"England comes to Georgia"

[LASteve]

I'm back in Atlanta this week and was invited to visit another expat who's career took him from the UK to Zambia, Australia and Georgia, where he's now retired.

He's got two layouts in his (inevitably large) basement, both in OO. The first depicts the Waterloo - Woking mainline; he and his wife grew up near Woking, and he's build a representation of the stretch of track through West Byfleet, Brookwood and Woking and then on to a fictional section where he's got various industries and the "Seven Elms" shed. The other layout is a representation of the line in Wyoming from Yellowstone down to the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah.

Obviously I was more interested in the first layout. I tried to take some pictures but it was difficult to get a proper representation of the whole thing, but I''ve posted a few here.

If you want a more detailed look and description of the railway you can find it in the May 2018 issue of Model Railroader magazine. Chris kindly gave me a copy, but obviously I can't reproduce it here. However I've linked to the online version below and you can sign up for a free 30-day trial if you want to read it.

https://www.trains.com/mrr/magazine/archive-access/model-railroader-may-2018/

One thing that really stood out for me was how HUGE OO scale models are. I've got so used to only looking at N-scale I'd pretty much forgotten.

Here's "Seven Elms" and a limestone quarry behind (Chris was a mining engineer before he retired)



More detail of the quarry:



"West Weybridge" station





General view down the mainlines with the EPB emerging from under the bridge:



Part of the fictional "Casterbridge" side of the layout:



Woking Station:



and ... I snuck one of my pictures of Moorpark and the new '73 for comparison purposes



One thing I confess I was a little disappointed about was the lack of third rail, especially given the larger scale of OO. Chris did say that the EMU models were not available when he first set down the layout and he didn't want to revisit everything once they were on the market.

Anyway, it was great of Chris to show me around and a big surprise to find Woking represented in a house in Atlanta.

[crewearpley40]

Worth the trip steve. He has built a pleasant town and very transition era

[weave]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that. Great looking layout and brought back nice memories.

I used to live in Addlestone and although my dad's commute from London was to Addlestone, changing at Weybridge, on 'Curry Night', which was once a week, he would stay on the train from Weybridge to Byfleet and New Haw (previously West Weybridge) and my mum and I would go to pick him up. I'd check the train arrival time and she'd order the curry accordingly giving me time to do a bit of spotting.

Excellent model of the station building, like I was back there so please congratulate him  .

Cheers, weave 

PS The Curry House was directly opposite the station building across the car park just off layout (talking late seventies/early eighties here)

PPS Can't remember if you're a baseball fan but there must be or will be a few sore heads in Atlanta today   

[LASteve]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that. Great looking layout and brought back nice memories.

I used to live in Addlestone and although my dad's commute from London was to Addlestone, changing at Weybridge, on 'Curry Night', which was once a week, he would stay on the train from Weybridge to Byfleet and New Haw (previously West Weybridge) and my mum and I would go to pick him up. I'd check the train arrival time and she'd order the curry accordingly giving me time to do a bit of spotting.

Excellent model of the station building, like I was back there so please congratulate him  .

Cheers, weave 

PS The Curry House was directly opposite the station building across the car park just off layout (talking late seventies/early eighties here)

PPS Can't remember if you're a baseball fan but there must be or will be a few sore heads in Atlanta today   

Glad to stir some happy memories!

I think the sore heads might last a week, it's been more than 25 years since a Braves World Series win. I watched Game 6 in the hotel bar and the scoreline didn't lie - Houston never got going and the Atlanta pitching was spot-on.

[Bealman]

Great pics of the layout in Atlanta, Steve - even though it's in 00. As you say, you forget how big those things are.

[LASteve]

... Byfleet and New Haw (previously West Weybridge) ...

PS The Curry House was directly opposite the station building across the car park just off layout (talking late seventies/early eighties here)

I didn't know about the station name change, from West Weybridge, that's an interesting tidbit.

Importantly, how was the curry?

[weave]

Curries, once a week remember. Very good  . I started off on Kormas as a young lad and worked my way up to the hotter stuff.

By the way, for a little bit more info, the bridge over the road by the station, third pic, is very low and was/is always being hit by larger vans. It's a pretty solid brick built set up though, almost like a little tunnel, so only disruption to road traffic and not the railway. Also it's single file with traffic lights. When they turned half of the old Brooklands Racetrack just round the corner into an industrial estate that low bridge then caused more traffic chaos as all the lorries have to obviously avoid it.

Enough rambling.

Cheers, weave