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Motley sub shed

Description based on material supplied by the layout owner

Motley sub shed  
Rob Newman O gauge 7mm scale

A minimum space 7mm/ft 0 Gauge layout occupying a 10ft x 2ft space upon which the main scenery is the fleet of locomotives. My collection of locomotives was once described as a 'motley' one, so it seemed the natural thing to do, when constructing a layout upon which to display them, to call it 'Motley'!

We assume that the seaside town of Motley has year-round local passenger traffic and freight trains to and from the harbour. There is a reasonable harbour and a private freight railway served by a fleet of small industria1 locomotives. During the summer months there are special trains from all over the country bringing holidaymakers and day trippers.

All these engines need somewhere to rest until the time of their return working. The sub-shed seen here at Motley provides that space. This is not a large motive power depot, just somewhere to park locomotives between duties and perhaps replenish the tenders or clean clinker from the firebars. Beside the BR sidings are those for the industrial locomotives which can be seen beside their larger counterparts.

So much for the fiction; the locomotives themselves occupy most of the space on this small layout. Upwards of a dozen engines can be seen 'on shed' at any given time and they will be seen going on and off shed, and being repositioned to allow others to move.

Most of the locomotives and other scenic items have been hand built from kits, and I am grateful to Keith Blake, Aiden Houlders and Peter Whyborn for building these for me, and to Andy Wilkie who assists with the operation of the layout.

It is possible to operate this layout with locomotives from BR (5cR), BR (LMR), BR (WR with SR interlopers!) or a mixture of all of these.

 






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