Exhibition
2019
9th November
10:00am - 16:30pm
Admission Prices:
Adult: £3.00
Senior: £2.50
Child: £1.00
Family: £8.00
Where will it be held?...
LOCATION
St Mary’s House, Hobs Meadow
Solihull B92 8PN
Motorway: M42 Junction 5
Railway: Olton Railway Station
Airport: BIRMINGHAM INTERNATIONAL
The 72 and 72A buses stop in front of the nearby ice rink. The 60, X1 and X2 all stop at Wheatsheaf, A45, Coventry Road.
Bus information available from:
Network West Midlands on 0871 200 22 33 or www.travelinemidlands.co.uk
FREE car park next to exhibition
Traders:
Keith's Model Railways
2 Holyrood Drive,
Countesthorpe,
Leicester.
LE8 5TR
Telephone: +44(0) 116 2778634
New and second hand model railways, run by genuine enthusiast.
Elaine's Trains
Website: www.elaines-trains.co.uk
Email: elaine@elaines-trains.co.uk
Telephone: +44(0)1673 857 423
At Elaine's Trains we specialise in pre-owned model railway items, Hornby, Bachmann, Lima and
Tri-ang with a splash of continental HO, other gauges as available.
Steve Currin Book Sales
Telephone: +44(0)7796 863249 Email: Stevegwc1@blueyonder.co.uk
Buyers and sellers of new and second-hand railway books.
Derby Trees and Scenics
113 Allestree Close,
Alvasston,
Derby,
DE24 8SX
Telephone: +44(0)332 239570
Realistic model trees using fine wire in all sizes and demonstration of tree modelling. Available in different gauges and scales (2mm, 3mm, 4mm and 7mm). Busch, Greenscene, Javis and many other unusual items.
12 Volts DC Electronic Components
Email: 12voltsdc@blueyonder.co.uk
Telephone: +44(0)121 628 7522
Electronic components for the model railway enthusiast. Over 20 different switches available, numerous types and colours of cables including multistrand and ribbon. Numerous LEDs and miniature bulbs stocked. Large range of lighting and a selection of colour light signals. A range of tools for your wiring jobs and other products.
Corris Narrow Gauge Railway
The Corris Railway was the first narrow gauge railway in Mid Wales. It is now operated as a volunteer run railway, taking passengers on a return journey from Corris to Maespoeth. We are continuing with work to extend the line despite the best efforts of Welsh bureaucracy and consequent mountains of paperwork (in two languages) to slow us down! We operate Easter to the end of September on Sundays with full weekends in July and four weekends throughout August. We continue to run the popular Gravity train on certain Sundays in the season. Please check our website (www.corris.co.uk) for details of opening before you travel. The build of a second steam locomotive continues at a pace. This will look like the original Falcon locomotive which run on the Corris Railway until 1948. Our sales stand has a range of books, Metcalfe models and second hand railway items for sale to raise money for the Falcon project. Any enquiries can be directed to Rosie Guest by email: enquiries@corris.co.uk(Marked, FAO: Rosie Guest)
If you have a exhibition standard layout and like to exhibit it at our exhibition please contact us.
Solihull Model Railway Circle reserve the right to make changes to our programme and we cannot be held responsible for layout failing to arrive on the day of the exhibition.
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Who was there?...
1. Avonbridge
7mm Scale, 0 Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle
Allan Bell and Andrew Bell
It’s the summer of 1933 and local factory works are on their annual holiday, allowing them to escape out of the smoky cities such as Birmingham and travel down to the sleepy resort of Avonwick. Having alighted from the quant little terminus station of avonwick, the local bus is waiting in the station car park. This will ferry them down to holiday camps such as Billy Butlin’s at Seaton and beyond. Most of the time, the station master at avon wick has to deal with coal and light goods for the local residents, along with the never-ending ingredients for Scats brewery. This is always needed, as the local beer is always on tap at the “Green Man”pub. It’s even quieter at Tinker’s Green Halt, with only the occasional cattle train going to market or the holiday maker that wishes to explore the sleepy fields of Devon. Coarse some travellers may get lost and find themselves in the “Green Man” for a pint or two, before the bus ride to the holiday camp.
2. Boston Creek
7mm Scale, ON30 Gauge
Paul Challenor
The layout is an American narrow gauge, ON30 or 7mm to the foot. The layout you see is of typical working railroad handling goods at a small terminus alongside the creek. The buildings are from kit supplied by Kitwood Hill models, based in the UK. The kits are laser cut in wood, of an excellent quality. Kitwood models used are the turntable, engine shed and platform with the warehouse. The one end of the display shows the engine shed that has been altered to show in progress. Scenery is cast plaster stone work and all this work has been air brushed. The locos are the Bachmann series ON30 shays and Fowler, weathered by myself.
3. Wollows Pit Number 29
7mm Scale, O Gauge
Mike Bragg
From ancient times it was known that Staffordshire was rich in ironstone and coal. In fact, during the Roman occupation iron was manufactured in the Dudley area by primitive means. During the 19th century the Earl of Dudley was to own the ground under which lay the coal seam 10-15 yards thick which would provide the fuel for the ironmaking and the industries that would make the Black Country the industrial heartland of Britain. There is a simple formula: (Coal + Iron ore) + (limestone + clay + sand) = Black Country industrial development. One of the last working pits was on Burton Road in Upper Gornal, worked until about 1950. True to form, I have massaged history for the Wallows Pit Number 29 (often referred to as Nine Locks) to be still working around the same time. The model, my tenth in a series of Black Country themed layouts, is purely a snapshot of one of the Earls Mines. More than 40 such mines are shown on old plans and this model represents a typical small pit - Small scale, rough and ready.
4. Binnslo – Summer to Winter
4mm Scale, OO Gauge, 3-Rail
Richard Boyce
A scenic Hornby Dublo 3-Rail layout with summer to winter display. The track plan is a simple oval with a passing loop in the station; this is made up with one manual and one electric point which are close to hand with two manual signals being next to the controller for easy operation. Children are invited to operate/drive the trains.
5. Catney Barnes
45mm Scale, G Gauge
Alan and Sylvia Eccles G Scale
Garden railway in doors for the day, Caney Barnes is a G Scale layout that uses stock and buildings from the Damar Valley Railway garden line, fused with a Gn15 layout. Both represent modern day preservation, the 45mm section of 3ft gauge railways, such as Southwold, Isle of Man and Eire, the 16.5mm section of 15inch railways such as Eaton Hall, and others build by Sit Arthur Haywood. All track is from the PECO catalogue, analogue control is used in both cases, though the 45mm section is only for visiting locos and all home stock is battery radio control. Buildings are a mixture of kit, and scratch built, sourced from railway and dolls house suppliers (1:24th). If you have and questions please ask, we are only happy to help if we can.
6. Baggies TMD
4mm Scale, OO Gauge
Robert Hambridge
Baggies TMD is a EWS depot set in and around the midlands. The layout is depicted on a cold dark morning in winter. A unique feature of the layout is we make it as dark as possible to fully immerse the night time feel.
7. Todmorden Midland
2mm Scale, N Gauge
Ed Purcell
Todmorden Midland is a terminus modelled to N gauge standards but the scenic section includes station, goods shed, coal yard, loco shed, canal scene, a couple of West Yorkshire mill buildings, a pub and, of course distant views of hills.
It is assumed that the Midland Railway decided to try to tap the lucrative traffic around the north of Manchester and towns like Rochdale and Oldham. To avoid direct competition with the L&Y or the LNWR the MR planned to take a single line from the terminus of the Worth valley line at Oxenhope across the moorland near Hebden Bridge and to access the Calder Valley (the L&Y’s territory) at Todmorden and then develop a line across to the north side of Manchester. The success of the recently built Settle and Carlisle line meant that plenty of station and other building designs could be adapted quickly. (From a previous layout!) However, when they reached Todmorden the money and the drive ran out and the lengthy line from Keighley was left to struggle on into the 1950s and 60s which is when it is modelled.
The track is Peco with points operated by SEEP motors and control is analogue via an excellent controller designed by WMRC member Ted Dudley and built by WMRC member Keith Paxton which is standard on the club’s N gauge layouts. Stock is by Farish, Dapol, Peco, N gauge society and Union Mills along with some kit built items. Motive power seen on the line is ex MR 2Fs, 3Fs, 4Fs, 2Ps, 2-6-4Ts, 2-6-2Ts, 2MT 2-6-0s, Black 5s, 8Fs, WD 2-8-0 s, along with some standard locos, some visiting ex LNER locos on summer holiday trains and even one or two diesels and DMUs.
Scenery uses a range of manufacturers’ products including the excellent (and rare) Graham Avis trees. Buildings are mainly scratch built with a couple of modified kits. The excellent PECO N gauge stone plastic building sheets have proved to be very effective. However, the church is made from OO gauge Wills sheet! Some of the buildings are scratch built Settle and Carlisle designs which are justified by the line’s presumed historic origins. Mill buildings and pub are scratch built and based on the types of building found in the area. The back scene is done with acrylics.
8. Cherwell
4mm Scale 00 Gauge
Solihull Model Railway
A scenic OO gauge, 26 feet 6 inches by 10 feet 6 inches, four-track mainline with an integral branch line. It features working automatic signals and has largely scratch built buildings with a local theme, e.g.: The Manor House, The Mason’s Arms, The George Hotel and the Fat Cat Café from Solihull; King’s Heath library; Tyseley Station; and Water Orton Station. The layout was built mainly to display scale length mainline trains, those being run reflecting the varying interests of the membership. Trains run are usually British outline, but can come from any part of the UK mainland and from any date between about 1900 and the present day. If you look carefully you can see pigeons roosting under the station bridge, foxes using the track bed as a shortcut and one fox eyeing lambs, gulls eggs and the shepherd on the upper pasture, cats watching building work in the arch from the platform and gulls above the sea and on the cliffs with a lonely cormoran
9. Avonbridge
7mm Scale, O Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle
This layout is a 30 feet by 13 feet, three-track, continuous run with station and storage loops. Early in 2013, we widened two of the front boards to provide some space to allow for shunting. The boards are made from 9mm exterior plywood with some aluminium box-section bracing and steel box-section legs with rubber door-stops as feet. PECO code 124 bullhead track is laid to a minimum radius of 6 feet. Points are operated from the main panel using Hammant and Morgan motors. The buildings are based on local Midland Railway prototypes and therefore the layout represents a busy MR branch line somewhere in the midlands, although the stock run is from a variety of companies and eras to suit our varying interests. Most buildings are scratch-built from a combination of Plastikard and wood. The main station building is a model of Northfield and the small shelter on the opposite platform is from Moseley. The signal box is modelled on Luffenham, with Marton Junction’s coal bunker. A scratch-built scale model of the goods shed at Eckington on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway is at one end of the station and future developments will probably include a footbridge between the platforms, back scenes and possibly a small engine shed. At one end is the road-over-rail bridge at Ripple, near Tewkesbury and at the other end a section of the 1816 Edstone canal viaduct from Bearley, near Stratford upon Avon. People and accessories are from various manufacturers, including PECO and Preiser.
10. A Scottish Branch
4mm scale, OO Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle
A new end-to-end branch line club layout based on Scottish practice, displayed here partly built to give an insight into layout construction. It is 16 feet long and just over 2 feet wide and we are using SMP code 75 bullhead plain track and handmade Marcway points. It has been constructed to run with either DCC or traditional control. There is a terminus station at one end and a hidden 'fiddle' yard with a traverser at the other, with a scenic section in between. A major part of the concept is the use of very deep baseboards, with the railway running through the middle, allowing greater depths and heights of scenery for a more interesting appearance. The major architectural feature is the curved viaduct based on Killiecrankie. |