Layouts or articles in magazines that have inspired you.

[johnarcher]

Looking at old mags compared to modern ones  it's the drawings that seem a sad loss.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

This thread has become so intoxicating I actually went and bought some old RMs from 1976 and 1977 - the first I ever owned,and my first year of getting into model railways.

 

The articles have stood the test of time.  What's most apparent though is the appalling quality of the photographs, which helpfully hide a lot of distinctly agricultural modelling.  A class 47 from papier mache, anyone?

 

Some of the same bloody old kits are still on sale now!

Edited November 23, 2016 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters

[Nearholmer]

Yes, in the span of forty years, photographic technology has gone from bad enough to make iffy models look good, to good enough to make excellent models look iffy.

 

Unfortunately, not all photographers and editors seem to know how to make and use pictures effectively.

 

K

[joppyuk1]

There is a lot more actual editorial stuff in the Modeller these days. I just nipped up to the 'library' (spare bedroom) and measured my first years bound volume (3/4inch thick) against last years (2 and 1/4inches), both bound without all the adverts, so straight text. I agree that the lack of drawings is sad, as a photo doesn't always carry the information through.

[Junctionmad]

I just miss " the constructor " , that mag was my inspiration, when I was younger , I always looked down on RM !!!!

[5050]

I'm not sure I agree at least as far as RM is concerned  Having just looked at a 1970 RM which had 35 pages of adverts to 32 pages of editorial compared to a 2016 issue which had 69 pages of adverts compared to 89 pages of editorial. 47% editorial against 56% editorial A recent BRM roughly 50% editorial. I think it there isn't a lot of difference but the recent mags do seem to have more editorial.

Probably agree with you about the 70's onwards but I was referring to the 50's and early 60's, which, even though only 10 years or less apart in time, seem (to me at any rate) to be from a radically different era.

 

Bit like me and today's kids!

[JDW]

The early ones that I remember looking at and wanting to replicate are Ian Futers' Newcastle Haymarket, Tonbridge West Yard, Pig Lane, Gallows Close, and a couple of big ones that I can't quite remember the names of, but can remember seeing in BRM, ?Carstairs (a then-modern image WCML layout) and its East Coast counterpart, ?Allerton Junction, based on Northallerton.  Of course, there's New Bryford too, which is still going strong and doing better than me at keeping up with the changing modern image scene, as well as plenty of other good modern layouts that continue to provide inspiration on RMWeb.  

[CKPR]

Just to throw in a further one...another inspiring one for me was 'Horselunges' - light railway atmosphere again, this time in P4 and exquisitely modelled.it appeared in the RM around 1996 time if I remember rightly. I did manage to see this layout in the flesh around a decade ago and it didn't disappoint at all!

 

By complete chance, I once shared a flat with Alan the builder of 'Horselunges' and made some of the wagons (HM&ST prototypes) and one of the locos for it in a swop for an exquisite M&CR signal box, which i still treasure.

Edited December 5, 2016 by CKPR

[Nearholmer]

Yes, I remember Horselunges too, very good little layout.

 

Anyone remember something in a similar vein called Crichel Down? Probably mid-70s, and described in the Constructor, I think.

 

Kevin

[Orange Cat]

The one on the front of the March 1968 Railway Modeller. A simple narrow gauge oval. My sister brought the magazine home and over a weekend copied the buildings from it building them up from thick paper from a scrap book and painting them with poster paints. My clockwork train set became a model railway and inspired me to want to build models. An electric train was the top of my Christmas list in December 1968.

The other one that was a major inspiration was Dave Lowery's Bevleys which was February 1984's Railway of the Month in the same publication. I had seen the layout at the Manchester show and it showed that "finescale" was a realistic proposition and that an attractive P4 layout could be built in a small space.

[Nearholmer]

By a bit of googling, I've run Crichel Down to earth.

 

It was built by Martin Goodall, and featured in The Destructor in 1986, so I was only ten years out!

 

Some pictures, and a discussion of ferociosiously tight turnouts in P4 here https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1846&start=50

 

I also enjoyed Bevleys.

 

Wouldn't it be good to see a retrospective about some of these models that set a trend for "tiny gem" layouts - Llanastr would be another.

 

K

Edited December 5, 2016 by Nearholmer

[chris p bacon]

There was a layout that stands out in my childhood memory of RM, not because it was a great prototypical inspired piece but because I thought it was fun (I was a teenager) and had lots of small cameos.

'Under Milk Wood' was the layout (IIRC) and was possibly the work of D Rowe, the station was "Llareggub" and the trackplan was something like a simple inverted figure of 8. What stood out to me was what you could get into such a small space.

[MartinWales]

RM April 1972 Dave!

[chris p bacon]

RM April 1972 Dave!

Blimey, I wasn't even a teenager!

 

Ta for that, I'll look out for  copy in the secondhand stalls.

[MarkSG]

There was a layout that stands out in my childhood memory of RM, not because it was a great prototypical inspired piece but because I thought it was fun (I was a teenager) and had lots of small cameos.

'Under Milk Wood' was the layout (IIRC) and was possibly the work of D Rowe, the station was "Llareggub" and the trackplan was something like a simple inverted figure of 8. What stood out to me was what you could get into such a small space.

 

That was one of the layouts that inspired me. Not just the layout itself, but the construction techniques used on it. It's since been restored, and has been exhibited in recent years, so there may be a chance to see it again some time.

 

http://www.carendt.com/small-layout-scrapbook/page-89a-september-2009/#milkwood

 

Another of Dave Rowe's minimum space layouts, Axford, included a tramway as well as a narrow gauge line. I saw it at one of the Westminster Central Hall exhibitions in the early 80s. I'd love to see that again, too, if it still exists. When I've got a spare few hours I'll dig out my stock of old RMs and see if I can find which edition featured it.

[joppyuk1]

I think Axford was Model Railways May 1980. One of my inspirational 'saves', among others.

[Northroader]

Here's one from way back, buried in me subconscious, but I'm afraid I never kept the article, so I can't give you chapter and verse. It was in the Railway Modeller, and appeared some time in the early 1950s. It was an article by the great CJF, and he was writing about a layout that had been drawn to his attention. He had previous mentioned a "railway in a pantry" and had been asked for more detail. It seems that the pantry wasn't a regular shape, so he had redrawn the line to a proper rectangle. No layoutname was mentioned, I seem to remember it was by a Mr, Colson of Bristol, but I could have that wrong, and there were a couple of none too clear photos. The thing that made everybody sit up was that is was a 6x4 oval branch line in OO. So what? you say, well, it was groundbreaking in those days. All the experienced modellers took note, the callow youths (me) just thought that looks good.

I've drawn this from memory, some of the track details could be different, looking at it now the fiddle yard is ripe for cassettes. Several of the lines featured on this thread clearly drew inspiration from here. I tried it, too, where I went wrong was it had to be capable of storage and I made it as a single unit, which got in the way. At the time I was just about to leave school, leave home, returning just at weekends, socialising and family, which didn't leave much time for modelling. It was quite a few years before I got settled.

[Nearholmer]

And, that very layout was being discussed by 231G earlier today, here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/110663-the-ffarquhar-branch/page-2

 

K

[Northroader]

That's a co-inkydink, isn't it? Jan /Feb 1950! I would have said it predated Portreath, but that would depend on my views being coloured by which the RM reported first. How do you manage to keep an eye on all these threads, Kevin? It seems I miss a lot.

[28XX]

I went to stay with my Aunt who lived in London in 1971 aged 12. I went home on my own by train from Paddington. She got me to the station and into a compartment a long time before departure. She scuttled off and came back to the train clutching the first issue of 'Model Railways' (the new Bigger Model Railway News). "Something to read on the way home". It was a thick issue with a lot of editorial, as it was the relaunch. The end of toy trains, the start of attempting to model.

[Nearholmer]

Northroader

 

I set the "new content" thingy to bring up only threads that I've contributed to, which acts as an effective filter on the amazon flow of topics on RMWeb. At any time there are usually only about four or five threads on the go that I'm really interested in; Castle Aching, yours, BGJ's, Ffarquhar, old layouts, one good debate/argument in wheeltappers, etc.

 

Kevin

[Ryde-on-time]

For me it has to seeing Gordon Gravett's Ditchling Green in Model Railway Journal 25 years ago, a stunning layout and photos in the magazine to do it justice

[5050]

Yes, I remember Horselunges too, very good little layout.

 

Anyone remember something in a similar vein called Crichel Down? Probably mid-70s, and described in the Constructor, I think.

 

Kevin

Wasn't it on show again this year at Scaleforum?  Or something very similar?

 

EDIT - no, it wasn't!!

 

The 6' x 4' track plan is one that has been used many times.  I think Rev. Awdry's 'Ffarquhar' layout was like this.  And there was also a layout featured in the Constructor c.1960 and shown at the MRC show which used a very similar plan.  It's name escapes me.

 

EDIT - it was the 'Heaviley' branch (or something similar - I think!)

 

At the moment.............

Edited December 7, 2016 by 5050

[edward66]

For superb modelling even though the railway interest is just a double track passing through at high level I think The World's End takes some beating, the quality of buildings, the Nidd gorge, the castle etc. are superbly modelled in the finest detail.

[Allegheny1600]

I absolutely agee!

It must be one of the best layouts on the circuit today.

Curiously, I found the December 2016 "Railway Modeller" to be a brilliantly inspiring issue, in particular the 3mm layout by Bob Brown called "Chipping Compton". I also saw it at Warley, simply wonderful!

John.