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Costaguana 1932 - A layout with a story


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The San Fernando Plantation Railway,

Costanguana 1932

 

 

 

I have long been fascinated by the potential of very small model railways and a couple of years ago built ‘Up the Creek and into the woods’ a double-sided pizza layout based on a Welsh narrow gauge line. This can e seen in the box file forum

 

For my next layout I wondered if it would be possible to build a pizza layout with three distinct scenes. The setting was to be a South American sugar plantation in the aftermath of revolution.

 

Here’s the story.

The South American Republic of Costaguana has long had the potential to be a world leader in the production of sugar cane. Unfortunately this production has frequently been disturbed by the series of revolutions which run through the country’s history. It was such an upheaval that resulted in the sorry state of affairs portrayed in this layout.

 

The San Fernando plantation was owned by Don Jose Avellanos, a wealthy aristocrat of the provincial capital of Sulaco. Don Jose was a true patriot and used his wealth for the good of Costaguana, treating his workers fairly and paying almost all the taxes required by which ever government was in power. Such traits, seen as weaknesses by some, did not prevent his acquiring a large fortune, and with it a series of covetous enemies. Foremost among these was General Guzman Bento. Consequently it was no surprise that, when Bento seized power in the bloody coup of 1929, Don Jose and his plantations were targets. Don Jose was imprisoned and his sugar cane factory ransacked and much machinery and plant removed. The San Fernando workers found their wages cut as a punishment for collaborating with ‘the traitor Avellanos’, and the sugar cane they harvested was taken, by the railway, past the rapidly decaying Avellanos factory, to the Bento plant a couple of kilometres away.

 

The local priest, Padre Miguel Macias was caught sheltering opponents of the Bento regime at the height of the revolution, and after a summary trial executed by firing squad at the end of the shed. A cross and flowers mark the spot and the wall is pockmarked with bullet holes.

 

The model.

One side of the model shows the once prosperous factory now being rapidly overgrown with tropical vegetation. The other side depicts the workers in the fields, now with no modern aids. The end shed on the layout shows the shrine at the place of martyrdom of Padre Macias. The author and target of the slogan “Muerte a los traidores”, (Death to the traitors) is unknown.

 

 

The base board was 6mm foam board enclosed in a cheap picture frame only  60 x 45 cm. Searching the internet yielded pictures of suitable buildings which I copied with adaptation. These were constructed out a mixture of card and plastic sheet.

The diesel locomotive was built from a Backwoods Models kit. The parts left over were used to construct a steam loco with the purchase of a Kato chassis a bit of scratch building. Wagons came fro Parkside Dundas kits

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What a brilliant layout. Clever idea too!

 

What do you think of the Backwoods kits? Are they relatively easy to put together? They certainly look the part.

 

Best wishes

 

Max

The little diesel loco was straightforward enough. A bit fiddly perhaps, but as I remember the hardest part was getting the roof supports parallel, and I haven't completely succeeded. There were a whole host of variations and I used the spares to help build the steam loco. I'm contemplating the Backwoods plantation loco which they say is for 'less experienced modellers'. Should be Ok and probably more in period.

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Here's an overhead view. The layout is about 60 x 45 cm so the travk plan is abit smaller

Sorry, here's the picture. The white block down the middle is the roof of the facrtory. The bottom right corner is the drainage ponds. The bottom left corner is the sugar cane with the workers heut in the middle with the grey roof. The rusty corrugated roof at the right is where the shrine is situated. I hope that helps.

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Thanks for posting the overhead. I was struggling to see how everything went together from the photos but now it all makes sense. Having struggled to get reliable operation from Peco turnouts I am starting to see the logic behind a simple oval with no operating turnouts.

 

Max

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  • 2 weeks later...

A rather grim back-story to a rather wonderful layout.

 

Beautifully modelled and full of character.

 

My only advice is "get rich ... very slowly"!

Thanks for your kind comments. I really enjoy these small layouts - I can finish them and they don't cost too much nor take too much space.

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