{"id":967,"date":"2022-04-11T21:58:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T21:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therailwaydog.co.uk\/?p=967"},"modified":"2022-04-13T08:20:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T08:20:31","slug":"heaton-lodge-junction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therailwaydog.co.uk\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"Heaton Lodge Junction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a> – 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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