Saturday 8th November 2025
At St Marys Church Hall, Hobs Meadow, Solihull, West Midlands B92 8PN
OPENING TIMES: 10am - 4.30pm
ADMISSION:
Adults £5.00, Children £3.00. Family (2+2) £15.00
Annual model railway exhibition presented by the Solihull Model Railway Circle, St Marys Church Hall and 3rd Solihull St Mary Scout Hall - 15 minutes from J6, M42. Working layouts are invited plus trade and society support. Free parking available.
Buses to Hobs Moat road that stop in front of the nearby ice rink: 72. Buses that stop at Wheatsheaf, A45, Coventry Road: 60, X1, X2. Bus Information: Available from Network West Midlands: 0871 200 22 33
List of Traders Attending :
Keiths Model Railways,
Elaine's Trains,
Baz's Model Rail - 12 Volt DC.
List of Layouts Attending :
1. Grange Aggregates, 2mm Scale -N Gauge, Solihull Model Railway Circle
Grange Aggregates started up many years ago. The canal was cut in order to transport the stone out instead of using horses and wagons. The narrow gauge railway was then laid to take stone to the crushing plant. Steam engines were introduced on the narrow gauge in the 1800s. When the main line railway was built, the loops and sidings to the quarry were also put in. All these forms of taking the stone out are still very much in evidence, with stone going out by canal, road or by rail.
2. A Scottish Branch, 4mm Scale - OO Gauge, Solihull Model Railway Circle
A end to end branch line club layout based on Scottish practice, displayed here partly built to give an insight Into layout construction. It is 16 feet long and just over 2 feet wide and we are using SMP code 75 bullhead plain track and handmade Marcway Points. It has been constructed to run with either DCC or traditional control. There is a terminus station at one end and a hidden 'fiddle' yard with a traverser at the other, with a scenic section in between. A major part of the concept is the use of very deep baseboards, with the railway running through the middle, allowing greater depths and heights of scenery for a more interesting appearance. The major architectural feature is the curved viaduct based on Killiecrankie.
3. Cherwell, 4mm Scale - OO Gauge, Solihull Model Railway Circle
A scenic OO gauge, 26 feet 6 inches by 10 feet 6 inches, four track mainline with an integral branch line. It features working automatic signals and has largely scratch built buildings with a local theme, e.g: the Manor House, the Masons Arms, the George Hotel and the Fat Cat cafe from Solihull; Kings Heath library; Tyseley station; and Water Orton station. The layout was built mainly to display scale length mainline trains, those being run reflecting the varying interests of the membership. Trains run are usually British outline, but can come from any part of the UK mainland and from any date between about 1900 and the present day. If you look carefully you can see pigeons roosting under the station bridge, foxes using the track bed as a shortcut and one fox eyeing lambs, gulls eggs and the shepherd on the upper pasture, cats watching building work in the arch from the platform and gulls above the sea and on the cliffs with a lonely cormorant.
4. Avonbridge, 7mm Scale - O Gauge, Solihull Model Railway Circle
This layout is a 30 feet by 13 feet, three tracks, and continuous run with station and storage loops. Early in 2013, we widened two of the front boards to provide some space to allow for shunting.
The boards are made from 9mm exterior plywood with some aluminium box section bracing and steel box section legs with rubber door stops as feet. Peco code 124 bullhead track is laid to a minimum radius of 6 feet. Points are operated from the main panel using Hammant and Morgan motors.
The buildings are based on local Midland railway prototypes and therefore the layout represents a busy MR branch line somewhere in the Midlands, although the stock run, is from a variety of companies and eras to suit our varying interests. Most buildings are scratch built from a combination of Plastikard and wood. The main station building is a model of Northfield and the small shelter on the opposite platform is from Moseley. The signal box is modelled on Luffenham, with Marton Junctions coal bunker. A scratch built scale model of the goods shed at Eckington on the Birmingham and Gloucester railway is at one end of the station and future developments will probably include a footbridge between the platforms, back scenes and possibly a small engine shed.
5. Maun Valley Junction, 2mm Scale - N gauge, Leicester Model Railway Group
Maun Valley Junction is Leicester Model Railway Groups n-gauge exhibition layout originally based around Pleasley near Mansfield - some may recognise The Nags Head Pub on the A617! It features a station, a branch line and an industrial area, with working colour light signals and automatic Level Crossing with warning lights. It can be run with either DC or DCC control and is capable of automatic DCC running using the EX-RAIL software of a DCC-EX Arduino based Command Station.
6. Rush Green Colliery, 4mm Scale - OO Gauge, Richard Green (Coventry Model Railway Club)
Rush Green Colliery is set in the West Midlands. This layout tries to give a good representation of the collieries that once were spread round most of Britain and tries to show the main features of an industry that has been virtually be wiped from our modern landscape. The layout features live loading of wagons. This layout was constructed by Alex Rushton and Richard Green with assistance of members Coventry Model Railway Club.
7. Leigh St George, 2mm Scale - N gauge, Leigh Thompson.
The Layout - Leigh St George is a fictional market town, somewhere in the Midlands. Set between 1990 & 1996, Leigh St George station is comprised of two platforms and a small station building. A TMD depot and fuelling point is situated to the south of the layout operated by BR Railfreight. Royal Mail occupies the former British Rail goods siding and platform for their mail & parcels trains. A stabling point is situated to the west of the layout for resting engines and a type 15 signal box is situated to the east of the layout, which was saved from demolition by the local railway enthusiasts club. At the back of the station is a row of houses, known locally as Railway Terrace. A popular fish & chip shop for passengers and residence called The Cod father and a local pub called the Lamb and Flag are situated within the Terrace.
About Leigh St George - Leigh St George was named after me (Leigh), my son (George) and the patron saint of England, St George. The Layout was bought by me in 2017 for £200 but was originally build by professional layout builder Steve Hornsea. A new fiddle yard was built to replace the old yard and to accommodate more trains and a 2ft extension was built by me, to allow more added interest to the layout and more operational options. I have also changed the layout significantly to what I have imagined it.
8. Awreville, 7mm Scale - O Gauge, Tom Pinnell
Awreville O Gauge Diesel Depot is a fictional depot scene based in the 90s, the layout controlled by DCC and features automatic running using iTrain. The layout is aimed to showcase automation on a layout, showing control equipment required and allows interaction with visitors to the show through the use of a touchscreen.
9 Henley in Arden, 7mm Finescale - O Gauge, Mike Bragg
The Henley -In- Arden Line, a twice -Derelict Railway and a rebirth in Model Form
In 1861 a private company was formed to build a railway from Rowington Junction to Kingswood (now Lapworth) to Henley-in-Arden a little over 3 miles. Five years later, when the line was half made, funds ran short, and work on the line was suspended. The line lay derelict for twenty eight years. Then came another and larger scheme and the project rejuvenated so work on the long neglected line was resumed in1889, and by 1894 the line was ready for use. The G.W.R worked the single line service from the very outset and took it over in 1900. However, in 1914 the passenger service was suspended although goods continued to pass until 1916 when the service was closed all together. During the 1980s when I ran my small business in Hatton, I not only saw remnants of the line but, walked most of what was left before the M40 wiped nearly all trace of the line.
Well as per usual I have massaged fact with more than a soupcon of fiction and added a dash of essence to create a might have been 1939- 1950 version of the original. Adding at least on the timetable station halts at Rowington and Lowsonford. The track layout is similar as are the buildings although using artistic licence the Station building is now timber and not brick and I have moved Potato Lane Bridge to help conceal the fiddle yard. Points are constructed from copper clad sleepers to which the rail is soldered, but the plain track is SMP
Also check out other Exhibitions in Solihull, Arts events in Solihull.
|
