Special Celebratory Edition 200th emgauge70s Update

[Kier Hardy]

To celebrate the 200th Update page on the emgauge70s website this month, we not only share with you our latest layout and rolling stock projects, but also our reminiscences from those earlier days.

Put the kettle on, make yourself a cuppa and I hope you enjoy the big read.

https://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/site_preview.html

Cheers, Kier

[08221]

What a fantastic read for a Wednesday morning!

 

Thanks Kier and co for some inspirational photos and for rekindling memories of happy times growing up around the railway in the 70's - good times!

 

Take care all.

[davefrk]

Hi Kier, cracking photos there and some interesting stories, it must be great to have such a lively EM group with such talent.

Say hello to the guys for me.

 

Cheers,

Fellow EMer.

Dave Franks

Glasgow

[Kier Hardy]

Thanks chaps. Having the friends with the same interests and their own projects, provides inspiration by the bucketload, and we can always help each other out when the need arises. 

 

I keep often keep an eye out for the Wharfeside progress reports.... great stuff .  

 

Cheers, Kier

 

[Rufus Harbud]

@Kier Hardy

 

Hi Kier,

 

Your EM Gauge layout of Hornsey Broadway is so much of a detailed and well planned and researched layout, that has inspired me to create an North London based urban layout of my own.

My Grandfather and Father lived in Hornsey on Eade Rd, and the tales my Dad tells me of his younger days as a school kid in the 50's and 60's looking over the wall to the sidings, has spurred me on further.

You have captured the essence and feeling of the area so well, and If I can create a layout anywhere near with the detail of yours, I would be very proud.

I am a scratch builder and diorama modelmaker, who up until now didn't have the room for a layout, which would warrant such detail. But now have a shed big enough. Hooray!

Can I ask where you sourced the retaining walls for Hornsey Broadway, or are they scratch built?

 

Many thanks again for your inspiring layout builds, and wish I had had the chance to see them when on exhibition.

 

All the best

 

Rufus Harbud 

 

[Kier Hardy]

@Rufus Harbud

 

Thank you for your kind comments Rufus, they're much appreciated. I like to think I've created a convincing enough scene that portrays parts of North London where I can run a selection of rolling stock to bring back memories of the early 1970s. The layout of course is fictional (as are the majority of model railway layouts built), so with some careful research following prototype practice, as well as advice from friends and professional railwaymen, the results have culminated in a believable and historical setting.... maybe more so than some layouts based on real places with their associated compromises, compressions and lack of imagination from the builders, although that in itself is a very subjective matter - and besides I couldn't think of any location in the country that would satisfy my modelling requirements.

 

With over 25 feet of arched retaining walls on the layout, I produced a silicone rubber mould (using a Hornby master) and cast them in 2ft resin sections, as firstly the costs would be astronomical buying commercially produced products, and secondly the supply chain had run dry by the time I'd chosen the style and pattern which suited the layout. 

 

Now you have the space to build something for yourself, I look forward to seeing your work in due course - the surroundings, architecture and structures are just as fascinating to be as the trains that run through them.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Kier Hardy

[Rufus Harbud]

@Kier Hardy

 

You are more than welcome for the kind comments Kier, and well deserved. I have researched, watched and thoroughly absorbed all layout creations, to plant in my head what I want to achieve and emulate with my own creation. With a fictional layout it wants to recreate real life, with the compromises and reality of the space provided. But what you have created has pushed the boundaries of what a layout should be, not only on visual scenic areas, but functionality.... The first thing I agree on is the compromise and lack of imagination to railway builders. I have never understood how a 3rd, 4th, or any ridiculous looking radius curve should be even thought of as a scenic part of a layout, and that is why my modelling philosophy echos real life. Very much like a layout being modelled as like a piece of land was chosen in real life and dropped into your railway room.

 

As my attention to detail is so ridiculous and I am never happy till it looks right, your layout just chimed at me as a level of excellence that should be aimed at.

Thank you for your advice on your development of the retaining walls, and I must admit didn't think of Hornby as being such a well recreation of a retaining wall as i first thought. Great idea to make moulds from existing walls. I will explore the process.

 

Again I agree on the excitement and planning that goes into the surrounding architecture of a layout... That is what brings everything to life, and I can't remember who said it, but " A layout should be created by a railway built through a landscape, not a landscape built around a railway"

 

Many thanks for you reply and encouragement, and I will make sure to showing you further developments on the layout.

 

All the best

 

Rufus