2002 Exhibition
The SHMRC 2002 exhibition was held on Saturday 2nd March 2002 at the Admiral Lord Nelson School, Dundas Lane, Portsmouth.
LAYOUTS
Blackwell's Brewery Company (also known as the BBC) was
situated not far from Shenfield on the ex-GER cross-country route to Ongar and
Dunmow. The line closed in the 1960's, a victim of Dr Beeching and no trace can
be found of it today. Not far from the brewery was a large brickworks whose
kilns
required large amounts of coal. This was unloaded in the brewery yard and
conveyed by an overhead conveyor belt to the brick kilns. In return for
allowing for the coal to be unloaded in the brewery sidings the modest amount
of coal used by the BBC was donated by the brickworks.
The layout portrays part of the line adjacent to the brewery
shortly before closure when the route was used by trains diverted because of
electrification work on the Colchester main line. The brewery buildings are
based
on those of an Essex brewery
that is still producing beer whilst the track plan of the sidings has been
devised to cause hours of headaches whilst shunting.
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Bulverhythe, once Bolewarthethe or Bulverheeth; in modern English " the
landing
place of the citizens ", was once considered a 'limb' of the Cinque Port of
Hastings. The town nestles in the shelter of of a headland known as 'Gallows
Head'. There is a small harbour with a pier and wharves. Over the centuries
the coastline has altered considerably, 'Gallows Head' has disappeared,
Bulverhythe is now a suburb of Hastings & St. Leonards and historical fact
begins to blur with model fiction.
It is 1941 and once again England is under threat. The South is the 'front
line' - the coast is manned and preparation for invastion made. Anything that
might guide the invader has been removed - roadsigns, placenames, station
nameboards, all hints of direction etc., they have all gone - so effectively
that the inhabitants find it no easy matter to get from place to place and
strangers are subject to sharp scrutiny!
The Model is built to a scale of 3mm to 1ft (1:100) and whilst no ready-to-run
British outline stock is now available active support for the scale is offered
by The Three Millimetre Society and a growing number of small manufacturers.
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Cricketer's Green is a watch the trains go by layout. It does not attempt to
represent any particular time or place but
tends to the steam era. The track plan is a double track folded circle, so
trains go round the boards
twice to complete one lap which is very close to a scale mile. There is a
simple passenger station , on an enbankment, at one side of the
layout and an extensive array of storage tracks at the other.
Bring any EM gauge locomotives or stock along to the exhibition and run them on
Cricketers Green. You will be very welcome.
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Glemsford was an insignificant station on a slightly more significant cross-country railway. The Stour Valley Railway was a single-track cross-country line that from 1865 to 1967 ran from Shelford on the Cambridge main line to Marks Tey on the Colchester main line, a distance of some 43 miles. In practice, stopping trains tended to run through from Colchester to Cambridge although some commenced at Marks Tey or Sudbury. This meant that the erstwhile London-bound passenger had a choice of two routes, via Cambridge or Colchester, albeit neither at any great speed. The stopping trains would be interspersed with regular pick up goods, a variety of excursions and on summer Saturdays the “Leicester”, an altogether grander train ferrying holidaymakers from the Midlands to Butlins at Clacton.
The line was noted as a home for superannuated locomotives and rolling stock and was one of the final haunts of the E4 class - the last 2-4-0 class to run on British Railways. In later years larger locomotives such as classes B1, B2, B12 and B17 were to be found hauling short, and frequently ancient, local passenger trains. The model depicts Glemsford as it was from about 1956 until its closure. The intention is to run a sequence reflecting the changes in rolling stock over this period culminating with the diesels introduced shortly before closure.
The model is still under construction and its progress is being tracked in an irregular series of articles in British Railway Modelling, the first of which appeared last year.
Greenham Park is a fictitious station located somewhere south of London. It
represents a busy commuter station serviced by DMUs and third rail electric
stock with the odd cross country service. Freight interest is maintained by
the yard behind the station which acts mainly as an interchange.
This is Greenham Park's exhibition debut.
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The layout is set in the late 1950s and depicts three eras in the development of this (fictional) London area Western Region (BR) motive power depot. Most of the GWR built steam locomotive types serving the BR(WR) may be seen at work on the layout, together with a few of the BR Standard classes, and of course, a small selection of the new diesels.
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The layout was originally built by a professional model maker, Colin Hayward,
as a result of taking a school party on a historical visit. It was one of the
very first examples of a layout built to P4 standards and it made its debut at
the South Hampshire Railway Modellers exhibition in October 1981. Colin kindly
donated the layout to the East Hampshire Area Group of the Scalefour Society in
1993 and since then, a number of modifications have been made by various
members of the group. The trackwork has been completely reconstructed and
fully chaired on a removable sub-baseboard. The portion of track in the
passing loop has been correctly represented with flat-bottom rail, ballasted
with shingle as on the prototype. Turnouts are operated by means of Tortoise
point motors. More recently, the "green" scenic work, station
platform and
lineside fencing have been completely reconstructed and the beach has been
added.
The layout today is presented around the time of grouping (1923) allowing both
LSWR and SR stock to be run. Motive power includes an ex-LBSCR D1 class tank
and Terriers. All are fully compensated. Rolling stock includes Gate stock
sets and various coal wagons from local merchants. In the near future, it is
hoped to model the original two composite coaches to allow representation of
trains as used from opening through to 1909.
Skimbleshanks Mill is a fictitious industrial scene
somewhere in a forgotten corner of post-war England. Materials are delivered to
the Factory,
Warehouse and Mill from the high-level tramway by a conveyor belt. Goods are
taken around
the site by rail, although we are not quite sure what they are.
Skimbleshanks was seen for sale at a model railway
exhibition in Guildford in January 1998 and subsequently bought by Alison
Gilmour of Southampton. With a love and practical knowledge of 2-foot
industrial narrow gauge railways spanning more than 20 years, this was an ideal
way of getting a charming model without having to build it herself! The layout
is also an easily transportable size (often in the back of a Morris Minor van)
and takes up relatively little storage space.
Strictly for fun. the Mill reflects the modelling interests
of the three friends of the Twickenham & District Model Railway Club who
originally built it. These included scratch-building the track, buildings and
mechanical handling plant.
When creating a narrow gauge railway to the scale of 7mm to
the foot, most modellers use a track width of 16.5mm. Because this layout has
the more
unusual gauge of 14mm (representing true 2-foot narrow gauge) one locomotive and
four
wagons were bought with the layout.
The majority of the rest of the engines and rolling stock
were either kit or scratch-built by Tim Rossiter (Chief Engineer and Duty
Shedman) mostly from the products of Roy C Link, Wrightlines and Black Dog
Mining Co. People and animals are mostly from ABS Models and Phoenix
Miniatures.
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This novelty layout is built to G scale with N gauge track representing the
model engineering gauge of 7.25 inches. The scene is set at a typical club
running day with members and their families enjoying the trains. The figures
are by Preiser and Tamiya, locomotives are standard N gauge models and the
scenery is hand made from a variety of materials - most of them scrap or
off-cuts. Note especially the background fence constructed of balsa strips.
This layout was built as a "sideline" to the owner's N gauge layout
and makes a
light hearted change from the more traditional modelling subjects. The model
was features in the February 1997 edition of Model Railway Enthusiast.
Thirdley is an imaginary town in the vicinity of Wigan, Lancashire. It is
served by the L.M.S. (ex L&Y) railway between Manchester and Preston. The
station lies at the junction between this line and a single track branch to a
nearby market town.
The model depicts the junction in 1940-44 when the country was at war. The
station buildings are based on Wigan Wallgate. Other buildings are based on
L&Y prototypes elsewhere. Pointwork is handbuilt, many items being
designed to
suit their particular location. The layout is operated with a mixture of
ready-to-run, kits and scratch built stock including special vehicles necessary
to show wartime operation.
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Kipford is a pure model railway and shows what can be achieved in a relatively small space. The layout runs at the exhibition with Thomas the Tank stock as an entertaining layout for our younger visitors.
Uplyme is a 3mm scale model
based on the Dorset seaside terminus at Lyme Regis. The layout is named Uplyme
for two reasons, one the real Lyme Regis station was closer to the village of
Uplyme than its own named town. The second reason that very
few types of locomotives ever worked the real Lyme Regis branch, the Adams
Radial Tanks and Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2Ts being the only successful ones, both
classes can be seen on the layout today. By changing the name of the station,
examples of most of the different classes of engines to be found on a typical
Southern branch line during the last days of steam can be seen on Uplyme,
including a Rebuilt West Country, M7 tanks, BR Standards and Southern 2-6-0's.
The buildings are accurate models of those
at Lyme Regis during LSWR days but the period is set well into the BR era
during the 1950's and 1960's. Most of the locomotives and rolling stock in
service today are built from kits produced by the 3mm Society. If you would like
know more about the Lyme
Regis Branch, the 3mm Society, modelling or collecting in 3mm (TT) scale
please do ask one of the operators.
Uplyme featured in the Railway Modeller in December 1989 and February
1996.
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Originally built as a branch terminus for a garden railway, 'Winnham' has now
been adapted to form an exhibition layout.
Set in British Railway (Southern Region) days somewhere in south Hampshire, a
selection of steam and diesel motive power provide a 1950s/60s insight into how
trains looked, although possibly slightly cleaner than the propotypes they
portray. Local steam and diesel passenger services are interspersed with
through services to Waterloo and goods trains via the junction with the main
line at the other end of the branch.
'Winnham' is provided with a small engine shed which is used mainly by the
station pilot/shunter (similar to the situation that existed at Winchester) but
other locomotives will be seen to visit the shed for servicing, coaling and
watering between turns. A small goods yard provides for the needs of the local
traders and is usually quite busy. Operation of the layout is from the front
of the station area, a situation dictated by its usual location against the
garage wall, so please excuse the 'players' backs.
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Last updated 30th September 2002
