Older Inspirational Layouts

[St Enodoc]

On 24/04/2019 at 04:42, Pacific231G said:

I have some of those so will check. He did have an article, Modelling Prototype Structures (in summary, take plenty of photos of them!) , in the October 1964 RM. This includes a couple of photos of buildings on his previous Cornwall and Devon Model Railway that he started building in 1948 as well as two from his later Birkenhead Joint. The article was clearly rewritten as though it was published a year after Birkenhead Joint was Railway of the Month in October 1963 (and winner of the RM Cup for that year)it refers to the Cornwall and Devon in the present tense even though elsewhere he describes it as his previous layout. The two station buildings shown on the C&D, Ealing Broadway as Truro and, even more so, Reading as Exeter St. David's are frankly rather crude, but his later model of Newbury (representing Chester on the Birkenhead  Joint) is a very fine model as is the layout itself. 

 

I've dug this out and, comparing it with the photos, what we've both always assumed to be a block plan in the August 1964  RM (Proprietary Modeller) is actually be a track plan though not to scale and missing details of a couple of goods yard and a loco depot (though one of the yards does appear with a plan  in a separate article Expansion at Easthyde July 1964). In fact re-reading the article he does describe it as a track plan in which "you can see that the whole layout is single track"

S.F. Page is interesting because though his modelling was average he was clearly an enthusiastic modeller of the then contemporary scene with A4s rubbing shoulders with Deltics and  contributed a number of mostly short articles to RM in the early 1960s. He also incorporated roadrailer wagons into his layout with two depots and models of roadrailers were a Peco product att hat time. There is a gap in my bound volumes of RM between 1964 and 1969  but I don't recall anything much from him after the layout description in 1964.

The whole run of Meccano Magazine is available online so do you have any dates for his articles in it?

Thanks again David. I agree regarding HEF's modelling. He was an early advocate of using one prototype to represent another I believe. I followed that path once, by making a crude (and unfinished) model of Newton Abbot for my first Pentowan station (just visible in one of the pictures here on my own layout thread https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/94350-mid-cornwall-lines-1950s-western-region-in-00/&do=findComment&comment=1727920)

 

Regarding SFP, I think we are talking about the same basic track plan that was obviously incomplete.

 

There was nothing from SFP in later RMs. I have a full index of RM using the database produced by the late Bill Massey (for whom I indexed a lot of older issues) but I've never got round to indexing MRN or MRC (yet?). I've got the link to the MM archive but I"m not aware of any index anywhere.

[south_tyne]

On 11/07/2018 at 00:08, south_tyne said:

 

I remember seeing Elmwell Village Depot as a lad and being mesmerized! It was that well known W&U layout depicting four seasons and four eras from GER to BR.

 

I am sure it will have been mentioned previously but it was so novel and different to anything I had seen before and still is pretty unique!

 

Just been re-reading some old magazines and came across the articles on Elmwell Village Depot in BRM. Good to be reminded of this classic. Still remains a favourite of mine. I wonder whether it is still around?

[PatB]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned before (maybe even by me), but does anyone else remember the Stronalacher Saga in RM in the late 60/early 70s, starting with a RotM and then subsequent articles on various aspects of the layout. A properly worked out railway system of an imaginary Scottish prototype, using mostly very nicely scratchbuilt motive power was something of a contrast to the vaguely Welsh, exclusively Egger stocked and often, frankly, not very good rabbit warren that was the more usual contemporary NG norm.

[Pacific231G]

On 25/04/2019 at 06:46, St Enodoc said:

 

 

Regarding SF Page, I think we are talking about the same basic track plan that was obviously incomplete.

 

There was nothing from SFP in later RMs. I have a full index of RM using the database produced by the late Bill Massey (for whom I indexed a lot of older issues) but I've never got round to indexing MRN or MRC (yet?). I've got the link to the MM archive but I"m not aware of any index anywhere.

I've now found a site where one can browse online through the whole run of Meccano Magazines

https://archive.org/details/meccano_magazine

 

S.F. Page, who lived in Sleapshyde near St. Albans,  contributed a few photos of his layout to M.M. between Sept. 1962 and March 1963. Then, from June 1963, he wrote a total of twelve articles for the magazine until May 1964. By the end of that period he was also writing Meccano Magazine's regular  "Layoutman" column.

 

Page's Longdon, Newborough and Easthyde Railway was a large Hornby Dublo two rail layout on three levels mounted on a 16ft by 4ft solid baseboard  with an extension,  via a triangular junction, to the layout's main terminus Longdon, a three platform version of King's Cross  on its own narrow baseboard.

 

His articles for M.M. were  aimed at showing the magazine's mostly young readers how to reproduce realistic operations using Hornby Dublo equipment ranging from the "Northbound Night Mail"  to special Pullman workings with quite a lot about realistic goods movements.   Although his layout was on Hornby sectional track (mostly unballasted) with the ECML represented by a single track, it probably was quite inspirational in demonstrating that, with a little imagination, a full set of trains and operational movements could be reproduced, or at least represented, putting it into the grand tradition of layouts like Paddington to Seagood.

 

The L.N.& E.R. track plan was based on a series of interconnected loops  allowing several trains to run simultaneously for the amusement of visitors. However. for his own operating sessions he did run it end to end or out and back (depending on the train) to a timetable that included everything from the Deltic hauled Talisman, to humble stopping trains and from the express goods "Night Importer" (was that a real train?) to a few wagons being shunted in the private siding of a sawmill.

 

I've also found a dozen mostly short pieces by S.F.Page in Railway Modeller, all but four in a similar period to M.M. between August 1962   and August 1964. Most of these represented the "Modern Image", which was becoming one of Cyril Freezer's themes, of which three were about Roadrailers.  The other two were layout descriptions- including the only published plan  of the whole system in August 1964. This was not to scale and, while it shows  all the main line tracks, doesn't include details of the trackage in the various yards, so it is slightly frustrating.

After that St. Edonoc has found just one further RM article from 1966,  a single page on Modern Image: Special Workings.

 

S.F. Page seems to have started writing about it once he'd got his layout, which he'd started building a couple of years earlier in about 1960, into a stage of reasonable operation. He then had a couple of incredibly prolific years before dropping from sight. Possibly this was because, after the demise of Hornby Dublo, layouts based on it were no longer of any interest to magazine editors; his  1966 article about prototype workings, though illustrated with three photos, makes no mention of his layout at all. 

 

If anyone knows anythng else he might have written or indeed anything at all about S.F.Page himself,  I'd be very interested. His writing suggests that he was a member of at least one local club.The only other reference I've found is to an article he wrote about Sleapshyde for the winter 1959-1960 edition of Hertfordshire Countryside.  "S F Page takes you to one of Hertfordshire's tiny hamlets"

 

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by Pacific231G

[Nearholmer]

Interesting find those MMs. I always enjoy the earlier articles by "Tommy Dod", wherein he (probably several different advertising copy-writers over the years) attempts to convince the reader that every known facet of railway operation can be faithfully replicated on the living room carpet using Hornby products, usually clockwork ones.

 

I've been using a similar collection, hosted on a French website, for several years now, and I wonder if this is the same digital copy re-homed.

[t-b-g]

On 27/04/2019 at 19:32, south_tyne said:

 

Just been re-reading some old magazines and came across the articles on Elmwell Village Depot in BRM. Good to be reminded of this classic. Still remains a favourite of mine. I wonder whether it is still around?

 

It was at the HMRS HQ at the Midland railway Centre when I went there a few years ago. It probably still is.

[south_tyne]

10 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

It was at the HMRS HQ at the Midland railway Centre when I went there a few years ago. It probably still is.

 

Glad to hear that. It was such a novel format and wonderfully modelled. 

[coronach]

In the 1970s in York, as a youngster, one of the highlights of the year was the York show in the Assembly Rooms and Museum / DeGrey Rooms.  I was hooked on Mike Cooke's layout of Totnes, with working signals, full length double headed express trains and the Ashburton Branch.  It was only later on that i realised that the South Devon Group was actually based in York!  I joined in 1978 just after Totnes was retired and replaced by Kingswear as the main attraction with Ashburton being rebuilt for smaller shows.  That's where i learned the techniques used to build my own layouts, currently Whinburgh & Slitrigg.  It also gave me the opportunity to participate in loads of shows and visit home based layouts.  Two that particularly stand out for me were Yatton Junction 4mm GWR and Chippenham ( a garage layout in Bristol) both operationally superb and with counterbalanced signal arms that bounced.  At the other end of the spectrum, my Dad would take me to visit Doug Hutchinson's 0 gauge garden railway in Heworth, with scratch built locos and operated by professional railwaymen to a rule book using block instruments and omnibus telephones.  

[JinglingGeordie]

A model which was exhibited by a Glasgow club - based on Elderslie, Greenock Princes Pier in 4mm, with model steamers and ferries as well as steam locos. I recall it when I were a lad at the Galsgow model rail exhibition when it was in the McLellan Galleries in Sauchiehall street.

 

Also the layout in the Glasgow transport museum when at the old tramway depot at Pollockshields - based on Carlisle in pre grouping days with locos (probably GEM ones) in the LNWR and Caley livery, a few G&SWR and even the NER and M And C got a look in.   

 

How could you resist either one?  Any photos or further recollections?

 

JG

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, JinglingGeordie said:

A model which was exhibited by a Glasgow club - based on Elderslie, Greenock Princes Pier in 4mm, with model steamers and ferries as well as steam locos. I recall it when I were a lad at the Galsgow model rail exhibition when it was in the McLellan Galleries in Sauchiehall street.

 

Also the layout in the Glasgow transport museum when at the old tramway depot at Pollockshields - based on Carlisle in pre grouping days with locos (probably GEM ones) in the LNWR and Caley livery, a few G&SWR and even the NER and M And C got a look in.   

 

How could you resist either one?  Any photos or further recollections?

 

JG

I have in my hand a copy of the February 1972 Exhibition Guide. I attended the exhibition shortly before coming out to Australia.

 

Elderslie was there apparently and according to the guide, it had only just been started. I can't recall it though.

I do remember a large O gauge layout, which had a model of a G-E push pull running around. Very impressive, especially since I'd gone to school at Bishopbriggs and had seen the old Swindon DMU's and the tests with Class 37's & 25's, before the push=pull 27's came into service.

 

I also remember the Carlisle layout at the museum.

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, JinglingGeordie said:

A model which was exhibited by a Glasgow club - based on Elderslie, Greenock Princes Pier in 4mm, with model steamers and ferries as well as steam locos. I recall it when I were a lad at the Galsgow model rail exhibition when it was in the McLellan Galleries in Sauchiehall street.

 

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

I have in my hand a copy of the February 1972 Exhibition Guide. I attended the exhibition shortly before coming out to Australia.

 

Elderslie was there apparently and according to the guide, it had only just been started. I can't recall it though.

Built by the Renfrewshire Model Railway Club of which I was, briefly, a member in the late 1970s. Elderslie was the main part of the layout and there were two "appendages", Greenock Prince's Pier and Glasgow St Enoch (which, because it featured only one of the prototype's two arched roofs, was always known as St Eunuch). A superb layout to operate especially when all three sections were in use.

[Marly51]

On 30/04/2019 at 18:07, Nearholmer said:

Interesting find those MMs. I always enjoy the earlier articles by "Tommy Dod", wherein he (probably several different advertising copy-writers over the years) attempts to convince the reader that every known facet of railway operation can be faithfully replicated on the living room carpet using Hornby products, usually clockwork ones.

 

I've been using a similar collection, hosted on a French website, for several years now, and I wonder if this is the same digital copy re-homed.

 

Yes Nearholmer, I found the archive on that French website, as well. We inherited some of my cousin’s collection of these MM. I loved the Dinky Toys dioramas as well as the model railway articles. It was through MM that my brother and I discovered the wonderful world of model railways. For a few stamps, Beatties in London sent out reams of printed sheets on the products of nearly every manufacturer, whose items they stocked. Meccano Magazine  was also where I discovered articles about scratchbuilding locomotives and rolling stock from paper and card.

Edited May 3, 2019 by Marly51

[The Johnster]

I used to read MM, and Airfix Magazine, as a child, and they were both inspirational in illustrating the possibilities of doing things for yourself and pointing out that you did not have to accept the RTR and RTP models of the day as they were without alteration.  Fine scale modelling it wasn't, but modelling it certainly was, and modified/improved RTR/RTP is still the core of such crude and hamfisted efforts as I continue, more than half a century later, to attempt.  

 

Half a century of bodgery and bashing, some of it almost acceptable!

[CloggyDog]

The layouts which really prompted me to look beyond the 6x4 train set of my pre-teen years were

 

In Print

Kidlington Diesel Depot (Railway Modeller circa 1979-81-ish - Junior Modeller section) - simple fiddle to shed yard in about 6 x 1.

Ian Futer's Lochside, fiddle to station/yard but P4 and weathered - I did my first Freedom of Scotland a year or two after I read the article and was very happy to see that the real thing looked exactly like his models!

 

At Exhibition

A 5 x 2 (ish) shunting yard/puzzle at the Chelmsford show around the early-80s. Can't remember it's name, but it enthralled me for much of my visit watching a tank loco simply shuffling wagons around. I think it had 3-links, so certainly opened my eyes to proper shunting without tension locks.

 

 

In later years, it's generally been the small/micro/shunting layouts that have captured me in print or at shows - Carron Road (EM  by Nigel Bowyer - and his US waterfront H0 layout a few years later), The assorted EM layouts from the Hull and Gloucester groups - Kyle of Tongue, Rushenden Metals, Villiers Street, Easington Lane, Canada Road, etc.

 

Peter North's sublime Rock Island H0 layouts 'Hope, Illinois' and 'Florence, Illinois' really pressed my 'model the US' button in the early-1990s, which has happily stayed pressed

Edited May 7, 2019 by CloggyDog
sense

[newbryford]

8 hours ago, CloggyDog said:

The layouts which really prompted me to look beyond the 6x4 train set of my pre-teen years were

 

 The assorted EM layouts from the Hull and Gloucester groups - Kyle of Tongue, Rushenden Metals, Villiers Street, Easington Lane, Canada Road, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

EM?

 

KoT's follow up "Reighton" was EM, but pretty certain that Kyle was 00.

 

(Long conversations with Steve Flint persuaded me to build and exhibit my own layout - and more since!)

 

Cheers,

MIck

 

[SD85]

Not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread but Askrigg Bank is another obvious classic from the late 90s. Shame I never saw it for real before Kendal MRC retired it.

 

Jamaica Reach (RM 1995, can't recall the month) was another great layout but I can't find out much info on what happened to it. It was made by the North Devon MRC I think (they also made another layout called Cadiford Water?) but this group doesn't appear to be publicly functioning now. Any further info on this layout or the group?

 

PS - I mentioned this already, but the April 1996 issue of BRM had an O gauge layout called Minima Bay built by someone called Mike Williams who ran a kit company called College Models. Any info on him and/or this layout would be good as I found it pretty inspiring.

Edited May 28, 2019 by SD85

[Judge Dread]

Rushenden (Metals) Ltd. was most certainly EM. A first attempt by a sub section of the Hull M.R.S. 00 group which we asked to be renamed as the 4mm section.   

We took it to 25 shows between 1990 and 1995, finally selling to a chap in the West Riding.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Judge Dread

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, SD85 said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread but Askrigg Bank is another obvious classic from the late 90s. Shame I never saw it for real before Kendal MRC retired it.

 

Jamaica Reach (RM 1995, can't recall the month) was another great layout but I can't find out much info on what happened to it. It was made by the North Devon MRC I think (they also made another layout called Cadiford Water?) but this group doesn't appear to be publicly functioning now. Any further info on this layout or the group?

 

PS - I mentioned this already, but the April 1996 issue of BRM had an O gauge layout called Minima Bay built by someone called Mike Williams who ran a kit company called College Models. Any info on him and/or this layout would be good as I found it pretty inspiring.

Jamaica Reach was in September 1995. RotM.

 

Cadiford Waters  November 2000.

[Legend]

On ‎22‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 14:03, Martync said:

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

 

I remember Rawnook . Would be around October 1973 in the Model Railway Constructor . A Lancashire and Yorkshire layout with a station (Rawnook, presumably) that was an Island Platform with a bay . The feature though were Railways bridging a gulley on two levels.  From memory it featured as a cover photo in MRC and maybe also appeared in the partwork History of Model and Miniature Railways.

 

Another layout I remember was one based on the Furness from about March 73. Lovely red engines , very appealing.

 

Railway Modeller Mallaig in "N" about March 73. March was traditionally the Scottish Issue back then .  Dent Head from April 74  , multiple locos of the same type that I could only dream of .

 

Got to agree with the guys above about "Elderslie" seen in the flesh at various Model Rail Scotland Exhibitions at the MacLellan Galleries and Paisley Town Hall .  Fantastic station (as it must have been in real life). Of course there wasn't too much prototypical stock back in the early 70s , so I remember the freight yard shunted by black 9fs .  Think there was a pretty good representation of the "Rootes" or "Chrysler" Container Train .   I also remember Princes Pier and St Enochs  , but I don't ever remember seeing them all joined together which must have been spectacular.  I do remember Lima DMUs on the St Enoch layout so it must have made it into the 80s

 

I've written before that one of my most inspirational layouts was probably one that folk wont remember . It was called Hanbury , probably from March 82 RM . Triang Hornby overall roof on station, Hornby Dublo stock , Superquick buildings , but the overall effect was superb and the author went into some detail on how it was operated to a timetable .

Edited May 28, 2019 by Legend

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Legend said:

 

I remember Rawnook . Would be around October 1973 in the Model Railway Constructor . A Lancashire and Yorkshire layout with a station (Rawnook, presumably) that was an Island Platform with a bay . The feature though were Railways bridging a gulley on two levels.  From memory it featured as a cover photo in MRC and maybe also appeared in the partwork History of Model and Miniature Railways.

 

Another layout I remember was one based on the Furness from about March 73. Lovely red engines , very appealing.

 

Railway Modeller Mallaig in "N" about March 73. March was traditionally the Scottish Issue back then .  Dent Head from April 74  , multiple locos of the same type that I could only dream of .

 

Got to agree with the guys above about "Elderslie" seen in the flesh at various Model Rail Scotland Exhibitions at the MacLellan Galleries and Paisley Town Hall .  Fantastic station (as it must have been in real life). Of course there wasn't too much prototypical stock back in the early 70s , so I remember the freight yard shunted by black 9fs .  Think there was a pretty good representation of the "Rootes" or "Chrysler" Container Train .   I also remember Princes Pier and St Enochs  , but I don't ever remember seeing them all joined together which must have been spectacular.  I do remember Lima DMUs on the St Enoch layout so it must have made it into the 80s

 

I've written before that one of my most inspirational layouts was probably one that folk wont remember . It was called Hanbury , probably from March 82 RM . Triang Hornby overall roof on station, Hornby Dublo stock , Superquick buildings , but the overall effect was superb and the author went into some detail on how it was operated to a timetable .

I was only a member at Renfrewshire for a year or so, about 1978/79, but in that time I think that I only saw Elderslie/Prince's Pier/St Enoch erected together in the clubroom.

[Geep7]

On 28/05/2019 at 15:00, Judge Dread said:

Rushenden (Metals) Ltd. was most certainly EM. A first attempt by a sub section of the Hull M.R.S. 00 group which we asked to be renamed as the 4mm section.   

We took it to 25 shows between 1990 and 1995, finally selling to a chap in the West Riding.

Rushenden Metals, along with Chessington South have both played on my mind since I first saw them. I think I was lucky enough to see Chessington South at an exhibition (Tolworth Showtrain I think, rather appropriately if i've recalled correctly.) They are one of the reasons I really wanted to build an SR based layout with 3rd rail electric units.

 

One layout that really inspired me, is one that I was involved with, although not the construction. Twickenham MRC's N gauge layout Ravens Park was the first layout I ever operated at an exhibition back in my very early teens. I think my first exhibition behind the layout was one of the Imrex shows.

 

Other inspiring layouts for me include the previously mentioned Engine Wood (who'd have thought creating a fictional history for your model could be so much fun), Chee Tor, Kyle of Tongue and any of Peter North's early Rock Island line layouts. 

[luckymucklebackit]

On 02/05/2019 at 22:10, St Enodoc said:

 

Built by the Renfrewshire Model Railway Club of which I was, briefly, a member in the late 1970s. Elderslie was the main part of the layout and there were two "appendages", Greenock Prince's Pier and Glasgow St Enoch (which, because it featured only one of the prototype's two arched roofs, was always known as St Eunuch). A superb layout to operate especially when all three sections were in use.

 

There was some discussion about this legendary layout in this thread back in 2012 Linky suggesting that St Enoch had survived in a barn and Elderslie was stored at Paisley Museum.  It is a pity that there does not seem to be any comprehensive photographic record of this magnum opus!  I would doubt if Elderslie survives as museum curators do not seem to have much fondness for model railways - remember the beautiful rendition of Carlisle Citadel that was in the original Glasgow Transport Museum, never became part of their plans for later premises.

 

Jim

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by luckymucklebackit

[Judge Dread]

2 hours ago, Geep7 said:

Rushenden Metals, along with Chessington South have both played on my mind since I first saw them. I think I was lucky enough to see Chessington South at an exhibition (Tolworth Showtrain I think, rather appropriately if i've recalled correctly.) They are one of the reasons I really wanted to build an SR based layout with 3rd rail electric units.

 

One layout that really inspired me, is one that I was involved with, although not the construction. Twickenham MRC's N gauge layout Ravens Park was the first layout I ever operated at an exhibition back in my very early teens. I think my first exhibition behind the layout was one of the Imrex shows.

 

Other inspiring layouts for me include the previously mentioned Engine Wood (who'd have thought creating a fictional history for your model could be so much fun), Chee Tor, Kyle of Tongue and any of Peter North's early Rock Island line layouts. 

Chessington at Tolworth made us smile also. The number of members of the public telling us that our station looked just like the one across the road and then went outside to make sure that was true.

I moved on to Brockley Green SE4 and Meopham East Junction, and now I've made a start on "Meopham New Town" but keep that to yourself.

  

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

There was some discussion about this legendary layout in this thread back in 2012 Linky suggesting that St Enoch had survived in a barn and Elderslie was stored at Paisley Museum.  It is a pity that there does not seem to be any comprehensive photographic record of this magnum opus!  I would doubt if Elderslie survives as museum curators do not seem to have much fondness for model railways - remember the beautiful rendition of Carlisle Citadel that was in the original Glasgow Transport Museum, never became part of their plans for later premises.

 

Jim

 

Thanks for that link Jim. Bahram's recollections in particular confirm and add to my own rather vague memories.

[Geep7]

21 hours ago, Judge Dread said:

Chessington at Tolworth made us smile also. The number of members of the public telling us that our station looked just like the one across the road and then went outside to make sure that was true.

I moved on to Brockley Green SE4 and Meopham East Junction, and now I've made a start on "Meopham New Town" but keep that to yourself.

  

 

Your Brockley Green was the first mention i'd ever seen of the Southern using overhead in goods yards, so seeing it in model form was a revelation.

 

It's amazing how far we've come in recent years with the amount of information for Southern Region modelling, although still waiting for someone to write the definitive book on SR substations.