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Help finding a "Railway Modeller" Plan of the Month


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Sometime in the mid 1970s Railway Modeller published a "Plan of the Month" set in Oxfordshire. From memory it was roughly squarish, had perhaps a couple of stations including Witney, as well as the river Windrush.

 

For purely nostalgic reasons I was wondering if anyone can point me to the issue it featured in? 

 

Thanks in advance. Andy

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6 hours ago, AndyB said:

Sometime in the mid 1970s Railway Modeller published a "Plan of the Month" set in Oxfordshire. From memory it was roughly squarish, had perhaps a couple of stations including Witney, as well as the river Windrush.

 

For purely nostalgic reasons I was wondering if anyone can point me to the issue it featured in? 

 

Thanks in advance. Andy

Don't know about a Plan of the Month, but I can point to 2 articles that contain info on Witney

 

RM 1977 Oct page 308. A couple of photos

RM 1978 June Pages 165 - 167 Plans of station

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It was one of Stanley C Jenkins’ Plans of the Month IIRC.  He did an Isle of Wight one & a London Transport one, and Witney rings a bell.  They always looked very crammed in to a far-too-small space.

 

I’ll check my RM collection & see if I can find it.
 

R

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Hi there,

 

If you draw a blank here, try an email to Peco's 'Technical Advice Bureau'.  They've helped me identify editions based on descriptions like yours; they just need a little time to work it out.

 

Good luck.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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I may have found it!

 

I found a magazine archive where they describe the contents of nearly every Railway Modeller edition.

Taking a steer from you guys I narrowed it down to a "Jenkins" creation.

The one that sounds as if it fits the bill is in October 1977; Bampton (Oxon) GWR... 

 

https://magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/railway-modeller-magazine-october-1977-issue.html#

 

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4 hours ago, AndyB said:

I may have found it!

 

I found a magazine archive where they describe the contents of nearly every Railway Modeller edition.

Taking a steer from you guys I narrowed it down to a "Jenkins" creation.

The one that sounds as if it fits the bill is in October 1977; Bampton (Oxon) GWR... 

 

https://magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/railway-modeller-magazine-october-1977-issue.html#

 

No, that's not it. There are 2 articles

1/ is drawings of the station you mentioned.

2/ is a 2 page effort describing the architecture of the East Gloucester Railway, including 2 photos one is of the goods shed, the other the station building.

 

Perhaps S.C. Jenkins did do a PotM, since he obviously had an interest of the area. Where does it appear is the question.

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I (sort of) remember the one you mention, which, as RichardT notes, was one of a series of "system" layout plans. I'd be pushed to give you a firm date, but if I was hunting through my own archive I'd start in about June 77 and work outwards. 

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3 hours ago, Lantavian said:

I wish Peco would scan ancient editions of Railway Modeller and put them online.

 

Even scanning their annual index pages, would help a lot. Although that doesn't include the authors names.

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33 minutes ago, Dubloseven said:

At one time Cromer was in my neck of the woods.    I'd be interested to know what issue that was in.

 

Regards, Cliff.

That one is easy using the source given above. 1977 April  'Cromer Beach'. Although not listed as 'PotM', which it clearly is, but as 'Adapting a prototype'.

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2 hours ago, Dubloseven said:

At one time Cromer was in my neck of the woods.    I'd be interested to know what issue that was in.

 

Regards, Cliff.

 

From memory this was an out and back plan with Cromer station in the middle, and a triangular junction to the RHS with running lines around the perimeter.  Not dissimilar to some of the CJF plans published in booklet form.

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On 06/07/2020 at 10:30, AndyB said:

Sometime in the mid 1970s Railway Modeller published a "Plan of the Month" set in Oxfordshire. From memory it was roughly squarish, had perhaps a couple of stations including Witney, as well as the river Windrush.

 

Got it!

Railway Modeller August 1976 page 246 "Adapting a Prototype: The Fairford Branch" by Stanley C Jenkins.  Fairford, Bampton and Witney stations (and the River Windrush) in an area of approx 8ft x 15ft 6in (if the grid on the plan is a one foot one.)  Doesn't actually look as cramped as I remember it, at least not compared to some of his other efforts.  But 1976 was the first year I bought the Railway Modeller, so my memory isn't that good for these issues!

 

There were two follow-up articles by Jenkins in the RM:

"GW Architecture: East Gloucestershire Railway" (p.306, October 1977) - scale drawings of the Bampton station building and photos of Bampton, Witney, Fairford and Alvescot stations, and a short bibliography of sources;

"Adapting a Prototype: South Leigh" (p.304, October 1978) - photos and a layout plan of South Leigh station on the Fairford branch, which Jenkins mentions could be included in his August 1976 layout plan with "further compression if necessary."  (!)

 

Jenkins has also written two books about the branch: "The Witney and East Gloucestershire Railway" (Oakwood Press 1975); and "The Witney and Fairford Brnch Through Time" (Amberley Publishing 2013) - both available cheaply secondhand via a Bookfinder.com search.

 

To my eyes, elements of the Fairford and South Leigh layout plans look to have influenced Roy Link's "The Art of Compromise" micro-layout plan.

 

Stanley Jenkins' layout plans seem to have been called "Adapting a Prototype" whilst CJ Freezer was the editor, and producing "Plans of the Month".  After CJF left to edit "Model Railways", Stanley Jenkins's plans were retitled "Plan of the Month", and he became one of a roster of contributors who kept the feature going.

 

I am slowly scanning and OCR-ing all my Railway Modeller indexes to save relying on memory and leafing through random volumes (which always leads to me becoming distracted...)  Unfortunately most of the indexes before the 1980s don't give any article summaries, have a list of authors or give the author's name for each article, so you end up having to interpret sometimes cryptic titles, but it still saves a bit of time.

 

Anyway, hope all that helps AndyB.  If you want a scan of the original article(s) for private study and research purposes, let me know.

 

Cheers,

Richard T

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2 hours ago, RichardT said:

 

Got it!

Railway Modeller August 1976 page 246 "Adapting a Prototype: The Fairford Branch" by Stanley C Jenkins.  Fairford, Bampton and Witney stations (and the River Windrush) in an area of approx 8ft x 15ft 6in (if the grid on the plan is a one foot one.)  Doesn't actually look as cramped as I remember it, at least not compared to some of his other efforts.  But 1976 was the first year I bought the Railway Modeller, so my memory isn't that good for these issues!

 

There were two follow-up articles by Jenkins in the RM:

"GW Architecture: East Gloucestershire Railway" (p.306, October 1977) - scale drawings of the Bampton station building and photos of Bampton, Witney, Fairford and Alvescot stations, and a short bibliography of sources;

"Adapting a Prototype: South Leigh" (p.304, October 1978) - photos and a layout plan of South Leigh station on the Fairford branch, which Jenkins mentions could be included in his August 1976 layout plan with "further compression if necessary."  (!)

 

Jenkins has also written two books about the branch: "The Witney and East Gloucestershire Railway" (Oakwood Press 1975); and "The Witney and Fairford Brnch Through Time" (Amberley Publishing 2013) - both available cheaply secondhand via a Bookfinder.com search.

 

To my eyes, elements of the Fairford and South Leigh layout plans look to have influenced Roy Link's "The Art of Compromise" micro-layout plan.

 

Stanley Jenkins' layout plans seem to have been called "Adapting a Prototype" whilst CJ Freezer was the editor, and producing "Plans of the Month".  After CJF left to edit "Model Railways", Stanley Jenkins's plans were retitled "Plan of the Month", and he became one of a roster of contributors who kept the feature going.

 

I am slowly scanning and OCR-ing all my Railway Modeller indexes to save relying on memory and leafing through random volumes (which always leads to me becoming distracted...)  Unfortunately most of the indexes before the 1980s don't give any article summaries, have a list of authors or give the author's name for each article, so you end up having to interpret sometimes cryptic titles, but it still saves a bit of time.

 

Anyway, hope all that helps AndyB.  If you want a scan of the original article(s) for private study and research purposes, let me know.

 

Cheers,

Richard T

Good find, but it shows you do need to know something about GWR branches to find it!

 

Yes, the titles are definitely rather cryptic.

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3 hours ago, RichardT said:

 

Got it!

Railway Modeller August 1976 page 246 "Adapting a Prototype: The Fairford Branch" by Stanley C Jenkins.  Fairford, Bampton and Witney stations (and the River Windrush) in an area of approx 8ft x 15ft 6in (if the grid on the plan is a one foot one.)  Doesn't actually look as cramped as I remember it, at least not compared to some of his other efforts.  But 1976 was the first year I bought the Railway Modeller, so my memory isn't that good for these issues!

 

There were two follow-up articles by Jenkins in the RM:

"GW Architecture: East Gloucestershire Railway" (p.306, October 1977) - scale drawings of the Bampton station building and photos of Bampton, Witney, Fairford and Alvescot stations, and a short bibliography of sources;

"Adapting a Prototype: South Leigh" (p.304, October 1978) - photos and a layout plan of South Leigh station on the Fairford branch, which Jenkins mentions could be included in his August 1976 layout plan with "further compression if necessary."  (!)

 

Jenkins has also written two books about the branch: "The Witney and East Gloucestershire Railway" (Oakwood Press 1975); and "The Witney and Fairford Brnch Through Time" (Amberley Publishing 2013) - both available cheaply secondhand via a Bookfinder.com search.

 

To my eyes, elements of the Fairford and South Leigh layout plans look to have influenced Roy Link's "The Art of Compromise" micro-layout plan.

 

Stanley Jenkins' layout plans seem to have been called "Adapting a Prototype" whilst CJ Freezer was the editor, and producing "Plans of the Month".  After CJF left to edit "Model Railways", Stanley Jenkins's plans were retitled "Plan of the Month", and he became one of a roster of contributors who kept the feature going.

 

I am slowly scanning and OCR-ing all my Railway Modeller indexes to save relying on memory and leafing through random volumes (which always leads to me becoming distracted...)  Unfortunately most of the indexes before the 1980s don't give any article summaries, have a list of authors or give the author's name for each article, so you end up having to interpret sometimes cryptic titles, but it still saves a bit of time.

 

Anyway, hope all that helps AndyB.  If you want a scan of the original article(s) for private study and research purposes, let me know.

 

Cheers,

Richard T

 

Brilliant, Richard! I certainly remember the cover of that issue. 

 

From the size of it, it sounds as if he had a garage in mind as the location, perhaps.

 

I'd be intrigued to see how 3 stations were brought together and it not be cramped.

 

Richard, I'd very much appreciate a copy for personal use only if that is not too much trouble. Can a scan be sent by PM on here?

 

Cheers. Andy

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3 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Stanley Jenkins later updated the Oakwood Press book under the title "The Fairford Branch". ISTR that he may have lived in the Witney area at one time.


From Witney and still lives here (according to his Facebook page).

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4 hours ago, AndyB said:

Richard, I'd very much appreciate a copy for personal use only if that is not too much trouble. Can a scan be sent by PM on here?

 

Cheers. Andy

Hi Andy

 

I will see what I can do via a PM....  The good thing about 1970's Railway Modeller articles is that they are nearly all in black and white, so the scans are smaller!  (and the RM was still A4 size, so it fits on a domestic scanner, unlike the weird paper size they use now.)

 

Richard

Edited by RichardT
Adding caustic remark about RM paper size
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Thanks Richard for the plan - much appreciated! 

 

It's a very interesting plan with a lot of "play" potential. For the benefit of others it's essentially an out and back from Fairford with continuous run. Goods yard at Witney adds to the operational interest of whathe would otherwise be a quiet GWR backwater, I guess.

 

And as it's based on 3 prototype stations a chance to do try and reproduce real buildings etc.

 

I think if I were to make it myself - not really on the cards - I'd consider N gauge as a means of further opening up the plan and allowing a bit more space for trains to run through the landscape before getting to the next station? 

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7 hours ago, AndyB said:

I think if I were to make it myself - not really on the cards - I'd consider N gauge as a means of further opening up the plan and allowing a bit more space for trains to run through the landscape before getting to the next station? 

 

Seconded.  In the course of looking for the article I ended up seeing a lot of Stanley Jenkins' layout plans, and it struck me that they would all benefit from being built in N in about two-thirds the space.  Any group of N modellers looking for ideas for a prototype-based layout covering a whole chunk of railway, rather than just one station, could get a lot of inspiration from his plans.

 

Richard

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The plan, as proposed, has a number of places where tracks dip under each other, or dive into tunnels. I'd suggest that the landscape that justifies these devices might add to the artistic composition of the layout compared to the prototype! 

 

The plan's author has contributed to this website:  

http://www.fairfordbranch.co.uk/Witney_Passenger.htm

 

I'm guessing that he may be the gentleman shown standing on a derelict Witney platform with umbrella and newspaper!

 

Back to the plan....

Witney goods has been recreated faithfully, whereas some liberties have been taken with Bampton. Operators of this layout would need to take care as they'd be standing on the Brize Norton runway!! :D 

 

 

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Always had a thing for the Fairford Branch with a failed attempt to build Alvescot, so just ordered a copy of the issue to add to my collection so it can be added to the list of , Who knows, maybe one day layout plans.

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