Cleveland Model Railway Club looked back to the 1930s on the LNER for its ‘O’ gauge branch line scene. MARTIN SMITH tells the story of this attractive group project. Photography, Mike Bisset.
Gauge: 'O', 32mm | Scale: 7mm:1ft | Size: 20ft x 2ft | Region: Eastern | Period: 1930s | Control: Analogue
Above: Worsdell 'J72' 0-6-0T 1749 propels a single coke wagon on to the coal drops at Farnby.
IN THE MIDDLE OF 2010 Cleveland Model Railway Club moved to larger leased premises in Skelton, Cleveland. The club members, whose ranks were increasing steadily, were involved in constructing several layouts. ‘OO9’, ‘N’, ‘OO’, ‘EM’ and ‘P4’ scales were all being modelled, but there was only one who was a member of the Gauge O Guild who owned a 7mm scale exhibition layout. However, several other members were taking an interest in ‘O’ gauge around this time, but unfortunately the exhibition layout was too large to erect on a semi-permanent basis for running sessions. The group of six then got together over the winter and discussed the possibilities of building a 7mm club layout.
The requirements for the new layout were for one which could be easily erected by two people and easily packed for storage with ample runnin…
