Brit Bits

I’ve made it so a section of Guildford can be lifted and removed just in case of a derailment. Also the entire Newlands corner should life of but I think that is a two man effort. mid like to use DDC with sound and have the trains more at realist speeds

Little nod to Afterlife

Newlands Corner is in N scale with the lower field, house and ruined church all 00 scale. I even managed to find a N scale hot air balloon that When painted can hang up near the backdrop.

Some more pictures an overhaul view. Looks so small. Newlands corner on the left. A very scenic aria with great views. Right is Guildford and in the middle at the back the station. I will extend the front width wise to incorporate the Dennis factory and other small business so there will be plenty of shunting going on.

I used to collect car brochures as a kid and remember visiting Coombs showroom on the Portsmouth rd. Old wood, cobbled showroom floor and beautiful XJ6s in the showroom. Saw the first Rover SDI and XJS down there. Oh, and the old Jag brochures with separate upholstery and color charts. Pieces of art.

I used N gauge buildings and vehicles to create depth.

Guildford High st with its market and Quarry st leading to the Kings Head

To introduce myself. I’m Gerry an ex pat from Guildford , Surrey, been living just north of Boston, Massachusetts, USA for the past 37 years. I’ve always dabbled in the hobby with dioramas, the occasional Metcalf kit. Even though I’m in America the idea of creating a little bit of home filled with pubs, Oxford cars, etc was always so appealing. I’m 63 and always said I’d build a model railway when I retired. Well Covid came and everybody worked from home and I suddenly found it took 1 minute to get to work and 5:01pm I was already at home. The extra time combined with not socializing made me say “why wait why not build it now”. Now I could get most of the British railway magazines down the road at my local Barnes and Noble book shop. Having said that “lock down” was in effect. I subscribed to the online BRM magazine and classic & Sports car, so I still had my reading material. I have a “go faster” 1972 MGB and am the Treasurer to the Boston Area MG club (BAMG) with about 100 members with 1940s MGs to Rovers and RH drive Minis imported from New Zealand, but mainly MGBs. f There are so many inspirational model railways. But when it comes to building one for yourself you have to make so many decisions. I was worried that I’d build it and find no fun in “playing” trains. What if I didn’t enjoy the finished result. What if it didn’t give joy, or just made me want to tear it down and build the next one. I had confidence in the basics of scenery, weathering, etc. But wiring, track laying, no idea. I thought of my 6 year old grandson. What would make both of us want to spend time with the finished item. So I came up with some wants. I had a good idea of the size, but how could I make it interesting without just going round in circles. Guildford. High St and one or two other landmarks. That would uses a lot of Metcalf and Kingsway buildings I’d made over the years. Maybe have Guildford at one end, over the railway so it goes in and out of the tunnel, straight, For some reason I have never found model trains look very realistic on the tight bends our layouts have. One thing I knew was that it was going to be loose as far as era. I wanted what I wanted. I wanted a bit of countryside at the other end covering the curve and up front some shunting (thinking of my Grandson). Transition in the middle. A station, companies (had to put those Metcalf factories to use). I’d place an order to the UK pretty much every month. I ordered from Kernow Model rail center (they had a shop in Guildford) and Hatton’s. Both had pretty much anything you’d want and shipping was only 5-6 day, and I looked at it this way. What I saved on VAT I would spend on shipping. A wash. The main thing was I had to be happy with what I saw. So framework built in the cellar (unlike most of the model railways you see in American magazines, I did not have a basement/cellar that went on forever). It was to damp and I had to go outside and through the garage to get to it. Well my second bedroom, turned office, was about to become the home of my first model railway in about 50 years. You got this mate, Space and a lot of money. I now had a one bedroom house. The length was going to be 12ft. The width was set at 4ft. That has since been expanded to give me more room for shunting up front. Quite pleased with the end result so far. I drilled holes for any wiring and for the legs so I could assemble them in the room. I got a bit caught up with the height of the table but ended up 32 in. I can reach the back and it all looks quite realistic when I swivel round my office chair and sit in front of it. Trust me figuring out the height was a big thing. What if other decisions were going to be this hard ! I continued to whittle things down. I saw some Oxford Dennis fire engines at Hatton’s. Dennis is a local company building fire engines, buses and garbage lorries. I lived up the road from the factory and regularly saw the chassis being test driven up the A3. A chassis, no bodywork. A dashboard, seat, and a driver with a crash helmet on ! So maybe a Dennis factory. Oh what about a brewery. Guildford Brewery serving the local card pubs! Countryside. How about the southern downs, namely “Newlands corner” on the South Downs way. From the carpark you could look down over local villages with the church spires and maybe spy a hot air balloon. I was going to build all this knowing I am my worst critic. I installed a sound bar underneath and found a few YouTube videos “the sounds of London” which helped bring another dimension to everything. Hearing the sound of people, taxis, buses, car horns finalized the fact that whatever trains I ran I had to have sound DCC. So just to say “hello” and pleased to share some pictures (coming shortly) of my “covid” layout of Guildford.