Stafford Railway Circle

Middle Cubley

(7mm to the foot, O Scale)

If you would like to make enquiries about this SRC layout visiting your exhibition, please provide the dates and venue in an email from here.

"Middle Cubley" has been used as the name for the layout as we wanted to give as much credibility and local interest as possible, with stock movements from as diverse an area as believably practicable.

Looking at the rail maps of the area, Uttoxeter stood out as a triangular junction with direct links to Stoke, Derby and the Churnet Valley Line, and close to the service operated over the GNR line to Stafford.Clearly Uttoxeter would not be a feasible option in the restricted space available to us (it would not be easy in OO either), so reference was made back to the map and the Churnet Valley line; it was noticed that the villages of Little Cubley and Great Cubley were not far away.

We are now in a part of the country that is far from any coast and is ideal for military production, which would also mean transporting workers to the area. So, a spur from the Churnet Valley Line could have been constructed, the facilities later being occupied by engineering works still requiring workers to be transported to the area, and rail access for incoming materials and outgoing products by a connection to the private tramway.

The name chosen is fictitious and the layout is being built in the Midland Railway style.

Latest Progress
A report from Mick Mills

This update has been a long time coming but I am happy to report that layout progress has been quite rapid thanks to the efforts of the team.

Visible trackwork has now been completed apart from a small amount of ballasting; the 'hidden' section of the main fiddle yard/traverser trackwork is about 98% completed, including wiring.

Deciding to have a scale turntable at the station end turned from being a major problem into finding a manufacturer of 'O' gauge turntable kits (or, for wealthier modellers, ready built ones), and all who have seen the almost completed unit seem to be very impressed.

Our next tasks include the building the main control panel (not yet designed) and provision of the interconnecting cabling and point/signalling operating mechanisms. All anticipated board wiring has been completed to tag strips at the end of each board.

The design of station building has not been finalised yet, but is likely to be based on the one built by the Midland Railway Trust at Butterley as this is the perfect size for our layout. Although the design is 'typically Midland', I am aware that it never existed: but then neither did Middle Cubley.

Finally,some pictures to show the basic installation of the turntable, and the massive hole that had to be cut in the board for this unit.

Ian Scott

Mick Mills