Association of Model Railway Clubs Wales & West of England

This is a small (4’9” long + 2’ fiddle yard) ‘modern image’ (2000-2017) terminus of a formerly  GWR branch  which is  still operational for passengers  on the border of the West Midlands and Shropshire. Minimal facilities are  provided by London Midland yet,  like other stations of theirs in the area such as Hagley, it retains its GWR building to serve commuters to the West Midlands. As well as the passenger services there is a quarry nearby loading trains with specialised aggregate.  Locomotives can also  be fuelled and serviced at the fuelling point here.

This is a first foray into DCC though the small terminus layout served by a  cassette fiddle yard is a similar concept to the builder’s DC ‘Todmorden Midland’ LMR 1950s layout which appeared in Oct 2016 Railway Modeller  and has been on the exhibition circuit in the last year.        (‘Gravelly Oak’ uses the same fiddle yard and supporting framework as that layout). Track is by PECO and control by NCE with traditionally operated SEEP point motors though frog switching is by autofrog units. Unlike my previous layout  which had

many scratch built buildings, this one uses modified resin and kit built buildings. Scenics reflect the quarrying nature of the railway here and are created largely from Woodland Scenics materials. Electrification has occurred since the layout first was completed and allows class 350 units to operate semi fast services over the LMR system. Stock is by Farish and Dapol with DMU classes 150,153 and 170 , EMUs class 350  while classes 08, 60, 66 and 70 deal with haulage.