ALEXANDRA SIDINGS

‘Alexandra Sidings’ is a split-level O gauge layout. Unlike many splitlevel layouts, the usual format has been reversed with a low-level station at the front, and an upper-level parcels depot to the rear. The layout is a replacement for a previous layout, ‘Oldham King Street Parcels’, and is a similar size, though the design allows greater use of visible scenic sections with hidden sidings, rather than a separate fiddle yard.

Why ‘Alexandra Sidings’? Though the station is named Oldham King Street, continuing the theme from previous layouts, the emphasis on this layout is not the station, but the parcels shed. The area in Oldham on which the layout is loosely based is called ‘Alexandra Park’. The parcels depot is therefore called Alexandra Sidings Parcels Concentration Depot, and is based on Clegg Street PCD, for which the main traffic was parcels from the many catalogue warehouses located in former cotton mills in the Oldham area.

Long-distance modelling

The layout was planned and built during