Modelling a heritage line ??

[Mind the gap]

Hi all, 

 

i am thinking of starting a new layout and looking online it looks like nearly every situation has been covered previously, snow scenes, harbours, blue diesel, the list goes on. But has anyone modelled a heritage line ?? Having recently driven a class 52 on the Severn Valley, I did think of doing Kidderminster with the engine shed

 

just wondering

Dave

[phil-b259]

9 minutes ago, Mind the gap said:

Hi all, 

 

i am thinking of starting a new layout and looking online it looks like nearly every situation has been covered previously, snow scenes, harbours, blue diesel, the list goes on. But has anyone modelled a heritage line ?? Having recently driven a class 52 on the Severn Valley, I did think of doing Kidderminster with the engine shed

 

just wondering

Dave

There is an excellent rendition of Ropley on the mid-hants on this forum

 

 

There has also been a good rendition of Horsted Keynes done too.

 

https://bluebell-model-railway.my-free.website/

 

There is also a ‘what if’ layout based on Seburgh station being operated as part of a Heritage line.

 

 

Far too many railway modellers get snooty about modelling a Heritage railway.

 

Yes it does give the chance to run non-prototypical stock BUT they forget / overlook that to do it justice is every bit as challenging as creating a model of a 1950s BR line. 

 

For example even if the coaches on that even on heritage railways may be clean the underfranes get dirty (so need weathering) while the assorted line side ‘junk’ stourage containers, locos / vehicles awaiting restoration are just as time consuming to create as a 1950s pastoral scene.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by phil-b259

[TheQ]

I did seriously consider it, it would have been the Bo'ness and Kinneill Railway where I used to Volunteer.

A very interesting scenery starting off at the bottom, in their yard by the old harbour, along the foreshore, through the old pit, then up the steep incline on the escarpment, before turning inland past the fireclay mine.. Over a viaduct then turning parallel to the Edinburgh - Glasgow main line and the station at Manual junction.

 

Instead I'm slowly working on the MSWJR line on which one of my grandfathers was a ganger... , Don't have the space for both unfortunately.

Edited November 1, 2022 by TheQ

[TonyMay]

If you set yourself the restriction of only modelling preserved locos/stock it can still be genuine.  

[Pacific231G]

There was an 0 gauge model based on a fictional preserved line that I saw  a few years ago but I can't remember what it was called.

There was also a  very nice model based on the RHDR that I saw at a couple of shows. The great thing about it was that - like its prototype - it provided fairly intense main line passenger working with a far simpler track plan than you'd be likely to find at a standard gauge main line terminus.

The upside is that you can legitimately have main line steam locos hauling three or four coaches including a restaurant/buffet car on a branch line that when in commercial use would have had the one same train going up and down it relieved only by a daily pick up goods.

I suppose the downside of modelling a "preservation scheme" SG heritage railway is that they are, in effect, full size models reproducing (or at least representing)  the real railways of the past so a model of one is ,in effect, a model of a model. For some reason, that seems less true of NG railways like the Tallylyn because they are just themselves in a particular part of their ongoing history. The other thing is that you're really looking at a purely passenger operation with perhaps a "demonstration" goods train on certain days. 

But, if a heritage railway (real or imagined) is what you want to build then don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Most of our layouts are really just a pastiche of what we want to represent- such as the MPD layout that has one example of each of umpteen classes of loco rather than several examples of a few classes. That would more realistically be a preservation site like Didcot.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Pacific231G

[RedgateModels]

2 hours ago, Mind the gap said:

Hi all, 

 

i am thinking of starting a new layout and looking online it looks like nearly every situation has been covered previously, snow scenes, harbours, blue diesel, the list goes on. But has anyone modelled a heritage line ?? Having recently driven a class 52 on the Severn Valley, I did think of doing Kidderminster with the engine shed

 

just wondering

Dave

 

ahem