Oakbourne

[thegreenhowards]

I'm starting this new thread to describe Oakbourne, the new Exhibition layout of the East Surrey Model Railway Club, based in Merstham. I will update periodically on developments to the layout and exhibition appearances.

 

It is a fictitious terminus station set on a truncated secondary route. It survived to serve the town and its factory which sees significant freight traffic. It also receives regular general goods traffic for the town. The track plan is fairly standard to a branch line terminus layout, but the headshunt and access to the factory siding create extra operational interest.

 

 

The layout is kept deliberately geographically unspecific in order to cater for member’s varying interests. The photo below shows it operating in BR(E) 1950s guise, but it has also operated as a Southern 1930s layout.

 

The layout can run on DC (tradition analogue) or DCC (digital) power.

 

Future plans include replacing some of the buildings with scratchbuilt versions tailor made for the location, refining the scenery in other areas, such as further weathering and, in the longer term, expanding the layout with an extra baseboard at either end.

 

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

So far the layout has been exhibited at two local 'community' style events in Merstham. The first was open air - the 'Quality Street' fair. With hindsight it was quite brave to do our first exhibition under canvas, but it all went smoothly. Here is a photo of the layout in situ with yours truly at the helm (on the left).

 

 

The second event was in the local library which made a good venue, but we were slightly off the beaten track so only had a modest trickle of visitors.

 

[thegreenhowards]

Here are some more pictures of Oakbourne from it's recent exhibition appearances.

 

Firstly one in its BR(E) 1950s guise with the eponymous Oak behind

 

And now a couple in its 1930s Southern guise, firstly of the cattle dock recently completed by our newest member, Andy Howard. 

 

And a general view towards the station.

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

We are exhibiting Oakbourne at the Croydon Model Railway Exhibition at Warlingham School this weekend https://www.croydonmrs.org.uk/events/cmrs-exhibition-2018-warlingham/.

 

If you're coming along please pop over and say hello.

 

More pictures after the weekend.

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

Set up went smoothly on Friday. Took about 1h30 with just one wire to resolder. Everything else worked fine.

 

Here’s a picture of your’s truly tracing the wiring fault.

 

 

At the curry house soon after 2100!

[thegreenhowards]

Well the exhibition went pretty well. The layout performed faultlessly. The same can’t be said for the operators, but mistakes were relatively few and far between. Here are a few pictures.

 

Firstly the J50 (K’s kit on a Bachmann chassis with Zimo sound project) departing on a goods train.

 

Then the C12 (SE Finecast on Bachmann chassis) on the push pull.

 

And finally the 26 (Heljan with legoman biffo sound chip) shunting in the parcels bay.

Edited October 13, 2019 by thegreenhowards
Typo

[saxokid]

Nice looking exhibition layout here guys...

 

 

cheers neil

 

[Big And]

Last year the club had agreed to build an extension to Oakbourne which had been progressing earlier this year.  This will see 2 boards added to the station end of the layout - 1 scenic and 1 cassette fiddle yard.  This will give the station through running which should will increases both operator interest and frequency of movements for the viewers.  

 

I felt some of the members work was worthy of photos and wanted to share them here .  Peter has been leading the build and we now have the scenic board with the start of the land form - the board when finished will see the single line railway crossing over a river.  These three photos show the card strips being woven together to create the bank leading down to the water.  

[Big And]

Back in early March when club nights were still on the cards, I took some photos of the new bridge which Peter had brought to the club for the first time.  It was well received and was worthy of some photos which (eventually) I am posting here.  

 

The girders below are from the Peco N gauge range and the posts for the handrails are from the Wills range.  Other plasticard and strips make up the construction.  The timber supports will be clad in brick/stone sheets.

 

Stay safe and enjoy some more modelling.  

[Big And]

Hi,

 

Last night at the club we had the first full running test of the layout with its new extension!

 

Andy had prepared a running sequence which we used for the test and all went pretty well.  We had 1 short circuit that was quickly resolved and a dead section of track at the back of a siding (which we will investigate next club night), other than that we came away happy.  

 

The new scenic board looks good with a train running over the bridge although the river has yet to be poured.  we did leave off many building, scenic items and the back scene so please excuse this in the following photos.  The layout is also here backed against another club layout giving our little branch line and metropolis feel!

 

We are looking forward to the layouts first appearance in this format at Beckenham and West Wickham on Saturday 15th October 2022. 

 

[thegreenhowards]

Lovely photos Andy. You could have photoshopped my ugly mug out of them though!

 

Andy

[woko]

Great pictures Andy, looking fantastic but missing Peter's excellent woody section with his lovely tree work, but i need to pull my finger out and get the river cast :) You didn't do a close up of the gigantic fish then! 😆

[thegreenhowards]

Just a reminder to anyone following this thread that the layout will be at the Beckenham and West Wickham MRC show this coming Saturday (15th October). Do come and say hello if you're at the exhibition. I hope to post some photos of the show next week.

[woko]

Looking forward to it Andy and here are some shots of the recently finished scenic extension with the new resin river that was quite a palaver to get right in the end!!!

 

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

We had an excellent day out at the Beckenham &West Wickham exhibition today. The day shot by and I didn’t have much time for photos, but I did manage a couple and took some video which I’ll edit later. Here are the photos I took.

 

First the new lighting rig which definitely improved things - both from a lighting point of view and by making the layout look more professional (IMHO).

 

Here are a couple from the running today. Firstly the J3 on the brick train. 

Then the L1 on a passenger (twice)

 

 

BRCW type 2 shunting parcels

and finally the J6 on the oil train.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by thegreenhowards
Adding photos

[Big And]

We had a good day out with the layout at the Astolat MRC exhibition last Sunday.  After an early start we were set set and running with time to spare.  We ran in DC mode with stock from Peter and Dave

 

 

We would like to thank ASTOLAT MRC for the invite and for the smooth running of the show.

 

Next weekend we will be at Erith MRS show.  Come and see the layout in action.

[Big And]

Hot off the heels of Astolat we had another exhibition showing this time for Erith at their Longfield show.  We thank them for the invite and a well run show.  we also thank Alex and Andrew from Beckenham for their help in running the layout giving us the chance to take in more of the show!

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

Nice photos Andy. I didn't find time to take any this time.

[Jules]

Lovely layout - I think the river/water looks very convincing

[thegreenhowards]

3 hours ago, Jules said:

Lovely layout - I think the river/water looks very convincing

Thanks, it is the highlight of the layout and really sets trains off as they cross the bridge. Big credit for the river must go to club member, Rob (@woko). There were some lessons learnt along the way including nearly setting it on fire when the resin was poured as we tried to get bubbles out with a hair dryer!

 

Here’s one I took of the river at the Astolat show.

 

 

Andy

[Big And]

Hello,

 

Just a heads up that our next exhibition outing is a month away.  we will be a the Woolwich Model Railway Show on Sunday 10th December.  Please see detail below, we hope to meet you there.