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Croft Depot is a simple layout built into a limited space, with limited finances and experience, and shows what can be achieved in a small space. The layout is based on the real Croft Depot in County Durham with some additional railway buildings from the North East of England. The depot was the terminus of the Stockton and Darlington Railway’s Croft branch and was located in the village of Hurworth Place (Croft is on the opposite side of the River Tees in North Yorkshire).

The line was opened on 27th October 1829 with the aim of supplying coals and goods to Richmond and district. In 1839 it was sold to the Great North of England Railway and the northern section now forms part of the East Coast Main Line through Darlington Station. The branch itself continued to supply coals and goods until British Railways closed it down on 27th April 1964.

Croft Depot is a first attempt to build a layout and is very much a ‘test piece’ with a fair number of lessons learnt along the way. The aim was to build a realistic landscape with a railway line cutting through it at the same time as being instantly recognisably North Eastern . . . all within a 3 foot by 1 foot box! Rolling stock consists of a mixture of kit and scratchbuilt wagons with converted ready-to-run locomotives.

Setting the layout in 1954 enables us to run both pre-grouping and ‘modern’ vacuum fitted wagons.

Presented by Duncan Wilcock.