Facts at a glance
- Year of Construction: 2026
- Dimensions: 6ft x 2ft (1800mm x 600mm)
- Gauge: N Gauge
- Control: Analogue
- Number of turnouts: 6
- Setup time: 5 minutes
- Number of Modules: 2
- Magazine Appearances: 0
Regents Cross is an Astolat club project that began in Spring 2026. It forms part of the Modular
Railway family of boards owned by club members. These boards can be connected together to
provide long runs of track across the front of a layout, while allowing members complete
freedom to design and build whatever they wish in the private space behind and above the
public running lines.
The new club layout is designed as a major terminus, feeding any number of modular layouts
owned by members of Astolat and other clubs. As the system grows, very large layouts can be
created, with many trains running regularly back and forth across a combined railway.
Regents Cross is intended to be an exhibition-standard representation of a busy London
terminus during the 1960s. The signage follows British Railways standards of the period, while
the geographical setting is deliberately ambiguous, allowing a wide variety of rolling stock to be
operated. Consistent with the era, services will include both DMUs and EMUs, and there is also
an Underground station.
The model captures London in the Swinging Sixties: busy, slightly grimy, and filled with large
buildings from many different periods. The centrepieces are a heavily modified Faller terminus
building and an impressive church overlooking a London square.
There are eight platform tracks, in addition to the Underground station. The layout is intended
to represent the rush hour period, so it will be busy. We hope to operate a full commuter service,
with visitors seeing a train arrive or depart approximately every 30 seconds throughout the day.
To create a convincing impression of activity, the layout will feature sound effects, lighting,
moving buses, and even working indicator boards.
Coordinating all of this activity simultaneously would be difficult for human operators alone. To
solve this problem, we are developing software called TrainDriver, which records and plays back
operator actions. The resulting “films” can be edited and combined to create highly realistic
operating sequences. These edited films can then be replayed indefinitely, allowing operators to
spend more time talking to visitors while the railway continues to run reliably and consistently.