Exhibition Layouts 2026
Combe Regis (OO/009) - Sudbury Model Railway Club
The fictitious town of Combe Regis lies along the Dorset and Devon coastal area of South West England. Sited alongside an estuary, the town had developed a small port, principally for a local fishing fleet, and with its extensive sandy beaches, a popular holiday resort. Historically the town had attracted the competing interests of the Great Western and London & South Western Railways to capitalise on this lucrative trade. Although historically rivals, an agreement was reached to share access to the station facilities as their branches approached the town from their respective main lines.
At the end of the 19th Century, taking advantage of the 1896 Light Railways Act, a number of local dignitaries planned and financed a narrow gauge railway to serve the smaller local settlements that the main line companies had seen fit to overlook. The line runs along the quayside street, eventually crossing the main line and ambling towards the coast. A short siding serves the gasworks bringing coke for gas production.
The model represents Combe Regis in the nationalisation era with both Western and Southern Region locomotives and rolling stock in evidence. The line is still kept busy with its freight and holiday traffic as the motor car has yet to appear in sufficient numbers to offer competition. As viewed, the model still represents a ‘work in progress’ and further detailing remains to be done. Within the club there are a range of railway interests from narrow gauge light railways to steam and diesel main line railways. We believe that this layout offers engagement from all quarters.
Jaspers Green (O) - Andrew Smith
Jaspers Green is approximately a five-mile long private railway starting from the old Eastern Counties Railway station yard at Braintree. It was built to light railway standards by an industrialist, who had connections in the silk spinning industry (no, not that famous family) which in this part of Essex is well known.
It is rumoured that a certain Col. H Stephens may have been involved (hence the purchase and use of rolling stock normally seen south of the River Thames), as he was at the time considering to take on the building of the Kelvedon to Tollesbury Light Railway and may have taken on the two contracts to same himself some expense.
Nothing appears to be known of this railway after the late 1950s and we show it today as far as we know, nearing the end of its existence and all manner of rolling stock being used from all regions and the industrial buildings used for all manners of goods, etc.
Kew Bridge (OO) - Thames Valley Area Group of Tramway & Light Railway Society
Kew Bridge depicts an actual location to the north of the bridge in Brentford set in the period between 1901 and 1935 when electric trams were to be seen there. The buildings are all recreations of actual ones that still exist today along Kew Bridge Road and feature the Kew Bridge railway station, shops, ‘The Express’ pub and terraces, along to ‘The Metropolitan Waterworks’ (now ‘The London Museum of Water & Steam’ where the layout was built and is still stored some 25 years ago).
There are two separate tram tracks in the roadway allowing trams to travel east and west complete with overhead wiring for trolley pole operation. Trams running represent the various styles of London United cars over the three decades of operation up to the early says of London Transport in the area. Normally six or seven tram cars can be seen on the front of the layout at any one time.
Kew bridge layout has features in Railway Modeller and British Railway Modelling magazines as well as the T&LRS journal ‘Tramfare’.
Little Colne (OO) - Halstead Model Railway Club
Little Colne depicts a typical county branch terminus in East Anglia during the late 1950s ‘transition’ period where steam locos still prevail, but new ‘pilot scheme’ diesels are beginning to make inroads into the area.
All the buildings are scratch built and several are models of actual GER buildings – the station is Rayne and the goods shed modelled on Marks Tey. A detailed forge and workshop area towards the front and a working windmill on the hill delight visitors. It can be operated as DCC or DC. Track is SMP and C&L Finescale.
Llwm (009) - Steve Harrison
‘Llwm’, translated as ‘Bleak’ in Welsh, is a scenic diorama box layout which depicts a fictional stretch of narrow gauge railway located somewhere in Snowdonia during the early part of the 20th century.
The line connects the nearby mining towns with remote slate quarries located high in the Welsh mountains. Traffic running on the layout is mostly a mix of quarry trains with the occasional passenger movement transporting the quarry workers to and from the quarries.
The layout can also be set in the present day with the line now used to haul tourists along the former quarry line. The layout measures 2 x 4 foot, by 2 foot in height. It made its debut on the exhibition circuit on 10th May 2026. An ambient sound recording is played when the layout is in operation, adding real world audio of waterfalls, wind and narrow gauge trains recorded in the mountains of Wales. Its build, along with other model railway content can be found on Steve’s SHGP Media YouTube channel.
Lockes Down (O) - Robin French
Lockes Down is a fictional place somewhere in Kent. The layout inspired by the light railways built by Colonel Stephens. Station is recognisably similar to Bodiam Station on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, but Lockes Down is set in a more prosperous area and has a goods shed and small engine shed. The buildings are scratch built and the carriages are Slaters kits.
Nibley Knoll (009) - Philip Moore
This layout is designed to show young and new modellers what can be achieved scenically in 4mm scale in the space of a tabletop. The village of Nibley is serviced at the hamlet of Nibley Knoll, taking passengers to the small market town higher up the hill.
Penbury Abbas (009) - Peter Rednall
Penbury Abbas is a fictional small village located in the limestone area of South Dorset. During the railway mania the settlement had failed to be connected to the main rail network and so, decades later, local businessmen and promoters had instigated a small narrow gauge light railway to allow freight and passengers to gain access to a junction with the standard gauge main line. Hitherto, a canal with barges at Penbury Wharf, had delivered produce to local markets but with the coming of the railway and construction of a bridge the upper canal was abandoned.
The layout shows what 'might have been' in the 1950s, having independent upper and lower circuits with sidings to allow shunting manoeuvres. The points are all operated by wire in tube from the fiddle yard at the rear of the layout. Buildings are mainly scratch built and modelled on Dorset originals. However a collection of plastic kits collected over the years has been utilised on the premise that the builder of the light railway has had overseas experience.
A variety of rolling stock collected over many years is in evidence.
Rampage (OO) - Laurie Calvert
In the future, a robot called ‘Rampage’ is defending its power station. Meanwhile the locos run forwards and backwards to ferry items about for the robot. Spacecraft are ready for launch with smoke billowing from their pads, as troops protect them. All action as the robot performs various moves.
Reddingham (OO) - Bernard Watson
The layout is a medium sized terminus in a fictitious market town in East Anglia from the mid to late 1990s to the 2000s. It serves as a branch from the Norwich to Liverpool Street main line. Trains arrive from the mainline into Platforms 1 and 2. Platforms 2 and 3 also serve a subsidiary branch to nearby Upstow and some commercial organisations.
Trains are mainly DMUs of a variety of classes supplemented by the occasional loco-hauled train. A Network Rail depot and DMU siding are also seen. The layout is DCC controlled, with point and signal route setting by the use of relays - not a computer in sight!
Shelby Yard (HO) - Nick Goward
Shelby Yard is on the edge of an Arizona desert and is a simple ‘shunting puzzle’. The era is approximately 1995-6 during/after the BN and SF merger. Most stock is weathered and detailed.
Southcliffe (N) - Andrew Craig
Southcliffe is a fictional seaside town in Essex. It is inspired by elements of Westcliffe-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea and Southend, and consists of a beach with beach huts on the promenade, a station at the foot of a cliff, a funicular railway and part of the town on the hill above.
At the top of the cliff railway stands the Southcliffe Hotel looking down the hill towards ‘Ye Old Smack’ where the traveller can get a pint before either joining the disco in full swing upstairs, join the queue for the fish and chip shop or take a wander down the hill to the station and beach beyond.
When the day is done, weary travellers and holidaymakers return to the hotel using the funicular railway.
Stilbarton Farm Rise (009) - Sam Hill
Stilbarton is a fictional Hertfordshire village served by a surviving two-foot narrow gauge railway, imagined as if the light railway built for the construction of Welwyn Garden City in the 1920s had continued operating beyond the 1940s.
Originally used to haul sand, gravel and farm manure, the line has endured despite dwindling goods traffic and declining passenger numbers, caused more by poor timetabling than competition from buses.
The village itself sits among red-brick buildings with slate or clay-tiled roofs; its station tucked into a network of narrow, pre-automobile lanes that follow the natural dips of the land. Around the platforms - simple wooden structures with brick buildings and tin roofs - travellers find everyday essentials at ‘Badricks Grocery’, ‘Isabelle’s Fish and Chips’ and ‘Timothy’s Confectionary’, while railway workers live in nearby cottages and gather at ‘The Black Stallion’ pub overlooking the tracks and tunnel mouth.
The station functions as a modest terminus on one of the Welwyn Garden City branch lines, offering basic servicing for locomotives working early goods and passenger turns. Beyond the village, Farm Rise farm nestles into the hillside; its farmhouse, stables and barns supporting a mix of horses and sheep, with a gated level crossing installed after a few too many mishaps between trains and tractors.
Treblecombe (OO/009/Z) - Alan Cox
Treblecombe is a standard gauge heritage railway, which shares part of its site with a narrow gauge preservation group who also operate a miniature railway, and depicts a gala weekend which includes a steam rally in an adjacent field. The layout is built to a scale of 4mm/1ft and uses OO, 009 and Z gauge track.