Layouts - Ground & 1st Floor, ASC

Layouts in the Advanced Skills Centre

GROUND FLOOR

NEWVADDON PARKWAY (N)

Redruth Model Railway Club

Newvaddon Parkway is set two miles to the south of Tolvaddon, a fast-growing town in the heart of the Cornish countryside. It is on the mainline between Penzance and the Cornish/Devon border. Penzance is a busy shipping port in with various flows of coal, oil and freightliner containers. Penzance is the terminus for the Great western Line which sees a variety of passenger trains.

Newvaddon Parkway station is less than a mile south of the old A30 which is currently being upgraded to motorway status (M30). It is set to become very busy in the future with land having already been acquired to the south of the station for some shops and an extensive park and ride, a joint project between the railway and Cornwall Council.

The station has two branch lines; one via a flyover to the west that takes the line to the south coast town of Falryn, and the other to the east that goes to the north coast town of Portwell. Both branch lines see some freight. The station complex is flanked to the north with a fuel point, diesel depot, wash plant and DMU depot. Coming in from the west the two-track main line opens to form four tracks through the station. Also, at the west end one track come off and goes around the north side of the island platform. This line also gives access to the depots, branch lines and goes back to joint the main line at the east of the station. Furthermore, at the west end of the station another track goes into the south-side bay platform. All the tracks are linked with crossovers east and west of the station and are protected by colour light signals.

FIRST FLOOR

BURNHAM-ON-SEA (2mm Finescale)

John Perrett

Situated on the Somerset coast this town once had an importance as the northern terminus of The Somerset & Dorset Railway which linked the Bristol channel with the English Channel.

The jetty at Burnham received rails from Welsh steelworks to be carried onwards to the expanding rail network in southern England, there was also some coal traffic.

Pleasure steamers - i.e. the paddle steamer “Waverley” - would also call in regularly during the summer. The jetty was also used by the lifeboat, which had its own siding.

The railway station, opened on the 3rd May 1858, unusually featured a short overall roof and a long platform for excursion trains. The station closed to normal passenger workings on the 29thOctober 1951, excursion traffic continuing to 8th September 1962 and closed to goods on the 20th May 1963.

HALLAM TOWN (2mm Finescale)

Michael Druiett

Hallam Town had been hoping to be at ABRAIL 2025, but due to unforeseen circumstances had to withdraw. We hope to have the layout on display in 2026.

KONIGSHAFEN (N)

Nick Falconer

Konigshafen represents a small German locomotive service depot (Bahnbetriebswerk or Bw for short) with facilities for diesel and electric locos. A steam museum now occupies the old turntable and engine shed. The depot is intended to join in with larger modular systems following N-Club International’s standards, however here the main through lines are served by a pair of automated fiddleyards.

MIDHOLME (N)

Richard Holmes

Midholme is a small through station based loosely on the Somerset and Dorset, it is located at the end of the 5 mile single track line from Bath. For the next 32 miles through to Temple Combe the line is twin track. The station has small goods yard including a depot for local agricultural suppliers and coal merchant.

Traffic on the line comprises a regular passenger service from Bath to Bournemouth and intermediate local services terminating at Temple Combe. There is a steady flow of general goods traffic and coal trains serving the Somerset coal field. Weekends in the summer are very busy with many special trains for holiday makers from the north and midlands travelling through to the south coast.

The period of the layout is two years either side of 1960. Most stock is either former LMS or BR standard. Whilst the S&D was always a steam line, occasionally there is some modeller’s licence and BR green diesels are run.

NEWCASTLE-BY-THE-WATER (N)

Alsager Railway Association

Newcastle-by-the-Water comprises a four-track line which has dedicated passenger and freight lines. The large railway station Is the junction for a single line branch which weaves its way high across the valley on a level with an old castle which overlooks a caravan and camping site situated on the banks of the river (which is a real water feature). From this site the road makes its way down into the town which has a provincial shopping centre and market. At present, a Formula One racing car display is being held in the town to coincide with market day.

The diesel depot above the main line, which is accessed from the branch, ensures that engines can refuel and perform their duties.

The locomotives and stock run one the layout represent the modern era on a typical English mainline. To the rear of the layout (behind the back scene) there is a twelve-road fiddle yard (three for each track) to ensure a wide variety of stock can be run in sequence for the benefit of the viewing public.

ROYAL ALBERT BRIDGE (N)

Basingstoke & North Hants Model Railway Society

This layout was designed to feature the representation of the Royal Albert Bridge that was part of the ‘A Tribute to Brunel’ layout built by the Basingstoke Bodgers in the final of the inaugural Great Model Railway Challenge broadcast on Channel 5.

Except for the plate girder bridge sides, the bridge is totally scratch built from Plasticard, Plastruct, Microstrip, water pipe, card, paper and a Pringles tube. The high-level main running line over the bridge is N-gauge and the lower lines to Okehampton and on the wharf are to 2mm Fine Scale standards.

The layout is not intended to be an exact replica, just a representation of the area due to the restraints of the baseboard size supplied to us for the Challenge. The buildings are a mix of scratch built, some adapted from kits and others from previous club layouts.

The layout is operated over two periods, from 1956-1961 with steam-hauled trains, and from 1968-1973 with diesels in early BR liveries.

An article on the construction of the bridge was featured in the March 2019 issue of Railway Modeller magazine.

ST RUTH (2mm Finescale)

Christopher Carlson

St Ruth, built by the Midland Area Group, is a 2mm Finescale terminus to fiddle yard layout set in the mid 1960’s and modelled loosely on Penzance. Operation is based on a 24 hour weekday period during September taken from the relevant timetables but with some adjustment to allow for available stock and track configuration differences. All the buildings are scratchbuilt and the track is constructed using components obtained from the 2mm Scale Association. The layout measures 16ft x 3ft.

VERNEUIL-LES-VIGNES (N)

Jonathan Cassidy

Verneuil les Vignes is set in the south of France in the late 70’s/80’s. A secondary line with freight and local passenger services, electric locos work most of the services with a few appearances of DMUs and diesels.