At the international model train exhibit Eurospoor in Utrecht, Netherlands, the British Mickleover Model Railway Group presented its famous model railway layout Farkham. The model railroad system was built in OO gauge. OO gauge or OO scale, also spelled 00 gauge and 00 scale, model railways are the most popular standard-gauge model railway tracks in the United Kingdom. This track gauge is one of several 4 mm scale standards used.
Farkham, a quiet Midlands town in England, is served by an occasional passenger service with freight being the main traffic on this secondary railway line. Beyond the station and town centre, the land opens out to reveal a small freight yard, whilst the main line gently curves away with a mixture of old and new buildings following its course. The concept behind Farkham was to capture the atmosphere of an urban scene with the railway passing through. This has been attempted, by locating buildings and trees at the front of the layout to break-up the direct lines of sight between the viewer and the trains, so when looking at the model the trains will come in and out of view creating a series of interesting cameos.
This encourages the viewer to look into the layout and not just at it and siting the twin tower blocks at the front, along with other large structures and trees, has created visual barriers to enable this. Finally to create a realistic scene and make everything visually blend together, each item has been weathered to differing degrees. Trackwork on the layout is all hand built using C&L and Peco components and is to finescale 16.5 mm gauge standards. The major aspect of the model is its buildings and structures and whilst some of these are modified kits, most have been scratch built. The rolling stock on the layout is detailed, repainted and weathered with a large number of kit and scratch built items. Special thanks from Pilentum Television to the members of Mickleover Model Railway Group for making possible the beautiful cab ride video recordings.
