MODEL LAYOUTS

Colehouses Junction (OO, 4mm) is a fictitious layout set somewhere in the west country on a line to the holiday resorts of Devon & Cornwall. It represents an interface between the national railway system and a heritage railway that is a "star" of the leisure industry. Both the modern line and the heritage railway run off in parallel to a resort down the line near the coast.

The layout is based on, but is not a direct replica of, Yeoford Junction on the line between Exeter and Okehampton. The station consists of four platform faces - the main station building itself with a through platform and bay platform, and an island platform with two faces. The main line is on a route to the holiday destinations with the bay platform being used for small trains to a minor resort on the coast.

Both faces of the island platform are used by the heritage railway, with the inner face being used in peak times by the main line - with the permission of the Directors of the heritage railway of course!

Main line services are handled by a variety of train operating companies (First Great Western, South West Trains, Virgin Cross Country) representing services from London and cross country routes from Scotland, the North East, North West and the Midlands. Heritage services consist of combinations of locomotives and rolling stock in both pre and post nationalisation liveries.

Colehouses does not have extensive locomotive servicing facilities but is the main location for stabling the rolling stock. Main locomotive servicing and stabling facilities are at the other end of the line. There are no facilities for servicing diesel multiple units at Colehouses.

There is a limited number of freight operations on the main line representing bulk freight and container traffic movements. There are limited freight facilities at Yeoford.

The layout measures 24' x 2' and is an end-to-end arrangement on six 4-foot long baseboards. Track is now laid and wiring under way.

The Club's N gauge layout is based on Hinksey Yard, near Oxford. This is a "Virtual Quarry" providing a store of ballast readily available for distribution and use in engineering works when needed. We are looking at creating a model of the contemporary railway scene, using the best of the current ranges. We wanted to include the following features:

• Space to run a variety of trains including long freight trains and HSTs.
• Double track main line with lay-by sidings.
• Engineer's or Permanent Way yard.
• Ability to use conventional DC control as well as DCC.
• Suitable for exhibitions.
• Easy to store, set up and disassemble.

We are recording how we build this 20' x 2'9" layout - follow our progress on RMWeb

We are always looking for help - would you be interested?

Hornby Junction (4mm 'OO') is designed to show how to produce a simple model railway from readily available commercial parts. It has been sponsored by Hornby Railway who have provide all the stock and many of the buildings. It was described in the Hornby Magazine (issue 2).

Horton Regis (7mm finescale) portrays a London & South Western Railway (LSWR) terminus somewhere on the east Dorset coast in the early 1900's. As with Bournemouth, there is also the presence of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (SDJR), including through Midland Railway carriages.

Ruxley (4mm 'OO' gauge) portrays GWR branch line operation during the 1930's. This highly detailed scenic layout was built and first exhibited during the 1960's, has since seen much improvement and alteration and remains in constant demand for Exhibitions.

The layout can appear in various forms, as a terminus (Ruxley), as a through station (Woodcote), or in extended form with both stations.

Wadhurst (4mm 'P4' finescale) is currently under construction.

When completed the layout will be an accurate representation of the prototype station in Sussex on the original South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR) London to Hastings line, portraying the late 1940's era when still operated by the Southern Railway.

This layout is now owned by Philip Reid

Shirebrook (4mm 'OO' gauge) was been constructed to replace the Clubs old layout Westhill, which has been sold and is now in private ownership. It is considered to be a entry point layout of double OO track gauge, constructed from ready to run materials, in particular, Peco code 75 track. This accepts most of the British outline models commercially manufactured over the last twelve to fifteen years.

As with most club layouts consideration was given as to whether the layout was to be freelance or follow a prototype. A sketch plan revealed a similarity to the track layout of Shirebrook on the Derbyshire/Nottingshire border (to the north of Mansfield). After a field visit, the decision was taken to build the new layout as a prototype, and the period chosen is British Railways "Corporate Blue" (1979/80's).

The layout is fully operational and, providing sufficient manpower is available, can be set up and running in around 35 to 40 minutes. Assembled from twenty-four separate boards, it provides a continuous circular run of just under one hundred feet. The layout has been designed to run scale length trains, with twenty-two storage roads, most of which are able to accommodate thirty two wagon MGR train or twelve Mark 1 coaches and a locomotive.