Solihull MRC Annual Exhibition

Saturday 11th November 2023

 

OPENING TIMES: 10:00am-16:30pm

 

ADMISSION:

Adults £4.00 Children £3.00 Family £10.00 

 

Annual model railway exhibition presented by the Solihull Model Railway Circle, St Marys Church Hall and 3rd Solihull St Mary Scout Hall (B92 8PN) - 15 minutes from J6, M42. Working layouts are invited plus trade and society support. Free parking available.

 

Buses to Hobs Moat road that stop in front of the nearby ice rink: 72. Buses that stop at Wheatsheaf, A45, Coventry Road: 60, X1, X2. Bus Information: Available from Network West Midlands: 0871 200 22 33.

 

List of Layouts Attending :

 

Keiths Model Railways

Steve Currin Book Sales

Elaine's Trains

Baz's Model Rail - 12 Volt DC

John Ross's Model Railways 

 

Visiting Layouts Attending:

 

1. Grange Aggregates

2mm Scale, N Gauge

Solihull Model Railway Circle

 

Grange Aggregates started up many Years ago. The canal was cut in order to transport the stone out instead of using horses and wagons. The narrow gauge railway was then laid to take stone to the crushing plant. Steam engines were introduced on the narrow gauge in the 1800s. When the main line railway was built, the loops and sidings to the quarry were also put in. All these forms of taking the stone out are still very much in evidence, with stone going out by canal, road or by rail. 

 

2. A Scottish Branch

4mm Scale, OO Gauge

Solihull Model Railway Circle

 

A 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.

 

3. Cherwell

4mm Scale, OO Gauge

Solihull Model Railway Circle

 

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 Masons Arms, the George Hotel and the Fat Cat cafe from Solihull; Kings 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 cormorant.

 

4. Wegberg & Arsbeck

2mm Scale, N Gauge

Eastbourne Model Railway Society

 

The layout was built by the late Alan Tompsett and is based on the small town of Wegberg and its neighbouring village Arsbeck in north-west Germany, situated on the line between Mönchengladbach and Dalheim near the Dutch border. The British Army of the Rhine had a branch to RAF Wildenrath off the line and this junction is also modelled. The period depicted is 1955-1970.

 

Traffic over the route was steam hauled passenger/drop off freight in the early period with diesel locomotives and diesel/battery railbuses taking over the duties through the 1960’s. Non-stop passenger trains are also run, and the line was also part of the “Iron Rhine” freight link between Antwerp & the Ruhr, so some long through freight formations also feature.

 

5. Kenstadt

1:220 Scale, Z Gauge,

Ken Jones

 

The small snow-covered hamlet sees tourists in the summer who visit the local castle at the top of the hill. Some sidings are provided nearby when demand is high. But in winter the place is usually cut off by snow and only horse carts and trains get through. The trains are the odd freight train, a local multiple unit service and sometimes a xmas special.

 

6. Sugar Creek

2mm Scale, N Gauge

Nigel Harrold

 

Sugar Creek is based on four locations of the triple bi-directional tracks, B.N.S.F Marceline sub at Sugar Creek Missouri. The layout is N Scale North American modern era DCC sound. The tracks see most of the main class one railroad companies running through – B.N.S.F.- Union Pacific – Norfolk Southern etc… Union Pacifics “Big Boys” can also be seen running through with their excursion train. 

 

7. Burford GWR

3.5mm Scale, HO Gauge

Pete Howell (Warley MRC)

 

This fictional GWR branch was first conceived by the late Vernon Woods in the 1930s. It is modelled as it would have been at the end of that decade.

What makes this model English branch terminus different – even rare – is its scale of 3.5mm to the foot (1/87th scale). After World War II the track was removed and replaced with the improved quality products then available. The layout as it now exists was completed 25 years later. After Vernon’s death the layout was given to the Warley club and exhibited on several occasions. However, electrics and running problems led to the decision to replace the track with the PECO code 75 product and to operate the points with SEEP point motors. Baseboards are original ‘old wood’ on 2X1 frames supported largely on trestles. Two of the boards do have integral legs.

Work is continuing to replace buildings and to restore and improve scenic elements with modern static grass and some other landscape effects. Couplings are 4mm DG items which are operated magnetically. The signals, which are over 50 years old, are operated by the ‘wire in tube’ method. Control is analogue and points are now operated by more modern SEEP point motors.

Work on the layout to maintain its historical and technical features are a continuous and ongoing process.

 

8. Fair T’Middlin

4mm Scale, OO Gauge

John Collins (Wyre Forest MRC, Kidderminster)

 

An “OO” gauge layout set in an industrial area of the North of England during the 1950’s/60’s. A fictional based diorama set around the town of Eckerslike and also the underground coal mine of Appen Colliery. Eckerslike and Appen Colliery are two separate modules which can be exhibited together or on their own.

 

Eckerslike is a town dominated by a viaduct and substantial industrial red brick buildings constructed in the Victorian era. The railway station was originally an intermediate station on the Fair to Middlin line. The railway line was, however, truncated at Eckerslike following closure of the mine at Middlin during the 1930’s. The railway nowadays is a branch line from Fair providing a regular passenger service between the two towns. There is also a busy goods shed serving local people and industry and a private siding to the large engineering works adjacent to the station with an active coal yard. BR steam tank locos usually provide the motive power.

 

Appen Colliery lies between Fair and Eckerslike. It is a deep underground mine now controlled by the National Coal Board (NCB) following nationalization of the coal industry in 1947. There are two headstocks providing ventilation and access to the coal face as well as screens to sort the coal before it is loaded into railway mineral wagons. The wagons are then shunted by the NCB’s own locomotives to the exchange sidings before collection by BR steam tender locos and taken to the marshalling yard at Fair for distribution throughout the UK or to a nearby port for the coal to be exported by sea. 

 

The extension of Fair T’Middlin to include Appen Colliery has a new fiddle yard which has a traverser and can rotate 360 degrees. It also has eight tracks which can accommodate eight trains including passenger trains with three coaches and a tender locomotive.

 

9. Linwood Lane

4mm Scale, OO gauge

Shaun Greet

 

Linwood Lane is an East Anglian branch surviving the cutbacks of the 1960’s. Depicts a local station with frequent goods traffic - can be a tad busy at times with a few run round operatons. Passenger serivices are in the hands of DMUs, while the freights motive power varies (classes 15, 31 etc...) . Built to fit a small area and to show what can be done.

 

10. Stonethwaite and Bainrigg Railway Summary

7mm Scale, 16.5 Narrow Gauge

Middle Barton MRC

 

This is the first 3 phases of a modular layout using 7mm Narrow Gauge otherwise known as O 16.5. It is set in the 1930s and is based on a fictional mineral line linking a quarry to a canal basin. Over the years the line has become more successful and is now carrying passengers and general freight, but cash is still tight on the line. The 1st phase of the model depicts the Wharf at Stonethwaite in North Yorkshire, complete with warehouses, a station, loco shed and canal wharf.

 

The 2nd phase depicts the ”top” terminus of Bainrigg. This station serves this small village further up dale and has basic facilities. The mineral line to the quarry is beyond.

 

The 3rd phase is the Quarry at Bainrigg. Stone trains and empties pass through the station and enter the quarry with all its workings, an inclined plane, tippers, stone crusher, steep lines and tight curves.

 

The model has a mixture of DCC sound fitted Locos, extra sounds and a host of operating accessories and parts, including working canal boats. So keep your eyes peeled and ears tuned in.

 

11. Hookton Riverside

7mm Scale, 16.5 Narrow Gauge

Mike Bragg

 

Hookton Riverside is the terminus station of the Hookton and Lipp Vale Railway, a narrow gauge railway in Dorset. The name Hookton and the almost river Lipp were taken from the novel Harlequin by Bernard Cornwall who kindly gave me permission to use them. As per usual I have created an alternate history by using the characters from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson but now set in the late 1940s early 1950s. The Pub/Inn is the Admiral Benbow, the large Georgian house is aptly named Trelawney House, there is Benjamin Gunns cheese shop, L.J.Silver & Son the friendly butchers, not forgetting B.Pew Hardware I had thought he might have traded as an optician. Doctor Livesey, Captain Smollett and several others. I really do need to get out more, although railway modelling has to be fun, with for me, the back story being just as important as the modelling.