Older Inspirational Layouts

[Gyppy101]

My inspiration that got me to model in N Gauge was "Sherrington" by Eric Kay way back at the beginning of the 1970s.  Shortly afterwards I was able to see "Drambuie and Inversnecky".  I have stuck with N Gage ever since then and enjoyed every minute of my modelling times despite many frustrations.

[Martync]

On ‎23‎/‎02‎/‎2013 at 13:28, glasspusher said:

For me it was a little HOn9 MPD layout in the Nov '73 MRC. it was by Nigel Adams and it sparked off my railway modelling days. It had everything to me, aged 11.  Industrial, run down, grimy and clever use of Airfix engine sheds.  Best bit was it was in a space less than a square yard, about all the space I could aspire to at 11. It's memory stayed with me for years. it wasn't even my magazine copy it was my brother's. My funds at that time would never stretch to 35p or whatever the magazine cost then. Not with Spangles and sugar mice to buy.

 

Strangely it was also responsible for bringing me back into Railway Modelling as an adult 30-odd years later when I discovered a bound copy of the entire years magazines for 1973 on the second hand shelf at Midland Counties Publishers. Flicking through, my eyes alighted on the very article and the old flame was re-kindled.

 

Thank you Nigel Adams. my obsession is your fault.  

 

I recall now that there was also the Rawnook & Holme branch, in September MRC of the same year, though I can't recall the builder's name . I'm off to go look. It had L&YR in spadefulls.

 

A couple of years later, '75 I think, During a family holiday in the area I made my first visit to Pendon.   The rest as they say, is history.

 

Kind regards,

 

Anthony

I've just come across this thread, as I was searching for "Rawnook" - this was the only hit!  I believe the builder was Alan Bastable, usually known by his initials (I think) "AHAB".  Iain Rice referred to him in one of his books I think.  It was an impressively grimy industrial setting as I recall - unfortunately my copy of this magazine went many years ago.

 

I'm not sure there are any other names to add to the variously listed layouts and their builders.  Peter Denny will always be my favourite, so I'm looking forward to Railex and seeing Leighton Buzzard!

 

Martyn

[south_tyne]

For some inspiration I've just been re-reading my Railway Modeller magazines from my favourte two years, 1996 and 1997. Now I know this is not too long ago but, due to my age at the time, as a young impressionable modeller (i.e. daydreamer!) I just devoured these issues and they remain special to me. To be honest I have got rid of much of my magazine collection but have retained these two years worth of issues for purely sentimental reasons. 

 

They are so well thumbed that I often remember every word in some of the articles!  In reading them through again, four particular favourites, a complete mix of scales,  prototypes and eras, really jump out as layouts that inspired me as a young lad and continue to do so....

 

1) Exeter St David's - a huge N gauge representation of this mainline station, Riverside Yard and the branch to Barnstaple. Set in the 1980s it is a wonderful example of a comprehensive, system-type layout on an epic scale. Shows just what can be done in 2mm scale. 

 

2) Grove Road - a representation of a 1990s terminus set in the Milton Keynes area. Quite a simple layout but I have always liked the detail and the way the scene was modelled. It was eye-opening at the time as it represented the railway I knew and was growing up with, something relative rare at the time. 

 

3) Engine Wood - a wonderful depiction of a S&D station by Captain Kernow of this parish. It had a fantastic back-story and was so well thought-through and modelled to such a high standard. I always go back to this as one of my favourite layouts and something about it just captured my imagination at the time, despite it being based on a prototype I was not particularly familiar with back then, and continues to do so. 

 

4) Ivydale (All Hallows) - a minimum space representation of a simple light railway terminus in Gauge 3 standard gauge. My favourite layout of all time and one that single-handedly sparked my interest in light railways and a love of modelling in the larger scales. It really is a 'quart in a pint pot' scenario but it is so well planned and executed to the extent where it does not look forced or squeezed in any way. The overall scene, compostion and picture are truly wonderful, a joy to behold and to this day it remains the benchmark for my modelling and is something I would love to replicate one day. 

 

Anyway, enough of my waffling, I better get back to reading my magazines! 

[south_tyne]

On 05/04/2019 at 01:17, south_tyne said:

For some inspiration I've just been re-reading my Railway Modeller magazines from my favourte two years, 1996 and 1997. Now I know this is not too long ago but, due to my age at the time, as a young impressionable modeller (i.e. daydreamer!) I just devoured these issues and they remain special to me. To be honest I have got rid of much of my magazine collection but have retained these two years worth of issues for purely sentimental reasons. 

 

They are so well thumbed that I often remember every word in some of the articles!  In reading them through again, four particular favourites, a complete mix of scales,  prototypes and eras, really jump out as layouts that inspired me as a young lad and continue to do so....

 

1) Exeter St David's - a huge N gauge representation of this mainline station, Riverside Yard and the branch to Barnstaple. Set in the 1980s it is a wonderful example of a comprehensive, system-type layout on an epic scale. Shows just what can be done in 2mm scale. 

 

2) Grove Road - a representation of a 1990s terminus set in the Milton Keynes area. Quite a simple layout but I have always liked the detail and the way the scene was modelled. It was eye-opening at the time as it represented the railway I knew and was growing up with, something relative rare at the time. 

 

3) Engine Wood - a wonderful depiction of a S&D station by Captain Kernow of this parish. It had a fantastic back-story and was so well thought-through and modelled to such a high standard. I always go back to this as one of my favourite layouts and something about it just captured my imagination at the time, despite it being based on a prototype I was not particularly familiar with back then, and continues to do so. 

 

4) Ivydale (All Hallows) - a minimum space representation of a simple light railway terminus in Gauge 3 standard gauge. My favourite layout of all time and one that single-handedly sparked my interest in light railways and a love of modelling in the larger scales. It really is a 'quart in a pint pot' scenario but it is so well planned and executed to the extent where it does not look forced or squeezed in any way. The overall scene, compostion and picture are truly wonderful, a joy to behold and to this day it remains the benchmark for my modelling and is something I would love to replicate one day. 

 

Anyway, enough of my waffling, I better get back to reading my magazines! 

 

Continuing my re-reading of these magazines....... another layout which I had forgotten about is College Grove by Alan Redgwick.  An 0 gauge LNER branch terminus set in urban West Yorkshire, it really is a smashing little layout and another I really liked as a lad and was one of the reasons I always aimed to model in 7mm scale one day!

 

I must say, I am really enjoying go back through these old RM issues. I suppose there is a good deal of nostalgia involved but it reminds me of happy times and great memories, really giving me a lift. I never got to see any of these layouts in real life but I feel I know them so well through these great articles. 

[kevinlms]

4 hours ago, south_tyne said:

 

Continuing my re-reading of these magazines....... another layout which I had forgotten about is College Grove by Alan Redgwick.  An 0 gauge LNER branch terminus set in urban West Yorkshire, it really is a smashing little layout and another I really liked as a lad and was one of the reasons I always aimed to model in 7mm scale one day!

 

I must say, I am really enjoying go back through these old RM issues. I suppose there is a good deal of nostalgia involved but it reminds me of happy times and great memories, really giving me a lift. I never got to see any of these layouts in real life but I feel I know them so well through these great articles. 

Railway of the Month 1996 April, for anyone who needs to know!

[south_tyne]

59 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Railway of the Month 1996 April, for anyone who needs to know!

 

That's the one! I think 1996 was a vintage year for RM.... I am sad but I know many of those articles word for word having devoured them over and over as a youngster. 

[bécasse]

On 05/04/2019 at 02:17, south_tyne said:

4) Ivydale (All Hallows) - a minimum space representation of a simple light railway terminus in Gauge 3 standard gauge. My favourite layout of all time and one that single-handedly sparked my interest in light railways and a love of modelling in the larger scales. It really is a 'quart in a pint pot' scenario but it is so well planned and executed to the extent where it does not look forced or squeezed in any way. The overall scene, compostion and picture are truly wonderful, a joy to behold and to this day it remains the benchmark for my modelling and is something I would love to replicate one day. 

I remember seeing this layout "in the flesh" at a Manchester show a couple of decades or so ago. It really was very clever in its use, and misuse, of space. Somehow, the larger the scale to which a light railway is modelled, the more authentic it seems.

[south_tyne]

20 minutes ago, bécasse said:

I remember seeing this layout "in the flesh" at a Manchester show a couple of decades or so ago. It really was very clever in its use, and misuse, of space. Somehow, the larger the scale to which a light railway is modelled, the more authentic it seems.

 

I agree with that. I think it is may be something to do with the more intimate atmosphere of light railways that suits the larger scales. The use of space was ingenious but something that would probably look silly and forced in smaller scales, definitely in 4mm scale. The larger the scale the more realistic and less forced it looks despite obvious compression. The way the engine shed was utilised and sited was particularly effective.

 

Mind I am very jealous that you managed to see the layout in the flesh..... I would have loved to. I have no doubt that Ivydale has now sadly gone to the great layout store in the sky but I just want to offer my great appreciation to the builder (a Mr Cantrill if I recall rightly?) for inspiring me throughout my modelling life. Wherever you are...... Thank you!

[SD85]

Interestingly I spent most of yesterday sorting through and grouping about seven years worth of RMs from the late 90s and I have to echo the sentiments above. 96 & 97 were vintage years indeed and as my first ever RM was the Feb 96 issue I too have much nostalgia for this period. 

 

I echo the sentiments on College Grove which was superb and a great first effort into the senior scale. Wonder if the builder is still around? 

 

Engine Wood is also up there as well as Ken Webb's model of Exeter Central, Port St George, Gas Works, Horselunges and Aberhafren. All great layouts. 

 

From a similar time period I remember a small O scale layout in BRM called Minima Bay which was very inspiring. 

[Nearholmer]

Are any of these visible on the internet? 

 

I ask because, although I must have seen them all in RM or at exhibitions, only Horselunges has stuck in my memory, and that largely because of the name, so typical of ancient Sussex farmstead names in its marvellous weirdness. Didn’t it have a Hellingly Hospital loco pretending to be a diesel, or maybe it was a tiny little Planet?

 

EDIT: found both a good video and photo of Horselunges on-line!

Edited April 15, 2019 by Nearholmer

[south_tyne]

On 15/04/2019 at 07:55, SD85 said:

Interestingly I spent most of yesterday sorting through and grouping about seven years worth of RMs from the late 90s and I have to echo the sentiments above. 96 & 97 were vintage years indeed and as my first ever RM was the Feb 96 issue I too have much nostalgia for this period. 

 

I echo the sentiments on College Grove which was superb and a great first effort into the senior scale. Wonder if the builder is still around? 

 

Engine Wood is also up there as well as Ken Webb's model of Exeter Central, Port St George, Gas Works, Horselunges and Aberhafren. All great layouts. 

 

From a similar time period I remember a small O scale layout in BRM called Minima Bay which was very inspiring. 

 

Good to see someone in agreement about the quality of the layouts in those couple of years. Those two years of magazines are the only ones I have retained after having a big clear out a few years ago.

 

With regard to College Grove, Mr Redgwick has been involved with the upper echelons of the Gauge 0 Guild in recent years, so is definitely still active and on the scene. I don't know whether he has built another layout though.  

 

You have mentioned a couple more classics there in the form of The Gas Works and Horselunges! I've been lucky enough to see both of these in the flesh at exhibitions and certainly wasn't disappointed. Both more than lived up to the expectations painted by the RM articles, something that isn't always the case. 

[ejstubbs]

On 15/04/2019 at 10:02, Nearholmer said:

Are any of these visible on the internet?

 

Captain Kernow's thread about Engine Wood is here.

[awoodford]

On 15/04/2019 at 10:02, Nearholmer said:

Didn’t it have a Hellingly Hospital loco pretending to be a diesel, or maybe it was a tiny little Planet?

 

As the builder of the original EM Horselunges layout (it was later upgraded to P4 by new owners), I can tell you that the original intention was to run the layout with the Hellingly Hospital electric loco under wires, but I soon decided that was impractical for an exhibition shunting layout, and a variety of small industrials were operated instead. These included two Planets, a Simplex, a Muir Hill tractor, a Ruston 48DS, and a Head Wrightson vertical boiler loco, all powered by Tenshodo SPUDs. At the time I belonged to the Hull Miniature Railway Society, as did Steve Flint, who as an RM photographer encouraged other members to write for the magazine, which is how the Horselunges article came about. The Hull club had a good contingent of fine scale modellers, which was a strong motivating force for keeping up with the standards of the time, boosted by inspiration from contemporary MRJ articles. With a move away from the district, a period out of the hobby altogether, and no longer having the patience I once had, my modelling has admittedly regressed since then. However my current Tweedale layout, which is chronicled in the blogs area here, still follows the tongue in cheek attitude that lay behind Horselunges (just not to the same standard!), and is now driven more by a nostalgia for articles from the 50s/60s magazines rather than current thinking.
Alan
 

[john new]

The late Mike Cook's Ashburton (Helped him operate it several times at shows). In magazines, Hursley and from further back in the past Berrow, Charminster (or was it Charmouth?) and Marthwaite. The reasons for liking the them differ but they are one's I can remember from down the years. That must be a definition of inspirational. One  feature I particularly liked was the idea of a removable buffer stop/tunnel mouth to allow continuous running versus the usual end-to-end.

 

The last idea, and no idea who drew it, but a reversing circle/fiddle yard which was on a track plan in a way-old Model Railway News. (An idea I've since seen revived by Paul A Lunn)

Edited April 16, 2019 by john new

[Nearholmer]

Turntable FYs were used on commercial exhibition layouts built by The Bassett-Lowke company [EDIT: Actually, more likely built by one or more other early specialists, see further discussion below] for railway companies as advertising props, before 1910, so it is an old idea.

 

I’d need to double-check, but I think at least one pair of these was automated; one sat either end of a scenic stretch of double-track, and trains were shuttled to and fro, always on the correct track and facing in the correct direction.

 

Exhibition layouts for advertising purposes got quite sophisticated before WW1, and along with signalling school training layouts, were more advanced than any except the poshest home layouts. All Gauge 1, or at bare minimum 0, of course, so mostly huge layouts by current standards, and all modern image, which is to say pre-grouping. The only small commercial layouts then were those for shop window displays, which I’ve banged on about a lot in my own thread ....... they definitely inspired my layout, so do have s place here as well, though.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Nearholmer

[south_tyne]

Another nice one from my favourite RM period is Church Stretton. A lovely room-sized permanent layout, somewhat influenced by Freezer, but really everything I would aspire to in a model railway if I had the time, space and resources. 

[New Haven Neil]

The thread that refuses to die!

 

Something I now notice is how there are now people talking about layouts I have no knowledge of, as it was that period of my life when marriage took me if not out of the hobby, certainly to the edges of it.  No money, wild career changes, too busy etc the old story.  Now I'm in the trade, semi retired, and still like looking at what inspired me - Jenkinson, Pryke, Naylor, Denny, the Gravetts (still at it!) and of course Ricey etc.  We all have our 'salad days' I think, in the hobby.

 

Keep the posts coming guys!

[south_tyne]

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

The thread that refuses to die!

 

Something I now notice is how there are now people talking about layouts I have no knowledge of, as it was that period of my life when marriage took me if not out of the hobby, certainly to the edges of it.  No money, wild career changes, too busy etc the old story.  Now I'm in the trade, semi retired, and still like looking at what inspired me - Jenkinson, Pryke, Naylor, Denny, the Gravetts (still at it!) and of course Ricey etc.  We all have our 'salad days' I think, in the hobby.

 

Keep the posts coming guys!

 

It's all very dependent on our age but also the times that we have been interested and involved in the hobby. I suppose that is why I love those 1996 and 1997 Railway Modellers - it was a very impressionable time as I was a teenager really keen on learning about the hobby and attempting(!!) to build a layout. My dad acquired a complete set of magazines covering those two years, so I devoured them, reading the spots off them over and over. I think we actually got them a couple of years after that were originally published, so I probably actually read them first in the late '90s. I do appreciate that many folk will not even view this period as 'older' or particularly anything special but it remains so for me. It's obviously not the time of Denny, Ahern, Hancock, Jenkinson etc who most people see as the golden period of the hobby. 

 

However, I then had a period where I wasn't too involved or up-to-date at to what was happening in the hobby due to the usual university sabbatical (wine, women and song!  ). So there is a fallow period more recently where I probably missed some great layouts which will become classics.

 

We all have our golden period and 'land of lost content'. I must say mind, I am rather jealous of you Neil, as I wish I had grown up in these here parts when you did, so I could have seen the delights of the Westoe Colliery system and the many industrial railways that were still operating in County Durham! Sadly all gone by my time. 

 

Anyway, keep the posts coming!

[Nearholmer]

It might well be that many of us are actually following the same path, but displaced forwards or backwards in time: heavily inspired by what we read in those formative years.

 

Certainly my taste for the slightly retro in layouts has something to do with coming home from a jumble sale with a huge stack of 1950s and early-1960s Railway Modellers, when I was about nine of ten years old. These I read over and over again, and they only got thrown away once I'd got a paper round a few years later, and could afford to buy the latest editions as they were published.

 

As well as the likes of Deane, Denny, Hancock etc, building 4mm scale layouts indoors, those old RMs contained quite good coverage of garden railways and indoor 0-gauge, lines, things of a style that was old-fashioned even when they were published, stuff that really harked back to the 1930s.

 

Of course, Denny himself built a really inspirational garden line, which he described in either the late-60s or early-70s. The locos had old, but high-quality, clockwork 0-gauge mechanisms, and the whole thing represented 3ft gauge, the loco-housings and rolling stock being scratch built, much of it from "throwaway material" like old tin cans flattened-out, cardboard, and leftover bits of wood . It made a point, which I think has got slightly lost somewhere along the way, that a very good outdoor line can be created fairly cheaply, by the combination of reusing, recycling, and craft skill ....... the result wasn't a "crude thing made from a load of old rubbish", which the recipe might make it sound.

[johnarcher]

14 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

The thread that refuses to die!

 

Something I now notice is how there are now people talking about layouts I have no knowledge of, as it was that period of my life when marriage took me if not out of the hobby, certainly to the edges of it.  No money, wild career changes, too busy etc the old story.  Now I'm in the trade, semi retired, and still like looking at what inspired me - Jenkinson, Pryke, Naylor, Denny, the Gravetts (still at it!) and of course Ricey etc.  We all have our 'salad days' I think, in the hobby.

 

Keep the posts coming guys!

I agree. For me those days were not so much when I was very young (early '60's, Denny, Pyrke, Jenkinson indeed), but more when I took an interest again in the late '70's early '80's - early MRJ, 'Model Railways' in the Rice years, Tregarrick, Arcadia, several by Dave Rowe, etched kits coming of age etc. etc.

After that I had a good few years away again, until quite recently, and I must admit I find the scene a bit less interesting.

Edited April 18, 2019 by johnarcher

[Pacific231G]

On 16/04/2019 at 14:50, Nearholmer said:

Turntable FYs were used on commercial exhibition layouts built by The Bassett-Low-ke company for railway companies as advertising props, before 1910, so it is an old idea.

 

I’d need to double-check, but I think at least one pair of these was automated; one sat either end of a scenic stretch of double-track, and trains were shuttled to and fro, always on the correct track and facing in the correct direction.

 

Exhibition layouts for advertising purposes got quite sophisticated before WW1, and along with signalling school training layouts, were more advanced than any except the poshest home layouts. All Gauge 1, or at bare minimum 0, of course, so mostly huge layouts by current standards, and all modern image, which is to say pre-grouping. The only small commercial layouts then were those for shop window displays, which I’ve banged on about a lot in my own thread ....... they definitely inspired my layout, so do have s place here as well, though.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I posted some descriptions plans and images of a couple of these some time ago. I've found the images but will try to find the descriptions.

 

 I've now found my bound volumes of Henry Greenly and W.J. Bassett-Lowke's "Model Railways" from 1909, 1910  &1911 (the world's first stand-alone model railway magazine). In the light of a number of pieces in this  I need to revise this story considerably.

 

The LNWR did indeed have a demo. station fed by a pair of turntables but I don't have any pictures of it to hand

  The layout was originally exhibited at the 1908 Franco-British exhibtions but the turntables were a later addition for the 1909 British Empire Exhibition at White City in 1909. I have no idea what came before them.

Also at the same exhibition was the East Coast Railways' offering and this was actually Gauge 2 and  built by Bassett Lowke

 

 

This was possibly the most sophisticated of these pre WW1 layouts exhibtion layouts. Despite the block plan's title this was

a joint East Coast layout for the Great Northern, North Eastern and North British to show off their latest stock. This didn't use hidden storage sidings as such but had two termini ("King's Cross" and "Edinburgh" with an intermediate "York". The operation seems to have consisted of an East Coast Joint Stock train comprising a sleeping car, 1st Class dining saloon, composite coach and two guards brakes running between the two capitals hauled by a model of GNR no 1442 from King's Cross to York,  This was exchanged at "York" for a North Eastern Atlantic and returned to York behind a North British Railway Atlantic . Engines needing to be turned would run light engine to York (if they weren't already there) and no doubt to give the admiring public another chance to marvel at it. I think  the bays at Kings Cross and York were used to demonstrate a bit of goods operation.

 

This layout appeared at the British Empire Exhibtion at White City in 1909 and the Exposition Universal in Brussels in 1910.

Unfortunately, there seem to be no photos of either this or the LNWR layout at White City apparently due to  a problem with the organisers. These photos were taken at the Brussels Exposition

Despite the caption I think the next image is York 

 

Unfortunately a fire gutted part of the the Brussels exhibition including the  hall where this and the LNWR model were being shown and both were completely destroyed.

With their joint main layout in Brussels the GNR had already comissioned Bassett Lowke to build an O scale layout for the Japanese Exhibition in London that year

 

Following the Brussels fire the East Coast companies did comission a replacement no 2 gauge layout  from Bassett-Lowke. in time for the Scottish National Exhibition in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow in 1911. This had slight changes from the original and was  in  a U form

This more detailed and dimensioned plan of the new model is slightly confusing as it shows an optional straight version requiring two boards to be replaced. However, I don't know if this was ever built.  

 

Passenger stock for this layout consisted of a First  & Third composite. a brake third, a guards van, a sleeping saloon and three 4-4-2 Atlantics based on examples from each of the three East Coast railways. There were also 17 goods vehicles fitted with automaic couplers which could be shunted to add another spectacle to the model.

 

These layouts must have inspired early railway modellers as the hobby started to become distinct from model engineering so probably deserve to be in this thread!

 

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by Pacific231G

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

 

 

I'm pretty sure I posted some descriptions plans and images of a couple of these some time ago. I've found the images but will try to find the descriptions.

The LNWR did indeed have a demo. station fed by a pair of turntables but I don't have any pictures of it to hand

  The turntables were clearly a later addition and used for the British Empire Exhibition at White City in 1909 but I have no idea what came before them.

Also at the same exhibition was the GNR's offering and this was actually Gauge 2

 

This was possibly the most sophisticated of these pre WW1 layouts exhibtion layouts. Despite the block plan's title this was a joint East Coast layout for the Great Northern, North Eastern and North British to show off their latest stock. This didn't use hidden storage sidings as such but had two termini ("King's Cross" and "Edinburgh" with an intermediate "York". The operation seems to have consisted of trains (of three carriages) running between the two capitals hauled by models of the three companies' finest locos with these being exchanged at "York". In principle at least, GNR locos would run between King's Cross and York, North British between York and Edinburgh  and NER locos (in the minority) on either section. I wonder though whether the operators stuck to that in practice  After arriving at one of the termini, the train would acquire a new loco for the return run and the loco that had brought it in would work back light engine to York for turning and no doubt to give the admiring public another chance to marvel at it. I think  the bays at Kings Cross and York were used to demonstrate a bit of goods operation and the whole thing would have sustained a fairly intensive service without too much complication of operation.

It appeared at various exhibtions including the B.E Exhibtion at White City in 1909 and the Exposition Universal in Brussels in 1910. Unfortunately a fire gutted part of the the Brussels exhibition including the  hall where the model was being shown and it was rebuilt possibly in a rather different form.

 

This more detailed and dimensioned plan is slightly confusing as it incorporates two optional layouts.

Looking at the photos I'm also fairly sure that the crossovers at each terminus were either moved or supplemented by additional crossovers beyond the platform ends  otherwise there would have been a lot of wrong line working.

The first two images show the GNR Kings Cross staton model and the original U shaped version exhibited at White City in 1909

 

 

 

The following four images  show it at the Brussels exhibition where it appears to be in its straight version and the track has now been ballasted

 

From what I can make out from the signs it looks as if the layout was operated at advertised times presumably to a pre-set sequence.

 

I'll check, but I think both layouts and their stock were indeed built by Basset Lowke.

I'm pretty sure they also built this model of King's Cross for the GNR . Intiguingly, this has spaces for four platform tracks but I think is the same one that appears in the previous image from Brussels but not the single span shed from the first of those. However, It's possible that a couple of the images used to illustrate the report on Brussels were really taken from the earlier show. 

 

These layouts must have inspired early railway modellers as the hobby started to become distinct from model engineering so probably deserve to be in this thread!

 

 

More great finds as always David - thank you.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, south_tyne said:

 

It's all very dependent on our age but also the times that we have been interested and involved in the hobby. I suppose that is why I love those 1996 and 1997 Railway Modellers - it was a very impressionable time as I was a teenager really keen on learning about the hobby and attempting(!!) to build a layout. My dad acquired a complete set of magazines covering those two years, so I devoured them, reading the spots off them over and over. I think we actually got them a couple of years after that were originally published, so I probably actually read them first in the late '90s. I do appreciate that many folk will not even view this period as 'older' or particularly anything special but it remains so for me. It's obviously not the time of Denny, Ahern, Hancock, Jenkinson etc who most people see as the golden period of the hobby. 

 

However, I then had a period where I wasn't too involved or up-to-date at to what was happening in the hobby due to the usual university sabbatical (wine, women and song!  ). So there is a fallow period more recently where I probably missed some great layouts which will become classics.

 

We all have our golden period and 'land of lost content'. I must say mind, I am rather jealous of you Neil, as I wish I had grown up in these here parts when you did, so I could have seen the delights of the Westoe Colliery system and the many industrial railways that were still operating in County Durham! Sadly all gone by my time. 

 

Anyway, keep the posts coming!

 

56 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

It might well be that many of us are actually following the same path, but displaced forwards or backwards in time: heavily inspired by what we read in those formative years.

 

Certainly my taste for the slightly retro in layouts has something to do with coming home from a jumble sale with a huge stack of 1950s and early-1960s Railway Modellers, when I was about nine of ten years old. These I read over and over again, and they only got thrown away once I'd got a paper round a few years later, and could afford to buy the latest editions as they were published.

 

As well as the likes of Deane, Denny, Hancock etc, building 4mm scale layouts indoors, those old RMs contained quite good coverage of garden railways and indoor 0-gauge, lines, things of a style that was old-fashioned even when they were published, stuff that really harked back to the 1930s.

 

Of course, Denny himself built a really inspirational garden line, which he described in either the late-60s or early-70s. The locos had old, but high-quality, clockwork 0-gauge mechanisms, and the whole thing represented 3ft gauge, the loco-housings and rolling stock being scratch built, much of it from "throwaway material" like old tin cans flattened-out, cardboard, and leftover bits of wood . It made a point, which I think has got slightly lost somewhere along the way, that a very good outdoor line can be created fairly cheaply, by the combination of reusing, recycling, and craft skill ....... the result wasn't a "crude thing made from a load of old rubbish", which the recipe might make it sound.

 

27 minutes ago, johnarcher said:

I agree. For me those days were not so much when I was very young (early '60's, Denny, Pyrke, Jenkinson indeed), but more when I took an interest again in the late '70's early '80's - early MRJ, 'Model Railways' in the Rice years, Tregarrick, Arcadia, several by Dave Rowe, etched kits coming of age etc. etc.

After that I had a good few years away again, until quite recently, and I must admit I find the scene a bit less interesting.

I remember reading somewhere that, in model railway terms, we wish that we had been born ten to fifteen years earlier than we actually were. These, and my own, thoughts seem to bear this out.

[Nearholmer]

231G

 

I recently found some photos showing the LNWR exhibition layout in the NRM Photo Collection, LMSR subsection.

 

The layout (in fact I think two different layouts, the one for which the plan was given in MR&L, and a smaller one) are visible in overviews of the joint LNWR/Caledonian "West Coast Route" publicity stand, which also includes other, static, models of various things, including an absolutely huge (1/12th scale I think) model of a WCJS sleeping car, partly sectioned to show the sumptuous interior.

 

The photos seem to date from 1908, when new services and new stock were introduced, and it isn't possible to make out what was at either end of the scenic part of the layout at that date ........ my surmise is either nothing, or a simple hidden yard, and that the turntables were added because the staff on the stand got driven to their wits end by playing trains all day! The layout is scenicked in typical Greenly style, which is to say retaining walls, and railway infrastructure, including full and rather good signalling, with not a blade of grass in sight!

 

Another aficionado tells me that the LNWR record book for their travelling trade stands, recording all the exhibits, and where there were as they moved around various shows (I imagine things like: Fern, potted, immensely large, grecian-style pot on tall stand - Paris, June 1909), is also in the NRM collection, so there is more to be discovered ........ in the unlikely event that anyone id bothered!

 

There is much speculation as to whether the "technical" parts of the layout, including the trains, might actually have been built by Butcher and/or Jupp(??), rather than BL, because Butcher in particular was way ahead of BL in finesse and in electrical matters, until they sold-out to them.

 

Kevin

[awoodford]

That model of the ECML is quite wonderful. It brought to mind the model by S.F. Page (Longdon, Newborough & Easthyde Railway) that appeared in 60's RM, which represented a sizeable chunk of the line between Kings Cross and Peterborough, complete with a 3 track version of Kings Cross. I've always had a soft spot for those layouts that go in for such extreem compression of main line subjects. Anyone remember Eric Fisher's model of the GWR mainline in the West Country on 3 or 4 levels? I think it was described in a 1950's or early 60's Model Railway News.

Alan.

Edited April 23, 2019 by awoodford