Mardy Colliery, our old Gauge 1 layout

[kevsmiththai]

Going through some old camcorder tapes today I found some footage a freind had shot of our pioneering Gauge 1 exhibition layout 'Mardy Colliery'. This groundbreaking attempt at a scenic 1/32nd scale layout (prior layouts seen at shows were usually live steam test tracks) was credited with a big resurgence in interest in the 'Premier' scale particularly in the north of England. By carefully selecting prototypes a very convincing reprersentation of a North east area colliery could be achieved.

 

Most of these photos and the video footage were taken about 1992 and show the scratchbuilt locos and rolling stock built myself and the scenic work of Jack Burnard

 

 

The trains were all based on real National Coal Board and British Railways examples. All of the stock was weathered and particular attention was paid to slow running abilities

 

 

One thing that identified the layout was the fearsome curved incline that came up from the hidden sidings. the small locos really struggled pulling a decent length train up here and often slipped to a halt but we had wired the sections up so we could bring up a helper engine to push from the rear which would drop off at the summit. This kept the public fascinated as they had never seen it done in model form before.

 

an idea of what the engines faced is this early picture of the 'Mardy Incline' before the scenic work was done.

 

 

video footage can be found at

 

 

As you can see it is a bit different fronm the Z gauge I do now!

[cteno4]

Kevin,

 

very impressive! beautiful job on the scratch built stock and buildings and the scenery! Ive always dreamed of doing something in a big scale where you can do detailed parts much easier, n scale its almost impossible to do many things near scale in detail... but then you have to put in all the detail in the larger scales! oh well cant have your cake and eat it too!

 

Great job!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

ps love the rigor mortise aie! lends a new angle to getting stiff at the pub...