Houlders and others for building these. It is possible to operate this layout with locomotives from BR (ScR), BR (LMR), BR (WR with SR interlopers!) or a wide variety of industrial types, diesels from the ‘green’ era or a mixture of all of these………. The layout is widely used to publicise THE STANIER 8F LOCOMOTIVE SOCIETY LTD, owners of Stanier 8F locomotive No 48773 [also known as LMS 8233 and WD307] , currently awaiting overhaul and located in the Engine House at Highley on the Severn Valley Railway. For further details about the locomotive or membership of the Stanier 8F Locomotive Society please ask one of the operators..

Back to Top

Northbridge is a fictitious heritage railway! closely based on the Seven Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth Station. The layout was started in 2015 and was first shown at the 2018 Warley National Model Railway Show where it was well received. To coincide with the show, debut the layout featured in the December 2018 Railway Modeller as Railway of the Month. Northbridge station Is situated in the Galton Valley somewhere in the English/Welsh boarders at the end of a double track heritage line. The station has excellent locomotive facilities that allows locos to be turned on a GWR turntable and serviced for their next roster. The engine shed and surrounding hard standing is used to service both steam and diesel locos. The old cattle dock and goods shed have been kept as well as a short branch line. Dalton Valley is named in memory of one of the group’s founders, John Dalton, that sadly passed away during the layouts construction. Being a heritage line allows the group the freedom to run a selection of locomotives and Stock including locomotives that have not been preserved. There are a range of steam locomotives from the former regions, diesels and DMU’s as well as the Blue Pullman, D1009, Deltic, GNR Atlantic. The layout is DCC controlled and most locomotives have sound chips fitted. Signalling is currently being improved by a combination of 3D printing and brass parts the aim being to have working signals that ‘plug’ into the layout when at exhibitions but can be removed for safe storage and transport. The engine shed doors were built from 3D printed parts designed by one of the group and have been made to operate by a small motor and lead screw fitted to each door. 

Back to Top

Oakenshaw is a fictitious West Yorkshire mill town set in the early 1960's located somewhere near to the real town of Keighley on the Airedale line. Like so many of the Yorkshire mill towns the layout portrays a town in a valley centred around a river crossing. Regional boundary changes in 1957 brought this former Midland Railway Station into the short lived North Eastern Region of British Railways. The station is very much based on Midland Railway practice and the scale is 4mm using "OO" gauge fine scale code 75 track. All the buildings on the layout are scratch built, mainly using thick card for the basic structure. These were covered with plasticard to replicate stone or brick finishes. The structures have then been painted and weathered to represent the prototypes from the area. The fiddle yard features sixteen roads and is capable of holding 24 separate trains. All the buildings on the layout are scratch built, mainly using thick card for the basic structure. These were covered with plastikard to represent stone or brick finishes. Trains are made up of correctly trains for the era and location that are hauled by a mixture of steam and diesel locomotives.

We welcome Jeff Pike of JP Model to the show with a totally different layout. It is a demonstration of what can be done with remote control of road vehicles as a totally different dimension to operating a model railway layout. Jeff has perfected remote control in 4mm scale vehicles, and the layout demonstrates what can be done using proprietary vehicles that are controlled using remote control servo motors to load rail wagons as well as general movement around the layout.

Southgate Park is situated on the South Western section of the Southern region and is somewhere in the vicinity of Kew Bridge/Brentford, after Old Kew Junction. With a bit of 'alternative history' and a couple of strategically placed junctions, Southgate Park is served by local services from Waterloo, which terminate in the bay and semi-fasts from Waterloo, Basingstoke/ Guildford and Salisbury. These form the core services, utilising a variety of inner suburban EPB's, outer Suburban VEPS, CIG's, HAPS and CEP's and loco hauled for the Salisbury services. Occasional peak hour services from Paddington and Reading are possible by way of a link from the Great western mainline to the North London line at Acton, and a further link with the Brentford branch to the west of Brentford. These are usually formed of class DMU’s with the occasional loco hauled service to Newbury or Oxford

Sugar Creek is a N Scale North American modern era DCC sound layout based on four locations on the triple track B.N.S.F Marceline Sub at Sugar Creek Missouri. The locations are - the cement works, the old Sugar Creek depot (station) disused but used by B.N.S.F for stabling rail cars and locos etc, the turnouts (point work) where trains can cross from the three tracks in either direction and the forth is the Sugar Creek.

Of the constituent companies of the Southern Railway the London Brighton & South Coast Railway was the only one not to cross the river Thames to have a terminus on the north bank near to the lucrative City of London with its growing commuter traffic, being content to terminate at London Bridge. Temple Bridge is a model of a fictitious station built by the LB&SCR to right this wrong, modelled in the 1950 to 1960s BR(S) period. It is located between Charring Cross and Blackfriars stations in the Temple area of the Embankment, roughly where the present-day Temple District line tube station is located between Somerset House and the Inner Temple legal office area. Temple Bridge station occupies the area between The Strand at the eastern end of the Aldwych and Victoria Embankment. The station fronts on to The Strand and has been rebuilt by the Southern Railway in the 1930s in their concrete Art Deco style, the station buildings and bridge over the Embankment were reconstructed to modernise the station and of course the signal box was replaced with a new concrete glass house style box when the station was re-signalled with colour light signalling. Below the signal box the Temple Bridge tube station on the District line has been rebuilt in the Charles Holden style of the 1930's The station forecourt has a bus station as well as the normal drop off and pickup facilities, railway offices, shops and taxi rank. The station concourse has the remains of its LB&SCR overall roof, now in the 1950's devoid of its glass due to bomb damage during WW2 this gives our passengers access to five platforms. Services are worked by a variety of third rail EMU's ranging from the converted steam stock 4SUB through the Southern Railway 2 HAL and BIL units to the latest BR 2 and 4 EPB's & 4CEP units. The river bridge is a 4 arch wrought iron structure on granite piers carrying three tracks across to the south bank at Southwark. Just off the South side is a 2-road locomotive depot providing light servicing and storage for the locomotives. The arches of the curving viaduct are home to trades and businesses and the river side is dominated by an LCC Council block of flats in the typical hipped roof yellow brick style common across central London from the 1920's.

Todmorden Midland is a former Midland Railway terminus 48 by 14 inches with a 2-foot cassette fiddle yard. This is small even for N gauge, but the scenic section includes station, goods shed, coal yard, loco shed, canal scene, a couple of West Yorkshire mills, a pub, and distant views of hills. Motive power is former Midland Railway and London Midland Scottish Railway along with some standards, some visiting ex LNER locos on summer holiday trains and even one or two diesels and DMUs. Rumour has it that Holbeck has occasionally sent a Jubilee or a Scot on a summer special. Track is PECO with SEEP operated points; control is analogue via an excellent controller designed and built by WMRC members. Stock is by Graham Farish, Dapol, Peco, N gauge society, Union Mills, and some kit-built items. Scenery uses various products including the excellent (and rare) Graham Avis trees. Buildings are mainly scratch built with a couple of modified kits.  PECO N gauge stone building sheets have proved very effective. However, the church is made from OO Wills sheet! Some buildings are scratch built Settle and Carlisle designs which are justified by the line’s presumed historic origins. Mill buildings and pub are scratch built, based on types of building found in the area. The backscene uses acrylics.