The rebuild will change the track plan so that it becomes continuous circuits. This will require some significant changes to the scenery to happen. Some degree of automation is planned to make exhibition operation easier. Lastly a complete rewire will take place using more modern equipment.

The idea of St Peter's Road was to develop from the O Gauge Tram Group’s previous layout ‘Anytown’, which as an end to end shuttle. A tail chaser was considered but what we wanted was to try to achieve was a credible backdrop in which our models could operate, rather than one that looked as if the scenery had been fitted round the trams.

Baseboards have been built from 9mm ply. Whilst they have proved stable they are also heavy. Each of the four boards is a nominal 4’ by 3’ but edged with 6mm ply. So the overall length is slightly over 16 feet. The bearers and web framing is built from two skins of 6mm ply with 9mm packing pieces. Boards are aligned by use of pattern-dowels and held rigid by nuts and bolts.

Boards are supported on wooden trestles. This method has proved best to allow for slight unevenness in the floors in exhibition halls.

Track is code 100 flat bottomed rail soldered to copper clad sleepers. Checkrail is used to simulate the rail groove. Two methods have been used. The first using a second rail which gives the road an appearance, particularly at points and crossings, of the tangle of iron set into the surface.

Points and crossings are built in situ. All but one of the points are trailing using a single sprung blade. The only operated point required is to select the route where the two main lines split.

Cars draw current through a live overhead. This like the track has one operating point controlled by a ‘rod in tube’ system. Although it was intended to use trolley reversers the differing lengths of trolley poles made building a reliable reverser too difficult. However, the use of a ‘fiddle yard’ at one end has cut down the appearance of human hands. Ears are mostly Suydam and the crossings are a mixture of Phil Elverd (now held by ABS Models) and home made products. Insulating breaks in the overhead are all home made. The overhead is transported rolled onto a drum.

The electrical control system is 12 volt dc. Each direction is a separate circuit with its own controller but the stub terminals can be switched between these circuits and controllers. The depot has a third controller which covers the immediate depot area and extends on one track to the fiddle yard on the ‘back road’. The double track junction is protected by sections which fail safe to ‘off’ to prevent collisions. This works well unless a car is fitted with a flywheel. Each terminal also has a number of sections to allow cars to be isolated and held until the terminal stub is free. To drive from the ‘back road’ onto the main requires a momentary biased action switch to be held.

Scenery was a mixture of scratch built and kit built structures. The Odeon cinema, tram depot, bank and St Peters tin tabernacle are scratch built. Many of the other buildings started life as kits and have been modified or enhanced. A couple of buildings scratch built for ‘Anytown’, the previous layout, are still in use.

The multitude of cars, lorries and other road vehicles are a mostly kit built. Whilst the people are all hand painted. Each one has a pin set into a leg which is located into a predrilled hole in the baseboard.

The road surface is either plaster, card or cobbles using commercially available sheet material.