Clayton West

British Rail 1993-1994 4mm/foot, '00' gauge.

Originally built by Mark Lambert & Phil Reid, the layout is now owned by Stephanie DEARDEN and is available for 1, 2 or 3 day events.  Contact: 0796 677648 or sdeardenmcp@msn.com

Fact: The 3.5 miles long branch line to Clayton West (diverging from the Huddersfield- Sheffield line at Clayton West Junction) closed to traffic in 1983, with the closure of the colliery loading screens at Park Mill Colliery, adjacent to the station. Freight traffic, other than that associated with the colliery, had ceased nearly 20 years earlier. Today, the trackbed is occupied by the Kirklees Light Railway, a 15" gauge line.

Fiction: This layout is based on a premise that government funding was made available to regenerate the area after the colliery closed, resulting in a shopping village on the colliery site, new homes and businesses. Electrification of the branch from the main line was authorised in the early 1990s, allowing services to run through from Sheffield, Leeds & Huddersfield, though cost restrictions meant that only the bay platform was energised. Parts of the new development covered the colliery site, but the station was rebuilt slightly to the East of its original location, with the retail units on the site of the old station and yard. In addition to the shopping complex, there is a distribution centre, which variously handles palletised goods, parcels or steel, depending on the operator's whim!

There is sufficient siding space to accommodate engineer's vehicles, locomotives resting between duties, spot traffic flows and weekend stabling. The small loading pad by the station has both an overhead crane and cement silos allowing for a greater variety of freight traffic than would exist in a realworld setting.

Locomotives are controlled using an NCE Powercab DCC system, with traditional 12V control retained for the points and signals. The platform lighting is functional and uses a 16V AC supply.

The layout uses a great many ready-to-use building components, as well as widely available kits, and attempts to portray the last year of the nationalised network, with a wide variety of locomotive types and liveries. Trackwork is in code 75 rail; the points are Peco, but the plain track is C&L, giving a much better representation of scale sleeper spacing, even within the compromises inherent in '00'.

The operators will be happy to answer any questions you might have.