Twickenham & District Model Railway Club

Kensington (Addison Road)

An Oerlikon 3 car EMU in LNWR livery at the up platform of Kensington Addison Road – a backdrop to the superb signals built by a sadly missed club member – Pat Haynes.

The layout was featured in BRM magazine in July and August 2018. It has been exhibited at various national model railway shows, including Guildex, Warley National (winning the award for best 7mm layout), Railex and Bristol. In the clubroom running is not restricted to 1920’s period trains and BR period stock is frequently seen, to the extent that we have developed a 1950’s period timetable for specific running sessions.

The Prototype

Kensington Addison Road is now Kensington (Olympia) on the W.London route, originally a joint L&NWR, LB&SCR, L&SWR & GWR line between Clapham and Willesden Jct. Our model shows the station in its heyday around 1925, with LMS and SR liveries appearing.

The Olympia exhibition halls on the left form the layout’s ‘viewing’ side. The fine signal in the heading picture is visible in the middle distance.

Planning the Model

The layout has been thoroughly researched and is one of the Club’s most prototypically accurate projects to date.
At approximately fifty feet long with two 9’ diameter train turntables, the baseboards are nearly five feet wide. It is also the Club’s largest ever project, taking over ten years to construct. Even so, it represents only the southern half of the station.
The model is viewed from the site of the Olympia exhibition halls, with Willesden Junction off to the left; beyond the right-hand end of the layout is Earl’s Court and Clapham Junction. It is an end-to-end layout designed to be operated to a timetable by a team of 3-4 club members at any one time.

1. General view of the layout. At Peterborough Exhibition.
2. Pair of Metropolitan Electric locos passing through the station. The elephant and pram is a nod to a famous Billy Smarts Circus advertising picture. The circus over-wintered at the Olympia halls and their train was stored in the Addison Rd. sidings.
3. New GWR 43xx with freight train at the Up Platform – waiting for a crew

1. Station operator’s coms panel linked to the three layout operators. Numbers indicate the next train in the schedule, The lower push buttons provide visual and audible bell that the route is set, train is ready, and driving may commence.
2. Wiring under the baseboard. The red lines show the centre line of the track. All wiring and connections are marked to ease identification The black wires at the top are the 18core multiway cable used to distribute all power supplies and a few cross-board links.
3. Front of a superb Oerlikon EMU.