Liam

One way to facilitate this is to have a layout based on a preserved railway located in what was GWR territory, thus allowing you to also use your GWR buildings and other infrastructure. Obviously the first line that springs to my mind is the Severn Valley Railway, where I volunteer at, but you also have the Glos Warks, West Somerset and South Devon railways to name but a few. 🙂

We have a conifer tree on the right hand side of our garden, and then our neighbours to the back of our garden have a fir tree which overhangs into our garden, and is used by many birds on their way to our feeders. Our goldcrest can sometimes be seen around the two large trees, and there is another goldcrest in the area which I saw the other week along a path.

Only one thing springs to mind Rob of things that are worse than getting sand in gravy, and that’s getting sand in Bovril. Thankfully I believe that’s covered by my travel insurance.

Absolutely, it breaks my heart and it will likely have all gone by the time we return home.

Have a wonderful blessed Christmas everyone. I extend warm greetings from Mauritius. 🙂

Yes, having a fiddle yard to terminus micro layout that maximises the space available. To have a roundy roundy layout with both of the lines would make for a very good club layout that would definitely appeal at exhibitions, but you would need to compress the space between the two different routes and you would need to find a scenic break for the south end of the MSWJR. I won’t be making much progress on further planning over the next week because I’m currently in Mauritius!

Whilst on a 350 yesterday heading home I did some drawings of what Savernake was like in reality (taking into account my mess up of drawing the Kennet & Avon Canal) and how it would look like in my world where there was the one combined goods depot instead of two separate goods yards. So, although I forgot to include the station, here’s Savernake in reality... And Savernake in my world... This morning I measured one of the four sections of the baseboard I have underneath my layout - 2ft 7.5 inches by 2ft...

I quoted you because you were talking about Heartbeat, a programme I enjoy, and I agree that sometimes they relied simply on whatever locos the NYMR had in operation at the time. That seems to have been the case in the episode you mention, because I vaguely recall that episode and I may well be wrong but I don’t think that the S15 was supposed to be in any other location but the North Riding, be that in a normal scene or one depicting a fairy tale (which was likely also set in the local area). Another episode saw thieves use a ‘rogue’ engine (in this case an ex GWR 56xx) to make off with several wagons of wine and spirits. Again, a 56xx shouldn’t be in that area normally but if the criminal underworld have control of it then anything could happen.

On a few occasions they got it right, such as having a BR Standard Tank and their 4MT too. Other locos, such as Sir Nigel Gresley and a class 40, may have appeared in the Eastern Region but unlikely on the secondary route that was Malton to Whitby. That said, I went to Ampleforth and I gather from speaking to someone else who went there in the 1950s/60s that when the railway line was open A3s would haul the London bound school trains between Gilling station and Kings Cross.

I supposed I could set the wagon works at Cirencester or Cricklade, which might save the plans from being too complicated, but the idea is to take a slice of the MSWJR and put it in a micro layout.

The setting for this layout is Savernake, which was where the Midland & South Western Junction Railway ran parallel to the GWR’s Berks and Hants route until Wolfhall Junction, where the MSWJR went over the GWR line to proceed south towards Andover and Southampton. This is an idea for a micro layout, although if my memory serves me correctly and each of the four boards at home measures 2ft 6in, then it could be a bit too micro! Around eight years ago we had some baseboards constructed, and they were four sections that would screw together to form a baseboard that was either 5x4 or 6x4 in size. I suppose the four boards together would lend themselves to a N gauge roundy roundy, but what I’d be looking to do is to use two of them to have a fiddle yard to terminus OO gauge exhibition layout. I’m taking inspiration in particular from the layouts of Chris Nevard and Rob Gunstone@NHY 581 of this parish), and the layouts Croft Depot and Albion Yard also offer inspiration. My instinct to look for shortcuts was to have one board for the scenic section and another one for the fiddle yard, but that wouldn’t be a very good choice. A more sensible option might be to devote 1ft of one board to the fiddle yard, then the rest of the layout is the scenic section. I’d like to keep the track plan straightforward but with scope for entertainment. It would be good to have run round facilities, as well as a small goods depot like building for the wagon works. The premise of the layout goes quite a way from reality, but that’s the fun! The idea is that where in reality there were two separate small goods yards (one of the many results of the contempt the GWR held the MSWJR with), my story has there being only one joint goods yard which is a dead end because of the Savernake Road, so locomotives generally set back to drop off and pick up wagons, although there is a run round loop for locos on small workings. By the mid/late 1950s (when I would look to set the layout in), goods interchanges are minimal but British Railways Western Region has considered it a strategic location, so they have converted a goods depot there to a wagon works. It is practically the overflow to Swindon works, and MSWJR-rostered engines are sent to pick up and drop off wagons when the time calls for it. This includes an ex GWR 8750 and an ex SR N Mogul. All forms of wagons relevant to the area are repaired at Savernake, be they ex GWR, SR, private owner or BR design. I can’t confirm that this will progress to anything, but it looks a very appealing project to maximise the use and entertainment appeal from a small space, and so I welcome your feedback and maybe also track plan suggestions. Many thanks, Liam

Yes Steve, I came across the thread for Templegate on here and at Warley I also took a few photos of it. A OO Gauge version would allow more room. My take on Hepton Wharf would do away with the fiddle yard on the right and the scenic section would end about where the level crossing is.

Hi all, Next year I plan to partake in a form of holiday popular with 21 year olds and go on an Interrail. My dad has actually been doing a few Interrails this year, and his most recent one saw him go from Geneva to Warsaw via Basel, Zurich, Munich, Vienna and Prague. (He flew out and back to Birmingham from the end points). My journey won’t be quite as action packed but there will still be plenty to see and do; the current plan is to get the Eurostar from St Pancras to Lille, then change for the beach line via St Quentin to Reims. Two nights there to allow for an exploration of the Champagne-Ardennes region, then into Belgium to visit one or two of the Trappist monasteries with breweries. After that, the idea is to head to the coast (probably via Lille) to Dunkerque, then follow the coast for as much as possible to Normandy to see the D-Day beaches. I’m also thinking of adding to it a bit by doing a loop just beyond Normandy; down from Lison, through Avranches to Rennes, a quick TGV ride to Le Mans and then up through Alençon, Argentan and Caen to Bayeux. I’m currently thinking to return by Cherbourg-Poole as it would be an easy journey from Poole port to my relatives further up in Dorset, although I haven’t ruled out St Malo-Portsmouth. I’d be grateful for any advice on the routes I’ve mentioned and their reliability, and I know that there are one or two RMwebbers who live in north-west France who could maybe offer local advice on getting around and good places to stay and visit. (Never tried Calvados so surely the best place for it is in an orchard in Normandy 😉). Thank you very much, Liam

That’s right. I don’t think Delapré is used for any competitive sport now, but football and rugby takes place on the racecourse.

Thank you very much Rob, that is one very tempting track plan! At home I have a baseboard that is split into four equal parts, and I believe put together they measure 6x4 but for some reason 2ft 6in springs to mind as being the length of one piece. Nonetheless, there’s always the potential to squeeze a lot out of a small space (as long as it doesn’t look cramped).

You must be psychic - in my mind I had an idea to have a small goods depot alongside the canal at Grafton, and imagine that a spur ran to it from a loop that trains from both the GWR main line and the MSWJR could access... In addition to my 8750 Pannier I also have a Heljan Western. The theory could be that it ran down from Swindon on the MSWJR for light running in (far fetched I know) and they needed somewhere to stable it while a few goods trains bound for Southampton Docks passed on the line down towards Andover. Also currently having a look for a second hand Bachmann 43xx or SR N class...

Hi Rob, I like your recent proposal of the Sheepey Light Railway. There is always something appealing about light railways - at Warley there was a wonderful layout set on the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway, along with its Terrier. Here’s a photo: Another brilliant light railway layout is Rolvenden, on the KESR. My mojo seems to have reignited after Warley, and I saw one layout in particular in O gauge set at a wagon works. Ideas have sprung up of a OO gauge version (my gauge) and Western Region (a lot of my stock would suit it, such as my Bachmann 8750 and numerous Toads). Although other ideas are pushing towards a railway/canal interchange, maybe in a rural spot on the Kennet and Avon.

I took this photo last week in the grounds of Delapré Abbey in Northampton. Wonderful place and steeped in history too - the Battle of Northampton, one of the major battles of the Wars of the Roses, took place on these fields in 1460, and resulted in Henry VI taken prisoner.

It was - I reached the bus station building at Birmingham International (bottom of the escalators) at 18:15 and at that point the queue for the X1 spanned almost the whole length of the building. With them being every 20 minutes and no guarantee of enough room on the next one, in the end I hopped on the X12. This went a much slower route via Castle Bromwich and dropped me off in central Brum just under an hour after we set off from BHI. A slow journey, but I’m not sure waiting for the X1 followed by the 20 minute journey would have got me there much sooner.

That’s also the exact price of a 7-day standard class All Line Rover with a railcard. Something I’ve managed to do twice!

Both going in and getting away from the NEC was a nightmare for me; Phil and Neil picked me up from my house in Redditch at 08:50. We reached the slip road for Junction 6 around 20 minutes later, and were stuck there for the best part of half an hour. The traffic marshalling efforts only seemed to slow us down further, meaning we were parked (at North 11 car park, almost as far away as you can get) almost an hour after setting off from Redditch. Hopefully Phil and Neil had a stress free journey back down the M5 but it took me an hour and a half to get from Birmingham International to my relative’s house in Edgbaston, mainly because the queue for the fast Birmingham bus was a mile long and I ended up hopping on the slower one which went via Chelmsley Wood and Castle Bromwich. I’ll post some pictures of the layouts tomorrow. I suppose I spent more time away from Smallwood than with it, but even though I made a few signalling errors when I was driving I did enjoy being an operator at Warley for the first time. I think the temperature of the hall was OK - certainly I never felt the need to remove the gilet I was wearing. Before Warley I said to myself that I wouldn’t get any more rolling stock. I kept that vow but I did make a few other acquisitions; a show guide as a memento, a fireman’s style mug, a SkaleScenics tree which I won from the BRM stand (thank you very much guys!) and then also this book, which my dad will enjoy as he worked on the railway (and did regular night shifts) during the time which the book focuses on.

It looked amazing Mick, I spoke to one of your operators and would have spoken to you if operations weren’t so demanding. 🙂

Did any of you hop on a 350 at BHI at 17:50? Loads of people got on, and it can’t be beyond impossibility that among the crowds were some Warley setter-uppers. I’m attending as an exhibitor for the first time with my mates at Redditch MRC and our layout Smallwood. I’ll also be hitching a ride with @Phil Bullock and @Downendian - many thanks to both of you once again!

https://abbeyshop.ampleforth.org.uk/1-case-of-ampleforth-abbey-beer-238-p.asp 😉

A bottle of Ampleforth ale might fit in that gap though...