Syston Model Railway Society

Neuburg portrays a small terminus station set in the former East Germany (DDR) in the 1980s, shortly before reunification.

There is a small industrial complex that provides various types of freight traffic. Passenger traffic is a mix of local and regional trains.

Motive power is mainly diesel but there is the occasional steam visitor.

Axmouth is the result of a holiday in Devon and researching the network of ex-LSWR/ SR lines in east of the county. Although we are mainly BR-Blue modellers, an SR liveried Hornby M7 was purchased (lovely mode) so a layout was needed to run it on.

The track plan of the terminus at Seaton offered good operating potential; main platform, bay, engine shed and goods yard. This also had an interesting location right along the river estuary. However rather than simply follow this plan, we have made Axmouth a *mirror-image' to place it on the opposite bank - the name Axmouth was chosen as it sounds suitable railway-like and the river is next to the Axe. Other SR stock was added to the fleet so the setting for Axmouth is in the late-1930s.

The two baseboards are 18" x 36" giving a 6' scenic length so the Seaton plan had to be compressed - the real thing could accommodate quite long holiday trains. However, the main platform can still take a three coach branch train plus a T9. The buildings are from the Bachmann "Shillingstone" range and add nicely to the SR country feel. We both have an interest is SR EMU's so Axmouth has been given 3rd rail but just into the bay - this is part of a SR test for rural electrification. Had the second war not intervened, much more of the ex-SR lines would have been electrified. Anyway it is an excuse to run the superb Hornby 2-BIL.

Martini (Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere) N Gauge layout utilising a range of electronics for locomotive detection, DCC controlled with the facility to use mobile phones for wireless control. All buildings made from paper and card and all have internal lighting, with each room being individually controlled. Member of both the Syston Model Railway Society and MERG (Model Electronic Railway Group). Careful drivers welcome to operate some of the locomotives, just ask.

Norman Colliery was born out of a need to have somewhere to shove wagons about with my growing collection of early design diesel shunters. The baseboards where originally mad for a OO continuous run 12' x 8' layout that never materalised. They were converted to a | 16' x 2' scenic layout with a 72' exchange yard. The premise is that the colliery is at the end of its life with the lower screens closing down and only the top screens in use. The only problem is that feeder road to the upper screens has been closed by subsidence so a link line had to be made to the lower line. This gave me the multi-level layout that you do not often see in O gauge. The engines are all kit built from various manufacturers except one 03 from Brassworks. The wagons are all kits, mainly Parkside Dundas with a couple of Slaters and Piercy. The colliery buildings are all scratchbuilt from foamboard with brick and stonework from Slaters and window frames from Highland castings. The track is all Peco, the point motors are from Conrad.

'Seen Better Days' is a miniature railway within a N gauge setting, built in 2020/21 on an old over the bed table. Once a thriving area the miniature railway was laid down in the local park and is about to close as the whole area is to be redeveloped. Like many miniature railways it will disappear for good. It has decided to stay open for the rest of the season even though other attractions have recently closed, or are about to close. The railway museum has already closed, and the owner of the boats for the boating lake is closing down due to lack of customers.

Set in the mid-1990s in the transition period of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe merger, Brookfield is an industrial town on the former Burlington Chicago to Aurora route [though the track plan bears no resemblance to the real Brookfield] .The small yard handles local traffic deliveries received mainly from Eola yard further along the route using locos based at the small engine facility next to the yard. A wide variety of longer distance freight passes through as does Amtrak services both commuter and distance, some serving the local passenger depot.

The layout is based upon the Haverhill station on the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway, 1863 - 1965. The station was opened as the northern terminus of the CVLR with prospects of extending to Cambridge. In 1865 the GE railway opened its Cambridge to Sudbury line with a connecting spur to the CVLR.

In 1924 the passenger service was diverted to the GER station, although we still run workman trains and specials to the station.

Linwood Lane an East Anglian branch during the 1960s. Serving a local station, little coal depot and a busy goods yard. Traffic is varied, freight is busy and hauled by class 15 /24/31 and passengers in the hands of various DMUs. The Scenic section is 4ft long to show what can be achieved. All items are readily available and modified in a suitable way.

Birchwood is a small market town in the south west midlands, it is mentioned in the doomsday book as a settlement consisting of a hostelry and some cottages all of which have been demolished and replaced over the years some several times, a survivor is the 15th century church which can be seen behind the railway, this has always been kept in good order for the townsfolk.

In early Victorian times a railway was opened from Birmingham to Bristol passing twelve miles away from Birchwood, the good people of Birchwood were keen to link up with this line and proposed to build one themselves, this was thwarted by two factors, the local lord of the manor who refused to allow the line to cross his land and lack of finance, the scheme was shelved and birchwood became a bit of a backwater.

The line passed to the London Midland and Scottish railway at the 1923 grouping and British railways in 1948, it is shown here in our chosen period of late 1950s early 1960s when much of traffic was still intact and the line busy.

Watch for the parcels stock still using the bay and the trains of goods vans which are taken up to the biscuit factory on its own siding under the bridge.

We hope you enjoy the model the whole history of which is complete fiction but we bet you were wondering why you had never heard of birchwood biscuits.

The layout is operated by members of Ilkeston (woodside) model railway club who will only be to pleased to try and help with any questions you may have.

At the southern end of its tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland the Gotthard line emerges into the Italian-speaking Swiss Canton of Ticino. We're in the 1990's at the small town of Tamaro near the Italian border, with its station on a single-track section of the line with a passing loop and basic goods facilities. There are regular local stopping services, and through international passenger and freight trains to and from Italy. You may also see an occasional special excursion hauled by a preserved locomotive such as a legendary Swiss crocodile. Across the road a metre-gauge light railway runs a regular shuttle service along the valley, and the efficient Swiss postal coaches are waiting at the station