Hyde Road Shed

Hyde Road Shed 26H is an OO gauge layout is based around the northeast Manchester area, where Newton Heath shed was the local “leader” 26A, and an assumption that a further passenger locomotive shed was subsequently required. Newton Heath could not be expanded and so Hyde Road Shed, 26H, was built. The basic concept is that the viewer is standing inside the shed. Thus the four roads are numbered 12, 11, 10 and 9, with 8 and 7 falling off the edge, and the side of the shed building is missing. It is analogue control as converting two Hornby Dublo duchesses, whilst possible, would be rather tricky. The design brief was to incorporate the essential features of a steam shed, but necessarily “squeezed” to fit the available space, and some features are “off-stage”. Incorporating two ancient locomotives into a modern layout has led to some interesting challenges.For a start, code 100 track was mandatory, but if the completed layout works, no one actually studies the track in that amount of detail.