Here's the first of a selection of photos at Railex on Saturday. I'm not particularly proud of any of these which were hand held, without flash, on a "point and shoot" camera with the attendant focus and camera shake issues so I'll guess that some far better pics will follow, but these may keep us going for a bit. I'll post a separate message for each of the layouts which I photographed. I start with Aylesbury LNWR - not only a brilliantly executed layout but also an historic document in it's own right as the surrounding area has changed so completely. All are pretty self explanatory, but I'll add a description where it may help to add a bit of detail.
Looking at modern maps it appears that part of this land now has a public park on it. No doubt all traces of the railway have been swept away, but a bit of detective work may be interesting - or not!
Th North & Randall yard is probably the only place which remains recognisable as a specific location. In fact the main building has gone and until recent times was a yard, and still for a soft drinks company. However the small brick built building behind the lamp post still exists. These remaining bits of old Aylesbury will disappear soon as the site has been sold for development. The range of cottages and shops beyond have all gone under a roundabout and the road with the horse drawn vehicles is the A41 which turns left in front of the white building (also long gone) as the inner ring road. All the green fields have been developed. Other than some of the cottages shown on the layout which are still present in odd corners the scene has changed completely.
With the station gone a new road, the A418, has appeared towards the back of the site, approximately where the boundary wall and trees beyond are shown here and crossing Park Street to the right of the station - a view of this appears later. The "new" dual carriageway goes right through the gas works, also not a trace of which remains.
If it was possible to see across these fields now the view of Aylesbury Prison would be much the same. However the fields between have now largely been developed.
Finally a camera shaky picture of Park Street, now one of the principle thoroughfares in Aylesbury.
Brian
