New home for a very old layout required

 

Tom from the Model Railway Club dropped me a line last week to say they are trying to find a new home for a very old O gauge model railway layout. 

You can read the full details on their website. 

This is a historically interesting project. Power is from an outside third rail - prototypical for Southern electric trains but we are talking steam here. I don't think I've ever seen such a pick-up method in real life, but it used to be very common 60 years ago. 

Sadly, the stock is not part of the sale, but would be available separately. For me, this would be crucial to taking this project on (no, I'm not) as running modern tinplate would take away a lot of the historical interest. That, and you'd have to convert modern centre three rail (yes, you can buy it) to outside rail. 

Mind you, there is a mixed bag of stock. One of the steam locos appears to be a Bowman, so you could let that go and concentrate on the electrical stuff that isn't going to be of great value on the open market. 

The good news is that the model is designed to be split up so you don't need an angle grinder to chop it up. At 4 by 3 metres, it could even be turned into an interesting exhibition layout, if exhibitions ever return. Old trains thrashing around make a serious crowd-pleaser!

I hope the model finds a home. So many of these things end up in a skip, but being a bit different, this ones chances are better than most.