Which layouts have really inspired you?

[kevpeo]

Glad this is for inspired and not favorite layouts, I never could have pinned it down to three! After some soul searching the three that inspired me, in order of appearance -

 

Liverpool to Ainsdale - In the modeller in the 70's and it was diesels! Inspired me to start looking at how to improve my models, not just run them!

 

High Gill – The Riverside clubs layout appeared at Wigan just as we were finishing the original Boldon Junction. Better catenary (and stock!) than ours, and it beat us onto the show circuit! We carried on regardless but is probably what pushed us to an urban setting in later incarnations!

 

Filisur – Again seen at Wigan, completely unwieldy to transport by all accounts but gorgeous! Started a love of the RHB, now sadly waned in activity, but still the first layout that made me want to visit somewhere ''foreign''! kev.

[springs branch]

Steve Flints Kyle of Tongue, saw it at Manchester and had to do a scottish layout after that. (only took about another 20 years to do one!)

[Gilwell Park]

I have been watching this for some time. Here are my 3.

 

1. The original Borchester. Looked and worked like a real railway.

 

2. The Berrow Branch. Somerset & Dorset branch line. Often wish I had kept up my S&D interest.

 

3. The Gresley Beat. Very evocative for a Londoner used to watching trains in cuttings, under bridges and by

retaining walls.

 

Roger.

[wagonman]

I suppose the first layout that really gave me the 'WOW' factor was Norris' 0 gauge masterpiece, especially when seen through Jim Russell's camera – yup I'm that old.

 

Later came the Dartmoor scene at Pendon and on a more domestic level P D Hancock's original Craig & Mertonford. That is still pretty much the standard to which I aspire.

[5Bel]

Hi All,

 

Diggle, Halebarns and Westport. I have had the pleasure of helping to operate here on a few occasions. Lovely big red engines, long trains and realistic operation. Sitting outside listening to the signal box bells on a summers evening is delightful.

 

Ditchling Green. A masterpiece of a railway and it's environment.

 

Southwark Street. The first Southern Electric layout I ever saw. (Got a lot to answer for)

 

Cheers for now, Ian

[Gwiwer]

"Inspiration" is a very personal quality. It may not be the most technically proficient, the most superbly engineered nor the most accurately represented models which truly inspire. I draw my three choices from a memory of over 50 years and across those years of three layouts which have stuck in my mind and probably inspired me to take up the hobby, to persist when circumstances seemed set against it, and to reach the level I have today. Two may be virtually unknown and certainly do not appear on the recent exhibition circuit lists.

 

1. There was a model village set in the drained and landscaped moat of a Martello Tower along Clacton sea front many years ago which included as a major feature an outdoor O-gauge (or possibly gauge 1) railway. I was very young indeed when I spent several happy hours taking in all that this unusual location had to offer and recall maroon coaches being hauled by green and black steam locomotives though cannot be more precise almost half a century later.

 

2. Pierhead Model Railway, Worthing. A fixed and fairly large display in the southern pavilion at the seaward end of the pier. Probably not the best modelling but it was well built and staged some endurance running with record attempts. I never learned of its fate though I believe it was dismantled many years ago. It was also unusual in that it was possible to hear the sea beneath the floor above the sound of the trains on rougher days.

 

3. Jim Smith-Wright's Birmingham New Street project. The sheer scale of the thing is amazing (particularly when you see the whole thing and not just the immediate station area) and when you look at the attention to detail and the ingenuity used in construction ..... Now that is what I call inspiring even if the location is one of the grottiest and seediest to be found in Britain.

[David Bigcheeseplant]

When I was younger and still at school, the layouts that had a wow factor was Barry Norman's Wynlesham Cove (not too sure of the spelling) The North London Group's Bodmin and Chiltern Green, I saw the first two in Railway Modeller and Model Railway Constructor and later in the flesh at exhibitions I think it was as a show in Marlow in a hall close to the river that I saw Chiltern Green, but this may not be correct.

 

Anyway I think what did it for me was the layouts looked right and not overscale and well presented.

 

David

[Padishar Creel]

Hallo,

 

Elm Park (South London in 00) does it for me because the layout is so convincing. I was sure it was a real location when I saw it at Model Rail Scotland last year

 

Law Junction for the excellent modelling skill and being South Scotland WCML it has to be included in my list

 

And for sheer awesomeness (is there such a word?) what must surely rank as the ultimate N-Gauge layout worldwide, I've posted this link before and will post it again and again: Stuttgart Hbf in 1:160, with no compression whatsoever, and the builder has reconstructed the Stuttgart Signalbox to a scale of 1:1 to control it. I have not seen the layout, the waiting list is incredibly long, but although I did use the SBahn station every day for 12 years where the layout is kept, I never did find the door behind which the layout is kept and never caught a glimpse of the owner.

 

http://www.freymodell.de/1.html

 

JGP

 

 

[bmthtrains - David]

A very strange (and humbling) experience to find my own layout mentioned in this thread, but I'm pleased it has inspired others.

 

As for my top 3 - a very hard choice to be honest, but sticking to layouts that actually really inspired me, rather than ones I think are either the best or simply favourites, I will pick the following:

 

1. Ronsthorpe - an N gauge blue period layout in a Railway Modeller in about 1993 - first time I'd seen how well you could fit full length trains into a reasonable space in N. I was hooked.

2. Kinlet Wharf - starting to look a bit 'show worn' now, but it was a layout that hooked me into the possibilities of N gauge, and stoked my interest in modelling the WCML. It also showed me I didn't need a station on a layout for it to be really impressive. I can still stand in front of it for hours watching trains go by.

3. Law Junction - whenever my thoughts drift away from making another N gauge layout, I look at photos of Law Junction and think - no, this really is the best scale for you, keep going!

 

David

[Mustermark]

And for sheer awesomeness (is there such a word?) what must surely rank as the ultimate N-Gauge layout worldwide, I've posted this link before and will post it again and again: Stuttgart Hbf in 1:160, with no compression whatsoever, and the builder has reconstructed the Stuttgart Signalbox to a scale of 1:1 to control it. I have not seen the layout, the waiting list is incredibly long, but although I did use the SBahn station every day for 12 years where the layout is kept, I never did find the door behind which the layout is kept and never caught a glimpse of the owner.

 

http://www.freymodell.de/1.html

 

Holy cow! That is unfeasible! I think awesomeness is a good enough word to be invented specially for it. That makes my little effort to build Readign station look like nothing...

Thanks for posting the link.

 

Anyone else got links to their insprations?

[298]

Can I make a new selection based on just what was at the Nottingham Show...?

 

1) Netherwood Sidings - A good example of what happens when someone wants to do something, rather than sitting back and moaning that they can't buy a XX or whatever class from their local model shop.

 

2) New Hey - Didn't really have time to view it as much as i'd liked, but again it's proper prototype modelling, rather than a totally ficticious concept.

 

3) Peter North's Virginian layout section - Not my favourite electrified US road, but I can't wait to see the finished project.

[waggy]

1. High Dyke, must have seen this layout 6 times can't recall ever seeing a derailment or any finger poking. a truely superb layout.

 

2. North Shields, lucky enough to see it at the MRJ show in 1991.

 

3. Wibdenshaw, reminds me so much of my spotting days.

[Padishar Creel]

Holy cow! That is unfeasible! I think awesomeness is a good enough word to be invented specially for it. That makes my little effort to build Readign station look like nothing...

Thanks for posting the link.

 

Anyone else got links to their insprations?

 

 

Hope you clicked on all 5 tabs - the signal box is in the section Nord,West,Cannstatt. The one Retro-Section is the West, as the station was closed down and all that remains are the two through lines of the Gäubahn and the signal Boxes (though with the work going on for Stuttgart 21 the north wing of the station has been demolished and 25 trees were felled in the Schloßgarten - so that is basically also retro)

What does it for me is the Naturkundenmuseum. It really is that overgrown....

[prime586]

Lochside by Ian Futers

 

This layout changed my entire life, modelling-wise. Flicking back through the two articles in Railway Modeller in the early 1980s, it still does. More is less. Spent ages looking at it at the York exhibition (1982?), and hoping I'd get chance to speak to him in a nervous 14-year old kind of fashion. He was elsewhere.

 

Shell Island has much the same effect on me - the illusion of space in a very small space, and with Class 24s as well ..... marvelous.

[PGN]

"Inspiration" is a very personal quality. It may not be the most technically proficient, the most superbly engineered nor the most accurately represented models which truly inspire.

 

Those are my thoughts exactly ... and the reason why, in starting this thread, I decided to focus on inspiration.

[ozzyo]

I can think of two that "inspired" me - that is made me realize that it was possible to do better. They both date back to the late sixties.

 

1. "Eastbourne" by Mrs. V Thompson

2. "Haverthwaite" by Ross Pochin

 

They did not make me want to copy them.

Anyone know what happened to these? Was Eastbourne ever finished?

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

Haverthwaite, if it's the one that I'm thinking of was at Haverthwate a couple of years back.

 

OzzyO.

[ozzyo]

Hard question to answer.

 

One layout that I remember, but I wont say inspired me was "Otogo" I think that the owner was called Jack? rabbits popping out of the hill, TPOs dropping off and picking up mail, etc..

 

In the same hall was.

 

Garsdale road, lovely it had it for me, I wanted to have my locos like them, all red and running in a real setting.

 

Kendal Castle, the last great project. By this time I had got to know David (RIP) and this was one of the layouts that had got me up into 7mm. All I wanted to do was to be able to build locos that would look that nice.

 

Dewsbury, by Bob Essery. fine scale to be worked up to.

 

I have a fourth one but I cant say, we're only allowed three.

 

OzzyO.

[steve fay]

1 Holiday haunts reminds me of dawlish which I think was the plan

2 dainton bank more south Devon delights

3 Pete watermans Leamington spa.

Not in any order but the chance to see Castles galore.

[M Graff]

As I am modeling in HO scale and being Swedish, I have a bit of different influences.

There is a layout in the Swedish museum of Technology built by a man named Uno Milton. It was the first layout that showed me that a model railway can look so much more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoUzlpTSMOE

 

The second layout that really gave me big inspiration was John Allens Gorre & Daphetid.

That was the big inspiration for me to start with US prototype models.

 

The third one is Malcolm Furlow´s San Juan Central, what an artwork! That one has something that is hard to describe, but just IT!

[Crichel Down]

I have come to this thread rather late in the day, but if asked to list those layouts which I have found 'inspirational', I would have to list at least 150, quite a few of which have already been mentioned by others in this thread.

 

However, my two nominations for the absolute top of the list would have to be Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch and John Ahern's Madder Valley Railway - both hugely characterful models which absolutely ooze atmosphere.

 

I was slightly surprised that no-one else seems to have mentioned the Madder Valley (unless I missed it). This was* an admittedly slightly quirky layout, but if you have any interest in independent light railways, with maybe a touch of free-lancing thrown in, I don't think the MVR can be bettered.

 

[* 'was' should really read 'is' because, despite the death of its creator John Ahern 50 years ago this year (on Christmas Eve 1961), the layout is still displayed at Pendon Museum, and can even be seen in operation on two or three occasions each year.]

 

I must resist starting to list the other 148+ !

[Brinkly]

As others have said I find other's modelling and layouts really inspiring, even if that is an approach of 'I can do it better than that', which was one of the reasons I became a teacher!

 

Inspiration is so personal, some models or layouts that I love others probably hate!

 

For me it is a person who really inspired me and that was my late Grandfather, Grandpa Brinkly. I spent many hours with him in the basement playing trains, he taught me how to build wagons from Ratio kits and buildings from Superquick models. Without him I probably wouldn't have had a train set!

 

The second is a layout and that was St. Merryn, for me it sets the standard that I would like to work towards in all areas of modelling.

 

The last, but by no means least is Penhydd. Geoff has not only been a wonderful friend, but also his layout and models inspire me to keep going when times are bad! Thanks Geoff!

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

[Rich.B]

Hiya

 

I can name 3 layouts I like but hand on heart no layout has ever inspired me. Inspiration comes from the real world every time. I would say if you are looking for inspiration from a model, you are looking in the wrong place.

 

The 3 I like are

 

Wibdenshaw

Pempool

Falmouth

 

Cheers

 

Jim

 

Hi Jim,

 

Yes, a very valid point indeed, and that dosen't mean that there's no inspirational layouts out there, but as you say it really should be some area of the prototype that gets the inspiration going.

 

Regards, Rich.B

[The Black Hat]

For me it would be:

 

Allerton Junction by Shildon MRG

Woodhouses by the Grand MRG

and Middleton in Teesdale which I think was by Darlington MRG.

 

As for people mentioning real places, Id agree... they do inspire.

 

Darlington Bank Top really could be a fantastic model,

The Stainmore line would have bridges and views that none could match

but I still like a decent medium size depot idea... so guess Thornaby might be that for me...

[BlackRat]

Pipers Mead.

 

Bredon.

 

Hursley.

 

and anything by the Cardiff 4mm Group!

 

And about another 50 or so at least, but not allowed to say!

[Allegheny1600]

I've wanted to contribute to this thread for ages but couldn't think of the name of my first "Inspirational" layout until now!
"Eastwell" actually in the (May 1980?) MRC under the name of "For Sherdington, change to Eastwell" - I think by the Bulwell, Nottingham group. EM gauge when I only really knew of 00 and H0, industrial 'grot' and atmosphere and realistic operations, fantastic!
"Allegheny Midland" by Tony Koester in the "Model Railroader" several times during the 1980's and 90's - Atmospheric and excellent scenery but mainly due to the very realistic operations, based upon the real thing!
Finally,
"Eselsbruck" in "Continental Modeller" January 2005 by Wolfgang Stässer. This time, quite a fictitious German layout but with a heavy accent on operations (and fine scenery, too!).
So,
all three of my choices are heavily influenced by prototypical operations - of the kind that I could not (easily!) see in real life, so I take comfort in being inspired by these models, rather than the real thing!
Cheers,
John E.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Allegheny1600