The best of the rest at the SMRC show

Good evening,

Tonight we are finishing our look at the layouts from the South Hants Model Railway Club show in November 2015. So without further ado let’s have a look!
Pwllheli (P4)

Pwllheli is a P4 gauage layout owned by South Hants Model Railway Club member Jonathan Buckie. Pwllheli is situated in north- west corner of Wales, on the Llŷn Peninsula, Pwllheli is the northern terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway. 8 return workings a day traverse the coastal route to Machynlleth with services continuing onward to Shrewsbury.

The layout attempts to convey an impression of the station and its surrounding area as it appeared between 2000 – 2012 prior to European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) coming into operation, with a regular DMU passenger service, interspersed with an occasional heritage rail tour or engineers train.

Three Mills (3mm)

Three Mills is a 3mm gauge layout owned by Jas Milham who is best known for his beautiful and utterly convincing depictions of the 1950s East Anglian railway scene in ‘S’ scale (think of his iconic Yaxbury Branch). What is possibly less known is that During The 1960’s and 70’s he exhibited a 3mm scale layout known as The Mid-Anglian Line. After his move to ‘S’ Scale, Jas returned to 3mm Finescale in response to the availability of improved products and techniques. Three Mills is the result.

Brighton East (4mm/ft EM gauge)

The final layout we are looking at is Brighton East a EM gauge layout owned by Dave and Matt Smith. Using the old Kemp Town branch as a setting, Brighton East depicts a Southern Region Rail terminus in the period loosely around 1998 to 2003 where 3rd Rail EMU’s prevail on passenger services. What if it Kemp Town had retained some passenger service (this actually ceased in the 1933) and had never been shut (it closed to goods traffic in 1971), been electrified and then had a second tunnel bored to allow direct access to Lewes? This is not a prototypical rendition, the space was not available to dBrighton East featureo that, but it hopefully gives a flavour of the small space restricted terminus that was Kemp Town. Look out for the track maintenance vehicles that are a feature of this layout.