History

It is next summer and the Ashcross Industrial Museum has just opened for its first season. The museum is based in the historically significant Victorian engineering works of Joshua Benson in the Midland’s town of Ashcross. The works made use of the nearby canal and rail systems, which were linked to the works by a horse-worked plateway. The works produced the wrought and cast iron items that were in great demand in the Victorian age. Rolling mills were built and business expanded into steel goods. The works spread over a considerable area and were split-up into a number of sections; this part was built on Katherine Street and became known as the ‘Katherine Street Works’. The plateway was upgraded to a locomotive-worked 2’ 3” narrow gauge railway. This was extended to connect the whole works complex. The Company is still in existence but, with modernisation and up-dated production techniques, is situated in a much smaller modern factory.

Fortunately much of the old factory complex survived to become a museum which is being progressively restored. Access to some areas is limited and the rail system is being used to transport the materials required for restoration.

Part of the railway has been restored and a station has been built at Katherine Street to cater for tourist traffic. A major grant from the EEC and the National Lottery has enabled the building of a locomotive shed and workshop and the restoration of the fabrication and steel mill buildings. Further money from fund raising and donations is being used to restore some of the original locomotives and to build some replicas.

This has attracted much excitement and interest within the narrow gauge enthusiast world and some familiar faces are often seen visiting. The same is true for locomotives and the railway is proving a popular venue for some very familiar locomotives that have been re-gauged especially for their visit!

Reality!

All of this is, of course, fiction. There is no Midland’s town of Ashcross, however, it does help to explain the aim of the layout.  Ashcross is a combination of Ashover and Clay Cross.  I wanted to do something a little bit different and I chose modern image preservation as a theme. This followed a discussion with a fellow modeller who complained that ‘narrow gauge’ layout were always ‘historical’. He challenged me to build a modern image layout like his – I declined, as his was also historical being based in 1996! My scene is about as modern as you can get since it is set a few months in the future – this way it can never be wrong as it hasn’t happened yet! Setting it in a museum also provided the excuse to run a variety of old fashioned rolling stock (which I had from my previous layout) alongside modern rolling stock (much of which I still have to build).

The basic concept for ‘Ashcross’ was initially set down when I retired my first O16.5 narrow gauge exhibition layout ‘Dyffryn Station’ in 1992. However, a move into an old house in need of much renovation delayed progress by some considerable time! The impetus for the new layout came in 1997 when Howard Martin, the organiser of the Small & Delightful Show at Shepton Mallet (now known as Narrow Gauge South West) announced a larger show for 2000 in celebration of the Millennium and 21 years of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association. Howard accepted my offer of a new layout for that show and I now had three years to build the layout – plenty of time (surely!).

Design & Baseboards

My design and baseboard thoughts are on a separate Design & Baseboards page.

Track, Signals & Electrics

Details of track work, signals and electrics are on a separate Track, Signals & Electrics page.

Buildings, Scenery & Details

Information on the buildings, scenery and details are on a separate Buildings, Scenery & Details page.

Locomotives & Rolling Stock

Details of the rolling stock are on a separate Locomotives & Rolling Stock page.

Acknowledgements

I have virtually satisfied all my requirements with this layout (but I must admit to a desire to return to the large continuous run style of ‘Dyffryn’). One of the most pleasing aspects is the almost 100% ‘hands-off’ operation achieved. This is almost totally due to the quality of Roger Brown’s locomotives and rolling stock, although I will claim a bit of credit for the track! I would like to thank Roger Brown, not only for the use of his rolling stock but also for his help with the transport and exhibiting the layout to date.

More photos are available in the gallery page.