Expo—Thirsk |
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Updated 17/07/11 |
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7 Langrigg Ken & Thomas Moody OO Gauge A small station in the countryside somewhere in northern England. A simple loop based on one of C.J. Freezers designs for Peco. A change of gear for Tom as we move away from our usual end to end industrial layouts. Still using Peco track and traditional DC control with a mix of ready made and kit-built scenic items. Rolling stock is also a mix of ready to run and kit-built items. A mix of periods will be reflected by changing stock throughout the day.
8 Llangerran Ken Gibbons OO Gauge Llangerran draws its inspiration from the lines to the west of Carmarthen during the BR Blue era. Though this era saw the twilight of some lines, others survived beyond the early 1970’s to this day. LLangerran is really a composite of many of these, though here in our little world, the coastal terminus of the line is Saint Davids. General Freight, Parcels and Passenger traffic form the staple traffic’s in this time. We can portray both the early 1970’s and mid 1980’s period on the line, the relatively slow pace of change on the lines such as this meant that often, the infrastructure stayed the same for many years, whilst the trains, fashions, and road vehicles were the main things that reflected the changes that the years brought. To the West, the line passes through the valley of the Afon Gerran, passing the junction for Porthgain’s quarries, on its way to the ultimate end of the line at St. Davids. Passenger services are run from Carmarthen and Swansea. Whilst only just the right side of dubious viability outside of the holiday season, the relatively healthy loadings during summer, are enough to justify the service sufficiently to keep it going all year round. Llangerran is also imagined to be close to the site of a popular Eisteddfod, with several specials being run to cater for this. As for freight services, household coal, inward bound is still moved to both St. Davids and the Dairy and general goods sidings at Llangerran. Pre 1980, milk from Llangerran’s dairy (just beyond the single track bridge), was tripped to Carmarthen, where the tanks were combined into a trainload for London with those from Whitland. However from 1980, the milk traffic ceased, leaving only dairy products to be shipped by rail, latterly via the erstwhile goods siding. The line is still technically open to other agriculturally linked traffics, sadly, by the 1980’s these are now spasmodic at best; though the occasional Vanloads of feedstuffs and the like do show up from time to time. There are also sporadic movements of stone from the quarries at Porthgain, which is situated a few miles north of St. Davids, and to which a short freight only branch line runs. Set in BR’s much maligned blue period, the 1982 suite of stock adheres to the corporate image to the letter, however with the 1970’s set of stock, some remnants of the time before the corporate image remain. The stock is a mix of RTR and kit built, all set to EM gauge, and with their liveries amended and weathered as necessary. The scenery attempts to portray the area during a glorious Indian summer, with the onset of Autumn starting to show. 9 Collier Street Roger Epps OO Gauge Set in the heart of industrial Tyneside the layout imagines that the former North British Railway did in fact manager to build a station in Newcastle. A former through station the line has been truncated to the terminus that has been modelled. Passenger services are now in the hands of DMU’s but a loco hauled train still runs as well as an occasional parcels train. Freight services are limited to serving the Brewery and yard, other trains may run on a required basis. Track is Peco code 75, as are the point motors, control is a NCE Power Cab DCC system. Buildings are a mix of ready built, kit and scratch built, some of which have been salvaged off previous layouts. Scenics are all from commercially available sources such as Woodland Scenics and Greenscene. 10 Zorba’s Mine Baz Ward & Friends On30 Around the turn of the last century, an unnamed investor with his works manager, George, opened a small lignite mine on the south coast of Crete. However, this was to end in disaster as chronicled in the novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Others were to take up the challenge. Meanwhile between various Balkan wars and the start of the first world war, the British engineered a take-over of the island of Crete, and what did they do when they colonised anywhere? - they built a railway! In this case to 2’6” gauge, it borrowed heavily from the existing railways in Cyprus and Malta. The initial main line along the north coast was soon extended south from Iraklion to tap the rich agricultural lands of the interior and the mineral resources of Mount Ida. The extension further south through the Kofinas Range provided a route to costal shipping and was incidentally to connect to the local lignite mine, still known as Zorba’s. This required heavy engineering works including a zig-zag formation down to the coast itself. All this, of course, only exists in a parallel universe, but gives and excuse for a free lanced On30 layout with both British and Continental practice and later Greek influence. Locomotives both steam and diesel are and eclectic mix of kit and adapted bodies (Bachmann, A1 Models, the scrap box) on Hornby, Bachmann and other American chassis. Rolling stock is adapted Bachmann, Magic Train and kit-bashed Port Wynnstay castings. Control is still analogue but plans are afoot to convert to DCC when we have the courage. Thanks to A1 Models, Greenscene, Modelex, Port Wynnstay, ’12 Ouzo’, ’Rizla2 and the still loyal crew—John Lundie, Alan Robinson and Tim Hills. We are here to answer your questions and take the flak so please don’t hesitate to interrupt our reverie.
11 Wagon Works Dave Palmer OO Gauge The Wagon Works started life as the Crescent Wagon Works which was built by Chris Leigh as a diorama in Model Rail‘s first magazine, it was based on the 1880’s built Midland Railway workshops which are still in use at Peterborough, there is a lot of detail in and around the main building, so when a couple of years ago it came up for bids and the proceeds would go to a charity, I had to go for it and I was the winning bidder, and from the start it was in my mind to get it up and running for a exhibition layout, so after a good clean up and point motors fitted I put power to it and all work ok, so then my idea was to make a fiddle yard for it, I made the fiddle yard the same shape as the board Chris had made the wagon works on and then I could flip it over to cover the scenic board so to protect it when travelling, this all done I then wired it all for DCC control, you will be able to see a lot of different wagons running into and out of the works, with class 08’s and 20’s for the motive power some with sound I have also tidied up the scenery and put a back scene on, there is a welder at work in the shed, plus a fire in the skip, there is also work shop sound effects coming from the shed.
My next job will be to motorise the traverse in 2011
12 The Worlds End - display Peter Goss OO Gauge Knaresborough modern image model railway. Intrigue, folklore and architecture.
The Worlds End layout currently under construction is based on Knaresborough station and surround. The Worlds End refers to the pub that will feature at the front of the station on this modern image layout. Also featured will be the tunnel, the complete viaduct to scale, Kings Tower, Courthouse and an array of architecturally interesting buildings taken from the town centre and station surround.
After a year of research and preparing computer drawings of all the model buildings planned and layout arrangement, model building construction work commenced in February 2010. The complicated baseboards are currently under construction by Black Cat Baseboards.
13 Humble Begininz Jim Grace & Robin Coulthard OO Gauge Hi and a very warm welcome to Thirsk and District Model Railway Group Exhibition 2011!
We hope you enjoy our layout called ‘Humbel Begininz’. The seed of the idea for a layout, geared towards the younger aged modeller, was sown immediately after 2009’s very successful show.
Hopefully you will have followed the progress of ‘Humbel Begininz’ on the Internet via the Thirsk – Expo site if not, below is a breakdown of what we’ve been doing:
September 2009 – Base boards sourced and very kindly donated from the club which were manufactured by White Rose Models, Bedale, North Yorkshire.
October 2009 – We spent a lot of time planning what we would like to achieve in the next 9 months, bearing in mind that both of us work full time!
November 2009 – June 2010 – After much deliberation we decided on a layout that could be modelled ‘off the shelf’, using commercially available track, rolling stock and scenery. Only two thirds of the layout was completed in order to show a ‘work in progress’.
July 2010 – Exhibited at the Thirsk and District Model Railway Group Exhibition with excellent positive feedback being received and individual certificates presented for our valiant efforts!
August 2010 – June 2011 – The layout was replaced back into Jim’s garage and the last third completed to what you now see.
The initial track plan was taken from a Hornby Trackmat and certain additions made to suit the size of the layout which is 7’ x 4’ and has 3 x oval loops and 5 x sidings and 3 stations with platforms.
We have utilised Hornby track, points and buildings throughout the layout and, to be precise, Humbel Begininz is comprised of:
6 x R8072 Left Hand Points, 3 x R8073 Right Hand Points, 8 x R609 Double Curve 3rd radius, 8 x R603 Long Straight, 7 x R600 Short Straight, 9 x R607 Double Curve 2nd radius, 5 x R605 Double Curve 1st Radius, 6 x R 606 Curve 2nd radius, 2 x R8206 Power Tracks, 5 x R083 Buffers, 165 x Track Pins, 6 x Sheep, 1 x Ram, 1 Sheep dog, 1 Horse, 1 x Goat, 1 x R537 Trackside Fencing, 3 x Big Trees, 26 x Small Trees, 1 x Haystack, 15 x High Stone Wall, 29 x Low Stone Wall, 9 x SEEP Point Motors, 6 x R464 Platform Ends, 7 x R460 Platform Straights, 3 x R462 Large Platform Curves, 2 x R463 Small Platform Curves, Approx 40 yards of wire!, 22 bits of ‘chocolate block’, 2 x Basic Capacitor Discharge Units, a Robin designed and scratch built 2 span road bridge, numerous Trackside Figures from Bachmann & other specialist suppliers.
We have used Ballast and grass materials from the Hornby Scenic range and discovered a few of our own ‘trade secrets’!
Don’t be afraid to ask – we won’t bite!
Thanks,
Robin & Jim
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