This Saturday I will be assisting fellow High Wycombe and District MRS members Alan and Simon Paley with their delightful Pre-Grouping Midland and London North Western Railway layout Loughborough Road at the Milton Keynes Model Railway Society’s exhibition being held at the Stantonbury Leisure Centre, Stantonbury, Milton Keynes. MK14 6BN.

Alan’s Loughborough Road layout is a fictitious location but is based on the premise of the main road running south from Nottingham through West Bridgford to Loughborough. The Midland Railway line linking Kettering/Melton Mowbray/Nottingham runs through West Bridgeford and slightly further East was the London North Western and Great Northern Joint Railway line built to link Market Harborough & Peterborough/Melton Mowbray/Nottingham. There is no evidence that any station was proposed for West Bridgeford but it is not entirely impossible that the good citizens of West Bridgford – in 1900 a thriving and growing suburb – might have ambitiously established a terminus for the Midland Railway with LNWR running powers and all linked into a growing Nottingham suburban railway network. I always enjoy assisting Alan and Simon operating Loughborough Road with its pre-grouping splendour and can usually be found sat out the front happily shunting the yard and trying to keep up with the running sequence.

Keeping with the local exhibition Fisherton Sarum will be making is closest exhibition appearance to home next Saturday 21st February at the Princes Risborough and District Model Railway Club’s Risex show. It is being held at the Community Centre, Wades Field, Stratton Road, Princes Risborough, Bucks, HP27 9AX (I could probably hit the Community Centre with a lump of steam coal thrown from my house higher up on the Chiltern Hills escarpment, that’s how local it is!). The show is open between 10 am and 5 pm and whilst a smallish show it showcases a number of local layouts and is well worth a visit, so come along if you can and say hello.