South Midland Railway

	First refurbishment 1991-92

	Not a lot had changed in the scenic layout during the late 1980s. A few pieces of rolling stock had been aquired. One thing had become clear by then, that the Hornby Zero One electronic system of control was very difficult to operate, It seemed that the slightest bit of dirt on rail or wheels would prevent smooth running. The decision was taken to abandon it in favour of the tried and tested conventional 12v dc system. This meant taking the Zero One chips out of the locos (some were still in locos in 2008 and so those locos had not run since the late 80s). The decision also meant rewiring the whole system on a section basis, each isolated by a switch.
Gaugemaster Controllers were installed and the additional switch panels made up in the mechanical workshops at BBC OUPC. They were painted in SMR shops and the whole wiring carried out as a de-stressing activity for the Chair (who was going through the big re-organisation exercise at OUPC).
	See: Track sections diagram et al Electrics Routing controllers

Refit early 2007/ 2008 Refit autumn 08 Refit autumn 09 Back to the top of this page	Prehistory Change of scale Lambourn Raising the game in the interim years The birth of Deddington Junction Early years at Deddn Jn Re-wiring and first refurbishment The Grand Refit Building Barford terminus Hempton shed refit Work in progress - latest news Thirty Years On – Grand Re-opening Gallery 1 Gallery 2 Gallery 3; fin de siècle The Deddington Junction mythology Loco power Rolling stock Track plan Electrics Museum Thomas and friends