Oxenholme(ish) Engine Shed - c1939. A P4 Layout for the Scalefour Jubilee Challenge

ianLMS · February 19

For the last 11 years or so, I have been building my OO gauge layout, Jencaster and many of you on RMWeb have followed me, supported me and gave me so much advice. I didn't operate it much, and with bad knees, difficulty accessing some of the areas on the layout, and a damaged ceiling to contend with, I decided to have a re-think. This was a couple of years ago!!

During the last 2 years or so, I contemplated what to do next and seriously thought about 3mm scale and was very tempted. I then came across a couple of P4 layouts which really interested me. I joined the Scalefour Society while meandering around the Warley Show in 2022, and after attending the Missenden Modelling Weekend in Mar 2023, and seeing the difference between the track and standards of modelling, I was convinced this was the right direction for me. The thought of building my own track however daunted me and trying to build to that level of accuracy was indeed something which needed time to think about before making the final decision.

I came across an article in the Society's quarterly publication about a competition designed to encourage members, non-members and novices to build a P4 layout and join the club! There is a post already on RMWeb which goes into more detail about the rules etc, so I won't repeat the information here. The main stipulation was the scenic area cannot exceed 18.83 sq ft and the track plan has to have at least 3 operational turnouts. This could be the push I needed.

The hunt was then on for a suitable track plan, and many LMS stations etc were looked at until I came across Oxenholme, on the Kendal to Windermere line. It's the right area for me as I love the North West, Lake District etc, and it would be LMS of course. Oxenholme seemed to tick all of the boxes. Formerly LNWR owned, it comprised of a station, goods yard, junction, 3 signal boxes, road over bridge, engine shed, turntable and coal/water staging area. Perfect I thought, until that is I started measuring on Google maps and realizing the whole area would need something along the lines of 40 feet in 4mm to do it justice. No amount of compromising would get me to shrink that down into 18.83 sq ft!!!

I then started to compartmentalize the whole track plan and worked out that the turntable, engine shed, one signal box and coaling/water staging area would fit if I trimmed off the edges a little and tapered the scenic part of the baseboard.

Oxenholme(ish) was born!!!! I played around with the various maps etc and researched as much as I could via Google and Facebook as well as discussing it on the Scalefour Forum before moving ahead fully. I also purchased a point kit from C&L as I wanted to make sure I could at least build simple track without getting into all kinds of muck n muddles. I downloaded Martin Wynne's excellent Templot track design software, and using the guides, help pages, Templot forum and You-Tube, I managed to get a track plan that followed the real plan relatively closely, and would work in the space constraints.

Further posts will cover the build and hope you will join me as I progress along this journey.

Ian

PS. See you at Missenden in a couple of weeks if you are going!!!! I will be slinging paint, thinners and bow pens around in the Painting & Lining course with Mr Geoff Haynes. I hope he has as much patience with his students as he does skill in his chosen subject!