Cheltenham Model Railway Exhibitions

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Toddington

Description based on material supplied by the layout owner

Toddington  
David Boot & Joshua Hall OO gauge 4mm scale

The layout is as near as possible a replica of Toddington station on the GWSR Heritage line in Gloucestershire. The era depicted is present day so there are always changes being made from one exhibition to another. For instance since Toddington’s last appearance at an exhibition several changes have been made, the ash pit adjacent to the coal yard has been dug up and re-constructed. The museum on platform 2 has been repainted a different colour and new gardeners have changed the landscape slightly. The rivet counters will no doubt notice many discrepancies but if the overall appearance looks correct then a reasonable amount of satisfaction is gained.

The layout in its present form just fits into the car which makes it easy as regards transporting to exhibitions. It is of scale length so can handle the normal 6 to 7 coach train that generally run when the GWSR is fully operational. This consists of three boards 1200mm by 600mm, a rather long fiddle yard of 2400mm by 300mm plus a small hidden traverser at the Broadway end of the layout. Track and points are Peco code 75 throughout. Signals are proprietary and scratch built which are made up from Ratio odds and ends and various components collected from previous layouts.

All buildings are scratch built by necessity as nothing, even remotely representative, is available on the present day market. Trees and shrubs are always changing so I make no excuse if these are not exactly correct. The time of year is May or June so that we do have some colour in the station environs.

The locomotive and stock is as appears and is available to run on the railway at any given time but like the real thing visiting engines do appear.

The layout is built such that it can be extended in either direction but the thought that Broadway Station will be operational in the next 2 to 3 years or so draws me to going North. Stanway Viaduct would be a nice project.

 








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