Church Hope Model Railway

Church Hope Model Railway was created in 2022 to model the late GWR, Southern and DSJR steam railways. 

As the model developed it diversified so that as well as steam locomotives we also now have a number of early BR diesels and rolling stock. The layout might be considered a heritage railway with many classic steam locos including Flying Scotsman, Mallatd, Peppercorn as well as visitors from American and European railways and even the locos from Series 1 of  Thomas and Friends.

Although we have used actual Station Names and Places the railway design does not reflect any real life locations. The Weymouth and Portland Railway and the Easton and Church Hope Railway were operated jointly by the Great Western Railway and the LSWR.

 

The Church Hope layout has been present at several Weymouth Model Railway Association (WMRA) and Wessex shows and was also demonstrated to children at the Prince of Wales School, Dorchester in July 2025.

 

A key focus in the design and building of the railway has been to demonstrate computer automation of model railways. The layout can be run entirely from a laptop using the iTrain pro software and a variety of hardware modules from diferent manufacturers. 

 

As the railway has progressed we are keen to adopt the latest technology.

Just like a regular  railway the computer is able to select the best route available at any particular time. Trains are routed between the stations, fiddle yards, marshalling yards and engine sheds. The computer knows the location of each train and that trains

planned route if the train is active. The computer also knows the characteristics of the train, size and length, as well as speed, acceleration and deceleration, so that it can be routed in an appropriate way. Signalling, sounds, lighting, and a turntable are also controlled by the computer.  Whilst automatic coupling and decoupling is possible on this layout it is best demonstrated on our ‘Easton Station’ layout which was built to demonstrate this feature.