Newbury 2001 - Avonside

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Stand 5: Avonside

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As we are all aware, a railway is first and foremost an object of some considerable length, which is one commodity that most modelers do not possess, or certainly not enough of it. 'Avonside' was born through a lack of space, and moreover the desire to produce something which would represent the latter days of the Great Western Broad Gauge era based roughly in a West Country landscape between Bristol and Exeter. It also provided a platform from which modeling skills could be honed, and to try out various methods and techniques which had been either read about or were within my capabilities using the simplest of tools and methods.

To hasten actual commencement a fictitious model was decided upon. It never started life as an exhibition layout, merely as an exercise to fit a quart into a pint pot if possible, and be demountable for storage. Trial sections of trackwork have been produced using the Broad Gauge Society extruded rail section together with my own method of laying baulks and ballast, hopefully in an effort to reduce noise level! Two partially completed scratch built locomotives have been produced to date. The first being a B&ER 4-4-OST Passenger Saddle Tank, and the second, a Rover class locomotive.

The layout has taken approximately two years to get to the stage in which you see it today. It has provided many happy hours of enjoyment to date and served a useful purpose, both in meeting new friends and giving pleasure to certain people, all of which was not the initial intent, however, if it has done this so far then all of the time spent has in my opinion, been most worthwhile. There has been no intention to impress, but merely enjoy and give some satisfaction.

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