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Old Time Brickworks

Description based on material supplied by the layout owner

Old Time Brickworks  
Nick Wheatley OO9 gauge 4mm scale

My layout the Old Time Brickworks features a narrow gauge railway serving a brick manufacturing plant. It is entirely fictional, set somewhere in England. It has been inspired by several real life brickworks that were served by a narrow gauge railway. Examples are Bursleden in Hampshire and the Old Kiln Light Railway in Surrey. The setting is almost timeless, but the vehicles date it to around the 1960s and 1970s.

The Fiction behind the layout is that a group of enthusiasts have taken over a derelict brickworks and are resuming production for the specialist heritage market. They have also restored the narrow gauge railway, they now use a variety of small diesel locomotives. The main manufacturing building needs some more repairs and the site still has a slightly unkempt look about it but this is in keeping with the early days of the restoration in many narrow gauge railways.

The Facts about this layout are that the main building which gives the model its name is a Playcraft kit (B805) this was bought in the 1960's and was found in an attic nearly 40 years later. The Round and the Beehive Kilns are from an American company called Model Rail Stuff, they were bought about 15 years ago.

It is designed to be simple, featuring only one track, being relaid in 2018, a continuous loop operable in either direction, with two sidings within the loop and one outside, which has a reverse head shunt. The track is mostly Peco N gauge Setrack, hidden beneath much ballasting. Motive power is mostly provided by new Minitrains diesels and the wagons are Roco, with a Liliput bogie van usually stabled next to a small goods shed. Occasionally coal wagons arrive to provide fuel for the brickworks and there may sometimes be a special excursion passenger train. The stacks of bricks and pallets come from a variety of sources, as do the road vehicles.

The layout was first exhibited in October 2012 at the M5-M50 Narrow Gauge Modelers Open day at Corse as a work in progress, a photograph of this appeared in the OO9 news. The scenery has since been improved and in January 2014 it was exhibited at the SWOONS Open day in Weston. The assistance of former fellow group member, Harvey Faulkner-Aston with the scenery is much appreciated

 






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