1. Arrowmouth - Flagship Club 4mm scale layout
2. Abbotswood and Norton Junction - A new layout of this prototype location
3. Auch Ae - 4mm scale Scottish Region locomotive shed
4. Avon Bridge Junction - 4mm scale junction station layout
5. Bond Lane - 4mm scale Narrow gauge layout
6. Burford GWR - 3.5mm scale GWR branch line station
7. Catsbrook - 4mm scale narrow to standard gauge transhipment layout
8. Gracetown Bank Goods Depot - 4mm scale North West based goods yard
9. Hackworth Colliery Junction and Blenkinsop Colliery - 4mm scale midlands based layout set in the 1950s/60s
10. Hookton Riverside - 7mm scale narrow gauge terminus based in Dorset
11. Lapping Works - 7mm scale industrial layout
12. Shallon - 7mm scale minimum space layout
13. Temple Bridge - 4mm scale layout based central London in 1950s/60s

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

Sitting on the beach, on one of those always sunny summer days. Suddenly the silence is shattered as a former LMS pacific speeds past on a Scotland bound train. These are the images we have attempted to recreate in model form. The West Coast Main Line at the end of the steam era and before the overhead electrification marched northwards to Scotland. Arrowmouth is a seaside town on the North West Coast and is close to Hest Bank, which is between Lancaster and Carnforth. The layout is based on the former London North Western Railway main line. The era is somewhere between 1963 and 1968 when steam was in its Indian Summer, in this part of the world. The scale is 4mm using "OO" gauge track. All the buildings on the layout are scratch built, mainly using thick card for the basic structure. These were covered with either brick papers or plasticard to represent stone or brick finishes. Various grades of sand papers have also been used to represent concrete rendering which, is so often found at seaside towns. The layout has been created as a package of not just the layout but also correctly formed trains for the era portrayed. This does not mean detailed locomotives pulling out of the box ready to run stock. More recently the layout has undergone a major refurbishment to bring it up to the standards of the Club's newer layouts. This has included totally a re-modeled the goods yard area with a new track layout and completely new scenery on both corners of the layout.

Auch Ae is a 4mm scale Scottish Region locomotive shed based in the 1960s. It is very much work in progress but showing it in a part built state gives the opportunity to see how a layout is built. All the track work has been laid using Peco code 75 track and wired for DCC operation. Buildings on the layout are scratch built and are based on prototypes in Scotland. The layout will be operated with a mixture of steam and diesel locomotives with many featuring working sound.  

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.

British Railways and the National Coal Board had been created only a few years earlier and the coal mining area of Hackworth, like the rest of Britain, was beginning to recover from the effects of austerity after WW11. Things were looking up and, on the railway, there was talk of the new, clean efficient diesels, plus the new standard BR steam locomotives were just coming on stream. On the down side the area lost its regular rail passenger services, only excursions to places like Mablethorpe and Skegness plus Sunday diversions remain. Coal, mineral and general freight traffic was booming, trains could often be found waiting a path on the single line section to clear. Blenkinsop colliery had become a hub for new NCB opencast mines to the west and deep pits to the east. The NCB had drafted in several locomotives from other areas to cope with demand for coal in the new power stations being built in the Trent Valley. The local bus companies, Midland General and Barton, were happy to take the passengers who had lost their trains. Cars were at a premium, but a few could be spotted on the roadways. The railway comprises of a double to single track branch line which loops off the ex-Great Central mainline at Annesley and re-joins it at Staveley. Traffic on the line is mostly freight with ex GC/LNER 2-8-0 and W.D. locomotives in abundance but there are occasional excursion and diverted passenger trains which punctuate the service. Plus of course the miner’s Dido. The motive power depot at Jutland Street, Hackworth primarily has ex GCR types of J11, O4 and smaller numbers of mixed traffic and passenger types. The depot’s function is to provide motive power from the local colliery’s exchange sidings to Annesley, Staveley and Beighton yards. The layout features full sound and lighting plus a working turntable. All locomotives are DCC Sound fitted a number of which are weathered.  The layout creates a scene as seen through the eyes of trainspotters in the 1950s.

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.