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CALDER BRIDGE
A OO gauge layout by Kier Hardy
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Calder Bridge was featured in the March 1989 edition of Railway Modeller - please click for larger image.
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Calder Bridge was my first layout that was designed for the exhibition circuit. Construction
started in 1986 using a double deck format with the storage sidings underneath the front
scenic section, accessed from the double junctions situated at each end of the layout.
All the pointwork was handbuilt using code 75 bullhead rail and copperclad sleepers to a
customised plan, which wouldn't have been possible with RTR point geometry.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Calder bridge OO gauge layout.
Here are a few snaps taken at exhibitions - this is at the 1990 Beckenham & West Wickham
show in Beckenham, Kent. Gloucester MRC members John Poole (3rd away from camera) standing
next to Bert Hawkins (Chairman of GMRC and founder member of the B&WWMRC) who came along for
the weekend as a show official rather than a operator of the layout. Nearest the camera is
Tim Rogers, taking a break from the P4 layout Buckleberry Ferry situated alongside.
A young Ian Manderson at the controls. Judging by the badges on the front of the layout,
this was probably one of its last outings, and shows the much reduced engine shed with
just two covered roads in the previous picture.
GMRC members Richard Thacker resting his eyes whilst Andy Parker smiles for the camera.
In the layout's last form, most of the engine shed was demolished and the catenary dismantled,
and by this time I had started to take an interest in EM gauge. With plenty of track building
experience gained, it wouldn't be very much different to build it in EM, so Holmeworth was born.
Things were changing fast in the late 1980s and I had resprayed a few locos into the new liveries
trying to keep up with what was happening on the real railway. This Class 47 was used with a set of
reliveried mark 3 coaches and a DBSO, which was also in ScotRail with light blue stripe.
