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“FAIRFORD” Although everyone calls it Fairford, the track plan has taken some liberties with the addition of a number of double slips, that I doubt whether the Great Western would have installed on a branch line, let alone the impecunious East Gloucestershire who actually built the line. The history is quite interesting, as the company set out to do something rather different to what it actually achieved. Its aim was to get from Faringdon to Cheltenham, by a rather shorter route than the ‘Great Way Round’ which went via Swindon, and Gloucester. The GWR played dirty tricks, by agreeing to support the line and then pulling the plug. The reason for this short history is that it leaves plenty of scope for the ‘what if’ scenario….what if the line had continued to Cheltenham… with those nice big green Great Western Halls and Castles using a secondary route. Anyway the present layout is not finished yet…so back to what we have. Courtesy of Mr Smith we have 4 boards with tracks laid, wired, points with motors, basic scenery form……. How many other incomplete layouts reside at Smith Towers?? Legs have been provided to the baseboards, though thanks to some cantilevering one of the boards appears to have no visible means of support at times. Some of the boards have been to languish in my garage ostensibly to have some micro-switches added to the points, as a means of combating the unseen electrical impacts of good old tarnishing on the blade to rail contact. Buildings, signals etc (again from the Smith collection amassed for the layout) were divvied out and have actually re-appeared as items for installation. A moment of sudden activity resulted in the new power supply and controllers, (courtesy of Dave the Computer and Dave the money) having the correct plugs and sockets added and ….Lo… there was action and a Hall appeared….. And there was great rejoicing, but not before Mike the Station Lights had let out a yelp of pain when the 16volts AC crept up and bit him. Are working lights in buildings a Leeds MRS first? – And interior in the Station Buildings…and rumour has it the Signal Box….and plans are afoot for trees!!! A roundy-round hand powered fiddle yard has many lanes, max 3 coaches and loco, but no means of preventing said stock from a sudden descent. Matters are in hand to rectify this. Now another similar fiddle yard would allow through running…to Cheltenham (see above). A motorised mechanism has been provided for the turntable courtesy of Nick the Vet…..hmmm… seems a bit more complex than hand power. With a little more effort and some warmer weather I hope the progress will continue. Time is the commodity in short supply for me (as some of us commented at the club EGM). So we should soon have an operational OO English layout – albeit not a roundy-round. Dr John the Water
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