Solihull Model Railway Circle Annual Exhibition 2026

List of Traders Attending :

Keiths Model Railways
Elaine’s Trains
Baz’s Model Rail – 12 Volt DC

List of Layouts Attending :

1. Grange Aggregates
2mm Scale, N Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle

Grange Aggregates started up many years ago. The canal was cut to transport the stone out instead of using horses and wagons. The narrow-gauge railway was then laid to take stone to the crushing plant. Steam engines were introduced on the narrow gauge in the 1800s. When the main line railway was built, the loops and sidings to the quarry were also put in. All these forms of taking the stone out are still very much in evidence, with stone going out by canal, road or by rail.

2. A scottish Layout
4mm Scale, 00 Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle

An end to end branch line club layout based on Scottish practice, displayed here partly built to give an insight into layout construction. It is 16 feet long and just over 2 feet wide and we are using SMP code 75 bullhead plain track and handmade Marcway points. It has been constructed to run with either DCC or traditional control. There is a terminus station at one end and a hidden ‘fiddle’ yard with a traverser at the other, with a scenic section in between. A major part of the concept is the use of very deep baseboards, with the railway running through the middle, allowing greater depths and heights of scenery for a more interesting appearance. The major architectural feature is the curved viaduct based on Killiecrankie.

3. Cherwell
4mm Scale, OO Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle

A scenic OO gauge, 26 feet 6 inches by 10 feet 6 inches, four track mainline with an integral branch line. It features working automatic signals and has largely scratch built buildings with a local theme, e.g: the Manor House, the Masons Arms, the George Hotel and the Fat Cat cafe from Solihull; Kings Heath library; Tyseley station; and Water Orton station. The layout was built mainly to display scale length mainline trains; those being run reflecting the varying interests of the membership. Trains run are usually British outline but can come from any part of the UK mainland and from any date between about 1900 and the present day. If you look carefully, you can see pigeons roosting under the station bridge, foxes using the track bed as a shortcut and one fox eyeing lambs, gull’s eggs and the shepherd on the upper pasture, cats watching building work in the arch from the platform and gulls above the sea and on the cliffs with a lonely cormorant.

4. Avonbridge
7mm Scale, O Gauge
Solihull Model Railway Circle

This layout is 30 feet by 13 feet, three tracks, and continuous run with station and storage loops. Early in 2013, we widened two of the front boards to provide some space to allow for shunting.

The boards are made from 9mm exterior plywood with some aluminium box section bracing and steel box section legs with rubber door stops as feet. Peco code 124 bullhead track is laid to a minimum radius of 6 feet. Points are operated from the main panel using Hammant and Morgan motors.

The buildings are based on local Midland railway prototypes and therefore the layout represents a busy MR branch line somewhere in the midlands, although the stock run, is from a variety of companies and eras to suit our varying interests. Most buildings are scratch built from a combination of Plastikard and wood. The main station building is a model of Northfield and the small shelter on the opposite platform is from Moseley. The signal box is modelled on Luffenham, with Marton Junctions coal bunker. A scratch-built scale model of the goods shed at Eckington on the Birmingham and Gloucester railway is at one end of the station and future developments will probably include a footbridge between the platforms, back scenes and possibly a small engine shed.

5. Leigh St George
N gauge, 2mm Scale
Leigh Thompson

The Layout Leigh St George is a fictional market town, somewhere in the Midlands. Set between 1990 & 1996, Leigh St George station is comprised of two platforms and a small station building. A TMD depot and fuelling point is situated to the south of the layout operated by BR Railfreight. Royal Mail occupies the former British Rail goods siding and platform for their mail & parcels trains. A stabling point is situated to the west of the layout for resting engines and a type 15 signal box is situated to the east of the layout, which was saved from demolition by the local railway enthusiasts club. At the back of the station is a row of houses, known locally as “Railway Terrace”. A popular fish & chip shop for passengers and residence called “The Cod father” and a local pub called the “Lamb and Flag” are situated within the Terrace.

About Leigh St George Leigh St George was named after me (Leigh), my son (George) and the patron saint of England, St George. The Layout was bought by me in 2017 for £200 but was originally build by professional layout builder Steve Hornsea. A new fiddle yard was built to replace the old yard and to accommodate more trains and a 2ft extension was built by me, to allow more added interest to the layout and more operational options. I have also changed the layout significantly to what I have imagined it.

6. Bond Lane
4mm Scale, OO9 Narrow Gauge
The Limbrick Family

Bond lane is a unique 009 / 00 model railway layout incorporating lighting, video and audio to create an atmospheric and dramatic display. The effects run on a four-minute cycle that includes a sunset, a firework display and a thunderstorm.

The layout is set at high level but can be lowered for wheelchair users.

7. Purves Holt
4mm Scale, OO9 Narrow Gauge
Ken Jones

Purves Halt is my new layout, well not exactly new more like resurrected. It’s an 009-layout built many years ago by the line WMNGC member Derek Purves in a plastic wheel clamp box, the clamp being bought to protect his caravan from theft. The main layout shows a small terminus on probably a narrow-gauge line not surprisingly as Derek used to drive locomotives on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway.

The main board with building in place is 33cm x 97cm and still has the original artwork / label for the wheel clamp underneath. Some may remember this at early exhibitions we did like the Wonderful World of Trains and Planes.

Since those days he added a 26cm x 54cm rear board which held a fiddle yard. The points at the station are all manual operated by push / pull rods. In 2024/5 the fiddle yard was extended to utilise self-isolating points and isolating switches with the help of Vince Painter.

The layout and fiddle yard now measure a total of 51cm x 97cm. It is viewed from the front and operated from behind. It is thanks to Vince Painter that this fiddle yard section is now operational.

8. Pine Ridge
1:87 Scale, HO/HOn3 Dual Gauge
Adrian Hall

Pine Ridge represents a town in the valleys of the San Juan mountains of Southern Colorado. It is a bustling town in the classic wild west style with many rail side industries that serve the local logging and mining industries. Dust-blown streets, boardwalks, and a skyline that is dominated by the Copper Glenn Headframe on the ridge above and the steam rising from the Twin Mills by the log pond. The Bear Creek & Copper Glenn Logging and Mining Co. is the economic engine of the town and has its own “private” industrial railroad, the BC&CG. With the D&RGW also being represented in the town as the common carrier. Shays & Climaxes are the “mountain goats” of the operation working the Copper Glenn Mine Spur, and the Bear Creek Timber Run, dragging massive Ponderosa pine skeletons down to the log pond.

9. Henley in Arden
7mm Fine scale, O Gauge
Mike Bragg

The Henley -In- Arden Line, a twice -Derelict Railway and a rebirth in Model Form In 1861 a private company was formed to build a railway from Rowington Junction to Kingswood (now Lapworth) to Henley-in-Arden a little over 3 miles. Five years later, when the line was half made, funds ran short, and work on the line was suspended. The line lay derelict for twenty-eight years. Then came another and larger scheme and the project rejuvenated so work on the long-neglected line was resumed in1889, and by 1894 the line was ready for use. The G.W.R worked the single line service from the very outset and took it over in 1900. However, in 1914 the passenger service was suspended although goods continued to pass until 1916 when the service was closed all together. During the 1980’s when I ran my small business in Hatton, I not only saw remnants of the line but, walked most of what was left before the M40 wiped nearly all trace of the line.

Well as per usual I have massaged fact with more than a soupcon of fiction and added a dash of essence to create a might have been 1939- 1950 version of the original. Adding at least on the timetable station halts at Rowington and Lowsonford. The track layout is similar as are the buildings although using artistic licence the Station building is now timber and not brick and I have moved Potato Lane Bridge to help conceal the fiddle yard. Points are constructed from copper clad sleepers to which the rail is soldered, but the plain track is SMP.

10. Cook End
7mm Fine scale, O Gauge
Leicester Model Railway Group

The layout was started by the late Howard Finch, member of the Coventry and Warwick 0-gauge group (COVGOG) and the 0-gauge guild and completed by the members of the Leicester Model Railway Group (LMRG).

The track plan details are from the Light Railway Layout Design book, although the siding between the Passenger line and Engine shed has been extended to form a loop with the Carriage shed siding.

The large mill is fictitious but provides additional scope for goods traffic. The rear siding provided access to a private line into the brickworks.

The layout is based upon the Haverhill station on the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway, 1863 – 1965. The station was opened as the northern terminus of the CVLR with prospects of extending to Cambridge. In 1865 the GE railway opened its Cambridge to Sudbury line with a connecting spur to the CVLR. In 1924 the passenger service was diverted to the GER station, although we still run workman trains and specials to the station. Due to the light railway construction, the use of bogie coaches and large locomotives is restricted, however with plenty of good’s wagons and tank locomotives available, the traffic volume is well catered for. Operation is DC cab control with power operated points.