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It’s a wonderful thing. I stumbled upon this 8mm cinefilm home video from the 60’s, just as the Clevedon branch’s working life was drawing to a close.

This line is the inspiration for my layout, and I am trying to distill the general feel of it while giving it my own twist. (I wasn’t around to see the real thing, after all!)

1:30 > 2:15 in this video is all footage of the real Kingston Bridge, 5 minutes walk from my childhood home. I’m trying to create a representation of this as the titular bridge on my layout, at the far end where trains will emerge and disappear through to the fiddle yard. A 3D printed letterbox is in the works to be set into the bridge wall.

Here are some then and now comparisons:

You can just about see where the old postbox has been removed from the parapet, as well as the old (BR? GWR?) fence posts buried in the hedge.

The rusty old excavator has been buried in weeds on the old track bed since before I was born, I think it will be given a nod to on the layout in some way.

Grant me some creative license, I am trying to capture the essence of 4 miles into 2 metres....