N gauge, by Mike Banks. At our 70th anniversary exhibition on 17 and 18 October.
17 and 18 OctoberCorfe Hills School, Broadstone
Karlisle is a close model of the West Coast Main Line at the south end of Carlisle Citadel station, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mike, from Poole, has been building it for 12 years so far.
The track plan is almost exact, if a little compressed to fit twelve feet, with some modeller's licence. Trains leave the south end of the station, pass the loco stabling sidings and reach the south junction. On the left, lines head for Newcastle on the Tyne Valley line, and for Leeds over the Settle & Carlisle. In the middle, the electrified main line runs south for Penrith, Lancaster, Preston, Crewe and London Euston. On the right, lines curve tightly away towards the Cumbrian Coast, Workington, Whitehaven and Barrow, past Currock wagon works.
The left side of the layout is open Cumbrian country: the climb over Shap, with a mirrored backscene of rolling hills, drystone walls, grazing sheep and windswept trees, and Hardendale Quarry just out of sight. Behind it stands Currock wagon works, opened as an engine shed by the Glasgow & South Western in 1895, made a wagon works by the LMS in 1924, and closed by EWS in 2007. The right side is still being built. It will show the north end of Citadel, with Carlisle Castle and Hadrian's Wall in the distance.
It all began with teenage years watching AC electrics race up and down the West Coast Main Line, camping holidays in Cumbria, and day trips to Carlisle for trainspotting. So expect loco-hauled passenger trains, sleepers and Motorail, Freightliners, coal, steel and stone, mail trains, and the odd steam special heading over the Settle & Carlisle.
The stock is ready-to-run from Graham Farish, Bachmann Farish, Dapol and Revolution Trains, plus kit and scratch-built models, lightly weathered by airbrush and detailed to taste. Dapol Easi-Shunt couplings allow hands-free shunting.
