OO,4mm scale, 16.5mm gauge

Mickelover MRG

It is summer 1990, England have just lost to West Germany in the world cup, but in the quite Midlands town of Farkham life goes on as normal. The town is served by an occasional passenger service with freight being the main traffic on this secondary railway line.

Beyond the station and the town center, the land opens out to reveal a small freight yard serviced by trip workings and Speedlink services, whilst the main line gently curves away with a mixture of old and new buildings following its course.

The concept behind Farkhan was to capture the atmosphere of an urban scene with the railway passing through. This has been attempted, by locating buildings and trees at the front of the layout to break-up the direct lines of sight between the viewer and the trains, so when looking at the model the trains will come in and out of view creating a series of interesting 'cameos'.

The yard on the layout is protrayed in a run down, but still fuctioning state, very much how a number of freight terminals were in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Finally to create a realistic scene and make everything visually blend together, wach item has been weathered to differing degrees, just like on the prototype.

Trackwork on the layout is all hand built using C&L and Peco components and id fine scale 16.5mm guage standards. The major ascpect of the model is its buildings and structures and whilst some of these are modified kits, most have been scratch built. The rolling stock on the layouts is detailed, repainted and weathered with a large number of kit and scratch built items. THe layout was featured in the April 2005 issue of Railway Modeller.


(Info Courtesy: Mickelover MRG & CMRA)

Tags: Trains