Bingham Model Railway Club Nottingham Nottinghamshire Notts Radcliffe Shelford Gunthorpe
Newark Grantham
rail train trains OO gauge HO gauge N Gauge O Gauge Steam track merg electronic station
layout exhibition Cotgrave
Kendlebury, is an O-gauge model of an early 1950s, British-Rail, ex Great-Western,
branch-line, terminus in a fictitious Cotswold market town. It is based on the Ian
Rice, concept-design of Elan, but is upscaled and modified. It is an attempt to fit
a fully functioning, O-gauge layout and fiddle yard into a compact, 13ft 6ins by
4ft 1ins, space. Passenger trains of up to two carriages length and goods trains
of up to seven wagons length can be accommodated.
There are three goods sidings, an engine shed and a bay platform. One of the goods
sidings continues through to a private dock belonging to the local brewery. The station,
run-around, loop is completed on one of two concentric sector plates and there are
four, fold-back, fiddle-track roads completed with a small traverser at the opposite
end of the fiddle yard to the sector plates. The first sector plate allows the transfer
of trains between the fiddle yard and the scenic, station section. The second sector
plate and traverser provide a run around loop in the fiddle yard to facilitate preparation
of trains ready to be transferred to the scenic section. It is hoped that by using
this configuration there will be the minimum time delay between trains leaving and
new trains arriving at Kendlebury station, thus keeping interest for viewers when
the model is exhibited at exhibitions.
A feature of the scenic modelling is to be a road which runs the full length of the
layout along the back scene starting at one end behind the station and brewery and
then rising up and crossing the railway lines just before the sector plates. This
will obscure the sector plates from the viewers out front. The road then continues
behind the goods shed but in front of the sector plates and runs past the goods-yard,
road entrance. The major buildings; station, engine shed and goods shed, have been
assembled to aid track laying but are yet to be fully detailed and completed. These
are laser cut kits based on GWR prototypes. Additional buildings will include scratch
built items as well as smaller laser cut kits.
The layout is in its initial stages of construction. Presently, the baseboards have
been constructed and the track laid but not ballasted. Electrical wiring has just
begun and scenic modelling is in the design stage.
The O gauge group is John Cotton, Steve Hartley, Iain Dickason, Jim Duckworth, Doug
Pulford, and Keith Bradley but most club members have provided advice and assistance.
