Seaboard Southern Model Railroad Club: A History
The Seaboard Southern Model Railroad Club has been modelling North American railroads in the Crawley area since 1998. In that time it has met in a pub, a dance hall, a council hut, an outbuilding under the Gatwick flight path and a table tennis club. It has also survived an arson attack that destroyed everything it owned.
Through all of it, the club has kept doing the same thing: building layouts together and running trains. This is the story of how it got from a few modules on a hall floor to the two-level permanent layout in Tilgate that now hosts regular club meetings and operating sessions.
Beginnings, 1998 to 2000
The idea of an American-outline model railroad group for the South-East was the brainchild of Peter Wilson, who became the club's first Secretary. The club was formed in 1998, drawing on members of the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) living in the area. Its first meetings were held in a pub basement in Sevenoaks, Kent, before moving to the Montefiore Hall in Three Bridges, Crawley, where the club met for the next two years.
There it settled into a routine of monthly Friday evening meetings. Each evening began in a side room with 'gossip' and practical sessions, while members waited for the tap dancing class to finish. Only then could they carry a few modules into the main hall and set them up.
Membership grew healthily during these years. With the larger numbers, the club adopted the name Seaboard Southern, a play on the names of American railroads, and put itself on a more formal footing with a constitution and a committee.
In those days the club modelled in HO scale using 12-volt DC control. Members each built 4 ft by 2 ft modules, brought them along to every meeting and joined them together to form a layout for the evening.
A home of our own: Hut #29, Tilgate, 2000 to 2010
After two years of carrying modules in and out of the Montefiore Hall, the club was lucky enough to secure the lease of Hut #29 in Tilgate from Crawley Council. For the first time, members had a clubroom where work could be left in place between meetings.
They used it to build two layouts: a modular HO layout and a second layout in N gauge. The centrepiece of the HO layout was a huge model viaduct based on the Keddie Wye in California, the famous three-legged junction of steel trestles in the Feather River Canyon. Set among snow-covered pines and tunnel mouths, it was exhibited at Tolworth Showtrain in November 2004.
The N gauge layout was built by Peter Borcherds and Jim Bainbridge, both of whom had South African connections. It ran the full length of the hut, with a "dogbone" loop at each end for continuous running. Long freight trains winding through its scenery made it an impressive sight. Like everything else in the hut, it was lost in the fire.
A South African flavour
The South African connection shaped the club's social life as well as its modelling. It introduced members to the braai, a South African barbecue featuring exotic meats and more. A couple of times a year, the club held a braai as a social occasion for members and their partners.
Another South African influence was Nando's in Crawley, which became a regular Friday meeting place for up to ten members to share food and chat. Some members keep the Nando's tradition going today.
The fire, summer 2010
In the summer of 2010, the clubroom at Hut #29 was destroyed in an arson attack. Everything the club had built over twelve years was lost: the layouts and their scenery, the Keddie Wye, members' rolling stock and the club's tools.
It was the lowest point in the club's history. Rather than give up, the members set about starting again.
Starting again: Gatwick House, 2011 to 2015
Several months after the fire, the club was fortunate to obtain a lease on an outbuilding at Gatwick House in 2011. It sat directly under the eastern approach to the airport, so running sessions came with a regular accompaniment of airliners passing low overhead.
Members spent many hours making the space habitable. They then began a new modular HO layout, this time built for DCC (Digital Command Control) operation to NMRA standards. Combinations of the new modules were taken out to exhibitions from time to time.
After a change of landlords, the lease expired. By the end of December 2015 everything had to be packed up and moved into storage.
In limbo, 2016 to 2017
For some fifteen months the club had no home, and its modules stayed in storage. Then, in March 2017, it found a temporary solution sharing Tilgate Hut #1 with a table tennis club.
The arrangement came with conditions. The few remaining modules could be set up on only three days a week, and everything had to be cleared away afterwards so the table tennis games could continue.
Hut #13 and the permanent layout, 2017 onwards
After six months of sharing, the club was offered a lease on new premises and moved into Tilgate Hut #13 in November 2017. By an irony nobody missed, it stands less than 200 metres from the site of the burnt-out Hut #29. The new hut had already been decorated and carpeted, so little work was needed before the remaining modules could be set up again.
Planning and building
With a secure home at last, the club planned a more ambitious permanent layout. Construction began while some of the modules stayed in use, so Friday running nights could continue in a limited way.
Once the plan was agreed, work started in earnest. The clubroom soon resembled a woodshed, with no room left for running trains. Construction methods were tried and refined, and extra details were added along the way.
The design
The layout is built on two levels. A helix of three and a half turns lifts trains from the lower level to the upper on a steady gradient. The main line uses a minimum radius of 36 inches, and yards and branches a minimum of 30 inches, so most available rolling stock can run easily.
The first train climbed the helix on 5 April 2019. Photographs from 16 August 2019 show the helix still under construction.
Wiring and control
Through 2019, working parties continued to complete the lower level. The wiring supports DCC control throughout, including two reverse loops. Every turnout is powered: those on the main line are operated as DCC accessories, and those in the yard through an analogue control panel.
The yard includes arrival and caboose tracks, east and west classification tracks, a through line and a run-round, along with a shortline branch and a motive power depot. By August 2019, the lower-level trackwork was nearly complete, and test running had begun so that problems could be found and fixed before any scenery went down.
From construction to operation, 2019 to today
Work on the layout carried on through the Covid lockdowns, with members continuing to build even while so much else stopped. That persistence paid off: the main lines on both levels are now complete.
The work is not finished. Industries and sidings are still being laid, and scenery is progressing, with more still to do. But the layout has moved from a building site to a working railroad.
Operating sessions
Operating sessions are now held on the first Saturday of every month. Trains run under the direction of a dispatcher, mirroring the way a prototype railroad is run. For a club that spent years carrying modules in and out of borrowed halls, it marks the point where its layout finally does what it was designed to do.
More layouts and other scales
The Downtown Hi-line
Alongside the HO layout, club members are building a new N scale layout inspired by elevated urban railroads such as New York's High Line and the Chicago "L". Across the front runs a scenic section modelled on the High Line, with curves at each end carrying the tracks round to a fiddle yard behind.
Tracklaying is under way and buildings are being constructed. Wiring of the track and turnout motors is due to start imminently.
The layout is being built for exhibitions as well as running sessions at the club. Its first outing, in its 'under construction' state, will be at the NMRA convention in Cookham, Berkshire, between 25th and 27th October 2026.
Three Bridges
The portable N gauge layout Three Bridges, a regular sight at exhibitions over the years, is still part of the club. It is currently kept at a member's house, and they hope to take it out to more exhibitions in the future.
Henry, Iowa
Another club layout still in progress is Henry, Iowa. It was bought for the club so it could be taken to other people's shows to promote the club.
When finished, the HO layout will be 11 feet long, with a central scenic section and a fiddle yard at each end. It currently runs on DC, with a view to converting it to DCC later.
On30 at home
Members' interests reach beyond HO and N as well. One member is building an On30 narrow gauge layout in a dedicated room at home, with help from several other members. It is planned as a three-deck layout, with a helix linking all three decks. The benchwork is built, and tracklaying has begun on and around the helix.
