Some views of the layout built by Steve Neill in O Gauge. The layout having passed from Steve to Fred Lewis, made its last outing in the present form at Thornbury over the May Bank Holiday 2024. Fred has plans to re-purpose it to represent a small halt in BR(W) region, watch this space for developments.
Steve’s O Gauge shunting layout is operated by Battery-powered Radio-control (BPRC) and features a working yard crane and RC lorries.
Primarily a shunting layout depicting a small rural Goods Shed, the station is off-scene and passenger stock does not venture this far. Loosely based on BR(E) during the latter decade of Steam, although occasional Diesel motive power is used. Presented in “Cameo Layout” style it is operated from the front.
There are some unusual features:
- The locomotives are battery powered radio control. The track is unpowered.
- A working Yard Crane transfers loads between R/C Lorries and open wagons.
The track plan has the bulk of the track at the rear, with the entrance hidden by a model of my own home, Rose Cottage, from which the layout gets its name. Taking reference to Iain Rice’s book on small layouts the track has a number of deliberate restrictions to “complicate” shunting. Hence the access to the cattle dock is limited to a single wagon, resulting in a track plan far from prototypical accuracy. To add further interest/challenge there are working yard and crossing gates from which the R/C lorry appears, with a working yard crane to transfer the load between the lorry and an open wagon.
All the buildings are based on real locations, and are set to the front to obscure the track work so that stock disappears in and out of view. Although transplanted to somewhere in ex Great Eastern territory locomotive stock from E, W and S regions are used, mainly for reasons of variety/interest.
