This weekend I was at the Bearwood Group’s running meet with the Poole & District Model Railway Society’s N-trak layout.  The Bearwood Group is predominantly a HO club and had two very nice layouts on display which I was hoping to photograph to share with you, but as usually happens when you get the opportunity to indulge in your passion, I spent just about all my time running trains and talking to fellow modelers about various 3D printed items!  But I do have some photos and videos to share with you from the N-trak layout.

The layout consists of a large industrial section with plenty of switching at the front, as shown below, and a large yard at the rear, also shown below.  The layout was reviewed in more depth in my post about the Bournemouth N-Trak convention which you can find here.

Looking at the yard image above you can see my EMD DD35 paired up with a brass 8500HP gas turbine at the bottom left of the shot.

Not knowing if there would be a set theme or time period I brought a variety of stock to run, and as it turned out it was an open session, so I started with early steam, as you can see below, from my Sierra Railroad fleet.

There was a lot of interest in my new model, the Baldwin DT6-6-2000, of which I had two running on the layout;  ATSF no. 2601 and no. 2602.  2602 has the new etched brass Additions handrails and is also equiped with DCC sound.

Both units trundled around the switching yards at the front of the layout and looked fantastic stopping to pose for some photos.

Both ATSF 2601 & 2602 are DCC powered and run very well together creating a very similar scene to many photographs of the real pair working together.

Here is a short video of the pair running by.

2602 then returned to the front of the layout where it sat noisily idling away as the Rio Grande trundled by with a load of JCB excavators.

The AT&SF had a good presence at the show as a set of SD40-2 cruised through on their way to pick up a train.

As well as freight we also had a lot of passenger trains running through the layout but the only one I manged to catch on camera was Northern Pacific’s Vista Dome North Coast Limited as is streaked through.  Obviously the NP were having some motive power issues today as the train was powered by a set of Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Alco FA2s.  Note the chassis mounted Re-Railers on the last locomotive, you can see one as it passes the gap in the fence.

You can also just make out the tops of the DT6-6-2000 as they ran the other way with another freight transfer.

Then next thing I knew it was time to pack up but it was a very enjoyable day and I’d like to thank Bernie Wood for letting me use some of his photographs here.  The Bearwood Group will be having another running meet in December and hopefully I will get time to photograph their HO layouts to share with you.  There might even be some of my forthcoming HO products running on their layout but that will have to wait for another post.

This weekend Fordingbridge Rotary Club put on the first ever Fordingbridge Model Railway Exhibition and my club, the Gosport American Model Railroad Group, was invited.  So we brought our modular layout, Solent Summit, along with us and in this post I wanted to share with you some of the other layouts that were at the exhibition.

Fordingbridge is a Medieval town in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England and the local station, before it was closed on 4 May 1964, was part of the Southern Railway.  That being said the majority of the layouts were based on the Great Western Railway, a very popular modeling choice here in the UK.

As is often the case when we have our layout at a show, we get very little time to see  the other layouts properly, and I think I miss a lot of the true highlights and rolling stock they have to offer, but I have tried to get some shots that give you an overview.  Hopefully the layout owners will let me know if I have something wrong!

The first layout I looked at was Gorpeton Blymee, this OO gauge layout belongs to members of the Wimborne Railway Society and they were also there to help operate it. The layout is a based on a fictional GWR station set between 1940 and 1950. Below is an overall shot of the layout, the main line emerges from behind the factory buildings on the left and runs through to the station area.  To the right of the picture are the yards for the factory.

The layout is setup so switching (or shunting in English) of the freight yards can be done without disrupting the main line movements, this meant that there was always something going on.  The controls for the yard were positioned at the front of the layout with the mainline being controlled from behind.

The layout was very nicely detailed with lots to look at, it had a nice feeling of being busy without being cluttered.  I found out that the factory buildings are actually US outline HO buildings but they worked perfectly in this situation.  I guess there is a shortage of large factory buildings for the UK market.

The next layout was Melcombe Abbas built by the Romsey and District Railway Modellers Society.

This again is a OO layout and is based on a small terminus in Dorset.  The motive power and rolling stock is mostly Southern Railway but in British Rail livery used after nationalization of the railways.

Next to Melcombe Abbas was Aldermouth.

Aldermouth is an O scale layout built by James Edwards from the Farnham & District Model Railway Club.  It portraits a fictitious GWR station set in the 1930s.

Being O scale the level of detail is greatly increased and James has clearly spent a lot of time building up the scenes.

The front of the layout had an acrylic screen protecting the layout which made some shots a little hard to get.

Whilst I was watching the layout this little GWR 0-6-0 and shunter’s truck where working the yard.

In the station was one of my GWR favorites, their iconic diesel railcar.  Because of the shape and the colors of the GWR paint scheme they were affectionately named ‘The Flying Banana’ .

Several of the buildings also had interesting names, in the picture below the fish monger on the right is called C.P.L.Jones, anybody that has watched the BBC’s television program ‘Dad’s Army’ will understand.

The blue telephone box in the picture below is a police call box which was also made famous by the BBC with an unnamed Doctor.

Outside the entrance to the exhibition we also had a surprise visitor.

Bitza is a freelance steam lorry that was fired up and running in the car park.

The next layout was Bradbury Junction.

This is a OO layout of a GWR Country Junction.

The track work on this layout was really nice and it looked like it had been hand laid.

Kidwelly Castle was in charge of the passenger train sat in the station.

The layout had two loops running around the layout and around the back was a beautifully sceniced section of main line running through a cut on the hill side.

The color of the grass captured the full green we get here in the English summertime. Below is a video of Kidwelly Castle running through the cut with a GWR 2-6-2 small prairie tank going the other way.

In the same room as Bradbury Junction was the highlight for me.

Corris is a 009 layout built by Rod Allcock.  The layout represents the town of Corris in Wales on the Corris Railway in 1930.  This layout is simply beautiful and the level of detail is just stunning.  Talking with Rod he said he wanted to create more than just a layout, he wanted to create a picture that the trains run through, and I think he did just that.

The layout is very nicely finished in its own display stand, enclosing the picture.  The layout is lit by strips of LED lights.

Here is a video of a train running through the scene.

Looking from the left end of the layout you get a nice view through the station building and here is a video of the train coming towards you.

Rod either scratch builds or uses parts from kits to build his locomotives and they are very impressive.  They run smoothly and don’t have any issues with power pickup despite the limited number of wheels.

To give you an idea of the size, below are two photos with some of Rod’s locos in the palm of my hand.

What amazed me was the weight, the unpainted locomotive at the top of my hand weight more than many of my US outline diesels!  That helps explain why power pickup is not an issue with so few wheels.

The locomotive below was even smaller and is powered by a mobile phone vibration motor.

The final layout, not counting our own, was Holm.  This layout is a fictitious OO gauge  layout set between Wales and the West country in England and is based on the GWR.

The layout has some very nice detailing and felt to me exactly as it should, after all, I grew up between Wales and the West Country.

The layout even had that essential British building, the Pub!

And to finish off the post I could not resist showing a few videos of our Layout, Solent Summit.  Here is a troop train headed by UP’s mighty Big Boy.

And finally, much to my surprise the troop train came out of the coal mine not through the main line, sack the signal man I say!

And that just about covers the Fordingbridge Model Railway exhibition for 2014.  A big thank you to the Fordingbridge Rotary club and to all the Exhibitors.

This weekend the N-Trak convention was held in Bournemouth, UK, and I wanted to share with you the layouts and some of the fantastic modeling on display.  The Black Diamonds also had several modules from their large modular collection which formed a large double main line setup as well as the N-track layout.

For those wondering what N-track is, here is brief description;  N-Trak is one of several modular N scale model railroad standards which allows people to connect their model railroads together.  The standards refer to things such as layout height, module length and width, track spacing and power connections.  The basics for N-Trak state that a module should be 2 foot deep and 3 foot long and there must be 3 tracks running through the module, spaced at 1.5-inch (38 mm) centers at the front. The rest of the module is up to you. (The full standards and specification can be found on the N-Trak website here)  This allows many modules to be connected together forming a big railroad, making it easy to run very long trains.  At each end or joining the two ends will be a large staging yard with trains ready to run over the whole layout.  Sometimes the layout may consist of a few modules or sometimes, well, more than I can count!

Anyway, the setup here in Bournemouth was not a mammoth affair but a nice size layout along with the Black Diamonds layout.

Here is the yard at the back of the N-track layout.

You can see the three mainlines running into the yards at the bottom of the picture, each line has its own yard, the tea and sandwich are an optional extra!

The main section of the layout featured an industrial area with plenty of buildings and track work which swept nicely through the scene. Once again you can see the three mainlines running into the modules at the bottom of this photo.

Here are a good range of close up photos of the N-Trak layout.

If you’re wondering where all the trains are, unfortunately I’m not the greatest photographer in the world and all my photos of moving trains are blurry!  However I do have some videos.  Here is a double-headed steam freight running though town.

And an ATSF freight.

For me, the highlight of the show was this.

It’s a brass Pennsylvania Baldwin Locomotive Works DR 12-8-3000 “Centipede” custom made by N-Stars who were at the show running their trains.

N-stars specialize in very high quality mechanisms and chassis for N scale locomotives.  This Centipede is fitted with a LokSound sound decoder which really brought the engines to life, even over the chatter in the room. Here’s a video of the Centipede in action.

Hans from N-Stars told me that the Centipede will navigate a 9″1/2 radius curve which is amazing given the length and amount of wheels under the locomotive.

Here is another video of one of Hans’ locomotives.  It’s an old Bachmann 2-8-0; these are notorious for being bad runners but as you can see below Hans has fixed that.

He has removed the Bachmann motor and fitted a brand new custom motor into the tender, which looks like an ex-Rivarossi 0-8-0 tender to me. The new motor powers the locomotive via a drive shift between the tender and locomotive with the drive shaft almost imperceptible.  The locomotive ran superbly.

Here is long SP train of trailer trucks running through town with a little help from the NS providing a second locomotive.

The Black Diamonds layout, setup opposite the N-Trak, had a longer run and bigger yards at each end, which led to some very nice long trains running throughout the railroad.  In the photo below is one of the yards with a long coal train waiting to depart headed by three diesels.

Sadly due to a poor camera battery I wasn’t able to get many photos of the Black Diamonds layout but I did get some videos earlier in the day.  Here is a Milwaukee freight ruining past the mountain.

And a Metra commuter train.

And a long Pennsylvania freight headed by Q2.

The Q2 is another N-Stars improved locomotive. It still has it’s original motor but the power pickup and tender to locomotive connection has been updated greatly improving the performance.

There were also several other very interesting locomotives on this layout including a Con-Cor Galloping Goose.

And a pair of LNER pacific, a little out of place being British, but to me they are beautiful and so it’s always good to see them.

And finally before I left the show Hans wanted to show me the Pennsylvania 4-8-2.

As well as being a fantastic looking locomotive Hans also fitted a Soundtraxx Tunami sound decoder, and it sounded superb.  Here is a video of it running, and again, even over the noise of the room, you can here the beat of the exhaust as the engine heads away from the camera.

After the day at the N-Trak convention in Bournemouth  I came away eager to produce some new prints.  Later on this year I will be working on a new project with N-Stars which will hopefully make the New York Central fans happy, but as to what will be, you will have to wait for a later post.

On the weekend I was at the National Model Railroad Association (British Region)’s winter meet and model railroad exhibition in Benson, Oxfordshire, UK and I wanted to share some of the layouts with you.

This is the first exhibition on the calendar for the NMRA (BR) and it was also my first visit. The show is a one day show only, but after talking to several of the regulars it appears to be a very popular show and this year was no exception despite the bad weather and flooding we have been having over the last week.

I wasn’t just visiting the exhibition, I was there with my club, the Gosport American Model Railroad Group, and we had brought part of our modular layout, Solent Summit, along for the day.  So, in between running trains and chatting to the public, I had some time to look around a few of the other layouts and stalls.

The hall in Benson was a nice size and was filled with layouts and stalls and although there was also more upstairs I didn’t make it that far as I had trains to run!

Here are some of the layouts that were at the exhibition;

This is a beautifully detailed HO layout based in Maine, USA in a fictitious setting.

Everywhere you look there is fantastic detail and even though I have seen it before I keep spotting new things such as the crab nets on the dock.

The layout consists of a small station and yard with a train ferry entrance.

For me, the best parts of this layout are the buildings and scenery.

In particular I loved the lighthouse and the detailing of the action around it around it.

This is a Z sale layout by Peter McConnell. The layout is a city scene  set in Japan with an electrified two-track main line running round to a storage yard at the rear.  In the front there’s a station and yard scene. A branch line runs out from the station to the yard which is not electrified.

The station has three platforms, the nearest two being an island platform on the main line.

Leaving the station the main line and branch run parallel around to the yard.

I’ve never worked in Z scale so I am often impressed by the level of detail, as I was with this one. The trains ran very smoothly and at a good scale speed.

Black Diamonds

This N scale layout is a modular layout that can be assembled in a variety of ways, from my understanding this was only a small part of the overall layout.  All the modules here have been laid with Atlas code 55 track.  The layout is in a dog bone configuration with a double track main line and a yard at each end.  The layout is setup for running long trains through large open spaces.

Dave Dawes’s Dawes Creek is an N scale layout set in Australia.  It has a beautifully modeled station scene with a small yard.  Both ends of the main line run around to the rear where there is a staging yard.

For me the highlight of this layout were the locomotives an rolling stock, in particular loco no. B64 which has the look of an double ended American F unit.  All the locomotive shells are resin casts by Aust-N-Rail and they are fitted onto American prototype chassis.

Dave has more about his layout on his website www.dawdawes.com.

Kathy Millatt

Kathy is the Atlantic director of the NMRA and she had brought along part of her modular On3 (O scale narrow gauge 3 foot) layout to do scenery demonstrations throughout the day.

I was particularly impressed with the track work on the dual gauge section: this was all hand built.

N scale in Switzerland

This great little N scale layout, which I forgot to get the name of, is set in the Swiss mountains covered in snow.  There are three loops running around the layout and a scene on the high line of a train wreck due to an avalanche.

Solent Summit

So at last we come to the layout my club brought.  Solent Summit is an N scale modular layout based on a oNe track system; this means all the modules conform to the same set of standards such as the main line must be 4″ from the front.  Therefore the modules all work together in a variety of configurations. At this meet in Benson we brought fourteen modules, which is about a third of the modules we currently have finished. The overall layout took the form of an oval and we will pick it up in the yard;

This yard has six through lines exiting onto a single main line around the bend.

After rounding the bend the line approaches tunnel 41.

Emerging from tunnel 41 the line rounds the bend next to Ted’s Farm.

After passing Ted’s farm the line enters Solent Summit.  Here the main line carries on through the middle, with a station line on the inside and a passing line on the outside.

In the middle of Solent Summit there is a second, shorter passing loop.

Leaving Solent Summit, the line returns to a single main line and runs past the coal mine.

The coal mine has three lines, the near side track is the main line which runs through a tunnel.

Emerging from the tunnel the line crosses Hells Glen on a steel trestle and enters another tunnel.

Emerging from the second tunnel the line passes the power station where the main line is again the near side track.  The two lines going into the power station are also the first two lines going into the coal mine. They run behind Hells Glen out of sight.

Leaving the power station the line rounds the bend and returns to the yard.

So that’s a taster of the Benson NMRA (BR) winter meet. There’s a lot to see at this show, and plenty of stalls, so it’s definitely one for my calendar next year, and I hope to see some more new faces there.