Rosedale is my Midland Railway branch line terminus station in the Derbyshire Dales in 1899. It is built on 5 main baseboards and 7 backscene modules, it measures 14'4“ x 13'2” Both passenger and goods traffic are possible as well as a small quarry siding that was built around 1850. Rosedale started nearly 8 years ago and is “work in progress” and is my first venture into O gauge.

I decided right from the start that I wanted to accurately represent the trackwork of the Midland Railway in these late Victorian times and so I spent much time researching the track and turnout timbers as well as the timber spacing. Information was gained from many Bob Essery publications as well as the Midland Railway Study Centre in Derby. The trackwork in the limestone quarry area is made with fishbelly rail sections with a stub point to the siding to represent what may have been built in the 1850's.

I also wanted to showcase the point rodding and signal wires / pulleys etc and you can see from the photographs these details as well as a Prince and Langley facing point lock. Rosedale is controlled using the MERG DCC system and CBUS to control the points and signals. There is a 5 track traverser storage yard beneath the quarry scenery with stepper motor / Arduino control.

The scenery depicts a typical Derbyshire landscape and after a meeting with Paul Bambrick, he helped me to realise a 3D backscene including the village of Rosedale in the corner. Seven backscene modules were made to bolt on to the main layout giving an extra 10“ of depth along the longer length of the layout in order to build these features. Paul assisted me with the design and build of the village scene, giving a forced perspective from 7mm scale, down to around 2mm scale. For the 3D effect of the trees and other features in the backscene I have had the help of Neil Podbury.

One day, I hope to complete Rosedale and take to exhibitions.