Darley Dale circa 1950 in N Gauge by Don Pearson

This line was closed in 1968 after 101 years of traffic. In 1987 Peak Rail established Headquarters at Darley Dale and began restoring the line. In 1992 the first official service ran to Matlock Riverside. Since then the line has reached Rowsley and here work on restoration of the area, which previously contained the Motive Power Depot 17D, continues.
 
The Charm of Darley Dale’s Station buildings attracted me to model this area with its sidings as was originally laid out.  Nowadays various Locomotives can be seen which in BR days were not operated here. This makes me happy to utilise items of my stock as visitors to Peak Rail’s activities. Preserved Railways allow much licence to be taken.
On this layout due to the need to compress length, I have used Fleischmann track and three-way points, slips etc. These are very well engineered, but do have the aspect that the operating mechanism is visual on the side of them. I also use Fleischmann expanding track adaptors across all my board joins, which obviate the associated movement and alignment problems. The layout is 7’6” x 18” and is connected to three others which provide a Full circuit around the cabin in which all are located.