Stafford Railway Circle

Middle Cubley

(7mm to the foot, O Scale)

If you would like to make enquiries about this SRC layout visiting your exhibition, please provide the dates and venue in an email from here.

"Middle Cubley" has been used as the name for the layout as we wanted to give as much credibility and local interest as possible, with stock movements from as diverse an area as believably practicable.

Looking at the rail maps of the area, Uttoxeter stood out as a triangular junction with direct links to Stoke, Derby and the Churnet Valley Line, and close to the service operated over the GNR line to Stafford.Clearly Uttoxeter would not be a feasible option in the restricted space available to us (it would not be easy in OO either), so reference was made back to the map and the Churnet Valley line; it was noticed that the villages of Little Cubley and Great Cubley were not far away.

We are now in a part of the country that is far from any coast and is ideal for military production, which would also mean transporting workers to the area. So, a spur from the Churnet Valley Line could have been constructed, the facilities later being occupied by engineering works still requiring workers to be transported to the area, and rail access for incoming materials and outgoing products by a connection to the private tramway.

The name chosen is fictitious and the layout is being built in the Midland Railway style.

Latest Progress
A report from Mick Mills (June 2010)

It has been quite some time since my last progress report and I offer my apologies for this, but I can now report that we have completed and tested the track/wiring and have run a loco from the fiddle yard end over all track combinations and then over the industrial tracks controlled from the industrial control panel.

Because of restrictions in the clubroom we cannot erect the layout with the fiddle yard but this has previously been tested as it is a self contained unit.

Track ends across board joints are now being secured due to some damage having been caused when squeezing between boards, the loosened ballast will be repaired when the track repairs are completed.

The exciting news is that the turntable is now operational with just the 'locking mechanism' to install and we will very soon be concentrating on the scenics, some small buildings have been completed and the station building is well under way, as is the signal box.

Signals are about 80% complete but work on these is currently on hold to concentrate on main scenics.

Now we need to produce a suitable backscene and any ideas or offers of help from members would be appreciated as this is not one of my better skills.

The automatic couplings we will use are the simple to operate 'lincs' type as used on the previous 'O' layout, when we have completed the testing of the point motors and the uncoupling electromagnets all efforts will be concentrated on the scenics and hopefully the layout will be in a suitable state for a provisional booking in December this year.

Mick Mills
'O' Gauge group leader.

Mick Mills