Disused layouts

[scots region]

Hello all, has anyone ever given thought to building a layout depicting an abandoned and disused station, I.E a layout with no traffic as the traffic has ceased running to this location and the infrastructure as lain abandoned and disused. Totally exposed to the elements, the humans that would have maintained the station have long since moved on. Weeds grow through rusting trackwork and the wind howls mournfully through the crumbling goods shed, it own tracks have found reemployment elsewere. The station building still stands read for trains that will never arrive, the the gaps between the pavings filling up with moss and dandilions, the windows have only recieved attention from vandals, the doors hings are slowly giving up the fight to hold there wooden employer.

 

I first became interested in models of disused locations when I saw an abandoned station making a cameo on David Shepards Layout. It facinated me, the little station had a character all of its own. There was of course the arguement of whats the point of building a layout and then running nothing, it would of course have no wiring. But I think theres a true art to depicting deriliction and theres so much scope, weathering buildings that will never be cleaned, getting the outlay of weeds just right and many others. I know this might sound odd but what do you think.

[Colin]

Could I suggest you take a look at Jim Connor's "Harford Street" (00, East London in the '50s, featured in Hornby Mag a couple of years ago) - for urban dereliction it takes some beating! The trains still run, but much of the infrastructure is closed/disused. Jim, his son Charlie(L49) and Lloyd(Baby Deltic) are working on an updated version ('60s era) which has even more dereliction - the main station is almost completely closed this time around.

['CHARD]

I remember a layout in RM back in the mid-seventies being featured several times, including one final visit when it was the last day of traffic, and the photos accompanying the article depicted the final service trains, specials, departing ECS and then emptiness. IIRC the owner was moving house and was dismantling the layout.

 

I don't recall the name but have a feeling it took Swanage or Corfe as inspiration, and featured a Wrenn WC and Tri-ang Hymek. There was also an Airfix JCB, which I found somewhat exotic, having never seen the kit at the tender age of 10

[Kris]

A most unusual concept. I don't think it would work for exhibitions but as a museum piece it could work, if modelling an actual location. Very much a niche interest, but if you go ahead with it I shall follow with interest.

[Tim V]

DCC or DC?......

 

At least there wouldn't be any arguments.....

[halfwit]

Iain Rice touched on this in his Wills Finecast Illustrated Modellers Guide. He included a little sketch of an abandoned halt based on the Wills kit.

It would make a nice little diorama and a good excuse to try out new techniques.

[Russ (mines a pint)]

I like to do stations where the passenger service has been abandoned but freight lingers on - there are plenty of examaples to choose from whichever bit of the country takes your fancy. there are also a few examples where passenger service carried on but no freight, along the lines of Alston for example.

 

whichever way round you do it allows some amount of decrepitude and simplifies track, signalling and of course stock outlay!

 

whether modelling somewhere completely closed would maintain enough interest operationally? maybe a tracklifting train?

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I remember a layout in RM back in the mid-seventies being featured several times, including one final visit when it was the last day of traffic, and the photos accompanying the article depicted the final service trains, specials, departing ECS and then emptiness. IIRC the owner was moving house and was dismantling the layout.

 

I don't recall the name but have a feeling it took Swanage or Corfe as inspiration, and featured a Wrenn WC and Tri-ang Hymek. There was also an Airfix JCB, which I found somewhat exotic, having never seen the kit at the tender age of 10

 

I seem to remember that it was one of Colin Boocock's layouts, which included class 33s made out of converted Triang class 81s. Its name was something along the line of Weybourne, but I can't be sent scurrying to my RM collection to verify, as it is safely tucked away in the loft at present!

[Beacon]

I think theres a true art to depicting deriliction

 

I always remember my school art teacher getting us to make clay models of ruined buildings and talking us through the building of the intact version too and then ruining it which is actually harder but better than building a ruin itself which appears easy at first!

 

This sounds like an interesting idea. I'm sure I have seen a derelict station as part of a layout in a magazine at some point in the past. I would be inclined to go down this route perhaps unless just building a smallish diorama.

 

 

 

 

 

['CHARD]

I seem to remember that it was one of Colin Boocock's layouts, which included class 33s made out of converted Triang class 81s. Its name was something along the line of Weybourne, but I can't be sent scurrying to my RM collection to verify, as it is safely tucked away in the loft at present!

 

I think you've nailed it.

 

And the sheer bravado of the 81 to 33 conversion (they were 33/1s in fact, I think) makes most of what passes on here for RTR-bashing seem pretty lightweight

[scots region]

the biggest problem in todays world I can think of is, how do you muster interest in a Layout were nothing happens. I suppose you could do some basic wiring to run occasional RCTS specials. To me theres something harrowingly eeire about abandoned railways, the way many of them are left as if service could resume tommorow, it takes on a quite chilling atmosphere

 

 

[pete_mcfarlane]

How about a line in the process of being lifted? There's scope for modelling all sorts of contractor's diesels, cranes and other such plant.

[Dagworth]

Not quite what the OP is talking about but Ravensclyffe will have a closed and derelict station on it although the line is very much open and busy.

 

Andi

[Neil]

How about a line in the process of being lifted? There's scope for modelling all sorts of contractor's diesels, cranes and other such plant.

 

I'm working on this scenario at the moment. Rather than indulging in a huge cut and paste exercise can I direct interested parties here where I've described the thought process and inspiration.

[Torn-on-the-platform]

This month's Hornby magazine has a great layout in. I forget its name as I don't have my copy of the magazine with me in Sheffield. It is a light railway setting, with the railway on its last legs, rapidly returning to nature. Absolutely fantastic layout with incredible scenery, though the stock is not for the rivet counter - the builder made the layout for the overall impression rather than the accuracy. There's no information about the layout's construction, but a lovely description of what the builder has aimed to achieve.

 

I guess that building a layout as outlined in the OP is more for the diorama builder. 2012 challenge maybe?!

 

Given the choice between visiting a derelict station and a station on today's mainline, I would much rather visit the derelict one as it has so much more nostalgia and mystique!

 

A slightly different concept, but as I cycled along the Camel trail 10+ years ago I always tried to imagine RSH 0-6-0T Ugly breaking the silence, past the still remaining station halts and over the rusting girder bridges. If I went back now, I'd be imagining LSWR or GWR motive power but back then I didn't have much idea of where preserved engines originally came from.

[Pete the Elaner]

Could I suggest you take a look at Jim Connor's "Harford Street" (00, East London in the '50s, featured in Hornby Mag a couple of years ago) - for urban dereliction it takes some beating! The trains still run, but much of the infrastructure is closed/disused. Jim, his son Charlie(L49) and Lloyd(Baby Deltic) are working on an updated version ('60s era) which has even more dereliction - the main station is almost completely closed this time around.

 

Harford St (the updated one) should be at Leytonstone expo in May. A bit far afield for OP though. The layout owners live in the sticks of Colchester but I'll try to talk them into exhibiting somewhere closer to civilisation

[BR60103]

Several years ago Model Railroader wrote up a new modular concept call NoTrak which was modelling abandoned railroads that had been turned into hiking/motorcycling/snowmobile trails.

 

 

Several years ago this April, I believe.

[James]

I think it's a lovely idea but perhaps not the best for operation! Scenically though it could be very intersting.

 

I like to do stations where the passenger service has been abandoned but freight lingers on

I think this wiould be a good way to get around the lack of operation - somewhere like Wirksworth could provide nice operation but with real dereliction

 

there are plenty of examaples to choose from whichever bit of the country takes your fancy. there are also a few examples where passenger service carried on but no freight, along the lines of Alston for example.

I think most branches are like the now sadly.

 

whether modelling somewhere completely closed would maintain enough interest operationally? maybe a tracklifting train?

If you work on the premise that a demolition contractor is using a goods yard as a temporary base then you could have an industial diesel shunter working from there and ferrying trains of recovered rail and sleepers about which would make something quite unique.

[Colin]

I think it's a lovely idea but perhaps not the best for operation! Scenically though it could be very intersting.

 

 

I think this wiould be a good way to get around the lack of operation - somewhere like Wirksworth could provide nice operation but with real dereliction

 

 

I think most branches are like the now sadly.

 

 

If you work on the premise that a demolition contractor is using a goods yard as a temporary base then you could have an industial diesel shunter working from there and ferrying trains of recovered rail and sleepers about which would make something quite unique.

 

 

Or a couple of preserved steam locos on the demolition trains - it's what happened when the Bluebell line north of Horsted keynes was lifted.

[Will J]

Maybe a fully finished, secenic, exhibition layout of a disused station, with no track, nothing going on, just a few buildings and some muddy trackbed suggesting a railway had been there....

 

...do the rounds of some exhibitions, with a collecting tin and a grand vision for the future, a couple of years later, return to the exhibition with a freshly preserved railway!!

[Pete the Elaner]

There is more scope to this idea than what has already been mentioned.

 

Many branch line stations now have disused buildings, some of which are boarded up.

Disused platforms which are overgrown.

Disused parts of platforms which are overgrown. They have a barrier fitted with a warning sign separating the open section from the closed .

Disused goods yards.

Lines which have been singled

You don't have to build the whole layout as a disused one.

 

I had better stop there. I am giving myself ideas & already have 2 layouts to build...

[Pete the Elaner]

a grand vision for the future, a couple of years later, return to the exhibition with a freshly preserved railway!!

 

Or a fully re-opened railway?

 

There are plans to re-open the Varsity line (Cambridge-Oxford), most of which suffered Beeching's axe. Given that our roads are now heavily overcrowded & this is getting worse, I doubt it is an unusual project.

[Bernard Lamb]

Or a fully re-opened railway?

 

 

Chinnor - Aston Rowant would make an interesting variation on this theme.

Modern DMUs for commuter traffic during the week and a preserved line at weekends. Keep the cement works open and it could get quite busy.

 

Colinton as featured in RM recently could be a good example of a derelict station. Although the through line had the track removed fairly soon after closure the sidings remained intact for around thirty years. About the only change was the advance of the Hog Weed.

Bernard

[roythebus]

ISTR an article in the German magazine Eisenbahn Modellbahn in about 1995 with someone building a layout of a war-torn station in 1945. This would probably be harder than a derelict station. In that issue were pics of a few main stations in Germasny after the allies had "sorted them out" to prevent further troop movements, but then had the difficulty of re-instating everything for their own purposes. That article carried on to say about the difficulties experienced of trying to get anywhere at that time. July 1945.

 

It's an interesting concept.

[Colin]

How about a scene along the lines of Uckfield (I'm sure there must be others), with the new station one side of the main road and the former one standing derelict on the other side (the old Uckfield still has some track in place although it's getting very hard to discern now). The signal box which controlled the (now obliterated) level crossing stands at the wrong end of the modern station but AFAIK doubles as a booking office.

 

Best of both worlds?