Haltwhistle

Haltwhistle is where club member Graham Dean lived aged 1 - 12, and this layout is his attempt to revisit his childhood. The scale is N (2mm/ft 9mm gauge), a scale which can be used to wonderful effect to display a railway running through extensive scenery or to compress a quart into a pint pot. Graham has used the latter approach and has fitted a station with staggered platforms, the branch line to Alston, the South Tyne and off-site storage for up to 16 trains into only 8ft x 5ft.

Being advanced in years, Graham has not embraced new technology such as DCC, and the wiring and controls are strictly based on ancient mechanisms such as push buttons and switches. There are 27 points and a diamond, mostly operated by H&M point motors dating back to the 1970’s. All points are operated by ‘electric pencil’ and capacitor discharge. There are three controllers, one of which is hand-held, allowing children (and young at heart adults) to try their hand at driving a train. The turntable is, of course, electrically operated.  

Scenic features include scale models of:

1. Graham’s house over the cutting, complete with his Dad’s shed in the garden.

2. The New Inn and terrace houses above the Station, including the one where Graham’s Scoutmaster Ivan Renwick lived.

3. The viaduct and road bridge over the Tyne. A scout acquaintance’s girlfriend drowned under the viaduct and Graham caught tiddlers in a jam jar under the road bridge.

4. The other road bridge and the pedestrian bridge over the cutting.

5. The station buildings and goods shed.

The layout was shown for the first time outside BMRC events at Barrow-on-Soar for Cossrail (Leicester) in May 2009.

At the 2010 Harvey Hadden Exhibition in Nottingham, Haltwhistle won the award for ‘Most Authentic Layout on Show’.