Something a little different this week. On Sunday, Yoshi stayed home with his mum while I went off to Shepton Mallet and the Bath & West Showground who were hosting Britain’s Biggest Model Railway – Heaton Lodge Junction. With over three miles of track, the ‘O’ Gauge layout took eight years to build and can accommodate over 25 full length model trains. The detailed scenic model railway perfectly recreates the childhood memories of its main builder Simon George who took a year to practise and refine the modelling techniques employed in the layout in addition to three years of research to create a pictorial map of the 1.5 mile location. Everything, from drain covers to signal gantries are placed exactly where they should be. Back in the early 1980’s Simon spent much of his school holidays perched on a bridge parapet watching the trains go by. In fact, Simon is himself included in the model in the very location he spent so much of his time.
The following video gives a flavour of operations on the layout which normally runs in an automated mode with trains being pre-programmed. The system senses exactly which section a train is occupying and depending on the route of each train, the signals and points change accordingly.
I was accompanied on my visit by my brother and my nephew, and we were all really impressed by Heaton Lodge Junction and look forward to future viewings including the planned, detailed additions of a typical 1980’s BR station, marshalling yard and depot. Viewing the model layout has really given me renewed inspiration to get started on building my own model railway. I still need to fully board the loft at home before building the baseboards for the track work and have decided that I will lure my brother, and anybody else, in with the promise of cheese and beer to help get this done. Although I’ll be modelling in ‘OO’ gauge, the images below show what it’s possible to achieve with a lot of hard work and skill and I hope I can have at least a fraction of the ability which went into creating this masterpiece.
The next few images show the scale of the model. Many thanks to staff at the Bath & West Showground who gave me access to the balcony area to take the photographs.
As well as Heaton Lodge Junction, there were several other layouts on display. All highly detailed and impressive in their own way.
Of particular local interest for this blog are the two following railway layouts of Wimborne from The Wimborne Railway Society and the former Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway southern terminus at Bournemouth West: supported by Model Railway Solutions (MRS) of Poole:
It was fantastic to see all the model railways on show in addition to Heaton Lodge Junction. The Bournemouth West display employed very authentic ‘live steam’ locomotives and the dedication to realistic modelling was evident throughout the hall.
Things have been quiet on the full size railway this week in Dorset – although Class 701 test runs continue to visit Poole and Bournemouth, Sunday engineering work at Branksome didn’t produce any locomotive hauled engineers trains and the regular Class 73 hauled test train scheduled for Monday 11th April, although activated early doors, didn’t move from Derby and was eventually cancelled. So instead, here’s a photo of Yoshi from last year alongside GBRf Class 73 Electro-diesel No. 73128 ‘O.V.S. Bulleid C.B.E.’ which visited Weymouth on 6th September 2021 whilst on route learning duties. For some reason I am unable to fathom the driver greeted me by saying ‘it’s the man with the barking dog!’
A video of the light-engine at Hamworthy and Weymouth. If you listen carefully, you might just hear Yoshi bark his approval:
Our archive video for this week comes from March 1995 and a visit to Eastleigh when it looks like I used a tripod and actually set it up correctly for the most part as trains are not consistently going up or down hill. Although it would appear I still overused the zoom function.
For comparison, you might like to watch the following compilation video filmed mostly around Eastleigh in the more recent 2020’s:
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading – comments and corrections always welcome. Why not support your local heritage railway this coming Easter Weekend, they would welcome your support!