BRISTOL ROAD - N
By
Bentley Model Railway Group
The layout was purchased from Graham Elliot as Thealby and his group of N Gauge Members. The original concept was to base the track on Theale but a his stock was of the East Midlands, it was named after a village near Scunthorpe on the Lincolnshire Wolds.
I decided to rename it Bristol Road to make it a little more vague as to it’s location. My stock is mainly West Country modern image.
The basis of the layout, is that Beeching decided to single the line and close the station in the 1960s. As there was quite a bit of industry around, a freight only line was kept with some sidings and a head-shunt. This served the BP depot, the Special Steels plant, ARC Aggregates depot and a small infrastructure area..
During the 2000s, Railtrack decided, with local government assistance to relay the 2nd line and re-open the station. With more housing on the way in the 2010s the bay platform was reopened and a small DMU servicing area was installed on the entrance to the Steel plant.
This explain why there is only a single crossover between each line. Network Rail with Colas involved are looking to make the platform accessible from both lines.
At present, both lines are cleared for passenger and freight services as well as both being bidirectional.
The passenger stock is predominately GWR in their distinct green livery (sludge green). This includes IEPs, Castle HST sets, and DMUs. Not all passenger trains stop at the station, and some run through on the non-station line.
Freight traffic is mainly DB Schenker with a smattering of the other Freight TOCs. Goods carried, are the 3 industries on the layout with some through trains of containers and vehicles.
Network infrastructure and test trains also have visits to the line.
The layout is on PECO Code 80 track with analogue (DC) control to a scale of 1:148 on 9mm track. This is N gauge. There is an 8 road fiddle yard. 4 for each loop. The points are operated by solenoids on the front and servos in the fiddle yard.
