Warley At Statfold 2024

A fictitious location is the backdrop to this O gauge layout which depicts a diesel period railway on which heritage steam specials are run from time to time. The stock for the layout is rostered from many of the excellent 7mm/ft scale ready-to-run models now available from numerous manufacturers, including Heljan and Dapol. The scenery is all hand-made using a mix of kit- and scratch-built structures and scenic dressing from the Peco range of static grasses. A description of the the layout appears in the current Railway Modeller issue. 

Originally built by Mac Strong and subsequently donated to the Club, it now forms part of the Club's 'odd-scale' group. It depicts a narrow gauge preserved the line built in a large abandoned quarry. The part modeled is supposedly the least accessible area of the quarry being used between 1939 and 1942 for the storage of museum valuables. During that time tracks were laid into nunderground galleries. After the war, the quarry never returned to full production and was abandoned, though later it was taken over by a Mining and Quarrying Heritage Society which, over the years, re-laid the track and opened parts of the quarry as a museum. The Society owns an eclectic collection of machinery, locomotives, and stock that requires varied degrees of attention from time to time. The hidden nature of the area modeled was found to be the ideal secure area for this work, whilst the line passing this area gives access to some of the galleries open to the public view. A passing loop provides a convenient place for trains to pass, or await access to the galleries. The layout is built on five boards totaling 3m x 1m overall. It is usually operated from one end. The circular track plan allows something to run whilst chatting to visitors at exhibitions, or just to watch trains go by. Control is DCC using the NCE system and the track is from Peco, laid with a minimum curve of 17 ins.

Sellraintal is an Austrian N gauge DCC layout. Set in the Sellraintal Valley just outside Innsbruck in the Tyrol region of Austria. Unfortunately the railway never actually reached the valley in real life, so this is very much a 'what could have been' project. It assumes it was originally built to service silver mines and quarries further up the valley, with the passenger service following much later in order to take workers from the local area up to the mines and quarries. Sadly the industries closed down once the workings were exhausted and the line was truncated at the largest station on the route. It continued to serve the growing number of skiers flocking to the locality to ski tour around the nearby mountains. Hence the layout is based on the winter season. The scenic section is 8ft x 1ft leading to a 3ft fiddle yard arranged in an L shape. Sellraintal utilizes mostly German or Austrian models for trackwork, stock and scenic items. 

It's the 1950s and Britain's railways are beginning to be modernised. At Broadwater Junction the station has been wiped away and the track layout has been simplified. The old pre-grouping signal box has been replaced with a new BR design. The only remnant of the area's history is the old wooden wharf rotting away in the mud. Once a point of transshipment for the branch's products, its lack of road access and position on a tidal inlet was always a disadvantage, and when its track connection to the station was removed, it and its old crane were totally abandoned. The signal box model is a removable module and other company signal boxes can be put in place to increase the variety of rolling stock which can be operated, so as to accommodate all the different companies and period models that club members hold. The layout's first appearance was at the Leamington Show in 2011, and it has been displayed at many other events since.

As a youngster, Ed Purcell lived in a house in the Gravelly Hill area of Birmingham until it was demolished to make way for the famous M6 interchange we all know colloquially as Spaghetti junction. That was in the 1960s, but the memory of his old familiar home lingered on, resurfacing when he needed a name for his latest N gauge layout set loosely in the same area. Gravelly Oak is a minimum space N gauge layout portraying the Privatization era using ready-to-run motive power. Class 60s and 66s operate the quarry traffic.

Weekend Yard was built over the two days of the 2023 Gauge O Guild's show at Stafford to demonstrate that an O gauge layout offers plenty of operating opportunities within a small space could be constructed using off-the-shelf products and components in a weekend. It also showed that a modeler does not need a huge space, pots of money and vast model engineering experience to create something in 7mm scale that fits into a shed or a small bedroom in a modern house. The track plan was based on Bankfield Road, a layout which was featured in the Gauge O Guild publication Small Layouts Volume 3 and the October 2018 issue of Railway Modeller. The Guild is very grateful to Peco and all of the retailers who donated products for the build team to use, and to the Railway Modeller for publicising the project.