The Club builds and operates layouts in a variety of scales.
Heaton Lodge – one man’s memories in 7 mm scale
It is not often that news about a model railway spills from the pages and forums of the modelling press onto the pages and screens of the national press but Heaton Lodge, a 7 mm scale layout based upon a section of line in West Yorkshire has done just that. We sent our West Yorkshire …read more.
Dec 13, 2021
Vintage O gauge layout for sale
We’ve been asked to find a new home for a 1946 built O gauge layout that is 4.2m x 3.4m and an ideal size for a loft. Indeed that is is where it now. The most recent owner is the late John Hall-Craggs, probably better known for his extensive 9 1/2 inch gauge garden railway …read more.
Jan 23, 2021
Getting Dirty – The Art of Weathering
I suppose of all the model railways skills I may, or may not have, weathering rolling stock is probably my best and certainly the one I get the most enjoyment and satisfaction from. All set up in my new conservatory! Bill Water’s M7 mentioned in the article gets the air brush treatment with my new …read more.
Jul 30, 2020
Constructing an Ian Kirk ‘O’ gauge Siphon H – the hard way!
I decided to do things the hard way when building a Siphon H, instead of choosing the quick and easy (and more sensible) option. I soon nicknamed the project ‘Monty Siphon’ as at times it was almost like a Monty Python sketch, where I stumbled from one problem to the next. First a little bit …read more.
May 24, 2020
Fitting Kadee auto couplings to some CRT O gauge coaches
Some members may remember me bringing along my O gauge Bulleid Light Pacific (34019 ‘Bideford’) into the Club some months ago and running it on the test tracks. She is the pride of my fleet, being built from a Martin Finney kit by notable loco builder John Edwards and painted by Ian Rathbone a few …read more.
May 10, 2020
Two model shops for my layout
I am in the middle of constructing a small shunting yard, based on the outskirts of Brighton during in the late 1950s to early 1960s period. Because the whole scenic area is just 8ft x 2ft most buildings on the layout have to be of the low-relief type. At the far end of the layout …read more.
May 4, 2020
A ‘London’ Class 26 in O gauge
“Err, Dave, would you mind weathering a couple of diesels for me?” My mate Andy Ward from the Luton MRC was clutching two large blue boxes containing a Heljan Class 31 and in the other a Class 26. Being a Southern BR modeller it wasn’t that long ago I’d weathered my own Heljan Class 33, …read more.
May 1, 2020
A Brighton Based ‘Gronk’ – Detailing an O gauge diesel
The O gauge model of the Dapol Class 08 diesel electric loco finally arrived in the shops in December 2016 after lengthy production delays. Nearly everyone agreed this was an excellent model and at a bargain price, though as always there were one or two out there who find fault with any RTRmodel. I had …read more.
Apr 27, 2020Action Plan for Bow Junction until 30th June 2019
Not much will happen during April since in Keen House Copenhagen Field is being erected for the Open Day on Sunday 28th April, and Mike Randall is adding the ramp on the lines to Fenchurch Street. The Plan is that all our boards will return from Mike’s workshop before 28th April. On the 28th April …read more.
Apr 12, 2019
What, more rolling stock?
One may wonder why a layout of this vintage still needs new rolling stock. When the main Happisburgh layout was sold to MRC and GOG member Martin Long, most of the stock was passenger vehicles. A lot of what freight stock we had was returned to its original owners and what we had left was …read more.
Oct 11, 2016
Autumn in Happisburgh
We’ve had Alan West’s BTH Class 15 diesel running on Happisburgh Goods for some time. It was constructed from a kit many years ago, but it never looked or ran very well. However, after extensive rebuilding of the mechanism and bogies by the late Peter Elmslie, it at least ran well, and with some very …read more.
Oct 11, 2016
Happisburgh Goods – Retired
The Great Eastern Railway had planned to build a line from North Walsham to Happisburgh (pronounced Haysboro) on the Norfolk coast, then south east towards Great Yarmouth. Unfortunately the line never got built but for the purposes of our model we have assumed that it did.
Sep 9, 2013