Nightlayer's Drove

The layout is to 4mm scale, 00 Gauge. Much of the track plan and some of the buildings are based on Saffron Walden, but additional facilities have been added and the model does not represent any actual location. It portrays a country junction somewhere in East Anglia, where the lines of two pre-grouping companies crossed. A joint station was built, and stock from a variety of origins can be seen. In addition to through trains, two bay platforms service local traffic. The physical junctions are assumed to be outside the viewing area, in terra fiddleyardis.

Many of the buildings are made from scratch, others are from kits, though most of these have been modified to a greater or lesser extent. A current project is to provide the layout with semaphore signalling, which up to recently had been absent (is any layout ever really finished?)

One aspect of Nightlayers Drove which is the subject of much comment is the rolling stock. The majority of the locos which you will see have been handbuilt from kits, or in a few cases from scratch, and come from the collections of individual club members. So you can expect to see some unusual items! Normally we run a mixture of LMS and LNER stock, but the layout could also be run in the BR steam or even early diesel periods.

The name Nightlayer's Drove is taken from an area on the outskirts of Chatteris.

Station platforms under construction
The Main Station Building