Model Railways c.1983 - Bringewood Tales

[Mark Forrest]

Around 40 years ago, my Dad built a layout following a series of articles titled Bringewood Tales written by Iain Rice in Model Railways magazine.  If I remember correctly, the last article in the series was never published, but Dad's layout was completed, appeared at a few local shows and whet my appetite for finescale modelling.

 

From memory, the track plan of the layout was similar to Rice's Butley Mills, although the scenario had more in common with his Leinthall Earls design in his Light Railway designs book.  For nostalgic reasons (although who knows, it might turn into a layout project one day) I'm keen to read the articles that were published.

 

From a bit of Googling it looks like it was around 1983, but does anyone know specifically which editions of the magazine I should be searching for?

 

Did anyone else build a layout inspired by these articles?

[LBRJ]

I believe that the series may have  got the chop when MR turned into Your Model Railway, it was regarded as being a bit above the new required standard.

The first instalment was in the Feb 83 edition of Model Railways (which I regard as still possibly the best single issue of a magazine ever!!)

My dad was even half keen to read about the railway that was being superimposed on the village his mother was born in!

Edited August 7, 2023 by LBRJ

[LBRJ]

The track plan was rather like Butley Mills, but bigger overall...

This is fairly accurate*, at least in the major dimensions if not spot on 😉

 

*for a ten minute sketch on Anyrail, anyway....

Edited August 7, 2023 by LBRJ

[Flying Pig]

Wasn't Bringewood a vehicle for a 00 track standard Iain Rice was experimenting with? Possibly 'EM minus two'?

[Mark Forrest]

9 hours ago, LBRJ said:

The track plan was rather like Butley Mills, but bigger overall...

This is fairly accurate*, at least in the major dimensions if not spot on 😉

 

*for a ten minute sketch on Anyrail, anyway....

Thanks for taking the time to do that, much appreciated.  I was never sure how closely my Dad had followed Iain's plan, but that looks exactly how I remember his layout.

[Mark Forrest]

8 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

Wasn't Bringewood a vehicle for a 00 track standard Iain Rice was experimenting with? Possibly 'EM minus two'?

That's interesting.  I know the version my Dad built used 00 SMP track and copper clad point work.  I recall that his flexi-chas equipped Romford wheeled steam locos always ran beautifully - whereas my Lima diesels were less happy with his track standards.

 

I've ordered a copy of Model Railways with the first installment in the series of articles, so will see what that says on track standards.

[JohnR]

No connection other than as a satisfied customer

 

https://www.magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/model-railways-magazine-february-1983-issue.html

[LBRJ]

It was originally built as standard OO but with SMP track etc as a more finescale "first attempt" type of project.

I think Iain used it as a test bed in later experiments with new track standards.

[Mark Forrest]

The February 1983 issue of Model Railways was waiting for me when got home from work tonight and I've just read part 1 of The Bringewood Tales.  It's particularly interesting to compare the design to the later version of Leinthall Earls in Light Railway Layout Designs.

 

I think I've found copies of the majority of the other magazines with articles from the series and ordered them.  The temptation to follow in my Dad's footsteps and build a version of this layout is very strong.  It would be interesting to see what could be done with what is currently available, while maintaining the spirit of Iain's original design.  I'm not sure the £5 per week over 3 months budget would go very far these days!

 

[Mark Forrest]

So far I've managed to get my hands on the following:

Part 1: The Surveyor's Tale - February 1983

 

Part 2: The Contractor's Tale - March 1983

 

Part 3: The Ganger's Tale - May 1983

 

Part 4: The Ganger's Tale continued (Track Laying) - June 1983

 

Part 5: Linesman's Tale - July 1983

 

The baseboard construction in The Contractor's Tale is a bit of an eye opener.  Admittedly Rice was working with the materials he had to hand, but it's a long way from the lightweight plywood baseboards we've all become familiar with.  I recall the baseboards that my Dad built being of similar "sturdy" construction and the size and weight of these causing a few issues.

[Mark Forrest]

I started to have a bit of a play in Templot to see what might be possible.  Rice's original plan in The Surveyor's Tale was 10' long.  The longest wall in my railway room is 11', so I've tried to ease the radius of the curves.  The turnouts have also been increased from A5 and B6 to B6 and B7 respectively.

 

I'm not sure if easing the curves takes away something of the original design.  I've also replaced the majority of the fiddle yard point work with a sector plate, which looks like it could work, but requires a bit more tweaking of the plan.

[LBRJ]

I don't think the overall plan looks to have lost much in having the curves eased, but  I do wonder about the  look of the goods yard area....

Surely A5 is acceptable for the sidings on a light railway?

 

[DLT]

I know this is only a first draft, but I have a couple of quick observations:

Your loop looks too short, you will barely manage to run round three wagons in it. 

Also, do you need three sidings in the yard?  They take up a lot of width.  If the loop was longer, more sidings could come off the loop, making them longer.  Then you might not need the three-way point.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Enterprisingwestern]

11 minutes ago, DLT said:

I know this is only a first draft, but I have a couple of quick observations:

Your loop looks too short, you will barely manage to run round three wagons in it. 

Also, do you need three sidings in the yard?  They take up a lot of width.  If the loop was longer, more sidings could come off the loop, making them longer.  Then you might not need the three-way point.

Cheers,

Dave.

 

The conundrum here though is how much of the Rice/Dad concept is Mark trying to re-create, start making major alterations to the track plan and things will get lost along the way?

 

Mike.

[DLT]

8 hours ago, Mark Forrest said:

I started to have a bit of a play in Templot to see what might be possible.  Rice's original plan in The Surveyor's Tale was 10' long.  The longest wall in my railway room is 11', so I've tried to ease the radius of the curves.  The turnouts have also been increased from A5 and B6 to B6 and B7 respectively.

 

I'm not sure if easing the curves takes away something of the original design.  I've also replaced the majority of the fiddle yard point work with a sector plate, which looks like it could work, but requires a bit more tweaking of the plan.

Could you possibly scan the original trackplan for us please?  I only vaguely remember it, and I don't have that issue anymore.

Many thanks, Dave.

[LBRJ]

The copy I drew at the top of the thread is pretty close to what Iain created in the initial article, its not exact, but how close would one want? ;)

Edited August 19, 2023 by LBRJ

[Mark Forrest]

58 minutes ago, DLT said:

Could you possibly scan the original trackplan for us please?  I only vaguely remember it, and I don't have that issue anymore.

Many thanks, Dave.

Here it is...

[Mark Forrest]

6 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

The conundrum here though is how much of the Rice/Dad concept is Mark trying to re-create, start making major alterations to the track plan and things will get lost along the way?

 

Mike.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm pondering - if I build this (which is looking increasingly likely) am I building something inspired by the original concept or am I looking to recreate the layout my Dad built (which was similar but not identical to the layout that Rice built for the articles).

[Mark Forrest]

8 hours ago, LBRJ said:

Surely A5 is acceptable for the sidings on a light railway?

 

A fair point (excuse the pun).  I thought I'd try the tandem turnout in place of the two A5 as in The Ganger's Tale it is suggested the the original plan was changed to use a tandem; I think it should be an A5/A6 asymmetric tandem.

[LBRJ]

To paraphrase twenty odd year old conversations with the man himself, many of Iain's designs should be considered as being " Ideas and plans, not blueprints", so easing some of the tighter curves and the switches and crossing on the points would maybe not be the worst idea ever.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Apologies for the slight tangent, but, I've just kinda realised, that was 40 bloody years ago, Model Railways came of age and was a high point in modelling magazines at the time, thanks primarily to Iains input and influence.

Brings back memories of avidly awaiting it's arrival at Totley Post Office and sitting in my gas van devouring every word.

Jumpers for goalposts etc!

Thanks Mark!

 

Mike.

[Mark Forrest]

1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

Jumpers for goalposts etc!

Thanks Mark!

 

Mike.

If it was Iain's influence, shouldn't that be Buckjumpers for goalposts?

 

In my quest to buy each of the articles from the series I've ended up with a few other issues from around this time, as I bought a job lot to get hold of a couple I couldn't find elsewhere.  It's been interesting to read other articles from around that time and see how things were developing.

 

I think I'm missing "The Engineer's Tale" which I'm guessing must be in the April '83 issue?

 

 

[LBRJ]

I never had a copy of the April 83 issue, which could well be because there was no article on Bringewood to get me to part with some spending money...

I know the series was left unfinished when the new editor (Ken Jones?)  took over from CJF though.

[RodneyS]

I only came upon this thread yesterday and like Mike I also had a shock when I realised it was 40 years ago !

 

To put your mind at rest Mark, there was nothing about Bringewood in the April issue.

 

The series seemed to finish with the July issue which was the last one Cyril Freezer edited.

From August Kenneth Jones became editor.

Rodney

[Nearholmer]

My memory banks are serving nothing on this one, which is odd because I am usually good at remembering useless things like layout plans, and I’m pretty sure I must have read those magazines at the time. Maybe it simply didn’t chime with me

 

Looking at the plan as given with the overview sketch, I’d be concerned about “shuntability”, because the sidings are connected to the runaround loop so far to the right, and because of where the quarry (I presume) loading hopper is.

 

The quarry loader is quite a way to the left, so you can’t get many wagons beyond it, which means that the ‘cut’ that can be loaded in one go is short. If you think through how that relates to ‘empties in; fulls out’, it makes for quite a restricted capacity installation.

 

But, to me the position of that point on the loop is the bigger issue, especially as it is is combined with a quite restricted length ‘neck’ beyond the loop on the right.

 

Before building this, I’d want to play trains on a full-size mock-up (low-tack masking tape on the kitchen floor?) to check that this isn’t a plan that will engender great frustration.

 

Scenically, thinking where Bringewood is, I suggest that you could get a lot of inspiration from the Tanat Valley, and the Nant Mawr and Porth-y-Waen area. We drove up the Tanat Valley and over the top to Bala last week and it reminded me how much layout design potential that area has.