Going through a load of old camcorder tapes today I found some footage of our old gauge 1 layout 'Mardy Colliery'. This was a pioneering exhibition layout which was widely credited with the resurgence of interest in the 'Premier scale' particularly in the north of England. It showed what could be achieved in terms of a scenic layout by carefully picking the prototypes to model. prior to its appearance most Gauge 1 layouts were basically live steam test tracks with little attempt at landscape modelling The layout was an attempt to recreate a typical North East England colliery and some of the buildings like the pub were based on real surviving structures in the area. The locos and roling stock were all based on actual National Coal Board and British railways examples The locos were all scratchbuilt from Nickel Silver to 1/32nd scale by myself and were designed from the outset for slow running The picture above shows one of the numerous Hunslet 'Austerity' 0-6-0STs whilst below is a rare example of a real 0-4-0 tender engine based on a North British design The layout was noted for its fearsome curved inclined track that came up from the hidden sidings and the small saddle tanks really struggled with a decent length train however we found we could use 'helpers' just like in real life and the public used to be fascinated seeing the helper pushing from the rear and then dropping off the back of the train at the summit. In this early shot before all the scenery was added you get an idea of what the trains faced. This rather battered Hunslet 15" 0-6-0ST shows the approach to weathering we took back in those days
The layout eventually did about 65 shows in the U.K and was extremely popular. The layout used to be stored at the premises of the Sheffield '0' gauge group and lived, and was trasnported, in racking to shows along with the layout we built subsequently 'Gottersee' which was a gauge 1 Bavarian branch lines. This meant we had over 70 feet of baseboards to contend with in the corner of the clubrooms! Sadly we had to sell the layout when we started the gauge 3 layout which never actually got finished. I believe 'Mardy Colliery' is still in store somewhere down south and it would be nice to see it running again one day the video is here at [video=youtube_share;mA0sMNaKDYc]http://youtu.be/mA0sMNaKDYc[/video] In a complete change of scales you'll now find me on the Z forums! Kev Smith
