16mm Assoc Hampshire Area Group Modular Railway

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Sir Clothem Cap
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16mm Assoc Hampshire Area Group Modular Railway

Post by Sir Clothem Cap » Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:01 pm

Where to start, At the beginning I suppose.

I was involved in the original discussions to form the 16mm Association Modular railway, The Height used as standard was taken from a portable railway owned by the group. There was a problem with the Spec agreed by the 16mm association as in our group we had both 32mm and 45mm railway modelers and the standard spec of only 32mm would alienate a portion of the group.

I proposed that we made modules with both gauges on them which could be used for both running on club nights and setting up in gardens so that both gauges were available whenever we met.

Tony Skraga (RIP) was a keen woodworker and offered to build modules at cost of materials price for anyone that wanted one. I immediately ordered two and many others wanted them too. 8 were built at first with many ordering them over time. there were over20 made in total by Tony.

Our standard module was as per the 16mm spec with a 32 mm rail track centre at 150mm then optional track in either gauge at 300mm and a 45mm at 450MM. one accidental difference to standard Spec was the length which was meant to be 1200mm but when the larger boards were cut down the result was 1240mm length. By the time this was noticed many modules had been made so we stuck with it.

As the modules were landscaped with artificial grass etc it was suggested we could do displays at shows. A trial event at Bursledon Brickworks was very successful despite just running forwards and backwards along mostly straight track. A traverser with two lines in each of the gauges was built that helped with changing over trains easily.

As other places were offering to host us it was decided that corners were needed to make the modules able to do continuous running. These were Designed and built by Tony with donations from members and have become the only Group owned part of the modules.

Fast forward a few years and many shows later We have shown the modular railway at many venues and have been to the Exeter garden railway show and have been asked to show at Warley Model railway exhibition.

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