A 009 layout by Bob Barnard
Scale 009 (4mm/1ft)
Gauge 9mm
Size 2.7m x 0.3m

009 Diorama-style Layout

It is early summer in North Devon, and a succession of mixed trains cross the iconic 70ft high Chelfham Viaduct, stopping at the adjacent station in its leafy glade high on the wooded hillside - one of the regular passing places on the famous Lynton & Barnstaple 2ft gauge line. From time to time, a diminutive coal wagon is hand-shunted into or out of the short siding by the fireman and porter/signalman.

Layout description

This small newly-built diorama-style layout can be viewed from one side or the other (and turned round within a short time), and can also be set in either L&B or SR period (with buildings, fences, lampposts and even a tree swapped within a few minutes to suit the scratchbuilt and ready-to-run locomotives and rolling stock in the liveries of the two periods).

At a typical two-day show it might be displayed as follows:

Saturday morning: viewed from the East, 1910-25 L&B period
Saturday afternoon: viewed from the East, 1930s SR period
Sunday morning: viewed from the West, 1910-25 L&B period
Sunday afternoon: viewed from the West, 1930s SR period

Morning visitors are encouraged to return to see the changed scene later in the day.

An operator seated at the front of the layout interacts with visitors, and signals the trains through the station using Electric Train Tablet instruments and an interlocked lever frame housed in a 1:12 scale model of the station’s ground frame hut. Trains cross the diorama between up and down fiddle yards, which are attended from the rear.

The diorama incorporates loco sound.

The layout can optionally be combined with a Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust display board and sales table intended to promote interest in the revival of the actual L&B line in North Devon.