Fencedorf

'FENCEDORF' is a station on the 'RIVERDALE' G-Scale garden layout belonging to a member of the G-Scale society living in Northwest England. It is located in a typical English suburban garden and represents a fictitious Northern European location. Trains are from the playmobil and L.G.B. Range. Thomas and his friends, Annie, Clarabelle, Toby and a selection of naughty trucks are residents and other are allowed out to play and entertain visitors, young and old. Buildings are playmobil, POLA, and PIKO.

The layout was started in 1993 and like most model railway projects, will probably never be finished. What started as a simple ‘squashed’ circle with a couple of sidings has developed into a full ‘around the garden’ job, with four stations, RIVERDALE, FENCEDORF, ROSENBACH and an unnamed one in the town scene. In the town, the railway runs through the main street as it does in several European towns. There is a fully functioning water mill, complete with flowing mill stream.

A fully automatic cable car runs from nowhere and back . The cars have been modified from the basic RIGI set to appear more like their prototypes and accelerate away from their stations and decelerate arriving at the other end of the line, where they wait to allow passengers on or off and shuttle back. As there are more passengers needing to travel from nowhere and back, there is also a railbus shuttle service. The railway naturally needs an engine shed to service all the locos, although there is one awaiting attention outside the works. A quarry provides the ballast for the railway and ornamental stone for general use. The short trains shuttle back and forth from the quarry and then deliver their cargo to an exchange siding. Set way out of town is a container depot, serving the local factories. Maintenance has to be done each year and the railway has its own fleet of trains to do all the necessary work. Trains do not normally run during the winter months due to oversize leaves on the lines or snow.

There are often visitors to the line and sometimes they bring along other rolling stock to challenge the layout. At night, the towns, stations and carriages are illuminated, which makes the lives of passengers a bit safer.

The Northwest G-scale group is part of the national G-Scale Society and helps co-ordinate indoor and outdoor meetings for G-Scale enthusiasts in the 'Granada' area of the UK. For further information visit their web site at G Scale Northwest. or email the regional organiser at John Hulse