Our Layouts

Over the years the Market Deeping Model Railway Club and its members have produced a huge variety of model railway layouts in many scales. Here is a description of some of them: as time goes by we hope to list all the current layouts here, and some of the more interesting ones which are no longer with us.

Originally built as a project for British Railway modelling, this fine-scale 00 Gauge model railway depicts a typical, but fictitious, Derbyshire village station on a single-track secondary route which sees a wide variety of passenger and freight workings in the 1960s, with both steam and diesel traction. There are many scenic cameos to hold the viewer’s attention between trains!

Built by late member David Smith, Woodcroft has been in the care of the club for several years and was a survivor of the vandalism to our 2019 Stamford Model Railway Show. It is in EM Gauge and features hand-built locomotives and rolling stock from the pre-grouping era. It is a fictitious single-track station in the Peterborough area and includes a small brickworks typical of the area as well as general goods yard and a small passenger station in the Great Northern style. Full of character and nicely modelled, this layout has been popular at exhibition but is now past its best and is unfortunately unlikely to be shown again.

Built as a project for British Railway Modelling, this TT120 gauge layout incorporates a number of experimental techniques and has been very popular at exhibitions. It is a simple continuous run with a small set of hidden loops and runs a limited range of the Hornby TT120 modern image trains currently available. But the scenery, based on the Devon cliffs between Dawlish and Teignmouth, is stunning, and visitors love the long trains with digital sound.

A OO gauge digitally-controlled modern image layout built specifically for public operation at exhibitions. Simple, with two OO gauge continuous runs, a shunting yard and a narrow gauge circuit in the centre, children (and adults!) will have plenty to do and can enjoy the sight and sounds of modern diesel and electric traction under their own control. The video here shows the layout under construction at our clubroom, with a preserved A4 steam locomotive under test.

This layout has been adapted by some of our younger members, with some help from those with more experience, from a donated N gauge layout. The name started as “Work In Progress” and sort of stuck when a name was needed for the layout’s first outing!

Canons Cross has at times been an exhibition mainstay for the club, presenting an entertaining mix of trains for the public. It was built as a project for British Railway Modelling and represents a small terminus in London on the Southern Region of British Railways with a mix of electric units and s handful of steam trains. Of particular interest is the working turntable which enables us to show an express passenger train arriving and the locomotive being taken to be fuelled and turned before returning to take the train out.

Canons Cross was pressed into service in a short film, Dream Big, by Pip Swallow, supported by the British Film Institute, and an extension to the scenic area was built especially for the film, featuring a street scene closely based on the real location in which much of the film was shot. A house fire had to be recreated for the film, all a challenge, and all good fun!

Originally built in EM gauge by the late John Andrews and shown in that state a few times, this layout has recently been converted by present Club members to OO gauge in order to allow a larger range of locomotives and rolling stock to be used. The layout is a good representation of Sutterton station on the East Lincolnshire Main Line between Spalding and Boston, but considerable liberties have been taken with the buildings etc, with John choosing interesting buildings from elsewhere in the local area.

The Club’s O gauge North Eastern Railway terminus station. This layout seems to have been under construction for many years, but now with more space in our new clubroom there is renewed enthusiasm for bringing the layout to completion and we hope to be showing it soon. Photographs to follow!

A OO gauge model of an imaginary locomotive shed housing preserved steam locomotives and featuring all that a steam shed should include. Digitally controlled and with sound on some locomotives, there is always something moving on Deeping Road. Lots to see both for the OO scale visitors (who also get a café!) and the full-size visitors.

The history behind this layout is that a commercially minded businessman with a lifelong interest in railways saw an opportunity to acquire the land, track and buildings of a loco depot from a local railway preservation society. The society was finding it to be an uphill struggle to generate the necessary funds to repair the dilapidated buildings.

After considerable investment, not least the installation of a new turntable (the original was beyond economical repair and the pit had to be filled in) together with the building of a new roundhouse, the new depot was ready to accept any locomotive – steam or diesel.

As word got round the preserved railways about the capabilities of this relatively new servicing and repair depot more and more locomotives were being accepted, meaning a mixture of motive power can be seen. 

Some of the locos you see are no longer with us, but we hope you enjoy the nostalgia.