The railway began life on a single 72″ x 22″ baseboard in 2018. It consisted of an elevated terminal station, Pebblesea, with associated goods yard and shed, a lower dock basin area, and a loco shed and facilities inside a continuous loop.
In 2020 a move to another room in the house afforded the opportunity to extend with another baseboard approximately 60″ x 22″. This allowed the building of Hawbeck, the inland terminus of the railway, again with attached goods yard and shed, and a spur into the extensive timber plantations in the area. It also features Hawbeck Works, the engineering centre for the railway with its turntable and associated buildings.
The whole system is very much old school, with 32 switch controlled isolated sections across the two boards with several more controlled by points. On the Hawbeck board all points are operated by Peco point motors and switches and the yard and platform lights are powered by rechargeable AA batteries in three double battery holders. All trackwork and points are Peco.
Locomotives are mostly kit built from various sources all running on Kato chassis. Likewise most of the stock is also kit built, although there are also a couple of scratch built items and many kits have been modified. Buildings again are either scratch built or modified ‘scratch aid’ kits.
The main traffic of the 2’6″ gauge system is freight, consisting mainly of timber, both felled and finished, specialized cement and quarried chalk plus of course local general goods. Trains leaving Pebblesea face a 22 mile, mainly uphill slog to Hawbeck, mostly through the valley of the River Haw. The rugged terrain of the upper valley means there are very few roads available to motor traffic. In recent years there has been a growing tourist trade wanting to access the secluded heavily wooded areas above Hawbeck, and also to enjoy the delights of the seaside at Pebblesea, which has resulted in the provision of more passenger trains.
Unfortunately this layout is not available for exhibitions.