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 M5 - M50 NARROW GAUGE MODELLERS EXHIBITION

CORSE & STAUNTON VILLAGE HALL

SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER 2011

  
 

 

    
 

The M5-M50 Narrow Gauge Modellers Group is interested in narrow gauge railways from around the World both full sized and in scales of 16mm, On30, O-16.5, 7mm, 5.5mm and 009.

 

Meetings are held from 1930 to 2200 on the last Monday evening in the month at Twyning Village Hall, Gloucestershire, close to the M5 and M50 Junction 1.  Entrance is £2.00 including tea or coffee and meetings include video presentations, sales opportunities and operating layouts and test tracks.

  
 

 

    
  LAYOUT & ATTRACTION REVIEW  
 

 

    
 

WATERFIELD HALL by Jez Kirkwood

32mm Gauge  1/12 Scale

  


 		    
 

Sir Arthur Heywood pioneered the use of 15” gauge with narrow gauge rather than miniature rolling stock. Waterfield Hall featured scratch built rolling stock with a battery powered locomotive using the model’s actual controls to set speed and direction.

  


 		    
 

Sir Arthur Heywood pioneered the use of 15” gauge with narrow gauge rather than miniature rolling stock.  Waterfield Hall featured scratch built rolling stock with a battery powered locomotive using the model’s actual controls to set speed and direction.

  
 

 

    
 

DARIUS WASHINGTON STATE by Harvey Faulkner-Aston

On30 Scale

  
 

 

    
 

Set in the Pacific Northwest of the USA where timber is king, Darius was a backwoods engine facility for the Marten's Pine logging operation featuring detailed and weathered Bachmann Shay and Climax steam locomotives. All structures on the layout were scratch built from strip timber and kit bashed and scratch built freight cars were based on Cal / Mich logging lines. Peco trackwork was also combined with a Bachmann EZ DCC operating system.

  
 

 

    
  Set in the Pacific Northwest of the USA where timber is king, Darius was a backwoods engine facility for the Marten's Pine logging operation featuring detailed and weathered Bachmann Shay and Climax steam locomotives. All structures on the layout were scratch built from strip timber and kit bashed and scratch built freight cars were based on Cal / Mich logging lines. Peco trackwork was also combined with a Bachmann EZ DCC operating system.  


 		    
 

STOW CREEK by Andrew Eastabrook

On30 Scale

  


 		    
 

Set somewhere in the south west of Texas soon after the turn of the 20th Century the railway existed to haul block stone from the distant quarry to the rail head for transhipment on to barges for passage downstream when the creek is running wet. This wasn’t very often and the loading derrick was a bit temperamental, needing nerves of steel and a manual dexterity lacking in most to operate. Activity was therefore erratic at best, but Stow Creek designed to unite with other compatible layouts and featured an impressive arched lighting gantry. Nearby too was Steve Adcock, demonstrating the construction of more North American 0n30 locomotives.

  


 		    
 

Set somewhere in the south west of Texas soon after the turn of the 20th Century the railway existed to haul block stone from the distant quarry to the rail head for transhipment on to barges for passage downstream when the creek is running wet.  This wasn’t very often and the loading derrick was a bit temperamental, needing nerves of steel and a manual dexterity lacking in most to operate.  Activity was therefore erratic at best, but Stow Creek designed to unite with other compatible layouts and featured an impressive arched lighting gantry.  Nearby too was Steve Adcock, demonstrating the construction of more North American 0n30 locomotives.

  
 

 

    
 

Set somewhere in the south west of Texas soon after the turn of the 20th Century the railway existed to haul block stone from the distant quarry to the rail head for transhipment on to barges for passage downstream when the creek is running wet. This wasn’t very often and the loading derrick was a bit temperamental, needing nerves of steel and a manual dexterity lacking in most to operate. Activity was therefore erratic at best, but Stow Creek designed to unite with other compatible layouts and featured an impressive arched lighting gantry. Nearby too was Steve Adcock, demonstrating the construction of more North American 0n30 locomotives.

  
 


 		  
 

TEIGL TRAMWAY by Rowland Binns

O14 Gauge  7mm Scale

  


 		    
 

Teigl Tramway depicts a Welsh slate carrying narrow gauge railway. There is a valley called Cwn Teigl situated south east of Bleanau Ffestiniog which seemed a good place to set an imaginary narrow gauge railway that would have connected to the Festiniog Railway. There was a junction on the main line from which a tramway branch climbed steeply, partly following the road before entering a ledge on the rocky hillside. Passing a slate quarry it disappeared into a tunnel to serve the higher part of the valley. A slate works and a woollen mill were also served by the main line.

  


 		    
  Teigl Tramway depicts a Welsh slate carrying narrow gauge railway.  There is a valley called Cwn Teigl situated south east of Bleanau Ffestiniog which seemed a good place to set an imaginary narrow gauge railway that would have connected to the Festiniog Railway. There was a junction on the main line from which a tramway branch climbed steeply, partly following the road before entering a ledge on the rocky hillside. Passing a slate quarry it disappeared into a tunnel to serve the higher part of the valley. A slate works and a woollen mill were also served by the main line.

Teigl Tramway was built to 7mm scale ( the same as for 0 gauge ) but used 14mm gauge track to give the correct representation of 1' 11 1/2" gauge track used on the Festiniog, Penrhyn and Welsh Highland Railways. This choice of gauge - rather than commercially available 00 gauge 16.5mm track with wide spaced sleepers -meant that all trackwork had to be scratchbuilt and all rolling stock modified to run on it. 		 


 		    
 

ALDER CARR by Jim Owers

09 Gauge 7mm Scale

 


 		    
 

Alder Carr, measuring 31” x 17”, was a coal mine layout set in the 1980s based loosely on a private mine in West Yorkshire. The purpose of the layout was to explore the idea of showing the working production from the mine.

  


 		    
 

Alder Carr, measuring 31” x 17”, was a coal mine layout set in the 1980s based loosely on a private mine in West Yorkshire.  The purpose of the layout was to explore the idea of showing the working production from the mine.

 

Viewers could see full mine wagons, hauled by Greenwood and Batley battery electric locomotives, pulled out of the mine and entering the processing shed.  There they were unloaded and, after a short period, the empty wagons were returned to the mine.  Electronics behind the scenes made the whole process completely automatic and, as reported in the model railway press, the illusion was completed by a full train entering the shed on one loop of track with an identical but empty rake leaving on another loop.  As Eric Morecambe would have said "You can't see the join!"

 

The wagons and  Greenwood and Batley battery electric locomotives - correct for Yorkshire in the 1980s - were made from Black Dog Mining kits and the two buildings were scratchbuilt out of Plastikard.  Rubber moulds and plaster were used to make the rock faces.

  
 

 

    
 

 

  
 

 

    
 

AVALON BRICKWORKS / TOR FARM by Howard Martin

7mm Narrow Gauge

 
 

 

    
 

The Avalon Line cast resin kits are a range of locos and rolling stock cast resin kits for 7mm narrow gauge. Steam and diesel locos are available for 9mm gauge (representing 15" gauge) and 16.5mm gauge (representing 2' - 2'6" gauges). All are designed to fit proprietary chassis with little or no modification. There is also a range of kits that can be run on 6.5mm ('Z' gauge) that represents 10 1/4" gauge in 7mm scale. All the range are supplied unpainted and are very simple to assemble.

  


 		    
 

The Avalon Line cast resin kits are a range of locos and rolling stock cast resin kits for 7mm narrow gauge. Steam and diesel locos are available for 9mm gauge (representing 15" gauge) and 16.5mm gauge (representing 2' - 2'6" gauges). All are designed to fit proprietary chassis with little or no modification. There is also a range of kits that can be run on 6.5mm ('Z' gauge) that represents 10 1/4" gauge in 7mm scale. All the range are supplied unpainted and are very simple to assemble.

Tor Farm demonstrates the Avalon Line and Black Dog Mining Co range of 7mm narrow gauge kits; hence most of the the stock is from these ranges. In addition there are a number of kits from the Wrightlines and Roy link ranges and some scratch built Z gauge items. The layout demonstrates that an interesting Narrow Gauge layout can be built in a 4' x 2' space and a number of different gauges can be used.

  


 		    
 

CASTLETON by John Walker

009 Gauge 4mm Scale

  


 		    
 

Ready to run, kit and scratchbuilt stock, kit or scratchbuilt structures and Peco trac were combined to create this 6’ x 3’ layout with more than a flavour of Portmerion, the architectural fantasy of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis - also responsible for what is now the Texaco filling station at Westall Green Roundabout, Cheltenham - located near the Festiniog Railway's Minffordd station. Portmerion was also the filming location for the original "Prisoner" TV series starring Patrick McGoohan.

  
 

 

    
 

Ready to run, kit and scratchbuilt stock, kit or scratchbuilt structures and Peco trac were combined to create this 6’ x 3’ layout with more than a flavour of Portmerion, the architectural fantasy of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis - also responsible for what is now the Texaco filling station at Westall Green Roundabout, Cheltenham - located near the Festiniog Railway's Minffordd station.  Portmerion was also the filming location for the original "Prisoner" TV series starring Patrick McGoohan.

  
 

 

    
 

CASTLE WHARF KENDAL by Ian Kirkwood

009 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

Plans for standard gauge light railway running south east from Canal Head in Kendal, Westmorland, to Arkholme, serving various quarries and gunpowder works as well as local farming interests failed due to lack of interest but this 009 layout supposed that the cheaper option of a narrow gauge railway was built instead. Castle Wharf Kendal represented the northern terminus of the line in the 1930s with LMS transfer sidings just south of the area modelled making the canal redundant. Trains to and from the transfer sidings were shunted at the wharf on a track plan very similar to that of the similar narrow gauge tramway at Wantage.

 
 

 

    
 

 

 Plans for standard gauge light railway running south east from Canal Head in Kendal, Westmorland, to Arkholme, serving various quarries and gunpowder works as well as local farming interests failed due to lack of interest but this 009 layout supposed that the cheaper option of a narrow gauge railway was built instead. Castle Wharf Kendal represented the northern terminus of the line in the 1930s with LMS transfer sidings just south of the area modelled making the canal redundant. Trains to and from the transfer sidings were shunted at the wharf on a track plan very similar to that of the similar narrow gauge tramway at Wantage.

The buildings on Castle Wharf Kendal – based on such real structures as the grey stone K Shoe factory - were hand built from card while the rolling stock was kit built. The locomotives were from the Backwoods range and feature both Barclay and Manning Wardle tank engine as well as a four wheeled diesel from French autorail builder Billiard.

The Manning Wardle 0-6-2ST pictured above was based on "Canopus" ( 1547 of 1901 ) from Cornwall's 2' 6" gauge Pentewan Railway. Connecting St Austell to and quarries in the Pentewan valley with a harbour at Pentewan on the outfall of the St Austell River, this was only the third railway to be built in the Royal Duchy and the only true narrow gauge one. Built with edge rails rather than tram plates, it opened in June 1829 and was initially worked by gravity and horses. Manning Wardle 0-6-0Ts "Pentewan" and "Trewithan" arrived in 1873 and 1886 with Yorkshire Engine's 2-6-2T "Pioneer" completing the roster in 1903. However, due to the silting of Pentewan Harbour and competition from Fowey and Par, the Pentewan Railway closed on 29 Janaury 1918 with rolling stock and materials being requisitioned for the war effort. "Canopus" later forked for the War Department in West Drayton.

The 4'x 1'8" layout neatly solved the problem of "90 degree sky" with a curved cyclorama and also boasted a sector plate beneath the cottages for easy handling of trains to and from storage. Also new in 2011 were a goods shed and water tower at the left hand end of the scenic area.

  


 		    
 

CORRIS by Rod Allcock

009 4mm Scale

  


 		    
 

The Corris Railway was the first narrow gauge railway in Mid Wales. Built originally in 1859 as a 2’ 3” gauge horse drawn tramroad, steam locomotives arrived in 1878 and passengers were carried from 1883 to 1930. The railway closed in 1948 and was dismantled soon afterwards. The layout was a continuous run ( rear obscured) depicting Corris station in 1930, just after GWR takeover but before cessation of passenger services.

  
 

 

    
 

The Corris Railway was the first narrow gauge railway in Mid Wales.  Built originally in 1859 as a 2’ 3” gauge horse drawn tramroad, steam locomotives arrived in 1878 and passengers were carried from 1883 to 1930.  The railway closed in 1948 and was dismantled soon afterwards.  The layout was a continuous run ( rear obscured) depicting Corris station in 1930, just after GWR takeover but before cessation of passenger services.

  
 

 

    
 

HILLSIDE WORKS by David Griffin

009 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

Constructed using Peco 009 proprietary track and a large amount of modeller's licence, the portable yet entertaining layout depicting fictional Hillside Works was set on the Welsh Borders during autumn in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, long term plans are to bring it up to date as a preserved railway - Hillside Works Heritage Centre - complete with working vintage machinery, tourist and cafe.

 
 

 

    
  Constructed using Peco 009 proprietary track and a large amount of modeller's licence, the portable yet entertaining layout depicting fictional Hillside Works was set on the Welsh Borders during autumn in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, long term plans are to bring it up to date as a preserved railway - Hillside Works Heritage Centre - complete with working vintage machinery, tourist and cafe.

For now though, rolling stock was a mixture of kit built and converted ready to run items mainly from RICO and Parkside Dundas with buildings both kit and scratch built using Ratio and Wills materials. Scatters were from Woodland Scenics and Greenscene with bare deciduous trees made from soldered wire frame covered in plaster mix. Locomotives were operated by handheld DC cab controllers with AC derived from an electrically isolated 15v transformer. Another hand built transformer supplied the capacitor discharge unit while the point motors were a mixture of older SEEP and more modern PECO types. Custom built working lamp posts and coloured light signals were also featured.

  
 

 

    
 

JOURNEY’S END CEMETERY LAYOUT by Nicolas Wheatley

009 Gauge  4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

Journey’s End was a representation of a cemetery served by a narrow gauge railway. It was not based upon a real place, but inspiration was provided by the standard gauge Necropolis Railway which served Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, from Waterloo from 1854 until April 1941. The narrow gauge inspiration derived from the Golden Valley Light Railway in Derbyshire, which is linked to a natural burial ground.

  
 

 

    
 

Journey’s End was a representation of a cemetery served by a narrow gauge railway.  It was not based upon a real place, but inspiration was provided by the standard gauge Necropolis Railway which served Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, from Waterloo from 1854 until April 1941.  The narrow gauge inspiration derived from the Golden Valley Light Railway in Derbyshire, which is linked to a natural burial ground.

 

The layout had a cemetery lodge, a chapel, a mausoleum, several monuments and statues and over 300 graves.  There was a working gravedigger and the figure of the Grim Reaper appeared at least twice, once in modern form.  There were also 60 other figures including vicars, funeral directors and mourners as well as two burials taking place and several funeral vehicles, some of them horse drawn.

 

The trains were a mixture of Roco, Lilliput, Eggerbahn and some scratch built stock forming both passenger and freight services, and even a ghost train.

  
 

 

    
 

NORTON WHARF by Geoff Harper

009 Gauge 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

This layout depicted a rail served wharf somewhere in the Midlands near a small pottery making drainpipes etc with trains bring clay and coal for the pottery and take out finished products. Meanwhile, a local brewery moved their products through the warehouse.

  
 

 

    
 

This layout depicted a rail served wharf somewhere in the Midlands near a small pottery making drainpipes etc with trains bring clay and coal for the pottery and take out finished products.  Meanwhile, a local brewery moved their products through the warehouse.

 

The line was laid at 2’3” gauge and used an assortment of second hand locos painted in the company’s own livery.  The layout used Peco Crazy Track with points operated by wire in the tube and slider switches which also change the polarity of the point frogs.  Locos and stock were kit built on the 8' x 2' layout and their movement among the modified kit buildings was operated through a Modelex hand held controller. 

 
 

 

    
 

PIG DYKE FARM by Geoff Broadhurst

009 Gauge 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

Pig Dyke Farm was a 24” x 24” layout designed to display farm railway diesels in their working environment on the borders of the Fens in the Peterborough area near the start of the dyke drainage system. It featured a small pumping station originally driven by water, then steam and now electricity for pumping water from a drainage channel into the main dyke.

  
 

 

    
 

Pig Dyke Farm was a 24” x 24” layout designed to display farm railway diesels in their working environment on the borders of the Fens in the Peterborough area near the start of the dyke drainage system.  It featured a small pumping station originally driven by water, then steam and now electricity for pumping water from a drainage channel into the main dyke.

  
 

 

    
 

STANTON CUM LACEY by Mark Howe

009 Gauge 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

This freelance layout, originally by Mike Higgins (009 Society member number 1) was purchased by Mark Howe in 2009 and given a scenic overhaul. The small terminus was upgraded with a new station building (Skaledale Cricket Pavilion) and scratch built goods shed. Much work was also done on renewing the vegetation to brighten the overall appearance and new hidden sidings were constructed with entry through a tight over bridge in the style of the Talyllyn's Tywyn station. A variety of small steam tank locomotives kept the trains running with the odd diesel making an appearance as required and two small railcars running back to back, providing a daily shoppers service to the main town.

  
 

 

    
 

This freelance layout, originally by Mike Higgins (009 Society member number 1)  was purchased by Mark Howe in 2009 and given a scenic overhaul.  The small terminus was upgraded with a new station building (Skaledale Cricket Pavilion) and scratch built goods shed.  Much work was also done on renewing the vegetation to brighten the overall appearance and new hidden sidings were constructed with entry through a tight over bridge in the style of the Talyllyn's Tywyn station.  A variety of small steam tank locomotives kept the trains running with the odd diesel making an appearance as required and two small railcars running back to back, providing a daily shoppers service to the main town.

  
 

 

    
 

THE WOODS by Lyn Owers

009 Gauge 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

The Woods was a whimsical layout to entertain children and adults alike. Based on the book “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic” by Jimmy Kennedy it showed a family of bears having an enormous picnic in the woods with their friends. The layout was suitably contained in a 20” x 14” wicker picnic hamper and the steam locomotive was a Roco “Betty” with three Parkside Dundas wagons carrying the food. This was not a layout for rivet counters!

  
 

 

    
 

The Woods was a whimsical layout to entertain children and adults alike.  Based on the book “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic” by Jimmy Kennedy it showed a family of bears having an enormous picnic in the woods with their friends.  The layout was suitably contained in a 20” x 14” wicker picnic hamper and the steam locomotive was a Roco “Betty” with three Parkside Dundas wagons carrying the food.  This was not a layout for rivet counters!

  
 

 

    
 

YATE ROCKS TRAMWAY by Colin F.J. James

009 Gauge 4mm Scale

  
 

 

    
 

This 1300 x 950mm layout was based on a small tramway that connected limestone quarries near Wickwar with limekilns near Rangeworthy and alongside the Midland Railway main line north of Bristol. The layout was set around 1950 and featured both steam and diesel locomotives.

  
 

 

    
 

This 1300 x 950mm layout was based on a small tramway that connected limestone quarries near Wickwar with limekilns near Rangeworthy and alongside the Midland Railway main line north of Bristol.  The layout was set around 1950 and featured both steam and diesel locomotives.

  
 

 

    
 

Also in attendence were Ben Kirkwood's Gn15 layout ( using a track gauge of 16.5mm and a scale of somewhere between 1/20.3 and 1/24) the 009 Society, 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, George Harris representing the 16mm Narrow Gauge Association, Harper's Crafts, Mark Hughes with Eggerbahn models as well as his own, such as the Snaefell tram pictured above, and Allen Law's Minimum Gauge Models of Halesowen (07812189037)

 
 

 

    
  Also in attendence were Ben Kirkwood's Gn15 layout ( using a track gauge of 16.5mm and a scale of somewhere between 1/20.3 and 1/24) the 009 Society,  7mm Narrow Gauge Association, George Harris representing the 16mm Narrow Gauge Association, Harper's Crafts, Mark Hughes with Eggerbahn models as well as his own, such as the Snaefell tram pictured above, and Allen Law's Minimum Gauge Models of Halesowen (07812189037)