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Older Inspirational Layouts


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14 hours ago, flyingsignalman said:

Not an article but this advert from the 1971 David & Charles Light Railway Guide opened my eyes to light railway modelling (I'd not long discovered narrow gauge railways too! ).

Hamblings ad 1971a.jpg

 

Ah, I remember Hamblings well. A veritable Aladdin's cave for all sorts of bits and pieces!

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I'm intrigued by the listing of prints by Bernard Wright, I'd love to see one of these, To my mind Bernard Wright is something of a model railway legend, the creator of the wonderful "Bazzing Around" in Model Railways and much else besides.

 

Simon

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3 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

I'm intrigued by the listing of prints by Bernard Wright, I'd love to see one of these, To my mind Bernard Wright is something of a model railway legend, the creator of the wonderful "Bazzing Around" in Model Railways and much else besides.

 

Simon

Builder of the lovely S Gauge Swanage, for one.

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13 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

I'm intrigued by the listing of prints by Bernard Wright, I'd love to see one of these, To my mind Bernard Wright is something of a model railway legend, the creator of the wonderful "Bazzing Around" in Model Railways and much else besides.

 

Simon

His drawings always seemed to be well presented, with lots of photos & sketches showing the details.

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20 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

I'm intrigued by the listing of prints by Bernard Wright, I'd love to see one of these, To my mind Bernard Wright is something of a model railway legend, the creator of the wonderful "Bazzing Around" in Model Railways and much else besides.

 

Simon

Simon

 

Bernard Wright's prints were not that exciting actually.  Bernard was employed in the printing trade somewhere in South London - I know he was a member of the Wimbledon Model Railway Club - and he used his contacts to publish a few of his own colour photos of locomotives  - not especially exciting dirty Bullieds at Nine Elms and the like.  This was in the mid 60s and colour printing was still expensive at that time and the prints were no more than A3 size at most.  Bernard also used his contacts to produce etched components for his S scale models of LSWR coaches for his well remembered model of Swanage station in the1930s.  In the '60s letterpress printing was still pre-eminent and etching was used to make the plates for four colour printing of colour illustrations which made it an expensive process.  Offset litho revolutionised the printing trade around that time and of course it has been entirely revolutionised again and is now largely digital.  Some of Bernard's art work would have made for more interesting posters but I never saw any of these before the early 1970s when his 'Bazzing Around' feature started in Model Railways when under the editorship of the late Roy Dock.

 

In the early to mid 1960s I attended a number of meetings of the S Gauge Society with my father who was a member.  Bernard was of course always there and I well remember talking to him and examining his lovely models.  The last S scale model of his that I saw finished was a lovely Schools class in 1930s Maunsell livery - he built it because he loved the engines and I don't think they ever appeared on the Swanage Branch in reality.  He was also an early member of the group that purchased Rebuilt Merchant Navy class Clan Line for preservation and I believe he became quite involved in its upkeep until his untimely death.  Those S Gauge Society meetings had quite an effect on me as here was actual modelling and just about everything was scratch built.  There were exquisite LNWR locomotives and coaches by Stan Garlick - all beautifully finished in full LNWR livery, Metropolitan Railway locos and stock by Alan Cruickshank and some LMS locomotives by an unknown - including a Black Five with an extra motor to reverse the valve gear - inspirational stuff for an impressionable 14 year old!

 

Gerry

 

 

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I'm not sure if it actually inspired me but a layout article I keep returning to was RM's Railway of the Month in May 1962.

This was Lynchurch, Morton and Stockfield and it was a fine scale LMS/LNWR 0 gauge line built by T. Stirling (who described it) and his cousin T.F. Thompson. It was a single track, though with a definite main line feel,  point to point three level spiral with a branch line. It had limited room for scenery (though there was some ) but, judging by the photos, the many bridges and retaining wall provided any number of interesting railway scenes. They were planning to convert to double track (though how they planned to cram it in I've no idea)  but I've never seen any later references to the layout.

 

the L.M.S. was essentially a P shaped layout with a main permanent section 15  ft by 9 ft with an operating well and a portable  12ft x 30 inch portable extension for both the lower level main terminus Lynchurch and the intermediate level branch terminus Kidds Hill.   With five stations, one of them a simple passing loop but the others with both passenger and goods facilities, it was designed for fairly intense timetable operation for normally two or ideally three operators and was very much Multum in Parvo.

Power supply was stud contact but fairly discrete looking at the photos

 

 

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It doesn't have to be a big or massive layout, or one that is rivet-counted, to inspire one.   I remember a layout in MRC years ago, called Oakhampton, and although I have built a major US-layout in the intervening years, along with more than one smaller UK-outline layouts, Oakhampton keeps coming back into my memory, as a relatively small layout, which absolutely exuded atmosphere and a longing to be in that place.   It had operating potential and just looked lovely.  It certainly inspired me, proving that you could get a model world to escape into and you didn't need to live in a castle to do it.  

 

I noticed in the press, that the real Okehampton had recently re-opened, and it brought that layout flooding back into my memory again some 30? maybe even 50? years later.

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On 17/03/2021 at 10:12, bécasse said:

Roye England told me, back in 1964, that the Pendon team had failed to find anyone who had seen more than a nominal train running on the Madder Valley when it was still in John Ahern's ownership, and that was also true among the many Model Railway Club members of my acquaintance. It certainly didn't work effectively as relocated to Pendon and the fact that it does now says much for the efforts of the Pendon team over the intervening decades, restoring (upgrading?) the layout to a running standard without destroying its historical heritage.

I think there was an  acclaimed prize-winning layout in RM, it was the source of many articles in RM, and judged "best layout of the year",  yet it was eventually revealed  ( I believe on passing away of the builder ) that all the shots of trains were posed for magazine photography, as  nothing could be run under power,  as the layout had never ever been electrically wired for operation of the locomotives,  the track was electrically dead!

I do not think it was the Madder Valley layout, can anyone identify the layout in question?

 

Edited by Pandora
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1 hour ago, Pandora said:

I think there was an  acclaimed prize-winning layout in RM, it was the source of many articles in RM, and judged "best layout of the year",  yet it was eventually revealed  ( I believe on passing away of the builder ) that all the shots of trains were posed for magazine photography, as  nothing could be run under power,  as the layout had never ever been electrically wired for operation of the locomotives,  the track was electrically dead!

I do not think it was the Madder Valley layout, can anyone identify the layout in question?

 

It definitely couldn't have been the Madder Valley but do you have any idea when (at least in roughly what decade) it was featured?

 

There was a fairly extensive 16.5mm gauge layout featured in MRN before the war that was unpowered but the builder was quite open about that and it was operated by pushing trains around. The builder was planning to electrify it "in the future"

 

I also wondered about one of my favourite small layouts G.T. Porter's "Potwell Mineral Light Railway" that featured in MRN in July and August 1952. This was an 8ft x 16inch layout built into a very neat cabinet with two four foot scenic sections separated by a short tunnel. It was a simplified model of the East Kent Light Railway based on 1:2500 OS maps of the line between Shepherdswell and Tilmanstone Colliery with the general track layout modified to fit.

Potwell had same connection to a dummy main line running across the end beyond the station buffers as the real Shepherdswell and the line ran throught a short tunnel to "Silberstone" colliery. The line beyond to "Seawarden" (Richborough Port?) was deemed not to have ever been built.

570664627_PotwellMineralLR_MRN7-1952.jpg.6721169125f2b09beee0c9b0d3501a6d.jpg

 

The layout had three tank locos and was usually operated single engine in steam but the surprising thing, for an essentially shunting layout, was that they were all clockwork using "Riemsdyk" controlled clockwork mechanisms. The speed control lever was omitted and the motors were permanently set to their lowest speed where "the engines would stop where required by just the touch of a finger", presumably a tiny shove from the same finger  would get them moving again and "only the reversing lever protrudes through the bunker". Track was brass rail on brass sleepers. Porter was planning to adopt stud contact electric "at some time in the future". I wonder if he ever did.

Edited by Pacific231G
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On 17/03/2021 at 21:38, LBRJ said:

 

As the man himself told me, most of the plans are meant as inspiration, a starting point if you like.

 

What he didn't say, but I will, is that his locomotives and stock tend to be superbly engineered and will cope with track specifications (not standards!) that many others just wouldn't do ;)

 

I agree, I saw the ESLR at....Imrex or the ME exhibition ????.... many moons ago, and his locos ran very well indeed on the trackwork that P4 Police would not have liked!   Seemed to be a nice chap too, I wish I had opportunity to have had more discussions with him.  I really enjoy his writings.

Edited by New Haven Neil
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It is worth remembering that, incredible as it may seem today, there were still plenty of homes in the early 1950s that had no mains electricity supply - and they weren't all in rural villages, many were in suburban areas (even of London). So Porter may have had to adopt either clockwork or battery powered traction.

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4 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

I agree, I saw the ESLR at....Imrex or the ME exhibition ????.... many moons ago, and his locos ran very well indeed on the trackwork that P4 Police would not have liked!   Seemed to be a nice chap too, I wish I had opportunity to have had more discussions with him.  I really enjoy his wrightings.

 

The ELSR was at IMREX in 1984.

I knew Iain quite well back in the 90s and he is indeed a very nice, very helpful chap. He is also extremely good at this game!

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29 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

G.T. Porter's "Potwell Mineral Light Railway" that featured in MRN in July and August 1952

 

I was going to ask for a plan of that, so many thanks for beating me to it.

 

He's managed to condense the EKLR very effectively. I walked that bit when it was still in use for coal trains, either late 70s or early 80s, including the tunnel (Golgotha, what a wonderful name for a catacomb!), which was very interesting, because it was hacked out of the chalk to double-track width until they got tired, at which point it becomes single track! The terrain at the junction end is very steep, so ideal to act as tight framing for a layout.

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27 minutes ago, LBRJ said:

 

The ELSR was at IMREX in 1984.

I knew Iain quite well back in the 90s and he is indeed a very nice, very helpful chap. He is also extremely good at this game!

 

Was that the year of the snow?  I remember coming out of one show to find it had been snowing all day!  It was a long day from the north-east where I lived then.  

 

You will note I started this thread with mentioning the influence he has had on me, starting with Tregarrick.  I know he isn't well now but I'd love to meet him.  And yes - he's good!

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And let's not forget the huge, complex, O Gauge Sherwood Section of the LMS, which was clockwork operated right until its owner's death in the 1980s - not least because insulating all the track and existing rolling stock would have been an enormous job, but also because the owner and his co-operators were perfectly happy with it as it was..... :-)

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24 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

O Gauge Sherwood Section of the LMS

I remember looking back at that regularly in my dads collection of Railway Modellers. Might have a search to see which issue it was in and see if there is second hand copy for sale as I am now of the age when reminiscing can be consider good use of my time.

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1 minute ago, pirouets said:

I remember looking back at that regularly in my dads collection of Railway Modellers. Might have a search to see which issue it was in and see if there is second hand copy for sale as I am now of the age when reminiscing can be consider good use of my time.

 

If you can't find it, give me a shout - I'm sure I've got at least one article on it somewhere!

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The Sherwood Section was featured in the St Michael Book Encyclopedia of Model Railways, as were a number of other fantastic layouts from the time (1979-ish).

Even today, that is probably still the model railway book I have looked at most :D

 

 

It is still often available on eBay etc.

Edited by LBRJ
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Another layout I particularly bonded with was an 00 system which featured in the Model Railway Constructor annual. From a four platformed Victoria it wound its way round a garage sized room through an island platform representing Clapham Junction and then to a three platformed East Croydon before finishing with a reversing loop and a spur to the single platform of Reigate. All home territory to the young Kubes. Trains were a mix of home built 2Bil and 4Cors interspersed with loco hauled Maunsell carriages for the East Grinstead services and the Newhaven boat trains. All this in the days when the Triang EMU was the height of sophistication. And the line was operated using something that the builder, one L Carroll, dubbed "linked section control" whereby power was fed to each section by clearing the home signal and the train would be driven towards the operator. So a stopping train to Reigate would be under Clapham control from Victoria and once halted at Clapham the signal there would be cleared and it would then be driven to East Croydon by the Croydon operator and so on. Similarly a fast train from Victoria would have all signals cleared through the intermediate stations and would be driven by the destination operator all the way. It sounded like great fun to operate and the builder managed to fit it all in without it seeming over cramped. In many ways it would be my ideal layout even today!

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Just now, DLT said:

 

During it's short stay (3 years IIRC) at the Wembley Conference Centre

Yep!

 a week long exhibition :)

I was only quite young, but my Dad was good and took me there twice and once to the Horticultural Halls show.

 

I can't remember it snowing (as Neil referred to) so that must have been the year before I went.

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6 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I'm not sure if it actually inspired me but a layout article I keep returning to was RM's Railway of the Month in May 1962.

This was Lynchurch, Morton and Stockfield and it was a fine scale LMS/LNWR 0 gauge line built by T. Stirling (who described it) and his cousin T.F. Thompson. It was a single track, though with a definite main line feel,  point to point three level spiral with a branch line. It had limited room for scenery (though there was some ) but, judging by the photos, the many bridges and retaining wall provided any number of interesting railway scenes. They were planning to convert to double track (though how they planned to cram it in I've no idea)  but I've never seen any later references to the layout.

 

the L.M.S. was essentially a P shaped layout with a main permanent section 15  ft by 9 ft with an operating well and a portable  12ft x 30 inch portable extension for both the lower level main terminus Lynchurch and the intermediate level branch terminus Kidds Hill.   With five stations, one of them a simple passing loop but the others with both passenger and goods facilities, it was designed for fairly intense timetable operation for normally two or ideally three operators and was very much Multum in Parvo.

Power supply was stud contact but fairly discrete looking at the photos

 

 

 

Yes I remember being grabbed by that at the time. Way beyond a schoolboy's dream at the time.

 

Don

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