The West Camel Club's 7 mm gauge layout
I have contributed to this project since 2009 by building the narrow gauge sections at home and helping with some of the scenic work on the standard gauge sections. i purchased two standard O gauge locomotives and scratchbuilt another, and built a fleet of 2ft6in gauge narrow gauge stock.
Here are some pictures of the transfer section of the transfer section as it was exhibited in April 2012. If you click on any picture it will zoom up, and then you can click in the upper left or right side to move to another picture.
The O Gauge Club Layout
The ‘O’ Gauge Group of the West Camel MRS was formed in January 2009 to meet the needs of members with an interest or capability in British 0 gauge, 7 mm to the foot. The initial project is a large end-to-end layout to run almost the full length of the Davis Hall, about 45 feet in total, and is 2 feet wide for most of its length. It is sectional and portable, being stored in sections beneath the Hall stage. Around seven members became involved and soon it was agreed to add a narrow gauge feeder line in 0-16.5 gauge alongside the standard gauge line.
The Concept
The overall theme is based on a Heritage Railway, thus removing conflict over regional or period based persuasions and which also allows scope for a range of modelling skills. The objective is to allow any member to be able to run any loco or rolling stock provided it is compatible with 2 rail universal scale track to British loading gauge, together with any 0-16.5 or 0n30 narrow gauge stock.
The Layout.
The layout is in three sections built on 11 separate baseboards.
The first section is a fiddle yard with a 4 road sector plate and two scenic baseboards on the approach.
The second section is a “passing place” in the main single line, the whole of the narrow gauge feeder line, a quarry, a transfer platform between the two gauges. A stone tippler siding and shunting facilities for transfer of stone, freight and passengers are provided.
The third section is the station area, laid out with a 2 coach bay, a 3 coach run round platform face and various sidings to accommodate an engine shed with two cripple sidings, a goods shed, a “diesel” shed, and stabling for locomotives.
Virtually all the track work is Peco 124 code BH rail and point work, laid to 6 ft nominal radius, with a couple of kit built (Marcway) points to fill awkward angles.
The electrical system is DC cab control from two independent controllers permitting simultaneous operation of two standard gauge and one narrow gauge locos..
The layout may be set up and exhibited in four configurations:
1. The standard and narrow gauge quarry with cassette fiddleyards.
2. The standard gauge station and fiddleyard.
3. The standard gauge station, the quarry and narrow gauge, and the standard gauge fiddle yard.
4. The narrow gauge quarry on its own,
The ‘O’ Gauge Group of the West Camel MRS was formed in January 2009 to meet the needs of members with an interest or capability in British 0 gauge, 7 mm to the foot. The initial project is a large end-to-end layout to run almost the full length of the Davis Hall, about 45 feet in total, and is 2 feet wide for most of its length. It is sectional and portable, being stored in sections beneath the Hall stage. Around seven members became involved and soon it was agreed to add a narrow gauge feeder line in 0-16.5 gauge alongside the standard gauge line.
The Concept
The overall theme is based on a Heritage Railway, thus removing conflict over regional or period based persuasions and which also allows scope for a range of modelling skills. The objective is to allow any member to be able to run any loco or rolling stock provided it is compatible with 2 rail universal scale track to British loading gauge, together with any 0-16.5 or 0n30 narrow gauge stock.
The Layout.
The layout is in three sections built on 11 separate baseboards.
The first section is a fiddle yard with a 4 road sector plate and two scenic baseboards on the approach.
The second section is a “passing place” in the main single line, the whole of the narrow gauge feeder line, a quarry, a transfer platform between the two gauges. A stone tippler siding and shunting facilities for transfer of stone, freight and passengers are provided.
The third section is the station area, laid out with a 2 coach bay, a 3 coach run round platform face and various sidings to accommodate an engine shed with two cripple sidings, a goods shed, a “diesel” shed, and stabling for locomotives.
Virtually all the track work is Peco 124 code BH rail and point work, laid to 6 ft nominal radius, with a couple of kit built (Marcway) points to fill awkward angles.
The electrical system is DC cab control from two independent controllers permitting simultaneous operation of two standard gauge and one narrow gauge locos..
The layout may be set up and exhibited in four configurations:
1. The standard and narrow gauge quarry with cassette fiddleyards.
2. The standard gauge station and fiddleyard.
3. The standard gauge station, the quarry and narrow gauge, and the standard gauge fiddle yard.
4. The narrow gauge quarry on its own,
look at the layout in moving pictures!
THE CAMELOT QUARRY NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY
1. A FICTIONAL HISTORY
A source of high quality building stone, later unique enough to be trademarked “CAMROCK” , was discovered and worked from the middle 1700's. Located in a remote area, a horse-drawn tramway was built to carry the stone to Gregson Lane, 10 miles away, where connection to the canal system was made. Within the quarry a seam of the rare ore, Luddite, was found and this was mined, smelted in Gregson Lane and the alloy used for making horseshoes, its only known use.
When the Luddite seam being worked in 1860, the huge demand for horseshoes prompted the upgrading of the tramway to steam traction, and the Camelot Quarry Railway was born. It provided transport for the quarry workers as well as the carriage of stone. Repair and maintenance facilities and a workmen's mess room were built at the Quarry end, and stations or halts were built at Capon’s Green and Goosehill..
In 1873 the standard gauge railway to Dinnington opened, passing close to the quarry. In 1880 a transfer platform was introduced so that passenger and light goods services could connect between Gregson Lane and Dinnington. Combined revenue from passenger and stone traffic made the railway profitable. The Camrock quarry grew.
During world war 1, German prisoners of war built a ramp and tippler trestle to permit the loading of quarry stone to standard gauge wagons. This and the closing of the Gregson canal led to the abandonment of stone traffic on the quarry railway, and improved bus services provided the death knell to passenger traffic. The narrow gauge line closed in 1924. With the development of the internal combustion engine, demand for horseshoes fell greatly, but it was too difficult for the local craftsmen, known as Luddites, to think of anything useful to do with the ore.
With the 1950's came the restoration of the Ffestiniog and Tal-y-Llyn slate lines in North Wales, leading to an enthusiastic local group of volunteers re-opening the Camelot to Gregson Lane line as a tourist attraction. The falling of the Beeching Axe in the 1960's closed the standard gauge line, removed the stone transport link from the quarry, now reduced to only small production levels, and this opportunity was seized upon by the Camelot line to offer some commercial stone transport in addition to its tourist traffic.
Once again this stone traffic was withdrawn when the standard gauge line, too, was restored to tourist operation, which included the movement of the remaining stone production from the quarry. The historical workmen's mess room had to be demolished and replaced with a grounded coach to house a tea room, to comply with European Health and Safety regulations. The engine shed is a listed building. Together, the two railways combine to represent an important part of British Railway history, both the narrow gauge and standard gauge systems.
THE RAILWAY TODAY
Tourist passenger services also provide a useful passenger and parcels link between Dinnington and Gregson Lane. The Luddite mine has been reopened, and the Luddite ore, quite useless today, is processed by methods unchanged since 1800 at the expense of the local District Council to provide employment for east European immigrants. The inert horseshoe alloy is stockpiled by the Council in case a use should be found for it in future.
This relatively large taxpayer income subsidises the railway and has permitted the purchase of a large fleet of restored locomotives. Notable examples include a Hudswell-Clark side tank from the Isle of Wight, two previously industrial Hunslets, and a rare example of a diminuitive Dinorwic Quarry Hunslet of the “Alice” class. A 1935 Ruston Diesel was introduced recently, but it was unpopular with the steam enthusiasts and, known as “Stinkpot”, it is relegated to emergency rescue duties. Three more locos are on loan from the Dodry, Phogetville and Grumpigh Raiload in Colorado with whom we have a twinning arrangement. These are a rare and early (Ca 1850) vertical boiler antique rescued from the logging backwoods of Maine, a Porter 0-4-2 sent to us to be “Anglicised”, and a maintenance railtruck converted from a Ford model A of 1915 vintage.
NOTES FOR MODEL TRAIN BUFFS
The layout shows part of the quarry, the transfer platform and engine shed, the ramp and transfer trestle, and the touriat cafe facilities. The track to Gregson Lane leads to a small fiddleyard hidden under a hillside.
The scale is 0-16.5, or “British 0n30”. 7 mm to the foot, 1:43 scale, thus it is 0 scale running on 00 track. Some of the locos and figures are “American 0n30”, which is a quarter inch to the foot or 1:48, a 10% difference only apparent to purists.
The power is 12v DC analogue, although the Phogetville-loaned locos are fitted with DCC, which we do not activate. The American Porter is ready-to-run from Bachmann and awaits butchery of the body. Bachmann also provided the Railtruck. The Hudswell-Clark is a kit from Smallbrook studios on a Hornby chassis. All the others are scratchbuilt on proprietory chassis. (The Alice is on a Porter, and the vertical boiler is on a Pug). Passenger and freight stock is kit-built from Peco. All structures are scratchbuilt, as is the lighting. Couplings are Kadees with magnetic uncoupling.
The layout is portable, and dissassembles into three 12 inch by 45 inch sections which fit into one car, and it can be operated independently of the standard gauge layout, or with a correspondingly short section of standard gauge, as well as in full conjunction with the Club's entire 0 gauge layout.
Derek Gregory, February 2012
1. A FICTIONAL HISTORY
A source of high quality building stone, later unique enough to be trademarked “CAMROCK” , was discovered and worked from the middle 1700's. Located in a remote area, a horse-drawn tramway was built to carry the stone to Gregson Lane, 10 miles away, where connection to the canal system was made. Within the quarry a seam of the rare ore, Luddite, was found and this was mined, smelted in Gregson Lane and the alloy used for making horseshoes, its only known use.
When the Luddite seam being worked in 1860, the huge demand for horseshoes prompted the upgrading of the tramway to steam traction, and the Camelot Quarry Railway was born. It provided transport for the quarry workers as well as the carriage of stone. Repair and maintenance facilities and a workmen's mess room were built at the Quarry end, and stations or halts were built at Capon’s Green and Goosehill..
In 1873 the standard gauge railway to Dinnington opened, passing close to the quarry. In 1880 a transfer platform was introduced so that passenger and light goods services could connect between Gregson Lane and Dinnington. Combined revenue from passenger and stone traffic made the railway profitable. The Camrock quarry grew.
During world war 1, German prisoners of war built a ramp and tippler trestle to permit the loading of quarry stone to standard gauge wagons. This and the closing of the Gregson canal led to the abandonment of stone traffic on the quarry railway, and improved bus services provided the death knell to passenger traffic. The narrow gauge line closed in 1924. With the development of the internal combustion engine, demand for horseshoes fell greatly, but it was too difficult for the local craftsmen, known as Luddites, to think of anything useful to do with the ore.
With the 1950's came the restoration of the Ffestiniog and Tal-y-Llyn slate lines in North Wales, leading to an enthusiastic local group of volunteers re-opening the Camelot to Gregson Lane line as a tourist attraction. The falling of the Beeching Axe in the 1960's closed the standard gauge line, removed the stone transport link from the quarry, now reduced to only small production levels, and this opportunity was seized upon by the Camelot line to offer some commercial stone transport in addition to its tourist traffic.
Once again this stone traffic was withdrawn when the standard gauge line, too, was restored to tourist operation, which included the movement of the remaining stone production from the quarry. The historical workmen's mess room had to be demolished and replaced with a grounded coach to house a tea room, to comply with European Health and Safety regulations. The engine shed is a listed building. Together, the two railways combine to represent an important part of British Railway history, both the narrow gauge and standard gauge systems.
THE RAILWAY TODAY
Tourist passenger services also provide a useful passenger and parcels link between Dinnington and Gregson Lane. The Luddite mine has been reopened, and the Luddite ore, quite useless today, is processed by methods unchanged since 1800 at the expense of the local District Council to provide employment for east European immigrants. The inert horseshoe alloy is stockpiled by the Council in case a use should be found for it in future.
This relatively large taxpayer income subsidises the railway and has permitted the purchase of a large fleet of restored locomotives. Notable examples include a Hudswell-Clark side tank from the Isle of Wight, two previously industrial Hunslets, and a rare example of a diminuitive Dinorwic Quarry Hunslet of the “Alice” class. A 1935 Ruston Diesel was introduced recently, but it was unpopular with the steam enthusiasts and, known as “Stinkpot”, it is relegated to emergency rescue duties. Three more locos are on loan from the Dodry, Phogetville and Grumpigh Raiload in Colorado with whom we have a twinning arrangement. These are a rare and early (Ca 1850) vertical boiler antique rescued from the logging backwoods of Maine, a Porter 0-4-2 sent to us to be “Anglicised”, and a maintenance railtruck converted from a Ford model A of 1915 vintage.
NOTES FOR MODEL TRAIN BUFFS
The layout shows part of the quarry, the transfer platform and engine shed, the ramp and transfer trestle, and the touriat cafe facilities. The track to Gregson Lane leads to a small fiddleyard hidden under a hillside.
The scale is 0-16.5, or “British 0n30”. 7 mm to the foot, 1:43 scale, thus it is 0 scale running on 00 track. Some of the locos and figures are “American 0n30”, which is a quarter inch to the foot or 1:48, a 10% difference only apparent to purists.
The power is 12v DC analogue, although the Phogetville-loaned locos are fitted with DCC, which we do not activate. The American Porter is ready-to-run from Bachmann and awaits butchery of the body. Bachmann also provided the Railtruck. The Hudswell-Clark is a kit from Smallbrook studios on a Hornby chassis. All the others are scratchbuilt on proprietory chassis. (The Alice is on a Porter, and the vertical boiler is on a Pug). Passenger and freight stock is kit-built from Peco. All structures are scratchbuilt, as is the lighting. Couplings are Kadees with magnetic uncoupling.
The layout is portable, and dissassembles into three 12 inch by 45 inch sections which fit into one car, and it can be operated independently of the standard gauge layout, or with a correspondingly short section of standard gauge, as well as in full conjunction with the Club's entire 0 gauge layout.
Derek Gregory, February 2012