Bickersleigh Colliery in 00, a north western scene

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Hi All,
May I introduce my club's (Leigh MRS) layout, Bickersleigh Colliery!?!
This layout was originally started as an EM gauge layout and was progressing nicely, several years ago.
The baseboards had been built and the track built and laid, ballasted even though that was not without it’s problems as at one point, we discovered one section of track was shorting out. After numerous headaches and much testing, a happy accident found it was the ballast itself that was causing the short! There was much fettling of track and wiring when for various reasons (not these incidents!) certain members moved on leaving the society without any members actively modelling in that particular scale/gauge.
It was felt beyond the realms of possibility or reason for some or any of the members to convert from 00 gauge modelling so the decision was taken to rip up the EM gauge and relay everything with 00 using standard Peco components so that all the remaining members could get involved.
While this was going on, the opportunity was taken to extend the scope of the layout’s operation somewhat to make it more realistic in operation and more entertaining for the viewer.
Here are a couple of views;
Overall view of layout
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Long view
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Father & son team shunting
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I shall return in due course with more on the story.
Cheers,
John.
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Hi All,
A brief continuation of the story;

The layout has been exhibited in an unfinished state at our own exhibition a couple of times but after the last exhibition, we decided to enhance the appearance of the layout even further. By this time several members had made a return to the society and new members had appeared so the society was becoming much healthier than at it’s lowest point. So, with a number of members who knew little about the mining industry, a fact finding trip was undertaken to Caphouse Colliery, the National Mining Museum over in Yorkshire. This was a great day out, many photos were taken and we learned an awful lot about how a colliery was operated, the why’s and wherefores and also, the “feel” of the place.

Photos;
Caphouse Colliery
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The “Hornby” pit head, we decided to build our own!
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This is better,
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We need (at least!) one of these,
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We’re working on something similar to this,
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These are a “must”
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If you wish, you may 'click' any of the above photos which will take you to my Flickr photo album for that day.
Until next time,
John.
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Thanks for that link Tony and well done!
I really don't know why the pictures aren't 'live', clumsy me must have copied the code wrongly, sorry.
Cheers,
John.
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Now to bring the story almost up to date,
One thing we did discover was that we needed a greater number of buildings of suitable style so some members set to and started scratch building these as well as modifying older models to suit.
The track plan was slightly modified to enhance operations, the fascia was improved by our new electrician, Craig to show the layout in an interesting light, Steve (our chairman) painted up a really nice new backscene, Roy and Darren have built some lovely miners cottages - most members have actively contributed something and that helps bind a club or society together.
The layout will be appearing at our annual exhibition on 2/3 September but it will still need additional features adding. These will feature some things that are rarely seen on a layout so we think you will find the layout has changes of interest each time you see it.

Miners cottages coming along
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A handy pub
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Pit head coming along
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Mine managers office (under construction!)
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More soon!
 
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