Hello everyone, my name is Damian Cane, and together with my father Peter, I’d like to introduce you to our latest and by far most ambitious railway project, The Pennley Vale & Abingdon Line.

Like many people in this hobby, what started years ago as simply running trains gradually turned into something much deeper. Over time we found ourselves becoming more interested in atmosphere, realism, operation, and the feeling a railway gives you rather than just the trains themselves.

After many years of building our previous layout, known as the Heritage Line, we eventually made the difficult decision to completely dismantle it and begin again from the ground up with a far clearer vision of what we wanted to create.

What we are building now is a fully scenic British railway set between 1900 and 1965, located just inside the Oxfordshire boundary upon an LMS through route heading north toward the Midlands, with a GWR-inspired Abingdon branch joining the main line at Pennley Vale Junction.

But perhaps the interesting part is this: we are building it all from Queensland, Australia.

Both Dad and I are originally British, and while Australia is home, there has always been something about Britain’s railways, countryside, and villages that stayed with us. Living here means we can see Australian railways and landscapes any day we like, but what we miss is the atmosphere of Britain during the great railway age.

The stone stations.

The signal boxes.

The steam drifting across the countryside.

The goods yards.

The branch lines.

The feeling of a world moving at a different pace.

That is what we are trying to recreate.

The project draws heavily from the things that inspired us, Pendon Museum and Pendon Parva, the work of P.D. Hancock and Roye England, classic British railways before modernisation, and even television series such as Foyle’s War and All Creatures Great and Small, where the countryside itself almost becomes a character.

We want Pennley Vale to feel lived in and believable, a railway with purpose, history, and movement.

Operationally the railway will feature everything from northbound LMS expresses and fitted freight workings through Pennley Vale, to quieter GWR branch operations on the Abingdon line, including coal traffic, livestock wagons, parcels vans, and newly built MG motor cars departing the Abingdon works by rail.

The entire layout is also being designed around realistic operation and modern DCC sound, with sweeping curves, quiet-running track foundations, layered scenery, and carefully planned operation all helping bring the railway to life.

Above all else, we simply hope to create a small piece of Britain in miniature and we’re looking forward to sharing the journey with you all as Pennley Vale slowly comes to life.