Club seeks space for model

Model-train enthusiasts are looking for a space big enough for them to work on their exhibition track.

The Newark N Gauge Club is creating a model of an alternative route the Great Northern Railway could have taken through Newark.

Member Mr Trevor Webster said that in the 1840s, before the Castle Station line, which runs around Newark to the east and then heads north, was built, other routes were considered including one which would have bypassed the town to the west taking a route through the area near Grange Road.

The western route was dismissed by planners because it would have meant crossing the River Trent twice and that would have added to the cost.

The route was considered as the railway would have run over firmer ground to the west of the Trent.

Mr Webster, of Grantham Road, Whatton, said the route they created in model form was never formally planned so it was the club’s interpretation of what the track and the area around it would have looked like.

“The track wasn’t built there because it wasn’t economically viable,” he said.

“Although there were people throwing sums of around £40,000 at these projects — the equivalent of multi-millions in today’s money — they were still hard-headed businessmen.

“It’s not really very difficult to envisage what Newark would have been like if the railway had gone the other way.

“The south of Newark would have developed into a more industrial area and the north side would have had more housing.”

The 16ft by 4ft model, made up of eight 2ft by 4ft sections, is too big to be left out in Farndon Methodist Church Hall where the group meets, so it has to be dismantled at the end of every meeting.

“We want to be able to put the layout up and leave it up,” said Mr Webster.

“When we are putting it up and down is when damage can occur.

“The model will be exhibited as a fictitious line and it will go to model railway shows around the country.”

Anyone able to offer a suitable meeting place where the track could be left out can contact Mr Webster on 01949 850365.