[kevsmith]

Back in the eighties and nineties my main interest in railway modelling was gauge 1 either in 1/32nd scale for German or 10mm to the foot for British outline.

I exhibited two gauge 1 exhibition layouts. Mardy Colliery was a representation of a typical National Coal board colliery with small industrial locomotives and typical British four wheel wagons. It was immensely popular on the show circuit but had a fatal flaw in its construction and its days were numbered as the baseboard tops began to sag at an ever increasing rate. I had already started to build its replacement 'Gottersee' a German branch line based on the line to Frasdorf in Bavaria on which I was going to run my Marklin RTR locos and also my scratchbuilt German locos and wagons. As the terminal station on the line it would require some shunting on any train that arrived so there would always be some action.

Frasdorf

The view looking towards the loco shed

The station building

A close up of the shed

Construction started in earnest at the Sheffield '0' gauge group clubrooms and also at my workshop at home.

 

[kevsmith]

Track was to be Tenmille flexitrack with hand laid points including a three way point at the station throat. After the disaster with Mardy baseboard tops were plywood not chipboard and as will all my layouts the baseboards were all the same size to make transport easier. Points were all to be operated by Fulgurex point motors except the three way.

The buildings were built to drawings scaled off photos and as they are all typical Bavarian in appearance. A basic plywood shell was used with textured paint for the rendered areas and real wood cladding for the wooden bits. All were individual planks! The roof was wood with resin cast tile details and resin castings from my own patterns were used to make the windows and doors. Full interior detail was included including a risque scene in one of the bedrooms upstairs in the station building

Two hidden sidings served as a fiddle yard at the back and this was hidden by an industrial spur with the Gottersee sawmill and Gottersee brewery.

The Brewery after painting

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Basic operation was for a freight or passenger to come into the station. The loco would uncouple and run onto the headshunt before either running around the train or going onto the loco shed for servicing. Freight trains shunted the spur and the two bay platforms before returning back to the rear sidings

The loco shed with a modified and superdetailed Marklin P8

The other P8 4-6-0 and the BR78 4-6-4T wait in the hidden sidings for their next turn

Exhibition packs were sent to most of the model railway clubs I knew to start getting invites. "Nothing drives a layout construction on like a deadline to get it to show"

Nowadays info packs like this would be done on the computer but back then it was hand drawn and photocopied together. This is a scan of one of the original layout descriptions

 

[kevsmith]

In the van and ready to go. Dexion racking was used to transport the baseboards and the stockboxes are huge due to the size of the models

Set up and ready the punters. Note the complete lack of a lighting rig compared to how we exhibit today

You can see here how imposing it was at shows compared to the 00/H0 and N scale layouts that used to surround it

 

[kevsmith]

The Marklin locos were all converted to DC operation and the scratchbuilt locos were built DC from the start. I'd picked up quite a bit of Marklin rolling stock but also wanted to scratchbuild freight vehicles.

Once again resin casting came into its own with complete wagon kits being made from home made patterns

Figures came from a variety of sources as did the road vehicles. I trawled through all the Military modelling adverts to find suitable items

 

[kevsmith]

The station building

The sawmill

 

[kevsmith]

For interest the loco stock comprised
BR 38 (P8) 4-6-0 Marklin standard

BR38 (P8) 4-6-0 Superdetailed, Witte smoke deflectors lightly weathered (see above)

BR 78 4-6-4T Marklin standard

BR 80 0-6-0T Marklin weathered

BR 80 Marklin superdetailed, This loco had flown off the end of the layout and dropped 4 foot onto the concrete and needed a lot of TLC to get it back into shape

 

[kevsmith]

The Marklin 0-6-0DH was repainted into orange as the Sawmill shunter and there was a green BR80 0-6-0T that also shunted the spur

Scratchbuilt Badische Staatsbahn 0-4-0+0-4-0 Mallett

and the big beast the BR41 2-8-2. way too big for the layout!

This was more the size of loco it needed. A BR89 0-6-0T

These days I would have filmed it extensively of course but unless I find someone who filmed it at a show there is no video footage of it. When the house move to the Lake District began to become a reality I realised there would be nowhere to keep it. So it, and all the stock, went to a dealer in the South of England. My wife gasped when she saw the amount on the cheque! Last I heard it was on public display at an equestrian centre somewhere in Wales but I do miss it. I don't think me and the lads ever fully realised its operating potential back in those days

 

[dwb]

Fascinating

Thanks for taking the time to post!

David

 

[Babz]

Hi I love this Gauge. Your layout is very nice indeed.making Scratch buildings is Great modelling. I would like a Scratch built Ho Station of Wetter on the Ruhr where i am from.Thank You for sharing
Babs

 

[kristopher1805]

Really like this and the locos, thanks for posting

 

[adecoaches26point4]

Impressive size and great to see it being used as an exhibition layout!

Regards

 

[John Webb]

Very interesting. (Thought I'd got a problem viewing pictures but now all OK)

Regards,
John Webb

 

[kevsmith]

Thanks Chaps.

I'm going through the pics of Mardy Colliery, my other more famous, gauge 1 layout and will start a thread on that one soon

Kev