LADYCROSS Scale: 4mm - 1ft. Gauge 16.5mm ('00') by Hull Miniature Railway Society

Size: 20ft x 12ft (6.1m x 3.6m)(plus operator space), Operators: Six, Transport: Van + One car.

There is a place called Ladycross - it is an old hunting lodge in the New Forest - the layout imagines that a villge or small town grew up around the lodge with a station on the main ex-LSWR route from London to Bournemouth via Southampton; actually between the real stations of Brockenhurst and Beaulieu Road.

The layout is on the Southern Region of British Railways (BR) on a summer Saturday in 1962. There are regular passenger train services on this line; London to Bournemouth, Weymouth, Swanage etc; Southampton to Bournemouth; Brighton to Bournemouth and a daily Newcastle - Bournemouth train. Being a summer Saturday there are numerous extra trains on these routes along with a number og inter-regional trains to various parts of the country including Birkenhead, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Birmingham, Watford, Wolverhampton and Nottingham/Leicester. There are a few freight trains but generall on summer Saturdays most available locomotives and spaces in the timtable are required for passenger trains.

For those who like this information, the track is Peco Code 75 with the sleepers spaced further apart (laid, of course, just before Peco brought out the track we wanted – thanks !).  Buildings are a mix of scratchbuilt, kits and adapted ready-made items.  1962 was chosen by the way as it is the last year that several types of locomotive and stock were in service.  A special mention must be made of Steve Batty’s beautiful station building based on those at New Milton and Hinton Admiral and his warehouse and Geoff Coopland’s fabulous trees.  Stock is mainly ready-to-run that has been suitably adapted though there are a fair few kits of both locos and rolling stock.

We try hard to make both the scenery and the trains themselves as accurate as we can so that people who know more about the Southern Region than we do will recognise the location and the time period without having to read this.  Please feel free to talk to us – we like talking.  Just don’t mention football to Eric. 

Contact: Ladycross: using Ladycross as the subject; to book the layout for your Show or for further details.

Ref: Railway Modeller July 2020 (Vol 71 N0 837)

Bournemouth to Birkenhead through train passes through Ladycross	Rebuilt West Country No. 34095 Brentnor heads for Bournemouth
West Country No 34105 Swanage with the Waterloo express	The warehouse by Steve Batty in all its glory
The Ladycross station building with the warehouse in the background	Schools 4-4-0 No 30923 Bradfield steams under the road bridge

Photos courtesy of Steve Flint and Peco Publications

This layout can be seen at the following Shows:

page updated 12th March 2022