Christian Malford (Midland), N Gauge, under construction  by Martin Harris

The layout takes its inspiration from a 1840s plan backed by the Midland
Railway to extend the existing LMS  branch off the Gloucester and Bristol
line, which ran up the Stroud valley to Nailsworth. This was intended to
intrude within the GWR territory by initially going to Christain Malford,
(a village just East of Chippenham) by way of Tetbury and Malmsbury. The
eventual aim being to strike south by way of Devizes and link with the
London and South Western Railway at Salisbury, thus forming a cross country
route with Gloucester and the Midlands. The (Midland) bit differentiates
from the GWR halt of the same name which existed on the London to Bristol
mainline and did actually serve the village.

The layout is very cramped, built on a free standing shelf on top of my
study desk. There is only room for a fiddle yard at the Gloucester end of
the layout, with a return loop and three short sidings for auto trains at
the Salisbury end. Service patterns are intended to be auto trains from
both the Gloucester and Salisbury ends turning back at Christain Malford,
all stations stopping services and the occasional through expresses. Choice
of location and time frame set in the 1950 - 1962 gives the opportunity to
run varied locomotives and stock from all four pre-nationalisation
companies and BR. This time frame also the occasional Green diesel also
puts in an appearance on test trains.

From South to North,
Photo 1 Salisbury return loop and auto train turnback sidings, space
limitations prevented having a proper fiddle yard at this point. The
intention is to have a scenic break formed by a dummy stretch of the GWR
mainline carried over the pointwork on Peco girder bridges. This also gives
me the excuse for not having a turntable as part of the shed, imagination
allows for a triangle of lines and exchange sidings off scene at this
point.



Photo 2 Christian Malford goods facility. The cramped goods yard with wagon
turn table is based on a mirror image of the track layout at Charfield on
the Gloucester to Bristol mainline, similar facilities also existed at
Frocester and Yate. I am currently toying with mimicing hand shunting on
the spurs using underboard magnets acting on the Peco uncoupling arms.

Photo 3 Station area, I make no excuses for relying on Hornby Lyddle End
buildings, other than life is very short and these form a an instant
solution to populating the layout. By co-incidence the original Lyddle End
station buildings are a reasonably close match to the buildings still
existing at Charfield.

Photo 4 & 5 To make life more interesting I've added goods loops and a
small locomotive depot, due to space constraints the line becomes single
heading north to Malmsbury, perhaps this reflects reality as the line if it
had ever been built would have had to be heavily engineered in order to
climb out of the Stroud valley up onto the Cotswolds at Tetbury. Scenic
break is intended to be a stone arch bridge immediately in front of a
tunnel mouth. Note also the Wilts and Berks canal pumping house and lock
which will be at a lower level at this point on the corner of the board.

Photos 5 6 & 7 The need to pack as much into the fiddle yard as possible
resulted in  a form of double stacking with two points and double slips
feeding into two distinct  groups of loops. All loops terminate in an Atlas
turntable which not only allows loco release but also to turn say a
railcar/horsebox combination.

Control is by conventional DC switched track sections, purely for economic
reasons as I have over 100 locomotives or Diesel Multiple Units. Worthy of
note are the ribbon cables which provide a neat solution to getting power
onto individual boards and can be velcroed to the front. Locomotives draw
in the region of 50mA therefore volt drop at the far end is minimal again
ribbons have been used for expediency as I only have limited time for
modelling. The Ribbons terminate onto the Main control panel via 25way D
types, the control panel has yet to be wired. The ribbons have allowed
temporary control to be exercised by use of a backplane connected to a
controller until the full panel is wired.

Photos 8 & 9 show the control panel and wiring, (now which wire goes
where ?). I have kept a wiring schedule for each board as construction has
proceded so hopefully this part should go relatively smoothly.