Hello and welcome. This website is dedicated to Shipley Model Railway Society's DCC model railway of the Fylde North.
The layout is based in the 1990's/2000's on the Fylde coast somewhere between Blackpool & Fleetwood. A small terminal station offers a great variety of DMU's as well as the occasional loco hauled service and parcels train. There is also a small engine shed for fuel and light maintenance. The reason this exists is because of a nearby docks which sees regular freight traffic.
The layout was built during 1999/2000 and has now attended over 20 exhibitions. It is 18 feet x 20 inches and operates from fiddle yard to station. Originally built in DC mode we decided in April 2006 (in Wetherspoons at Chingford!) that with 6 months between exhibitions it would be an ideal opportunity to refurbish the layout. This included the chance to come into the 21st century and go DCC. In the shows since then we have come to realise that it is far more fun with DCC because you aren't restricted with sections and the like. Shorts are practically a thing of the past and of course we now have the joys of sound chips.
If you see us at a show then please don't hesitate to speak, we're a friendly bunch and enjoy talking about railways of all shapes and sizes.
A cracking little show which did give us our scariest moment on Fylde. The control panel set on fire!!!! However after some quick tinkering from our electrical man we were up and running within an hour and a half. Fraser Eagle coaches were placed on the forecourt.
This show took us to the Suffolk coast and was a good show with many layouts we'd never seen before. The exhibition manager's son was so overwhelmed with our colourful collection of DMU's that he spent nearly all weekend watching us.
We went Scottish again for this show. We were located behind Barrow clubs excellent Boldon Junction layout which gave us some great ideas for the fiddle yard of our next layout.
My personal favourite exhibition to date. A lot of Shipley club members were there with other layouts as well as some traders who we have a good friendship with.
The SVR station pub also provided lashings of ale and on the Sunday we had to endure heavy snow!
Our largest show to date and the one where we realised that the layout was tired and needed something doing to liven it up. In the pub on the Saturday night we decided that the answer was to go DCC and we haven't looked back since.
Muirhill is the new modern image railway that we're building at Shipley MRS to replace Fylde North. It is a circular layout 28' x 9' and is based on the West Coast Mainline around Motherwell. We have now got the baseboards down at the clubrooms and when any important updates occur I shall let you know.
The first photograph collection after the layout went DCC. A good (and expensive for some of us!) show and we were awarded the members prize for best layout (some people have good taste). We also used the route setting system provided by Chris Denning's laptop. Press a button and the points for your chosen route are fully set, easy eh!
Look out for photographs of the brand new Bachmann 108 & Bachmann's 66022 with sound.
