Castle Brewery
When I'm not working, I'm often playing trains. But as well as loving railways (and music), I am also a member of the Campaign for Real Ale. So it's not surprising that I've long wanted to make a layout based on a brewery. The local independent brewery in Leicester is Everard's, so I wrote to their managing director and he kindly allowed me to use the Everard's logo for a layout, as well as for a freight train. As usual with my layouts, the concept, design and execution owe all to my imagination, and nothing to historical accuracy! But the layout is set roughly in the 1960s – eagle-eyed spectators might even spot a suspicious-looking Red Barrel lurking... (not brewed by Everard's of course!)
The first bit of the layout to be completed was the brewery building – again, one of Metcalfe's card kits. It is so tall, it has to be kept in its own box and placed on the layout before each running session. Next – the freight train, courtesy of Robbie Burns, and complete with grain wagons, Marmite van (for the waste product) and "Ellis and Everard" coal wagon, from a photo I took of the real thing at the Snibston Discovery Park at Coalville.
So far the track is laid and ballasted. There is a through platform at "Fosse Park Station" and a terminus road for push-pull suburban trains – also a goods and parcels shed, and a loco spur with coaling stage. The visiting loco waits there while the brewery's shunter (a diesel 04) hauls the beer wagons down the kickback and propels them into the brewery sidings. The points are electrically operated, and the hand-held control panel can be used either side of the layout.
I don't know how long it will take me to finish the layout – it depends on my partners in the modular project as well as me – but I have booked it in for the Braunstone show in November 2013. I'm not yet open for other bookings, but watch this space...