There are 6 portable tracks owned
by members.
Clematis Railway
It all started back in 1994 when one
of my two daughters, who is now a Guide Commissioner but then she was just
an ordinary Guider. It was customary for her Guide Company to hold a Christmas
Bazaar. I was asked "Dad could you bring a bit of your railway as an exhibit
at our Christmas Bazaar?" So I screwed a few bits of loose rail on to a few
bits of loose wood which I laid on a circle of loose tables and everyone
was delighted. Everyone, that is, except me I thought to myself - even I
can do better than this
So, during the following year I attended
metalwork evening classes at a school in Cheriton under the tutorship of
Richard Hutchins - a fellow member of the Romney Marsh Model Engineering
Society and with a great deal of help and guidance from him the portable
version of the Clematis Railway came into being.
So in December 1995 at the Annual Girl
Guide Bazaar the railway made its first appearance. As it measures 18'x 9'
it dominated the event. Having built the track I decided that I wanted to
really put it to the test so I hired the Norton Village Hall for Saturday
20th January 1996. During the course of the day the track was put under full
pressure from every variety of rolling stock - electric battery and steam
fired by gas, meths, and solid fuel. At the end of the day everyone said
"we must do this again" BUT no one said "and I am happy to arrange it "
Then on 28th Nov 1998 the track started
the first Sussex Meet in Five Ashes Village Hall.
In 1999 the track appeared at Kent's
4th Winter Meet at Teynham and later in the year at a Beer Festival at Cuxton
Working Men's Club and also again at Five Ashes. In 2000 it appeared again
at both Teynham and Five Ashes. In 2001 it achieved another first by starting
the Surrey Meet at East Horsley as well as, again, appearing at Teynham,
Five Ashes and Larkfield. In 2002 I gave it a rest from Teynham but it still
appeared again at East Horsley, Larkfield, and Brede (formerly the Five Ashes
meeting) and then achieved another first at Roxwell in Essex. In 2003 it
repeated this list except for Roxwell but added three further outings, namely,
the West Sussex Meet at Horsham, the Kent Group Exhibition at the Alexander
Centre, Faversham (5th July) and The Gala weekend at the South Downs Light
Railway, Pulborough (26th/27th July). Then came the first venture into France
to Festirail near Lille. and including this outing it has now appeared at
six exhibitions in France. It then added another first at Keston Village
Hall near Bromley with the first Kent Christmas Meet Finally in 2007 it appeared
at the first East Anglia Group Meet at Elmswell in Suffolk. Paul
Newman.
Drie Frauenbahn
This track was started by three families
and in each case it has been the womenfolk who have been the driving force,
hence the name - ‘The Three Ladies Railway’. A large selection
of stock will be seen on this line, mostly from the German manufacturer LGB.
It is fully expected that ‘THOMAS’ and some of his friends will
appear. Julia Hudson-Morgan & Debbie Allen
Kleinbach literally ‘small
stream’, is an imaginary provincial town in Bavaria or over the border
in Austria. It is served by a narrow-gauge railway with a station in the
outskirts of the town and a local tramway providing a link to the town centre.
As with many minor railways in continental Europe, locomotives, coaches and
wagons have been acquired from a variety of sources, hence the rather mixed
stock list. Rolling stock and track on this 45mm gauge line are mainly by
LGB, with buildings by Pola or scratch built. The layout has been built using
baseboard and track laying techniques more normally found in the smaller
scales. Tight curves are an inevitable compromise in a large-scale layout
in a small space with a continuous run. A conventional electric DC supply
is employed to power the trains and trams. Roger Allen
Pear Tree Railway The railway
began as an LGB starter set. It was built in a garden with a pear tree, hence
its name. It has three sets of tracks. The outside one with passing loop
and siding and middle track are all LGB powered, while the inner line is
‘Train Engineer’ powered at 10.5 volts. Recently extended, the
PLR has a yard with a magnificent display of model cars. Colin
Scholey
Rheilfordd Y Dderw Welsh for the
‘Oaks Railway’ was originally constructed in 1992 for a model railway
and boat show. Since that time it has developed from a small oval with a
loop to its present size. It has been exhibited at a number of venues, including
the 16mm Association Annual Convention and G-Rail, the Annual convention
of the G Scale Society. The original intention in constructing the layout
was to show what could be achieved in the garden for those interested in
larger scale model railways. Our layout shows how even quite limited amounts
of ground can be used to build an interesting and workable model railway.
The trains represent narrow gauge railway stock produced by manufacturers
from around the world. Some are fairly accurate models of particular locomotives
and stock, while others are free-lance designs which attempt to capture the
flavour of the narrow gauge scene. Some are "off-the-shelf" proprietary models,
but many are hand built from raw materials. Most of the locomotives are powered
by live steam, but there are battery powered examples also. Some are
radio-controlled, but others are manually operated. Frank Oakes
The Tramway - This is really only
part of GER. It was built in 2006 having purchased the tram secondhand. It's
first full outing was at the Kent Show 2007. It seemed to go down well with
members and the public and so goes out whenever the builder is out with the
GER. It is run off a 12 volt controller as speed is not an issue and the
lighting is 12volt. The reversing unit is one from Gaugemaster, purchased
from Kent Garden Railways. The trees are live and living shrubs - well pruned
- in small pots. Andrew Lloyd
|
