This is a layout laid with 12 mm gauge track and is a combined effort created in modular form by members of the South Downs and Solent Group of the 3mm Society.
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The layout is U shaped and the minimum size is 10 feet wide by 8 feet deep. It can be extended in five foot lengths, i.e 10 x 13, or 10 x 18. At this size, the layout becomes a rectangle with one of the hidden sidings modules forming the rear.
The tracks are not connected so that it always operates as a hidden sidings to hidden sidings railway with trains meeting in a large station which forms the front of the layout, the ten foot section.
Turning the corner on the longer layouts makes a 3'6" extension , so 10 x 15 actually becomes 10 x 18'6".
As the scheme is infectious and new modules appear from time to time, overall size can vary. Of course it is possible also to have the sides different lengths so that we are able to show, for example, a layout 13 feet long on one side, ten feet wide and eight feet long on the other.
The central station area is one major non-standardised module with corner pieces that bring the tracks into line with the standard modules. Each module has the constraint of the track arriving at the edge at a measured position and the scenic ends a standardised shape.
Each is also twenty inches wide and five feet long. Within these constraints the individual modeller is free to create whatever model railway scene is fancied.
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Each member of the group has created and built at least one module. To date these feature two passing stations, one with a canal basin, a locomotive depot, a mining section and two hidden sidings. The corner sections are plain track passing through either country or urban scenery.
There are no restrictions on the trains that run on this railway. Generally there is a wide variety but the emphasis is mainly upon models representing the old Southern Railway, a London North Eastern influence and a considerable collection of modern diesel outline rolling stock.
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