BRIGHTON TOY AND MODEL MUSEUM - GREAT VINTAGE MODEL RAILWAY SHOW

Saturday 30th November 2019

LOCATION:
Brighton Toy & Model Museum,
52-55 Trafalgar Street, Brighton
West Sussex   BN1 4EB

OPENING TIMES:  10:30am - 5:00pm
ADMISSION:    Adults £10.00    Children £5.00    Family £20.00

This is one of the rare occasional functions when the Museum operates their large vintage O gauge railway layout, when many of the Museums rare locomotives and rolling stock can be seen running. Trains operate between 11.00 and 1.00 and again 2.30 to 4.40. The museum was founded in 1991 and in addition to the main central railway layout, model aircraft and vintage slot machines, there are dolls, bears, dollhouse furniture, lead figures, diecast vehicles, beautifully engineered working scale models, an excellent reference collection of Meccano, and lots and lots of trains (including two more interlinked 00-gauge model railway layouts). The Museum is located directly underneath the forecourt of Brighton Mainline railway station so is easily accessible from public transport with the bus station right outside too. 


List of Layouts Attending:
The Museum's extensive vintage O Gauge layout, mainly 1930's, Bassett-Lowke, Hornby, Marklin plus the cream of coaches and rolling stock. Best described as a millionaires layout of it's period.

List of demonstrations:
As many as five train formation can be seen running, composed of relevant locomotives and rolling stock. Children will be able to operate the smaller OO Gauge layout by push-button.
List of other displays:
The museum comprises of a magnificent collection of vintage trains and toys of vintage tots, A recent addition being a spectacular selection of rare dolls house furniture and Meccano.
How to get there:
The Museum is directly underneath the forecourt of Brighton Mainline railway station and therefore easily accessed by both train and many bus routes.  

LUDLOW MEDIEVAL CHRISTMAS FAYRE RAILTOUR -- SATURDAY 23rd NOVEMBER 2019

This tour will leave Slough early in the morning, steam hauled by LNER A4 Class Pacific locomotive No.60009 Union of South Africa. We will follow the Great Western main line to Reading, where we will stop to pick up passengers. We continue to pick up via Didcot and Swindon to Bristol Parkway, where we will then pass through the Severn Tunnel and enter Wales, and continuing onwards to the outskirts of Newport. Here we turn northwards, crossing the River Usk, and join the Welsh Marches route to Shrewsbury. There will be time in either Ludlow or Shrewsbury to visit the Christmas festivities.

There is some truly beautiful scenery as we travel through Herefordshire and into Shropshire, passing through Leominster before we reach Ludlow, where passengers can chose to alight for the Medieval Christmas Fayre. The Fayre is set in the grounds of the Medieval Castle at Ludlow, and offers craft stalls, food and drink halls and festive entertainment. Mingle with medieval jesters and enjoy live music as you browse over 100 stalls selling quality wares, handmade gifts and seasonal products. You’re bound to find the perfect presents – and unique treats for yourself too! When you’ve worked up an appetite, why not tickle your taste buds with the tempting food and drink stalls? With a full timetable of entertainment including music, comedy, fighting knights, theatre and puppets, the Fayre is fantastic fun for all ages! We continue via Craven Arms and Church Stretton to Shrewsbury where the ‘listed’ Severn Bridge Junction Signal Box is the largest remaining mechanical signal box in the world. There will be time to explore this interesting city with its old quarter of over 660 listed buildings, famed by Charles Darwen, who was born here in 1809. Attractions in the town include pleasant walks along the river Severn, the Castle, its Tudor buildings and many shops and restaurants.

Whilst we have been exploring the city, our steam locomotive will have been serviced and turned ready for the return journey. Our train leaves Shrewsbury late afternoon, returning by the same route to Ludlow and stopping at the same stations as on the outward journey, to set down passengers. Look out for Father Christmas and his Elves who will be visiting the train during the day and handing out presents to all children on board. Please let us know your child’s age when booking.

Mulled wine and mince pies will be served to the first and standard class passengers on board.

Train Timings

Updated approximate timings shown

Station	Outward	Return
Slough	06:32	22:01
Reading	07:01	21:34
Didcot	07:21	21:09
Swindon	08:18	20:06
Bristol Parkway	09:15	19:25
Ludlow	12:00	16:49
Shrewsbury	12:42	15:55

CLASS A4 STEAM RAIL TOUR - THE CHRISTMAS CHESHIREMAN

Saturday 16th November 2019

An interesting trip by vintage steam train to the historic city of Chester, an unusual destination from Bristol. Travel via the Severn Tunnel, the South Wales Main Line, the scenic Welsh Marches route, and the Shrewsbury to Chester line. There will be over three hours in Chester, with the Christmas Market to enjoy. The train will be steam hauled throughout by Class A4 locomotive No.60009 Union of South Africa.

Update - Ahh, sorry only just found this out, appears that Union of South Africa was not available to run this tour, and as a result it was replaced by a pair of Black Fives, so still Steam hauled. Thanks to the posters on The Bristol Railway Archive forum for putting me straight. They even had a video of it on it's outward journey. https://youtu.be/sZYoDi8HPpE

Scheduled to leave Bristol Temple Meads at around 07:00 The steam locomotive will be working hard as we climb Filton Bank to Filton Abbey Wood, where we stop to pick up more passengers. Then head westwards along the South Wales Main Line, passing through the Severn Tunnel into Wales, and continuing to the outskirts of Newport. Here we turn northwards, crossing the River Usk, and join the Welsh Marches route. Further stops are planned at Cwmbran and Abergavenny for more passengers to join the train before we begin the challenging climb of the Llavihangel bank. Our steam locomotive will be in full cry all the way to the summit! We pass many sites where there were once railway stations along this route and the longest section without a station today is between Abergavenny and Hereford, where we stop for our steam locomotive to take on water. There is some truly beautiful scenery as we travel through Herefordshire and into Shropshire, passing towns such as Leominster, Ludlow, Craven Arms and Church Stretton.

Continuing on to Shrewsbury where the ‘listed’ Severn Bridge Junction Signal Box is the largest remaining mechanical signal box in the world (pictured below). We take the Chester Line from Shrewsbury and stop at Chirk for our steam locomotive to again take on water. We pass through Ruabon and Wrexham before arriving at our destination, the beautiful Roman City of Chester. There will be over three hours to explore the walled city and the Chester Christmas Market, with over 70 traditional wooden chalets situated in the heart of Chester, all wrapped around a sparkling Christmas tree. 

Severn Bridge Signal Box 180 Levers

There will be an abundance of festive treats and gifts on offer, including quality local and regional products, crafts, clothing, accessories, jewellery, unique gifts and stocking fillers which are sure to make the perfect present! Don’t forget to sample the delicious hot food and drink, including tasty mulled wine and hot chocolate; the perfect way to keep warm whilst enjoying the market. Other places of interest include the Castle, the Cathedral, and the picturesque racecourse, located between the city walls and the River Dee, where ‘Winter Wonderland’ will be in full swing.

Whilst we have been exploring the city, our steam locomotive will have been serviced and turned at Chester ready for the return journey. The train leaves Chester at around 17:00 returning by the same route and stopping at the same stations as on the outward journey, to set down passengers. Look out for Father Christmas and his Elves who will be visiting the train during the day and handing out presents to all children on board.

Train Timings

Updated approximate timings shown

Station	Outward	Return
Bristol Temple Meads	07:04	22:03
Filton Abbey Wood	07:18	21:48
Cwmbran	08:52	20:19
Abergavenny	09:15	19:38
Chester	13:05	16:13

HIGH WYCOMBE AND DISTRICT MODEL RAILWAY SOCIETY - WYCRAIL 2019

High Wycombe & District Model Railway Society
  - Wycrail 19 - Saturday 2nd November 2019

LOCATION:
The Cressex Community School, 
Holmers Lane, High Wycombe, 
Buckinghamshire   HP12 4UD

OPENING TIMES:  10am to 5pm
ADMISSION:  Adults £7.00    Accompanied under 16 year olds FREE
 
This year's WYCRAIL '19 exhibition will once again take place at the Cressex Community School. With 29 high quality and inspirational model railway layouts, This impressive layout line-up will include British, North American and Continental outline and in a wide range of scales and gauges including Z, 2mm, N, OO, H0, EM, S, 0, G and narrow gauges. Full trade support will be present ranging from tools, kits, electronic components to R-T-R models and books.

While the enthusiasm for the hobby once again getting a boost from the Great Model Railway Challenge on prime time Channel 5 TV, WYCRAIL is delighted that one of last year's competition layouts attending is 'Ealing Road', this was built by the Missenden Modellers team, the theme of their heat was 'Movies' and the team opted to base theirs on a medley of the Ealing Studios films of the early fifties, regarded by many as the high point in British Cinema. One of the highlights and impressive features of 'Ealing Road' is use of forced perspective both within the models on the layout itself and within the effective back-scene.

The venue is conveniently close to the M40 Junction 4 and the free vintage bus service will once again be operated between Wycombe Railway Station (Chiltern Line) and Wycombe Town Centre to the Cressex Community School and via the new large park and ride free car park at the Handy Cross Hub.

List of Layouts Attending:
Haversham Central 

N Gauge 1960s BR Transition (pictured right). 
The layout is set loosely in the 1960s Haversham Central depicts a busy town/city and was built by John Dowrick of the SilverFox DCC Model Railway Club. It is a fictitious location in a central position, allowing trains from various regions to have reason to pass through - including steam and diesel. 

Lynth-Haven OO 1940s LMS, (above) A fictitious railway some where on the LMS line, the creator based it on two towns in Scotland having been advised that the design reminded them of that area, hence Lynth Haven was born. The layout was featured in the March 2011 issue of Railway Modeller.

Ilfracombe East OO9 1920s /30's. 

Watch the narrow gauge trains making their way through an imaginary (but curiously familiar!) landscape including an intermediate station, a viaduct and a river bridge to the Ilfracombe terminus of a fictitious branch from Blackmoor. In the creator's world, there was also a connection from Minehead to Barbrook, so the occasional GWR train (with Vale of Rheidol rolling stock) could be seen.

Ealing Road OO BR 1960s. ‘Ealing Road’, this was built by the Missenden Modellers for the Channel 5 TV series 'The Great Model Railway Challenge', which you may have seen back in October/November of 2018, the theme of their heat was ‘Movies’ and the team opted to base theirs on a medley of the Ealing Studios films of the early fifties, regarded by many as the high point in British Cinema.
Mothercombe OO 1950s Wr/Sr - Located on the South West coast between Salcombe and Plymouth this fictitious ex GWR station, with SR running rights, is being superbly constructed, under supervision, by their Junior section and has also been used to form part of our Junior Member’s skills learning for their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. It has already been exhibited and well received at our Wycrail exhibition.
Lakebank 3mm 1923/30 LMS
Porlock OO GWR/Br(W)
Portwenn 0 16.5 1920/30 Steam
Thornfield OO 1950s BR(W)

Staffordshire Pottery N 1923/35 LMS, Staffordshire Potteries was built by Gilly North and features a working Pottery in the early 1900s. Smoking bottle kilns, a canal, back-to-back housing, and an open-cast coal mine add to the dirt and grime resulting from the manufacture of the finest porcelain in the world at that time. It won the Visitors 'Best in Show' award at the International N Gauge Exhibition in Stuttgart in November 2017.

Treloare Sidings 0 1950s BR(W) - depicts the terminus of one of the branches that wound their way around the clay producing area north of St Austell in Cornwall, generally ending in remote and barren places.  The facilities comprise a loading dock for the standard open clay wagons and a couple of Nissen huts for storing bagged, high quality clay, and a run round loop. The locomotives for the clay branches were supplied by St Blazey shed that held the standard and lighter classes of pannier tanks and prairie tanks of the 45xx class. The most famous clay branch locos were the LSWR Beattie well tanks, so occasionally the layout is run with one of these locos, and the GWR panniers and prairies are kept out of sight. This layout was formerly owned by the late Alistair George, and is now exhibited by other club members in his memory
Turntable Yard N Steam
Kyle of Lochaish 2mm FS BR Blue
Bristol Goods Shed 7mm FS Broad Gauge Mr/Gwr 1835/75
Burton Bradstock EM BR(W) 1950s
Cotehele Quay 0 Ng
Trinity Dock Street Bridge OO LNER 1939
Feltham Road Mpd OO SR 1950s/ 1960s
Trowland S 1985 Midland /Gn
Whiteleaf Railway G Trams
Belbroughton 0 1950s BR(M) & (W)
Whitmoor N BR Steam / Diesel
Upper Oreful Street OO Trams
Vale View 0 1960s Steam

Daisyfield Traincare OO Diesels; (above) represents a class 14X TMD based in Blackburn next to the East Lancashire Coach builders factory. The depot consists of a 2 road maintenance shed and fuel point and train care siding. Regular traction is a Multitude of Pacers in various liveries, some 1st & 2nd Generation DMUs, classes 25, 40 & 47, with the rare visitor of other classes. DCC locos with sound.

Salinas Valley HO 1970/70s Diesel. Exhibited by John Baggaley, This is a small US switching layout, with relatively modern rail served industries. It is assumed to be situated on the outskirts of a city in the 1960/70s.
Svanda HO 1980s Norwegian
Kidmore Fork HO Diesel
Sankei Valley Z 2000s Japan
Norge HO  Diesel / Electric

Nearest Railway Stations:
High Wycombe [1.97 miles]
Marlow [3.04 miles]
Bourne End [4.02 miles]
Saunderton [4.61 miles]

MAP