West Country GWR branchline terminus set in 1947. Authentic rolling stock and period buildings details and cameo scenes.  Operating signals, wagon turntable and swinging station platform.  Has appeared at Warley NEC exhibition and in Hornby magazine.

The idea with Silverbury was to create a modern image layout of the Great Central Railway if it had been made 4 tracks into London after the 1st world war, and if Beeching had not closed the line, but  instead reduced it to two tracks.

 What would it have looked like?

 Silverbury is a combination of Silverstone and Aylesbury a “WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN” layout.

The period modelled is BR Blue to the present day, and to achieve this we are producing interchangeable buildings and industries which can be dropped into place.

 Silverbury is placed at the edge of both Network South East (BR blue) and Chiltern Railways (Network Rail) so many trains would terminate at this point. It is also a mainline for long distance and Cross Country Passenger, and through freight trains. This is to create plenty of interest for both operators and viewers.

 It has been built in a modular construction which has allowed a more flexible and versatile approach with each base board being 4’ x 2’6” – (1.22m x .76m) and there are two half length boards.

 The layout can be put together in FOUR basic formats.

1. Hidden Yard to Hidden Yard with a station in the middle (36’ x 8’ – 11.5m x 2.5m).

2. Hidden Yard to End Station, (28’ x 8’ – 8.6m x 2.5m)

3. Similar to 2 but in the form of a ‘U’. (28’ x 12’ – 8.6m x 3.7m)

4. A full round and round layout. (35’ x 12’ – 10.7m x 3.7m)

 The hidden yards are two symmetrically opposite ends.

The additional boards can be added to give a full round and round layout 9′ x 29′ which gives a nominal footprint of 35′ x 12′ (10.7m x 3.7m) as mentioned above.

 We have found in practice that the additional time taken in every detail of construction when building the layout over many years has ensured that it runs reliably. Even after many months in storage it has always worked near perfectly every time. The track work and electronics are standing up well to the less than perfect environment of our Clubroom.

We have decided to use truncated pyramidal box legs (towers) for this layout that are independent and NOT LAYOUT SPECIFIC, this is so they can be re-used for other layouts for many years to come. They also stack one on top of the other for ease of storage and transportation. Because the base boards sit on top of towers, it means the locating dowels and bolts only have to align and hold the boards together.

For transportation, storage and maintenance we fit end boards and 40mm x 20mm timber stretchers across the top which creates a box to protect them and because we’re using tower legs, it also means they can be used to support the boards when they are turned UPSIDE DOWN, without fear of damage to the scenery when we need to work on the under side and gives us easy access for upgrading and maintenance.

Erection and dismantling of the layout is easy achieved by the small team even when dealing with the full round and round version (17 baseboards).

 We use MERG’s Cbus system to control and sense the points and we’re able to set routes i.e. into and out of the 11 road fiddle yards with one push button switch. The layout can also be changed from a standard DC control to DCC at the flick of a switch.

 We’re also using MERG’s DCC equipment and JMRI to operate the locomotives, several of which have sound units.

Construction of Luffield Junction was started by the now disbanded Bushey & District MRS. It was named Frome and was a fictitious station
on the Somerset & Dorset Line.
The layout was purchased by SWHMRS from an ex-member of the Bushey club in 2014. Only part of the layout was operational so we are now undertaking a major redesign project which will facilitate the varying eras and operating companies of members’ rolling stock.
This fictional line is set in the South Midlands during the time era from just after the Second World War to the late 1950’s. Thus all members will be able to run their stock on the layout without feeling out of place.
Luffield Junction lies about midway along the line, on the Northants/Bucks border, where two lines converge from the North and North West. LMS and LNER have running rights along the whole length of the line, while GWR and Southern run North as far as Luffield.

The layout is under the process of another change – from the originally planned ‘circle’ to a straight through layout of six boards. This works better for assembly in the clubroom space to allow use by members for running their stock.

MOOS (OBB) (H0 scale)

Location Waldviertel in Lower Austria – Through Junction station, located on a subsidiary line running from Zwettl to Horn, the standard gauge branch heading to Huf. The narrow-gauge heading south to Krumau am Kamp.

Whilst the main running line is electrified both the narrow gauge and the branch are not -relying on diesel and some steam traction. The narrow-gauge merges in the station area using Tillig dual gauge trackwork.

The era modelled is from the late 1970’s onwards- This allows a flexibility in the range of rolling stock, so that some interesting items may appear from time to time.

The layout is 20’x2″ it is self-supporting on trestles. The track used is Peco code 75 electro-frog points etc, the catenary is by Sommerfeldt.

Crew for the layout is normally 3/4 – for a 1day show (4/5 for a 2/more day show)

Insurance value £5000.

Expenses – Fuel for transportation of layout and crew plus accommodation as necessary.

Layout fits into my Skoda Yeti with all the stock and 1 other operator.

Contact m.roualle791@btinternet.com for booking the layout. 02084214199/07377188329

The locations of Horn, Zwettl and Krumau am Kamp exist – the rest is fiction.