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Layout Quick Finder: Addiston South; Bahnbetriebswerk Mayfeld; Bincombe Junc; Bourne Valley; Bridehaven; Castle Cary; Connaught Road; Eldon's Siding; Flintcombe; North Downs Light Rly; Rock Ridge; Rottingdean; Stodmarsh; Yeovil Pen Mill.
Regretfully there are no pictures of Hemlock, Ashbridge South and Biddlecombe.

Layouts:

Bahnbetriebswerk Mayfeld by Peter Martin H0 gauge
Bahnbetriebswerk (Bw) Mayfeld is a self-contained H0 scale exhibition layout measuring 4m x 1.1m, built using commercially available building kits and PECO code 75 fine scale track work. It features an operating turntable and traverser (from ROCO and BRAWA respectively). It was featured as the “layout of the month” in Continental Modeller’s June 2002 issue. Bw Mayfeld is a purpose built complex. It represents an imaginary railway museum, owned and operated by the “Mayfelder Eisenbahnfreunde”. The layout is constructed in three sections. The main board houses the steam and diesel sheds, with the E-Lok area being on the second board. The third small section has a simple head shunt concealed by the brewery and road over bridge. The Museum ‘operates’ a fleet of electric, diesel and steam locomotives.Wherever possible models of actual preserved electric, steam and diesel locomotives are used, although locos from classes that did not survive can also be seen. The layout is operated with a multi-protocol digital control system from ZIMO. Locomotives are fitted with ESU Loksound chips. Points and signals are operated by a laptop computer which interfaces directly to the ZIMO CANBUS using bespoke software designed and implemented by Hr. Heinz-Willi Grandjean of Bucholz (Huns), Germany. The PC recreates a German style signal box. Bw Mayfeld is operated by members of The German Railway Society .

Bincombe Junction (Weymouth MRA) N gauge, BR
Bincombe Junction is a freelance double track layout set in the BR Southern Region. It features a branch line leading to a small country terminus not modelled, and an industrial branch with a pair of sidings. A between London and the coast location has been chosen to allow the running of main-line express passenger trains interspersed with heavy goods traffic. Significant progress has been on this layout over the past year by the N Gauge Group.

Bourne Valley Railway by Graham Stenning 009
The Bourne Valley Railway is a fictitious line based somewhere in the South West of England in the late 1940s, as the railway is trying to get back on its feet after the Second World War. The line was originally built, around the1890s, to serve the sawmills at the village of Wandle where the local dignitaries felt they were being left out of the benefits the railways were bringing. Unfortunately, a standard gauge line was ruled out due partly to the local terrain, but mainly because of the limited resources available to build the line. Thus a narrow gauge format was settled for. The Railway became moderately successful, moving felled timber from the Wandle Forest to the sawmills, and finished timber products onward down to the coast for distribution elsewhere. The locals soon demanded a passenger service from the Company which, after being reluctantly agreed to, was an immediate success. Several stations were opened in the area including one at the small market town of Bourne, now the location of the line’s headquarters. The line was later extended further up the Bourne Valley beyond Wandle, to serve Wapses Lodge, the country seat of one of the line’s directors who personally financed the extension. One of the Railway’s policies over the years has been to acquire second-hand the majority of its motive power and rolling stock, resulting in a great variety of types to be seen. Notable exceptions however were a batch of locomotives similar to those being built at the time for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, and a set of bogie coaches built entirely ‘in-house’ at the Railway’s workshops on the sawmill’s premises. So, to the present .... The line is still transporting Wandle timber and other commodities, and the passenger services are more or less back to normal, having been seriously curtailed during the war. There is talk of opening the line up to the increasing number of tourists making trips from the coast. Hopefully this should help the line survive for the time being, at least.

Bridehaven (Weymouth MRA) 4mm 00
Bridehaven is the Weymouth Model Railway Association's modern image layout. The 4mm scale layout portrays a terminus station in the diesel era of British Railways. The period covered is the 1950s to date. We have envisaged that the real village of West Bay (in truth more of a suburb of Bridport) has developed into a larger town and has been renamed Bridehaven, and that the line has remained open to Bridehaven. The layout is now nearing completion; station buildings and colour light signals have been added; the latter have been scratch built, using LEDs.

Castle Cary by Andrew & Simon Tucker 1:148 N gauge
We started this project in 1990. Our aim was to accurately model our local Somerset station as it appeared at the time. To achieve this and model from the footbridge westwards to the road over bridges without having to compact the scene, we decided to take our first steps into N-gauge modeling. In this scale we are able to run full length trains which are operated to a typical weekday summer timetable of the period. Historically the railway came to the town when the GWR’s Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth line was completed in the 1850s. In 1906 Castle Cary became a busy junction station, with the link to Cogload near Taunton, forming part of the Great Western’s direct route to Devon & Cornwall. The Weymouth line lost much of its importance in BR days when the Channel Island boat trains were re-routed over the Southern system and it was reduced to single track in 1968. The station was modified to the present layout in 1985 as part of the Western region’s resignaling. Since then Castle Cary has seen a welcome revival, particularly as a Park & Ride station for commuters to London. In the 1990s the services still provided interest for the modern observer, particularly the loco-hauled trains for summer visitors to Weymouth. More recently there has been the innovative use of pairs of class 31s operating in ‘top and tail’ formation with up to five carriages.

Connaught Road (Weymouth MRA) 7mm Finescale, early BR
Connaught Road is a freelance urban mainline station set in 1950s British Railways steam period. Its location in the suburbs of London is somewhat unusual as stock from the "Big Four" can be seen both in original company livery and that of the nationalised railway. The layout, which connects to the Association's Test Track for train storage, features four running lines, a goods yard and loco stabling area with coaling stage. The booking hall is located on a road over-bridge which spans the platforms, construction of these is progressing with the ply-wood shell being covered by layers of plasticard & ordinary card for the walls and roof respectively. This layout is being constructed by the O Gauge Group who build and run their own locomotives and rolling stock, both from kits and scratch.

Eldon’s Siding by Peter Hollins 7mm scale
This 7mm scale layout depicts Eldon’s Siding, near Corfe Castle, before 1948. This siding was where clay dug from the pits at Norden was transferred from Benjamin Fayle’s 3ft 9in gauge tramway to the Swanage Branch of the LSWR for shipment to the potteries of Stafford. On the layout the narrow gauge of 3ft 9in becomes 26.25mm, whilst the standard gauge track is 32mm, the usual ‘0’ finescale standard.

Flintcombe by the East Dorset Gang of Four Scalefour
The layout represents the end of a fictional spur running south west from the S&DJR line at Sturminster Newton. The name and location are derived from one of Thomas Hardy’s novels about life in 19th century Dorset, but the layout portrays the picture as it might have been in the late 1930s. The scenic aspects attempt to represent the chalk terrain typical of the supposed Dorset location, while the main railway buildings have been based on S&DJR examples from different parts of the S&D system. On the technical side, trackwork is a mixture of scratch-built (ply sleepers and rivets with C&L cosmetic chairs) and C&L flexible. Layout signals are constructed largely from MSE components, with autocoupling coming from the same stable, using the 3mm version of the ‘Sprat & Winkle’ modified in the way described by Philip Hall in Model railway Journal No. 0. The control system provides a signaling/switching facility between operators, with all the trains leaving the fiddle yard under the control of th e main layout operators, while all trains moving to the fiddle yard are controlled by the fiddle yard operator. The concealed fiddle yard has a sector plate which incorporates a locomotive traverser at the pivoted end. The sector plate provides access not only to the main line of the layout, but also to storage sidings concealed beneath the adjacent hills.

North Downs Light Railway by Andrew Walters 009
It is Summer 1967, with passenger and goods trains gently trundling between Redhill and Westerham. The NDLR opened in 1920, using second-hand materials from WWI military railways, and connects the various sand, brick, lime and tile works along the foot of the North Downs. Passenger services have developed with local and tourist traffic, and there is a remaining goods service that has not been lost to the roads. The places mentioned on the text panels, and the industries served by the railway, are all real. The NDLR never existed, but could easily have done as a later version of some of the railway proposals for east Surrey. East Surrey was a very busy industrial area up to some 60 years ago, with sand excavation, lime burning, brick works and roof tiles being the principal activities. Many local people and firms have generously given their time to help with researching for the layout. The NDLR runs a sequence of trains, which combine running typical services of a light railway with enough interest for the visitor. The sequence lasts about 30 minutes and the depot holds several sets of trains, providing variety on the line. Each of the three main boards can be operated from any of the boards, giving flexibility in running. We use electronic feedback controllers, which are considered to give the smoothest operation for the small mechanisms used in 009. Stock is a mixture of steam and diesel hauled passenger and goods trains, and diesel motor trams very reminiscent of the former Rotterdam Tramways Company. Express and local passenger, and goods trains are operated with a mixture of British and mainland European outline. Stock is ready-to-run, kit-built or adapted. 

   
(Photographs affected by the clear plastic sheeting)

Rock Ridge by Steve & Tom Nuttall 1:160 scale N
Rock Ridge is a fictitious Wild West town in the Mid-West of the United States of America around the time of the 1870s. The town was born out of the earlier gold rush, and the mine workings are still active. The nearby army fort of Fort Ridge offers protection to the local residents of Rock Ridge from the local Red Indian tribe who still have ongoing skirmishes with the army units. This layout is the first train board we have ever built. The construction is plywood based with built up polystyrene hills, covered in shaped plaster and real stone is used when possible. All the buildings are scratch built out of balsa wood, and are all copied from photographs and pictures of real Wild West buildings. The locomotives used are Bachmann 4-4-0s and original rolling stock of the era.

Rottingdean by David Riches 7mm finescale
In the 1880s there was a proposal to build a new line from Brighton to Newhaven via Rottingdean. Whilst this was never actually built, this layout imagines that it was under the auspices of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. It is portrayed in the early Southern Railway era with some pre-grouping stock still in evidence. The buildings, constructed from card, plasticard and other materials on a plywood frame, are all scratch-built and based on real LBSC structures (except for the dairy). Signals are operational and lighting is being installed in the buildings, together with interiors. All pointwork is hand-built from C&L components, the remainder of the track being PECO. The rolling stock is also all hand-built, mainly from kits although some coaches have been made from scratch. The fiddle yard, located behind the dairy, is of the cassette type, enabling a large amount of rolling stock to be accommodated in a small area. The points are operated by Tortoise point motors which are very powerful & extremely reliable. There are two controllers and the layout is wired on the cab control principle with several electrically separate sections.

Stodmarsh by Kevin & Judy Cartwright 7mm scale
This layout is based on a proposed, but never completed, extension to the East Kent Railway, one of a number of railways owned or managed by the late Colonel Stephens. A number of extensions were planned for the EKR, mostly based on the development of the Kent coalfields. One extension planned was to run from Wingham to Canterbury West, a distance of about 7½ miles. This line went into the first stages of construction in 1919, starting at Wingham, and was to reach the City of Canterbury via Stodmarsh. Running rights had been arranged with the SE&CR(later the Southern Railway) for the EKR to use Canterbury West station. There were many holdups, such as the General Strike in 1926, followed by the depression. The untimely death of Colonel Stephens in 1931 put paid to all the extension work on the East Kent. It seemed that a plausible idea for a layout could be that the Canterbury extension line stopped just short of Stodmarsh. However, a typical Colonel Stephens station building and an agricultural engineering workshop were built at the end of the line. Colonel Stephens and Southern railway stock can be seen on the layout; this was normal. It is hoped that the small size of the layout is compensated by an authentic atmosphere.

Yeovil Pen Mill (Weymouth MRA) OO, 4mm scale, GWR period
This layout is based on Yeovil Pen Mill during the Great Western ownership in the 1937-41 time period. Motive power is almost entirely steam outline. The layout depicts the line from Weymouth which crosses the Rive Yeo, passes under the Sherborne Road bridge and into the station. From the station and goods handling area, the line is modelled as far as the North signal box in the direction of Westbury. The loco sheds, a further extension to the layout, are nearing completion by the OO Pen Mill Group.

Photographs of the exhibition were taken by Roger Miller (Hon Treasurer, Weymouth MRA) and Robin Atkins (Chairman, Weymouth MRA).

Layout Quick Finder: Addiston South; Bahnbetriebswerk Mayfeld; Bincombe Junc; Bourne Valley; Bridehaven; Castle Cary; Connaught Road; Eldon's Siding; Flintcombe; North Downs Light Rly; Rock Ridge; Rottingdean; Stodmarsh; Yeovil Pen Mill.