‘OO’ GAUGE LAYOUT MERSTONE
A hamlet in the middle
Built as a scenic sec tion to go with his other Isle of Wight layouts, Mark Pretious acquired ‘Merstone’ as a nearly-bare baseboard and reaped the benefits of keeping it small.
Words: Chris Gadsby
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Photography: Chris Nevard
What makes this layout great?
" ‘Merstone’ works great as a standalone layout, and it goes to another level when it’s combined with other Isle of Wight modules. The network there might not be extensive any longer, but Mark is doing a great job of making sure the past is not forgotten. ”
It seems to be an ever-growing trend that rather than making one large layout, modellers are instead building several smaller ones. There are some good reasons for this, space being the primary one. Very few people have the room to model the entire network of the Isle of Wight in one layout. So, what do you do if you have numerous locations on the island that you wish to turn into a ‘OO’ gauge model? You do what Mark Pretious and one of his friends (Chris Gardner, owner of Ventnor West) have done and make modules that can be joined together to create a leviathan.
The full version includes Merstone, St Lawrence and Ventnor West, with scenic breaks/fiddleyards between each section.
We featured another one of Mark’s Isle of Wight layouts – ‘Bembridge’ – in this year’s edition of Great British Model Railways. Whereas that was a terminus layout on the east coast, ‘Merstone’ is about as in the centre of the island as you can get.