| Farkham Fine scale 00 Its Summer 1990, England have just lost to West Germany in the World Cup, but in the quiet Midlands town of Farkham life goes on as normal. The town is served by an occasional passenger service with freight being the main traffic on this secondary railway line. Beyond the station and town centre, the land opens out to reveal a small freight yard served by trip workings and Speedlink services, whilst the main line gently curves away with a mixture of old and new buildings following its course.
The
concept behind Farkham was to capture the atmosphere of an urban scene
with the railway passing through. This has been attempted, by locating
buildings and trees at the front of the layout to break-up the direct
lines of sight between the viewer and the trains, so when looking at the
model the trains will come in and out of view creating a series of
interesting ‘cameos’. This encourages the viewer to look into the layout
and not just at it and siting the twin tower blocks at the front, along
with other large structures and trees, has created visual barriers to
enable this. The yard on the layout is portrayed in a run down, but still
functioning state, very much how a number of freight terminals were in the
late 1980s/early 1990s. Finally to create a realistic scene and make
everything visually blend together, each item has been weathered to
differing degrees, just like on the prototype. Trackwork on the layout is all hand built using C&L and Peco components and is to finescale 16.5mm gauge standards. The major aspect of the model is its buildings and structures and whilst some of these are modified kits, most have been scratch built. The rolling stock on the layout is detailed, repainted and weathered with a large number of kit and scratch built items. |
DUFFIELD OO Gauge Club Layout
This is the second incarnation of Duffield as the main Club layout. Parts of the
previous layout were declared (life expired) two years ago and the decision was
eventually made to rebuild the whole lot. What you see today is the result of a
great deal of work by a small number of club members working a few hours each
week. Most of the wiring is now complete to give a running layout and it is
being thoroughly tested before starting on ballasting the track. There is still
a vast amount of work to be done and it will be several years before it will be
regarded as finished. It is already much better than the previous layout - come
back next year to see further progress
WARNER STREET O Gauge Club Layout
This layout is a double track main line terminus with two main platforms and a
bay as well as a small goods yard. To create maximum operating potential the
terminus tracks do not have a run round facility (this saving space and allowing
longer trains) so incoming locos cannot be released until the train they brought
in has left the station behind another loco. The original train loco then makes
a light engine movement to the servicing area to be turned on the 70ft turntable
and awaits its next duty. The layout is fed from a five-road traverser, with a
second turntable at the far end. The period to be modelled is not fixed, as a
club layout has to cater for a wide variety of tastes although generally the
bulk of operation will be BR steam and green diesels.
NEVERWHERE OO Gauge Club Layout
This is our main running club layout and is an (alternative) concept in
modelling for a group of club modellers with diverse interests. The design is a
double track oval, 22 feet long by 4 feet wide consisting of curved track work
on the front with storage loops at the rear. This allows viewers to imagine
themselves in a field watching trains pass through the landscape. The layout is
fully scenic, with no structures or signals to fix a location or date. This
allows change from 70's diesel scene to LMS in its heyday, as well as American
and Continental stock.