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Nonsuch Tudor Railway

Please note this layout is not currently available for exhibitions.

Built by: Derek Reeve

Gauge: O:16.5 

Scale: 7mm Narrow Gauge

Area Modelled: Surrey

Era / Period: 16th Century (Tudor)

Size of Layout: 9ft x 5ft

Total Operating Area: 11ft x 8ft

Number of Operators: 2

Power Requirements: 1 x 13 amp socket

Layout Description

Nonsuch is the concept 'what if the Tudors developed the railways instead of the Victorians'. This is my idea of what may have been.

Nonsuch is a real place in Surrey. A palace was built by Henry VIII in 1538 to celebrate his 30 years on the throne and for the birth of his son Edward v1. Nonsuch Park still exists. He never saw it completed as he died in 1547. It was eventually pulled down to pay a gambling debt in 1683 by the mistress of Charles II Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine.

The layout was inspired by an idea from Richard Wilson a fellow railway modeller from Market Harborough in Leicestershire who I dedicate the layout too.

All the buildings locomotives and rolling stock are scratch built. Most of the locos run on a Hornby Smokey Joe chassis. Why the Tudor Mice my previous layout? Wendsleydale a cheese mine had mice as characters and I am known as the mouse man.

 

There are over 50 mice at the last count with some animations. It has taken nearly two years of intensive modelling literally thousands of hours to make. There are lots more animations planned.

Exhibition Attendances

  • St Neots Model Railway Club, Kettering (June 2019)

  • Sudbury Model Railway Club (October 2019)

  • East Anglian Railway Museum, Colchester (October 2019)

  • Chelmsford & District Model Railway Club (October 2019)

  • Ipswich Railway Modellers Association (November 2019)

  • Royston & District Model Railway Club (November 2019)

  • Chiltern Model Railway Association, Stevenage (January 2020)

  • Saffron Walden Model Railway Club (February 2020)

  • March & District Model Railway Club (March 2020)

  • De Havilland MRS, Welwyn Garden City (April 2022)

  • Billericay Model Railway Group (May 2022)

  • Trains at Trinity 2022, Biggleswade (June 2022)

  • Mid Essex Model Railway Club, Shenfield (September 2022)

  • Sudbury Model Railway Club (October 2023)

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