Expo—Thirsk

Updated 30/07/10

We are still working on the list of proposed layouts for 2010, as soon as we finalise the list we will post the information on this page. Please check back soon for more information.

We are working towards 12+ layouts, trade, refreshments and a children’s story time.

Proposed Layouts

1 Bierdorf                              Roger Nicholls           HO9 Narrow gauge

A compact one piece layout depicting East German narrow gauge during the 1960’s. Track and points are Peco N gauge code 80. Buildings are kits from various manufacturers, water effects are created from gloss varnish. Any questions don’t be afraid to ask!

 

2 Duncrieve Sidings              Adrian Walby  EM 4mm/ft

Situated somewhere in the Scottish Central Belt between Edinburgh and Glasgow, Duncrievie Sidings represents a small yard where empty coal trains arrive before propelling to the loading point at Duncrievie Opencast Mine. After the train is loaded it returns to the sidings where the locomotive runs round before proceeding to the Edinburgh-Glasgow via Shotts line and then onwards to the power stations at Cockenzie and Longannet. The layout is based during July 2009 and the majority of the locomotives are Class 66s although Classes 37, 60 and 67 also appear from time to time.

 

The layout is 8’ long and 20” wide and is built to EM gauge using SMP track and Marcway points and is DCC controlled using the NCE Power Cab system.

The baseboards are made from MDF by White Rose Modelworks in Bedale and are covered with cork sheet to provide some sound insulation. The basic scenery is formed from polystyrene sheets glued together and then roughly shaped using an old bread knife. This is then covered with plaster-impregnated bandage that has been dipped in water, which when dry forms a hard shell for detailing. Shredded paper covered in masking tape and plaster roll is also used for the basic scenic shell.

 

The locomotives and rolling stock are all modified ready-to-run products from either Bachmann or Hornby, with sound chips from Howes, South-West Digital or Olivia’s Trains in Sheffield.

 

If you have any questions about the layout then please ask one of the operators.

 

3 Bocstyn Sidings                  Dave Burrows  OO 4mm/ft

This layout is approx. 4ft x 1ft and is based on an American idea. It enables numerous (at least 125) shunting challenges to be set. The control is at the front, the idea being that interested parties can have a go and thus take up the hobby. The layout has a Thomas and a Percy to encourage the younger element.

 

4 Waterloo Street                 James Dickie   P4 4mm/ft

Waterloo Street represents the entrance to Waterloo Goods Yard on the former Great North of Scotland Railway branch to Aberdeen Docks in the 1970’s. This was the original GNOS station in Aberdeen, which was closed when the present joint station opened in the 1870’s. The goods yard prospered for a while serving the local gas works and an agricultural fertiliser plant as well as the quayside. After a period of use as a pipe storage yard the branch has recently seen a resurgence in traffic with regular crude oil and calcium slurry flows.

 

5 Wansbeck Road                 Mick Simpson  2mm/ft

Wansbeck Road represents a County Durham colliery village station and is set in the period 1957 – 1962. Although some of the structures on it are based on prototype locations the layout has no connection with any place, being purely a figment of my imagination. The layout has been designed to be viewed from what is described as normal viewing distance (NVD) which in 2mm scale can be anything from between 15” to 2’ 6”. I have tried to model everything to a consistent overall standard which is where I feel some models fail. Just how successful I have been, the viewer will have to judge for themselves.

Baseboards are fairly standard being 6mm ply box section glued and pinned with cross-members “hole sawed” to make them as lightweight as possible.

 

Trackwork is constructed to the standards of the 2mm Scale Association using a plastic track base for plain track and pointwork of soldered construction. Track components are obtainable from the 2mm Scale Association.

 

Scenics comprise a good number of buildings and these are all scratch built from balsawood and cardboard covered with brickpapers. Windows are my own design of etching manufactured for me by Fence Houses Model Foundry. The sleeper fence at the foot of the embankment is made from plywood strips “planted” individually!

Locomotives are largely scratch built using brass, nickel silver and other components for the chassis and a variety of other mediums for the bodies. Some transition period diesels do appear and where appropriate modern designed Bachmann items have been converted to fine scale and represent some of these; a class 37 diesel and two multiple units, class 101 and class 108.

Rolling Stock is a combination of scratch built and kit built items all sporting fine scale wheels or running on 2mm Association etched wagon chassis.

Coaching Stock amounts to a repainted and re-wheeled Minitrix Gresley brake composite, an etched ex North Eastern clerestory and two of the excellent Bachmann Stanier coaches. All have extra detail added.

Couplings are home made to a design of fellow Association member John Whitehead and are known as ELECTRA couplings. They have been around for a good while now and it surprises me that people do not use them.

 

During 2006 a working single decked bus based on the Faller Road System was added to the line up. This involved the re modelling of the left hand end of the layout and the scenic break which was formerly a railway bridge over the main line. This became a road over-bridge over which the bus trundles making its way to and from the village.

During a lull in exhibition appearances in summer 2009 Wansbeck Road has become a through station with a fiddle yard at either end. Whilst this involves only a very modest extension in terms of additional trackwork it has created the opportunity to add more buildings in and around the station area. Again some of these are based on prototype structures. There has also been an expansion of the working road vehicle aspect of the layout.

 

There is only 51cm (20”) of additional new trackwork not including the fiddle yard but it breaks new ground for 2mm fine scale in that it is probably the first example of Easitrac to see the exhibition circuit. Easitrac is a fine scale track system designed and originally produced by a small group of 2mm Scale Association members but the product is now available to all members through the 2mm Scale Association mail order shop. Anyone interested in 2mm Fine Scale modelling or indeed the activities of the 2mm Scale Association is invited to speak to the operators for more information.

 

In total Wansbeck Road has been under construction for 21 years, and is still not complete.................!

6 Marlton                              Richard Macey          OO 4mm/ft

Marlton is a fictitious small town station at the end of a country branch line. The rolling stock is mainly Hornby-Dublo and the buildings are mostly Metcalfe card kits, slightly altered in some cases to fit better into a small layout. Since the layout was last shown at Thirsk a further scenic board has been added with the small storage yard behind. The line curving towards the level crossing enables the layout to be set up at home in an “L” shape.

 

7 St. Mawgan                         Roger Epps     OO 4mm/ft

In 1893, the North Cornwall Railway prepared parliamentary bill to approve an extension of its line from Padstow to Newquay via St Eval and Mawgan; however, this did not go through and effectively curtailed any ambitions the NCR and the LSWR had in this direction.

 

The layout supposes that the line was built but fell short of its Newquay destination, and reached the coast near St. Mawgan, where a new harbour was built. Traffic from the harbour did not live up to expectations, but passenger services from Bodmin via Padstow and further afield helped keep the line open until the final closure of the North Cornwall line in January 1967.

 

Trains to be seen include local services from Bodmin, trains from Oakhampton and Exeter, and the final portion of the Atlantic Coast Express. Freight is in the hands of class N locomotives and includes most general freight with fish and perishables outbound.

The layout is built around an 8’ x 15” piece of contiboard framed with 2” x 1” timber, and 6mm MDF for the backscene. The lighting pelmet is built in and this combination makes for a very strong box structure.

 

Track is Peco code 100 painted, weathered and ballasted and the point motors are also Peco. Buildings and structures are a mixture of kit built or scratchbuilt. Stock is a mix of Hornby, Bachmann, Lima and Dapol with some kit built wagons thrown into the mix. Control is DCC using the Roco Multimaus system