Exhibition Layout - Stephen's Lane
The South Coast MRC has an O gauge exhibition layout named Stephen’s Lane. The name was chosen as a tribute to our founder and an oblique reference to our southern location. Stewarts Lane being the major depot for the Southern’s Eastern section. The layout represents a small “modern image” diesel stabling point with fuel and basic servicing facilities. It was developed to operate both as a stand-alone exhibition layout and as an extension to the much larger fixed O gauge layout operated in our New Milton clubroom.
A wide variety of locomotives and stock owned by club members are operated at exhibitions. Most stock represents BR diesel prototypes of all era’s and fitted with DCC sound. There are usually a few visiting steam locos too.
The layout has featured on the cover of the Gauge O Guild News for August 2017 and a number of Youtube videos also show the layout in operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omyBJ7IKlN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjPvJTh9_Nk
Stephen’s Lane can be operated using DCC or DC but is usually DCC operated at exhibitions. It was first exhibited as “work in progress” at our annual exhibition in July 2016. Since then it has been exhibited at the following local exhibitions.
* NFMRS Open Day, Brockenhurst, November 2016
* South Coast MRC exhibition, July 2017
* Exbury Club, July 2017
* NFMRS Open Day, Brockenhurst November 2017
* Exbury Gardens Model Railway Exhibition, June 2018
* South Coast MRC exhibition, July 2018
* Poole & District Model Railway Exhibition, November 2018,
* NFMRS Open Day, Brockenhurst, November 2018
* South Coast MRC exhibition, July 27/28th 2019
* Newbury Model Railway Club 2019 Exhibition, Newbury, October 26th 2019
* Wessex Association Spring Model Railway Exhibition, Wimborne, March 2020
The original layout comprised three modular boards plus a very simple cassette based.fiddle yard. The overall length was16 feet. An optional extension was added in 2019 to increase operational interest and flexibility. The overall length including this extension is 20ft.
Stephen’s Lane provides valuable publicity for the club, and an opportunity for members to develop links with other clubs, experience the exhibition environment and have fun!!
