Condicote and Gas Lane

(6'4" 11") and (4'8½" 1' 4")

More photos

In its present form Condicote represents a branch line terminal somewhere in the Worcestershire area either in the late 1930's under Great Western Railway control, or in the mid 1950's under the auspices of BR(Midland Region). Alternatively it could have been further west and have been absorbed by BR(Southern Region).

I never planned that Condicote would be an exhibition layout. After twenty years away from railway modelling, the bug returned and I felt the need to build a basic test track to give me an opportunity to develop techniques and learn from mistakes. It had to be small so that I could get it up and running before enthusiasm flagged.

All of the stock operating on the branch is either kit built or a ready-to-run proprietary item, but everything is fitted with sprat and winkle couplings (available from Andrew Hartshorne at Wizard Models) and weathered with acrylic paint and brown ink.

The name Condicote comes from John Masefield's novel The Hawbucks which opens with a detailed description of the station, and its timetable.

Gas Lane is the recent extension of the Condicote branch and is basically a variant of the "timesaver" layout built round a gas works. It can be operated either as a stand alone layout or in tandem with Condicote, the two fiddle yards fitting together to allow end to end running. As the architecture of gas works is fairly generic, this little layout can represent anywhere in Britain in the period from the 1920s to 1960s, allowing for a wide selection of small shunting engines to take centre stage. Gas Lane made its exhibition debut at the 2009 South West Herts Exhibition.

If you have any questions about anything you see on either layout don't hesitate to ask - things are never too busy down at Condicote to stop and chat.

Layout owned by Robert Vaughan