On a sunny bank holiday weekend we ventured to Aylesbury for the Railex 2018 Model Railway Exhibition. A very large exhibition with lots of layouts and traders – well worth a visit if you have not been to the exhibition before. This was videoed on Sunday 27th May 2018.
With such a large show so that the video is not too long, we have aimed to give you a flavour of the exhibitions and the layouts on display.
7mm Scale
Dock Green, O Gauge, Exhibited by Chaz Harrison, This model depicts a small goods yard in Dock Green, a scruffy industrial area somewhere in North East London, and part of the Eastern Region of British Railways.
The Summit - Draper’s Sidings, O Gauge, Exhibited by Yeovil Model Railway Group, The layout is loosely based on the summit of the Settle and Carlisle at Ais Gill. The track layout with the lay-by sidings is close to what once existed here. The viaduct is based on the one at Ais Gill.
4mm Scale
Burntisland 1883, P4 Gauge, Exhibited by East of Scotland 4mm Group, This was the Southern terminus of the North British Railway system in Fife and the North. Passengers and goods had to transfer to ferry boats which took them across the Firth to Granton.
Harkness, EM Gauge, Exhibited by Tony Bucknell, The Belford to Harkness Light Railway connected the East Coast Mainline at Belford to the small seaside village of Harkness. The layout is based on the similar line which ran from Chathill to Seahouses called the North Sunderland Railway. Trains are run in various time periods be it 1930s 40s or 50s.
Hebble Vale Goods, EM Gauge, Exhibited by Karl Crowther, The layout is a nostalgia trip back to 1970s Halifax, despite the general industrial decline of the 1970s, it is envisaged that the yard is still kept busy with supplies for the coal depot. Other local industries are still hanging-on in the form of light engineering, confectionery, textiles and mail order catalogue businesses.
Herstmonceux, OO Gauge, Exhibited by Andy Jones, In the early 1950s Herstmonceux was a rural country station on the former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway’s (LBSCR) “Ouse Valley Line”. The Ouse Valley line linked the London to Brighton main line to the South Coast at St Leonards.
Hewisbridge, OO Gauge, Exhibited by 57 Study Group, Hewisbridge is a small market town somewhere in the Scottish Borders in the late 1950s, and is intended to represent the railways which were once commonplace in the Scottish Borders and much inspiration has been drawn from the Waverley route as most of the structures are based on those from various locations on that famous line.
Hornsey Broadway, EM Gauge, Exhibited by Kier Hardy, Hornsey Broadway sets out to represent the line as it would have appeared during the early 1970s, with the junction and line from Stratford, joining the GN tracks from Finsbury Park. It features a station to the north, and a loco depot at Hornsey Road to the south, in between, is a typical north London landscape.
Kirkby Stephen West, OO Gauge, Exhibited by Ian MacDonald & Martin Wright, This layout depicts the an actual location on the Settle and Carlisle line in the period 1955 to 1964, which covers the early part of the transition period from Steam to Diesel traction.
Kyle of Sutherland, P4 Gauge, Exhibited by Stuart Holt, It models the passing loop station of Culrain in Ross-shire on the Far North line of the former Highland Railway from Inverness to Wick and Thurso, as it was in 1960, the trains covering the period 1955-1962.
North Ballachulish, EM Gauge, Exhibited by Andy Cooper, Set in 1970/71 apart from passengers and freight traffic by the ubiquitous 27s and also 26s down from Inverness, there are goods workings to Kinlochleven (Presflos and Cov Hops from Burntisland) as well as a daily passenger working for the smelter workers.
The Mill, EM Gauge, Exhibited by Jason Thomas & Chris Rogers, Minimum space industrial layout set around a textile mill on the East Lancs / West Riding border.
2mm Scale
Foxcote New Pit, 9.42mm Gauge, Exhibited by Jerry Clifford, The layout is set in the North Somerset Coalfield. It's essentially Highbury Colliery, enlarged and rebuilt to place it into a mainline setting with exchange sidings rather than the old setting on a twig off a branch. It's now Somerset and Dorset in the early/mid 1920s.
We hope you enjoy.
Anne & Steve
Steam and Model Railways