Barrie Island - The Club Test Track

Exhibition Manager Details 

With the Club concentrating on the construction of exhibition layouts it was decided in 2014 that we needed to build a test track that could be set up quickly in our Club Rooms for members to test their locomotives and rolling stock. The first version of the test track was built during October 2014 and whilst it was not designed to be an exhibition layout it can and has been taken to model railway shows. It is designed to operate mainly on conventional 12 volts DC though there is provision for it to be operated using a DCC system if required.

The layout was soon christen "Barrie Island". It is named after one of our members Barrie Summers who regularly brings his prized locomotives to test on the layout and sometimes they don't work as he had hoped. During June and July 2016 a third circuit was added so more trains could be operated.  During the spring 2022 the test track was totally rebuilt on a new baseboard to create the Mark III version.  The layout continues to give a number of our members many hours of fun on club nights.

Exhibition Details

Exhibition Details Layout Owner : The Redditch Model Railway Club.

Number of operators required : two to three 

Layout size : 6ft x 5ft