COLLINGWOOD | OO | LAYOUT
Many layouts on the exhibition circuit are built to focus on one particular element; most are to showcase the trains, some are to showcase beautiful scenery and some are to highlight an interesting history of a little-known area. ‘Collingwood’ is built around the signalling and, more specifically, built to show the general public a little about the black art of signalling on the modern railway.
The layout was built as a replacement for my previous exhibition layout ‘Norwood Road’ (BRM March 2017), as well as a new challenge. I wanted to prove to myself that, as a Signalling Schemes Design Engineer (i.e. mostly designing signalling layouts rather than circuits), I could actually design an interlocking and make it work away from the real railway.
The inspiration for the layout came from my year at HMS Collingwood as Permanent Way Maintenance Technician Apprentice and the many times I had to travel through Fareham Station on weekends. It would only be several years later that I realised that Fareham had many of the elements I was looking for in a layout; good scenic breaks, a junction, somewhere to shunt stock
