Club Layouts

Exhibition Layouts: Design and Build

Initial design work on the separate N and OO gauge layouts was completed in the summer of 2012. The baseboards for N gauge have been built together with transporting frames as shown in the picture below. The detailed work of track placement is now underway using Ordnance Survey maps for guidance.

Since the layout design of the new OO gauge was completed, work has started with the measuring and cutting of wood to allow eight baseboards to be built. Sometimes however, more pressing problems with our dual gauge layout have to take priority, as can be seen in the righthand picture!

Building the Dual Gauge Modular Layout

Within a few months of the first meeting of the Club in October 2008, it had been decided to build a dual gauge layout using 4ft modular baseboards. The goal was to build sufficient boards to form a 10ft by 14ft layout. The pictures below show the progress from the design and construction of baseboards to a fully working layout which was demonstrated at the Open Day on 24th April 2010.

From the first baseboard building day during February 2009, it only took four weeks to have all baseboards constructed and fitted together.		By mid-May 2009, all baseboards have folding legs, are bolted together as a layout and have a test track laid on it.		In August 2009, track plans have been produced using computer software and printed in full size to allow marking up for track positions.
The laying of both OO gauge and N gauge tracks was an extended exercise over many weeks which began with cork bases to each board.		As Christmas 2009 approached there was good progress on the track laying and work on the fiddle yards needs steady hands.		Into February 2010 and wiring was underway. A deadline of a fully working layout by the Open Day in April was still a big challenge.
Less than two weeks to the first Open Day test trains were much in evidence and problems were being identified and resolved.		Six months after the 2010 Open Day and scenery prototypes spanning N and OO tracks were being tested.		A few weeks before the 2011 Open Day and this town scenery on the OO side looks almost complete.

Members' Layouts

Three layouts belonging to Club members were on show at the 2011 Open Day. These were Road Hill, TramWorld and a Thomas layout. Mahala Town, another Club member's layout, was exhibited for the first time at the 2012 Open Day. Below are short descriptions and a number of views of each of these layouts.

Road Hill

Road Hill is an N gauge layout which is still 'work in progress'. It has two continuous ovals of track, a small station branch and a disused siding, set in the present day. This layout is themed very loosely on the private estate at Baynards in Surrey through which the Horsham to Guildford line ran.

TramWorld

TramWorld is a layout, still under construction, which depicts a working tram museum somewhere in England. It is based loosely on a combination of the features of the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire and the Seaton Tramway in Devon. There is much still to do to create the complete museum environment. All the trams on show are motorised Corgi die cast models.

Thomas Layout

The Thomas layout has a blue track in its centre which is from the Tomy Trackmaster range with battery-operated Thomas trains suitable for the younger child. It also includes a roadway and airport with working models and three OO tracks running electric Hornby and Bachmann trains around the outside. The Reverend W Awdry wrote the original Thomas the Tank Engine story books and most of his trains are based on actual locomotives which ran in the United Kingdom.

Mahala Town

Mahala Town is a OO layout with working trains, trams, buses and lorries. All the trams on show are motorised Corgi die cast models. The roadway has a steel wire embedded within it which guides the vehicle via a steering axle magnet. The railway track encircles the town with a 'food train' running around it pulled by a red diesel shunter.