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Looking for Lost Track Plan


Collett
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This may seem an odd request.  I am seeking a model railway of my youth that appeared, I think, in the Model Railway Constructor or possibly Model Railways, but I'm pretty sure it was not Railway Modeller circa 1972-3.  Unfortunately I can't be definite on the dates, but this is around 43 years ago.

This is what I can recall of the layout - it was '00', the display baseboard was only 6-7' long and 12-18" wide, locomotives in the photographs definitely included a Dean's Goods (K's kit) and possibly an 850 Class saddle tank.

post-12478-0-89023100-1465605455_thumb.png

The platform was curved along the mainline with a small station building at the back of the scene, on the left most siding was a loading dock with crane, no goods shed building I'm pretty sure.  I couldn't swear but it may have had a line running behind the platform but whenever I draw that in it seems to make the layout seem cramped.  Also a headshunt off the loop, but that never seems to work without a double-slip.

 

I think it was one of the first layouts I had seen with almost all the running lines on a curve and I absolutely fell in love with it.  I am fairly sure that the points and track were the old GEM fibre base, and I'm afraid that is pretty much all I can recall.  Whenever I see piles of old MRC's at shows or in the better sort of model shops (you know, the ones with little dusty corners you can rootle in and find hidden treasures) then I often will flick through a few copies in the hope of finding this elusive layout.... but no joy so far.  I do often end up buying a handful of copies though. 

 

If I could identify the magazine and issue date/number I could start hunting a copy down on the internet, but without knowing for sure which publication it was in or what month/year published... well, you get the picture.

 

If anyone believes they recognise this layout from my hazy description then please post a reply, if you can identify the magazine and year then even better.

 

Many thanks.

Edited by Collett
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That track plan looks rather like Roy Link's "The Art of Compromise".  It was mentioned briefly on here recently: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/111720-small-layout-ideas-oo-gauge/

 

The links from that thread are as follows:

 

http://unnycoombelala.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/compromises.html

 

http://apavalley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/compromising-design.html

 

The layout appeared in the October 1978 edition of Railway Modeller.

Edited by ejstubbs
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Thanks for the reply EJ - that's a nice small layout, very reminiscent of Fairford with the loop placed beyond the platform, but I'm afraid it isn't the one.  I'm almost certain it wasn't in RM.  Also by 1978 I had discovered women, beer and loud loud music so I wasn't spending much time reading the model railway press.  Many thanks for responding anyway.

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I really do like the look of this layout. I can imagine a 1 coach wooden platform with a small shelter, at the end of a branch line, whrre a couple of trainsa day drop of the workers at the adjacent quarry. The 2 sidings are for the small amount of random goods traffic for the quarry and some nearby villages. All very sleepy and open with no real time or place in mind :)

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I've just been playing around with the layout with XtrackCAD

 

post-12478-0-28443100-1465682188_thumb.jpg

 

This extends the basic plan but perhaps makes things too busy - as Inglenookfan says, the main appeal of this layout is its bucolic sleepiness.  Plus there's an awful lot of facing points on the passenger line.

 

Paring things back a little retains the two loops which were often a feature of GWR branch termini such as Fairford, Lambourn, Tetbury and Malmesbury.  Although noted the second loop often went through the goods shed, or in the case of Malmesbury the loco shed.

 

post-12478-0-17223900-1465683423_thumb.jpg

 

Minimum radius is about 8' and turnouts are all B6 and B7

I think the second siding, at the bottom (baseboard front?) of the plan works best coming off the loop.  The rear siding (platform rear) serving a dock for milk traffic and livestock, plus unloading of horse drawn carriages and motor cars for guests weekending at the local estate.  Things could get rather busy some weekends with estate guests bringing their hunters, the station master trying to figure out where to park the horseboxes and run his regular services. 

The occasional special train with additional first class coach accommodation for guests attending estate shoots, or additional coaches and rakes of cattle trucks for market day trains.  So sleepy most of the time, but with the occasional bout of pandemonium.

Ideal period, 1905-12 - GWR locomotive livery arguably at it's best until 1906, Class 517, 1076 and 2021 being the main motive power, with the occasional 3232 2-4-0, Armstrong or Dean's Goods. Coaching stock in fully lined chocolate and cream, and for the later years newly serviced stock in crimson lake lined in gold. If loco livery was unaccountably still in 1906 condition I don't see anyone complaining - the sight would be glorious. 

Edited by Collett
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I have a look through some back issues of around that vintage & seen nothing that meets your criteria. The closest I've seen is Barley Dean in Model Railways March 1972, although the track plan is different to how you describe, with the platform mostly straight, slight bend one end and there is a mini goods shed.

Locos, there is a GWR square side tank loco with outside valve gear and a cube in front of the steam dome, no idea what it is! I think a photo does show a Dean Goods, but I'm not sure about these GWR details!

 

I think if you really want to find it, you are going to have to be more proactive, rather than 'just flicking though a few copies'. You should be thinking of compiling a list of possible magazines to go through (allow plenty of overlap - years & title!) and mark them off, if no good. Otherwise you'll be wasting time looking at the same ones!

 

Best if you could invite yourself along to a club or individual who has a large collection & spend an hour or two going through. If the mags are organised into years, it probably won't take you as long as you might think.

 

Around that period, the 3 magazines usually only featured a couple of layouts per issue & one was usually large, or narrow gauge, or clockwork or whatever, it you see what I mean.

 

Good hunting.

 

 

Edited to add missing word.

Edited by kevinlms
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I do still prefer the layout in the first post. I re-thought my quarry idea and wondered if the simple wooden station could serve a nearby barracks/firing range. Somewhere Wiltshire-ess maybe. One siding could be a livestock dock in an early period and then used by the army for unloading the odd jeep/staff car/rations/ammo and there would be a need for oil and fuel. Keeping it sparse and sleepy like Western Diversion is the way to go i reckon.

 

Inglenookfan

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Just going through my collection of Model Railway Constructors & Railway Modellers and there isn't anything in the 1972 Model Railway Constructors. I only have the Feb, March & April 1973 MRC's and there is nothing in those. I'll check in what RM's I have for those years just in case and I'll check what other MRC's I have up to 1978 as I'm collecting bothe magazines from 1960 to 1999.

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You aren't going to like this, but could you have seen "The Tyling Branch" by Ken Payne in the April 1957 and May 1958 Railway Modeller? Just because you looked at it in around 1972, does not mean that it was a current magazine? Track plan is pretty similar.

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Thanks for looking Tim, I am aware of the Tyling Branch layout and it's quite a bit larger than the one I'm thinking of.  Looking at cover pictures on magazineexchange.co.uk the edition for Jan 1975 looks promising, content index describes a GWR branch layout called Buxton Road by T.A. Quinn - no copies available at present.

 

I think the logical way to progress this search is a trip to the British Library, there will be a charge but hopefully I can see all editions for MRC and Model Railways in one place and time.  Unfortunately, it being Sunday, a lot of their website is not available at the moment, but they definitely have Ian Allen publications listed including MRC.  Well it's certainly research.

 

 

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Thanks for looking Tim, I am aware of the Tyling Branch layout and it's quite a bit larger than the one I'm thinking of.  Looking at cover pictures on magazineexchange.co.uk the edition for Jan 1975 looks promising, content index describes a GWR branch layout called Buxton Road by T.A. Quinn - no copies available at present.

 

I think the logical way to progress this search is a trip to the British Library, there will be a charge but hopefully I can see all editions for MRC and Model Railways in one place and time.  Unfortunately, it being Sunday, a lot of their website is not available at the moment, but they definitely have Ian Allen publications listed including MRC.  Well it's certainly research.

Just had a look at that article (sorry no scanner at present), it meets some of your criteria but not all.

 

It isn't a terminus, but a through station, although could easily be a terminus.

It has a traverser at the LHS & just 2 sidings fiddle yard at the RHS.

It is 16' overall.

The platform is curved on the track plan, but in the two photos showing the platform, it isn't apparent that its curved, so must be very gentle.

There is a small goods shed & crane, but neither appear in the photos.

 

Hopefully that helps to jog your memory.

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The earlier article has Tyling as a terminus!

 

If you can get to the Warley club open day, they had magazines a plenty, that cover your period of interest in their library. Other clubs are available, and may have as extensive a library.

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Tyling, even as a terminus, was bigger than the OP's plan – it had an engine shed and a kick-back siding as well as a headhunt for the goods yard sidings. There's an image which sticks in my mind (perhaps an RM cover shot) of Tyling looking from above the inevitable tunnel: there was plain track leading to the station with a road bridge across the station throat under which the main line passed, sandwiched between two sidings – the headhunt and the engine shed kickback. Tyling was a good layout for its day.

 

 

 

PS: Auto-correct keeps trying to change the name to Typing...

 

PPS: apparently it was featured in the April 1957 issue of RM and the layout was built by Ken Payne.

Edited by wagonman
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I am sure Tyling's plan is in the Peco book about Ken's layouts.Ken enjoyed building it but found it rather limited. One person much inspired by Ken was Martin Brent. Martin built an EM gauge layout called Arcadia which had a very similar layout to the one we are seeking but was about a decade later. He then added another  baseboard with a harbour and the whole thing became Rye Harbour. I think Martin re-used the Arcadia name on his 0 gauge layout.

The track plan above is fairly common so without something else I cannot place it. The Dean goods and 850 saddle tank sounds a bit like CJ Freezer but his plan was St Ives basically. 

Don

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Looking at cover pictures on magazineexchange.co.uk the edition for Jan 1975 looks promising, content index describes a GWR branch layout called Buxton Road by T.A. Quinn - no copies available at present.

 

There are a number of copies for sale on eBay at the moment.  Current cheapest seems to be item number 391462862159 at £3.15 including delivery.

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Mervyn

 

see my post above you are thinking of Martin's Arcadia in EM but he wouldn't have been featuring GWR locos. Arcadia was later extended with Rye Harbour, before Martin turned to 0 gauge and built a new Arcadia. Very much missed Martin.

 

Don

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On 17/06/2016 at 21:49, wagonman said:

Tyling, even as a terminus, was bigger than the OP's plan – it had an engine shed and a kick-back siding as well as a headhunt for the goods yard sidings.

 

I've just got hold of a copy of Ken Payne's Peco book One Man's Railways A Lifetime of Modelling, as suggsted by Donw.  It does indeed have a track plan of Tyling, both as a terminus and as a through station (the key difference between the two incarnations being the lack of a buffer stop on the platform line!)

 

There is no evidence of an engine shed at Tyling, either in the track plans or the photographs in the book.  There was a reasonable sized shed at Castle Coombe, but by the time of that layout Tyling had become little more than a wayside halt with a single siding and a loading bank.

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On 17/06/2016 at 21:49, wagonman said:

Tyling, even as a terminus, was bigger than the OP's plan – it had an engine shed and a kick-back siding as well as a headhunt for the goods yard sidings. There's an image which sticks in my mind (perhaps an RM cover shot) of Tyling looking from above the inevitable tunnel: there was plain track leading to the station with a road bridge across the station throat under which the main line passed, sandwiched between two sidings – the headhunt and the engine shed kickback. Tyling was a good layout for its day.

 

 

Your description sounds more like Tetfield , January 1960 RM!

 

That had a kickback and an engine shed. Attached copy nearly 60 years ago.

 

Tetfield.jpg

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There is a photo in Ken's book of the approach to Tyling before it got 'downsized' as part of his Castle Combe layout.  You are correct that it passed under a three-arch road overbridge.  The main platform road and the run-round loop went through the centre arch, with the headshunt continuing beyond the bridge parallel to the main line as a spur off the loop.  The kick-back siding from the bay platform road went through a narrower arch to one side of the centre arch; the corresponding arch on the other side was semi-buried in the embankment.  So your recollection sounds pretty close.

 

(I could scan the photo from the book and post it on here, but I'm not sure whether that would be frowned upon.)

 

BTW, there was mention earlier of a viaduct: the only one that I can find any reference to in the book was on Ken's garden railway, there's no evidence of one on Tyling or Castle Combe.

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On 18/06/2016 at 06:49, wagonman said:

Tyling, even as a terminus, was bigger than the OP's plan – it had an engine shed and a kick-back siding as well as a headhunt for the goods yard sidings. There's an image which sticks in my mind (perhaps an RM cover shot) of Tyling looking from above the inevitable tunnel: there was plain track leading to the station with a road bridge across the station throat under which the main line passed, sandwiched between two sidings – the headhunt and the engine shed kickback. Tyling was a good layout for its day.

 

 

 

PS: Auto-correct keeps trying to change the name to Typing...

 

PPS: apparently it was featured in the April 1957 issue of RM and the layout was built by Ken Payne.

Ken Payne featured in Railway Modeller 1958 May issue as 'Personality Parade No.76'.

 

It states that he commenced 'serious modelling' in HO, but after the war changed to OO with outside 3rd rail - a change he regretted and scrapped the lot. He then started Tyling Branch in EM with stud contact, looking for something that looked and ran like a railway. After some success, he is currently considering a more ambitious project.

 

Didn't realise the layout was stud contact, presumably rare in EM?

 

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