Dilhorne Colliery is set in the late 1950’s early 60’s in the rural North Staffordshire moorlands, newly built by the younger members of the Soar Valley Model Railway Club, along with the help of others. The layout is currently a work in progress, it is loosely based on Foxfield Colliery which concrete headgears still stand preserved, overlooking the rolling hills of the countryside. Many preserved locomotives that have been on the railway over the years have been built either from kits or are ready to run models, and can be seen on this layout, performing duties that would have taken place many years ago. We operate DCC in all of our locomotives (some with sound), working signals and lights and operating pit wheels on one of our headgears. The other benefit of DCC Operation means it only requires two operators.
   Plenty of small detailed features can also be found along the layout. Dilhorne is temporarily in a smaller form (measuring 20ft x 3ft) and will eventually be longer to show a more countryside moorland scene that can be seen along the line today. The buildings which are no longer standing have been scratch-built using mainly card, designed as close as possible to photos. Some buildings are also from Bachmann’s Colliery range.