McKinley is unusual in both scale and complexity, partly because it models British railways across a 20-year period, from 1956 to 1975. This was a time of great change for rail transport, especially in terms of rolling stock and livery, and McKinley’s operations are designed to reflect that evolving story.

Modelling Time

To simulate the passage of two decades, we use a system that advances the layout’s calendar by one month every 30 minutes of operating time. That means one full year takes six hours of operation, and all 20 years need about 120 hours to complete—typically spread across 40 operating sessions over nine months. Once we reach 1975, the layout resets back to 1956 and the cycle begins again.

This allows both operators and visitors to experience a railway that is subtly changing all the time, moving historically forward through the years as different types of trains, liveries, and rolling stock appear and disappear.

Managing the Stock

Years of historical research have gone into sourcing the right rolling stock to represent what ran in the West of England and the Midlands/North-West during our chosen era. Thousands of items later, we faced the logistical challenge of storing them and ensuring the right stock appears at the right time. That’s where our “Era Manager” comes in.

The Era Manager

The Era Manager is part of our computer system. Its core job is to move stock in and out of the Hades storage area according to the era being modelled. As time advances, the system triggers changes: it removes outdated stock and replaces it with appropriate substitutes. For example, an express passenger coach set might start in “Blood and Custard” livery in the 1950s, shift to maroon in the early 60s, and finally appear in BR blue/grey in the late 60s and early 70s. These swaps happen seamlessly behind the scenes, driven by the Era Clock and database instructions.

Operators simply receive instructions when it’s time to take a rake out of service and bring in its replacement. This changeover must be carefully timed to avoid disrupting station operations.

Freight stock, by contrast, changed very little over this period. Thousands of brown vans and mineral wagons just kept running, so they stay largely constant across the 20 years.

Era Scenic Trains

Block trains—those that carried steel, coal, containers, or other bulk loads—were a huge part of real-world freight. While McKinley can’t model industries like steelworks or container ports, it does run these trains as scenic features.

The Era Manager ensures scenic trains are era-appropriate. Each is brought out of storage for a specific period, makes its programmed runs, and then returns to Hades. Scenic trains cycle through in sequence, with a limit on how many appear on the layout at any time. These are pre-timetabled and run without operator input.

The Operational Day

McKinley’s timetable follows an 18-hour “operational day,” from 06:00 to midnight. Then, the layout "sleeps" for six hours before restarting at 06:00 the next day. Each station or yard has its own traffic patterns based on the time of day and types of services handled.

• London and Manchester, being termini, see intense commuter traffic at the start and end of the day, plus mid-day van and parcel movements.
• Sheffield, our major marshalling yard, runs a steady stream of freight all day.
• Wakefield experiences peaks and troughs tied to avoiding interference with rush-hour passenger flows.
• Birmingham is more complex, sitting on a busy through route with mixed traffic.

This variation mirrors real-life railway operations and provides interest for operators working at different times of the McKinley day.

A Boyhood Memory

McKinley’s founder, David Townend, recalls watching freight trains as a boy: “They’d thunder through the station, and I never knew where they were going or where they came from. That mystery stayed with me. You always knew where the passenger trains were headed—it was written on the platform. But the freight trains? They were invisible.”

That sense of mystery and movement inspired the design of McKinley’s scenic train feature: the constant flow of freight that runs past stations, independent of operator duties, just as it does on a real railway. You’re working in your yard—and a freightliner rumbles by. It’s immersive, and it connects you to the national network McKinley is trying to emulate.

Making the Magic Work

Because we don’t have space for facilities like collieries, steelworks, or container terminals, McKinley’s scenic trains stand in for those invisible industries. Each is assigned a start and end date. When the layout clock reaches the correct time, those trains emerge from Hades, perform their journey across the layout via pre-set paths, and then retreat—until their next scheduled appearance.

Up to 10 scenic trains can be running at a time, with 50–60 different trains available in our system. Some appear briefly, others more regularly. Freightliner trains are a good example of subtle change: we run four different versions, reflecting real-world liveries that evolved from 1964 through to the early 70s. Logos changed, containers evolved, and international traffic grew.

A Constantly Changing Railway

The result is a railway that never stays still. Every session, operators and visitors see a subtly different McKinley: one or two scenic trains replaced, rakes of passenger coaches in a different livery, new locomotives in service. Over a few sessions, you’ll notice an era shift—and before long, it’s 1965, or 1971, and everything looks and feels just a little different.

It’s not just a model railway. It’s a railway with time running through it.