bluebottle_uk

I have finally resurrected the idea of this as a small portable layout depicting the two notable features - street running and the power plant in the RAE. Dimensions 8'6" x 1' approx (I think it's 2650 x 350mm) because those are the size bits of ply I have lying around. The two "banana" sidings on the left will be hidden, as is the long siding at the bottom centre of the plan. Viewer would be at the top, so from their perspective a train would appear from their right, down through the residential street, through a gate and into the RAE complex. The two sidings on the right are for coal unloading and marshalling stock before the trip back to the exchange sidings at Farnborough Main which is the two curving sidings on the left. The long central siding would be where vans could be shunted off to for (un)loading before being taken back on a later trip perhaps.

Having started about 4 and a half years ago with a hypothetical layout in mind, I have since moved house and obtained the use of a large garage for a completely new layout. I hope to document its build here. The plan is to model Whittington Low Level, a through station in North Shropshire in the inter-war period. This should allow for Kings on expresses from Paddington to Birkenhead to rattle through as well as some smaller stuff on Shrewsbury-Chester duties and, one presumes, some tank-hauled local traffic to the junction for Oswestry at Gobowen and the more major settlement at Wrexham. It also means, if I am careful with scenic items like cars etc, that I could in theory time-travel back to the glorious brass-domed and Indian Red framed days of the Edwardian railways and earlier... The reasons are two-fold; I spent the first couple of years of my life in Whittington, not far from what was still a manned signal-box which operated the level crossing, apparently as a toddler I made friends with the chap who worked there. Secondly, I wanted to do some GWR modelling that wasn't a hackneyed Devon/Cornwall branchline...

Well, time has flown, I have moved house and still the layout is no more than a few boxes of kit and a lot of rough sketches. The idea has been revised, an evolution of the 1926 track plan for Whittington Low Level I found online. I now need to gather evidence about standard working in the 1920s/30s in north Shropshire on the GWR as it took over Cambrian... any tips on books etc gratefully received. I can imagine a lot of short tank engine hauled mixed traffic stuff pretending to be from Shrewsbury or Wrexham delivering goods and a couple of 4 or 6 wheel coaches perhaps?

I had been toying with an idea of modelling the Royal Aircraft Establishment railway which ran (until 1968) between Farnborough Main Station and the RAE site and unusually passed down a residential street as it made its way from the sidings of the BR station to the secure area within the Establishment. However, as I considered the space available and the nature of what I could legitimately run I decided against it. Instead I plan to build a "what might have been" layout set in the north west Shropshire area around Whittington. This village had two unconnected railway stations, one serving the line running broadly East-West from Whitchurch to Oswestry and the other running broadly North-South from Shrewsbury in the south up through Wrexham and on to Chester etc. Nearby was an army training camp (Park Hall) and a hospital built to treat troops during the First World War. The premise of the layout is this: after the Great War, the authorities decide to retain Park Hall camp and the associated hospital and to expand the use of both since they are in a sparsely populated rural area, away from the potential for prying eyes and there is land available. Apart from training troops it is decided to utilise the camp as a proving ground for new military equipment; this will allow for the occasional shipment of tanks, guns and so on and provide an excuse for upgrading of the track to take greater weight - I have a King class from childhood that I want to run! To serve this expanded installation it is proposed to build a single track branchline and a new station on the London mainline. This station will, like Shrewsbury, afford running rights to the GWR and LMS. Above is the first draft of the station, north to the right. The top two lines are the mainlines which are going to be a continuous loop around my loft. The branchline is the left hand most of the three which curve round to the bottom of the plan and will simply continue through some scenery to a fiddle yard. The two small sidings to the right of centre are for an engine shed for the station pilot and a coal/water point. The two long sidings bottom left will allow for loading/unloading of materiel. To be built in Peco Code 75 00 gauge and I will mostly be running RTR locos and stock - although I am undertaking a foray into brass kits for a couple of brake vans and a Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0 private owner pilot for the yard and branch (as there was at the RAE). I'd really appreciate any thoughts, advice on prototypical workings and so on please.

Right, I've literally gone back to the drawing board and come up with a layout plan... Essentially the two main elements of the prototype which are unique are (1) the running down the residential Elm Grove Road and (2) the workings in amongst the RAE buildings themselves. As a result I have decided to make a U shaped end-to-end layout. Each stick of the U will be 8' long and about 2' wide, one stick will begin with the line appearing and crossing Union Street then the run down Elm Grove Road and crossing Victoria Road disappearing between gates into trees. It will then pop out of the trees at the head of the other leg of the U where it will come through the fence of the RAE and be presented with some sidings, engine shed etc. a much shrunken version of the actual setup in the RAE. My first problem is that I have to learn to make brass kits because the only model I can find of Invincible is the High Level one. I have this kit, motor, wheels and crank pins which I bought at Railex last year in a moment of delirious excitement and total stupidity... I haven't soldered since prep school CDT lessons and never in brass! I will cease moaning on here and take this bleat to the appropriate thread though! If anyone is interested I will endeavour to post more progress as it happens (currently building the baseboards) - although I'd appreciate a steer as to whether I should start a new thread for the project or keep it in here? Finally, if anyone else wants the maps PM me and I'll scan and email the copies I got from the library.

I have been doing some more digging and found 1:1,250 OS maps from the mid-late 60s in Farnborough library, most useful! My problem now is shrinking the plan to a size I can actually model whilst retaining the salient features of this unique little railway. My current thinking is to truncate the length of the spur from the maineline, chop out some of the housing down Elm Grove Road and use a scenic break after it crosses Victoria Road to have it pp out as it comes through the RAE gates...

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the trackplan for Farnborough Main in the 60s? I'm planning on making a layout of the RAE link from Farnborough.