Cromford & High Peak Railway

Since BMRC’s formation nearly 25 years ago, founder member Graham Dean has recently been a lone voice in support of N Gauge. This somewhat diminutive scale (2mm/ft) is half the more common OO scale of 4mm/ft, which is enthusiastically supported by the majority of our membership. However, things changed when Sam Rose joined the Club and doubled the N Membership at a stroke!

A casual conversation between Sam, Graham and fouder member Martin Day about an N Gauge layout took place in July. Our thoughts were to build an N Gauge layout with all land transport methods present - road, rail, canal and river -  and the Codnor/Ambergate/Cromford area seemed a possibility. Martin, being an expert on all things about Canals and Electronics, sketched a possibility near Codnor including the Cromford Canal, and a site visit was scheduled.

Ultimately, a small party visited the foot of the Sheep Pasture incline of the CHPR and then walked south along the Cromford Canal, taking loads of photographs. The presentation in August 2008 to those interested in the N Project – including a new member Martin Lockwood – resulted in our decision to build the main features of the 1.5 mile section of the CHPR from Sheep Pasture to the main line junction near Whatstandwell. However, even in N Gauge, the only way to do this was to go for a modular approach to compress the salient features. Each module will be an independent diorama with a double track main line at a defined position, and the modules will join in a standard manner. In theory, if anyone reading this wants to ‘plug in’ their own module based on any idea they may have, for instance the East Coast Main Line, just  ask us nicely! Our clubrooms burning down in November 2008 did restrict progress, but the group have collected lots of information and detailed planning is in progress – watch this space!

For more information on this layout visit:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrtt.support/BMRCExtras/chprlatest.html