New home for 2 part-built layouts

[wainwright1]

Layouts for Disposal. 

 

Southwark Model Railway Club have recently considered how to downsize what they have stored in their club room and have decided to dispose of two part-built layouts which are taking up space, but are not likely to get worked on by us in the near future. Another reason for expediting the disposal, is that we are currently contemplating another change of club room and would like to dispose of anything that we do not need to transport to the new venue. These were both started some years ago, but have not been worked on for quite a time. As said, they have been stored for an extended period, have suffered some damage and require refurbishment to bring them up to a standard to be completed, but would make nice layouts for a club or perhaps a private members project.  

 

The first is Andy Arches.

This was originally a commissioned layout built for the British Rail Property Board (later Spacia), installed inside a trailer and used to promote the use of railway arches. You can see some black and white photographs of what this layout looked like when first completed on our website. southwarkmrc.wordpress.com. The layout could be extended to an end to end or circular format with additional features and used to display rolling stock from different periods. 

 

Inspired by the London and Greenwich Railway, it had three sections: one showing the early days, including The Halfway House pub (the first arches let) and three houses in the arches at Deptford Station. Section two showed traditional uses such as a scrap yard, coach storage yard etc. Section three showed an area where the arches had been refurbished in a corporate style with a gate house and fenced courtyard. We had started to produce a fourth board, which fits before section one and would have featured the viaduct construction being completed and a representation of the Grand Surrey Canal. The frontage of this has been prepared with some parts for the canal bridge, but these are not shown in the pictures. I was hoping to represent the original L. & G. track with rails laid on stone sleeper blocks by using scored copper clad sleepers stuck down with the centres then carefully cut away and ballasted. The boards are constructed from plywood and are approximately three feet long and pack together in pairs. Some trestle type legs were also prepared, although not for the new board. Track is Peco code 100. Most of the arches, brickwork and bridges are built from Wills plastic components, so repair/replacement would be fairly straight forward.

 

The second layout is Hatcham Park.

This was somewhat more ambitious project and intended to represent a slimmed down version of New Cross Gate. Planned as a continuous circuit layout with a fiddle yard at the back, it would probably have been 32 feet long by 8-10 feet deep. It features the fast and slow up and down lines with platform positions and the station building location which would have been on a road bridge (Left hand end). The approaching double track East London Line, up and down connections (Right hand end), to serve one platform, also connected with coach sidings on the east side of the station (Front of board). On the west side of the station there are two sidings to accommodate four car EMUs and a loco depot with a site for a four road steam shed and at the rear of the board a half relief of the famous ‘Router Shed’ and connected buildings. Some of the track here has had phosphor bronze check rail fitted as this area would have been inset in cobble stones. The sheds were served by a turntable which has been based on the one at Didcot. The well for this can be seen in the pictures and was cut from solid Perspex by Gary Cross. We have the bridge for this, which has unfortunately lost its railings and gear drive, but these are replaceable. In the London bound direction there is a connection served by a ladder of points including three double slips and a single slip which would have connected to the South London Line at Old Kent Road Junction, the Deptford Wharf Branch and the East London Line up line. The six baseboards are each forty inches square and constructed from plywood. They are currently fitted with biscuit connectors, but these could easily be replaced with pattern makers dowels or bullet connectors. There are also seven properly jointed legs to support the boards. The track is code Peco 75 with 18 points  including the single slip and three double slips all of which are fitted with Peco point motors. (At least one damaged). 

 

I have a PDF which I can forward that provides a selection of photographs of both layouts for your scrutiny if you are interested.

 

We hope that your club or members might be interested in these layouts and would be most pleased to set them out at our club room for your scrutiny. Our club meets on Thursday nights, so please let me know when you would like to visit by calling beforehand so that we can make the arrangements. 

 

We have not put a price on these layouts, but they would be subject to negotiation.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

 

Many thanks 

 

Ray

020 7732 9675