Fairly recently published layout - name/magazine/edition help?

[ejstubbs]

I'm trying to track down information about a layout that I recall seeing in one of Model Rail/BRM/RM within the last 12 to 19 months.  It was a small rural terminus (not much new or unique there!) but the thing that I found interesting about it was that the goods yard was largely based around a second loop, parallel to the main run-round loop.  IIRC the spur on the run-round loop was also a freight siding of some kind.

 

Does this rather rough description strike a chord with anyone?  If I could find out the name of the layout and/or the magazine and the edition it appeared in, I'd be able to order the back number.

 

Grateful for any help that can be offered!

Edited May 15, 2018 by ejstubbs

[Barry Ten]

Was it possibly the nice East Anglian layout that was in Model Rail recently?

[ejstubbs]

Was it possibly the nice East Anglian layout that was in Model Rail recently?

 

Thanks.  It is my vague recollection that it was in Model Rail (that's the one that shows the viewpoint for each photo on the track plan, isn't it?)  Can you recall anything more about it?

 

However, I also seem to recall that it was set in the west of England somewhere, not East Anglia - but that could very easily be a mis-remembering based simply on the impression that 99% of rural branch terminus layouts seem to be set there!

 

I'm fairly certain it was steam only, and I think it was pre-BR.

[Barry Ten]

It's probably not the one, then, as it had diesels on and was included quite recently. I only mentioned it because I seemed to remember that it had run-round loops in both the platform and goods lines.

[dibber25]

Our Model Rail layout gallery on our website has pictures of layouts since January 2017. Suggest you check that and it will tell you which issue it appeared in  - if it was in Model Rail. (CJL)

[ejstubbs]

Thanks Chris, that looks like a useful resource, I'll take a more detailed look when I have a bit more time.

 

A bit of trawling through my own archives (of layout scribblings in AnyRail) suggests that I would have seen the layout in question around April/May/June last year.  I know I came across it while browsing magazines on Sainsbury's. ("Why didn't you buy it then?" I hear you ask.  Good question.  IIRC correctly there wasn't much else that appealed in that edition so the cover price seemed a bit steep for one layout idea.  In retrospect...)

 

I have the June 2017 edition of RM, and the March 2017 edition of MR (see, I do buy magazines sometimes!) and it's in neither of those.

 

I suppose I could try the National Library of Scotland, as it's a copyright library and I believe should have copies of everything published.  That does seem a bit OTT, though; it's only a model railway, after all!

 

I wonder if there might be someone reasonably nearby who wouldn't mind me having a quick squiz through their piles of model railway magazines.  I'm sure I'd recognise the layout if I saw it on the page in front of me.

 

I can't help thinking that if I was looking for a layout that had appeared in RM in the 1950s someone would have come up with the answer by now!  Hey ho, all part of the joy of RMWeb, I guess

[Chris Gad]

I've just had a look through our archive for you and the closest layout I can find that meets your criteria and is in the timeframe you suggested is St. Lukes that was in our April 2017 issue (MR 233). Does the attached picture jog any memories?

[ejstubbs]

Thanks for doing that research, Chris.  Although it's a close match by some of my criteria, my recollection of the layout is that it was rather more rural than St Lukes, unfortunately (fine layout though that one is).

 

Looking through the rest of the MR gallery hasn't struck the requisite chord either, I'm afraid.

 

The good news, for me at least, is that the National Library of Scotland does have all of the last five years of MR, RM and BRM in its catalogue.  And it doesn't look to be too difficult to get a library card, either.  Looks like I'll be spending a busy afternoon in their George IV Bridge reading room sometime soon, then!