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Layouts

The club has 4 layouts that are either under construction or operational in a range of gauges and scales. Further details of these can be found in the sections below. Some of the layouts have been in the model railway press and Westerham (O gauge) and Wittenden (O-16.5) are often seen on the 'local' exhibitions circuit. The club also an OO test track allowing members to test locomotives or just enjoy watching them go round.  

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If you would like to know more or invite one of the layouts to an exhibition please use the details on the 'contact us' page

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For each layout navigation arrows will be shown where more than one image is available. Hovering the mouse over the bottom of the picture will display a description. Double clicking the picture will open a static image (displaying the picture full size) with arrows to move left or right. Click the [X] above the image to return to the layout details. Where links to other web pages exist these are underlined and clicking on the text should display the related page(s).

 

Please note all images are copyright Tonbridge MRC or the layouts owners as appropriate and TMRC is not responsible for the content of external sites if links are provided. 

Wittenden Road layout

Wittenden

Club Layout  - Scale: O gauge Narrow gauge (O-16.5 and O-9)

Wittenden is a narrow gauge layout based in the Weald of Kent. Locomotives and stock are kit or scratch built and showing a wide range of differing locomotives and rolling stock (much of it owned by members). It also has much narrower feeder line and interchange for additional interest.

Westerham

Club Layout - Scale: O gauge

Westerham is based on the original branch line terminus not far from Sevenoaks. A lot of the track bed is buried under the M25 but there are still evidence for the keen eyed.  The layout uses digital control (DCC) so sound fitted loco's are often chuffing and clanking about it. The stock is a mixture of club & members. Track is Peco and buildings scratch built.

Westerham Layout

Hobbs Hill

Members Layout - Scale: OO gauge

Hobbs Hill is a model of a busy through station set in the late 1950's on a former SR route in the West country. The layout is built with prototypical operation in mind, and is based on the track plan of South Molton Road between Coleford Jct and Barnstaple. It has attended several exhibitions.

Hobbs Hill Layout

Ashdown Park

Club Layout - Scale: OO gauge

Ashdown park is yet another Southern layout but this time of a preserved line in west Sussex along the lines of the bluebell railway. Its being built by the younger members of the club and currently has track and wiring completed with work starting on the station area. For economy it shares a fiddle yard with Beaminster.

Beaminster Junction

Club Layout - Scale: 00 gauge

Beaminster Junction is a large 00 layout After a slow start and delays caused by the pandemic it is now progressing well with track wired and ballasted, scenery going in and buildings being made. It has been built on a large “U” shaped curve. Not a unique design but certainly unusual. The idea being to give a sweeping vista as trains, short and long, travelling through the scene. It pinches the name from the real Beaminster, in Dorset; thus the setting is primarily Southern / BR(S) though some BR(W) & GWR stock might be seen, even the occasional Diesel. Track is Peco code 75  with points and signals operated by servos and limited interlocking. Buildings are scratch built or detailed kits (some modified).

Faversham

Members Layout - Scale: 00 gauge

The layout was originally built about 10 years ago by Tonbridge club and then sold to a club member, who did a few alterations before passing it on to another member who further improved and added to it. The layout name was changed to Faversham as it depicted brewery sidings and a small fuel depot. Unfortunately due to it being 12 feet long it lost some of it's fiddle yard in order to fit into it's present home.

Tyneham Bay

Members Layout - Scale: 00 gauge

The layout is being built by 3 members to replace a previous exhibition layout. The trackplan has been adapted for our purposes from a design in a Peco trackplans book by CJ Freezer. The layout is DC controlled.


Whilst Tyneham Bay is a fictitious location, the village of Tyneham is real but with a population of 0. This is because it was one of two villages evacuated in the second World War to allow the Allied forces to prepare for D-Day. Tyneham Bay is a coastal holiday resort around the Dorset area, and was served by Southern and GWR services. It is probable that we can operate it as either Southern/GWR or BR times.

Wotford

Members Layout - Scale: 00 gauge

I consider that I am one of the fortunate few that have not only 
retired but have been able to invest in a toy room in the garden. Well at least the authorities know where I am if not gardening. The railway is being built as a series of scenes separated by breaks that, in the main, are tunnels.  The stations have names associated with Watford where I spent my formative years, so why WOTFORD well simply I live in Otford. The series of lines will also allow visitors to control trains rather than just watch me play. 

Southwark Bridge

Members Layout - Scale: 2mm/N gauge

Southwark Bridge imagines that Holborn Viaduct had been built further east. London bound trains still divided at Herne Hill. A later extension to Charing Cross was built requiring trains to reverse at Southwark Bridge but it was not a success. The reversals were brought to an abrupt halt during a WW2 bombing raid. This made two of the five platforms at Southwark Bridge redundant but they discovered a new lease of life for parcels and newspaper trains.

Trains are traditional Southern Region EMU’s Diesels and Electric locomotives using the third rail as seen during the late 1960’s through to the late 1970’s. Control is via DCC. The layout measures 7’6” long, 4’ 6” deep in an “L” shape.

Car Portable

Members layout - Scale: 00 & 009 gauge

This layout was designed to be 'easily' portable in a members car by having a stackable set of light weight baseboards. 

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Its primary purpose was to give members something to do given that Ashdown Park and Westerham were not available. The secondary purpose was to test members’ ingenuity when faced with problems over access and scenery building. The principle problem, however, is not being able to make too much mess at the club so much is being done at home then brought in for assembly. It's a bit of a learning curve for many people.

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Strood Dock

Members Layout - Scale: O Gauge

Strood Dock is a part Fact, part Fiction, Southern Terminus layout, based loosely on the original South Eastern Railway’s North Kent Line to Strood opened in 1849.  This terminus Strood (formally Frindsbury) was soon superseded in 1856 by the SER’s new station at Strood which connected with the Medway Valley Line to Maidstone and latterly to the Chatham Main Line.  The Dock sidings though remained in use until the 1960s.
This model attempts to recreate (with a lot of licence) a flavour of what could have been if the old station had remained in use!
Track is PECO, points and Starting Signal are Servo operated for slow and quiet movement.  The buildings are largely made from modified LCut Creative laser cut kits (which for O Gauge are really inexpensive!).  Stock is a mixture of kit built and RTR.  Locos are DCC operated with sound.  The Clyde Puffer is a Langley Models kit and the dock walls are modified DOW Scenics walling.
A key consideration to exhibiting this layout is to always try to have something moving.  Operation is largely based upon an extensive Goods traffic interspersed with the odd Passenger train and Light Engine movements to the Engine Shed.

Porthlew

Members layout - N gauge

Porthlew is a fictional location somewhere in the west country in the 1930's-1940's, with a mainline, branch line and a goods yard. The layout is designed to fit a table top and fold away when not in use so all  items over  25mm high have to be removable. The baseboard frame is made from 18x44mm softwood with a 5.5mm ply top. The track is a mix of peco setrack and flexitrack and points have SEEP point motors. Buildings are a mix of kits, with some modified and other buildings are scratch built using embossed plasticard. Locos' and rolling stock are mainly Graham Farish. I use a DC twin controller with a separate control panel.  Porthlew has so far taken two years to build and is still a work in progress. I am a member of the TMRC.

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