Ultimate Dream Layout?

[KevinWalsh]

Ok, working on the theory that money, time and space are no problem (i.e. lottery has been won ), what layout would you build?

 

My choice would be to model the Cuckoo line from Polegate to Eridge in OO, with crossing lines to further destinations at either end of the line and possibly even include the links to the Ouse Valley line as it was planned. All I'd need is a building about 400ft long by 40ft wide :lol: .

 

 

Kev

[Class_47]

Hi

 

This is an intersting subject and one that i have thought about alot. What would my dream layout be?

 

It would have to be building a model of the Gloucestershire and warwickshire railway in BR days. What a place to train spot that must have been.

 

The amount of motive power that could have been seen was amazing!

 

GWR steam locos:

 

Castles

Halls

granges

county's

manors

0-6-0 collet goods

56xx

14xx

stars

saints

modified halls

28xx

43xx

45xx

4575

41xx

51xx

61xx

GCR ROD 2-8-0's as these were bought by the GWR

 

and even more GWR locomotives

 

 

BR standards

 

Standard 5's

standard 7's

standard 9's

 

Midland steam locomotives (the midland railway used it frequently for diversions)

 

Black 5's

8f's

WD austerity 2-8-0's

and probably anything from the midlands

 

Diesel locomotives

 

Multiple units

Class 52's

class 47's

class 45's (midland)

and probably any diesel lcoomotive from the midlands could have been seen

 

Here is a link to a photo website showing many photos of this line in its BR days, and some in GWR days http://bernieholland...ne.fotopic.net/

 

It is my favourite preserved railway, not forgetting the mid-hants or 'watercress line' as it is called, mid hants sounds better though!

 

I think if i had the space i would like to build the whole lot from cheltenham to honeybourne in 00 gauge, though a bit unrealistic, being about 40 miles in total i think

 

Probably more realistic would be building winchcombe as it has a nice curve and to include greet tunnel aswell, or to build toddington as it has stanway viaduct, either of the two, i would eventually like to model part of this atmospheric route!

 

Thanks

 

Class_47

[Baby Deltic]

Kings Cross to Hadley Wood maybe, circa 1960's.

 

The North London from Poplar to Canonbury.

[Guest TomTank]

My dream would be to model YORK, it's station, sheds and yards in the late 1950s early 60s..... yep would have to win the lottery just to find somewhere to fit the whole thing!

[Guest jim s-w]

Building mine!

 

Dreaming about them is fine but it's never gonna happen if dreaming is all you do . You can wait for that lottery win but if it comes too late it still might not buy you the time to get it done

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[forest2807]

Inverness, circa 1987. All three sides of the triangle, the southbound platforms, Far North/Kyle platforms, maybe the Ness viaduct, fuel point, TMD, Rose Street Junction, the approaches through Welsh's Bridge and the adjacent sidings. And those fantastic signal gantries!

Although I wasn't alive to see it, backdating the above location 20 or 30 years would be interesting, with the amazing arch in the depot, and even further back those elegant HR locos......

[Dan Hamblin]

Stratford station and shed/works area in the mid-1950's. Lots of Britannia pacifics with the early crest and all those lovely machines that frequented the Great Eastern main line. PLus by having the shed you have the largest allocation of locomotives in the UK

 

Regards,

 

Dan

[60B]

Inverness, circa 1987. All three sides of the triangle, the southbound platforms, Far North/Kyle platforms, maybe the Ness viaduct, fuel point, TMD, Rose Street Junction, the approaches through Welsh's Bridge and the adjacent sidings. And those fantastic signal gantries!

Although I wasn't alive to see it, backdating the above location 20 or 30 years would be interesting, with the amazing arch in the depot, and even further back those elegant HR locos......

 

I would go further than that and go for mid 50's when the old shed was standing with the Dorich arch and the huge carriage sidings with maybe 3 pilots kicking about. Yes it was mostly 5mts all round but there was some ex-Caey 4-4-0s on locals. Also there were visitors from Aberdeen trains, B1s definetly, possibly K2s (if this photo is correct: http://d240vprofozpi.cloudfront.net/locos/K/k2.jpg). Elgin or Aviemore mid 50's would be interesting prospects as Elgin had 2 stations and a better variety of locos. I don't know how much space would be need but the entire of the Speyside line (Boat of Garten - Dufftown) would be something worth tackling.

[nigelb]

money time and space ???????

how about a 1 to 1 great central from london up north ........ just think of the photo ops while driving up the M1

mindddd thats not practical really .......... on a model of wateloo to guldford in the pre electric/ diseasal era

locos mm king arthurs and the greateds of all tiem the West country and battle of brittain mwaaaaaaaaaaa sex on box poxs

 

orr templecombe to bland ford i have memories of getting off a train there when dad was stationed at blandford camp ...... and wandering round the station long after closing

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Spondon c1960.

Now all I need is a manufacturer to produce the Midland Pullman, a Cravens DMU and some Metrovick Co-Bos.............

[Taigatrommel]

I gave this some serious thought a while back, in order to start planning at the very least. As a result of numerous childhood holidays, I have decided upon Exeter St Davids post-resignalling, pre-privatisation. I know it's been done before in N, but what the heck. I'll probably work in 00, but that's not certain yet- however, working in 1:76 is prettty well certain. Whether I include Riverside Yard or not depends on the final home. Once I'm back in the UK I'll start work on buildings, and benchwork can start once I have a long term home for it, which may be a few years away. I have an idea of a transportable home for it. From level crossing to the river bridge it's about 26 feet in 1:76, and from river to the station front it's 6.5 feet wide at the widest point. Not crazy in other words.

 

I'd also love the model a continental border station, but there's only so much time and money I can have!

[darren01]

NIne Elms in O gauge MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[Allegheny1600]

My friends and i are (just starting to) building mine/ours,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/23281-the-allegheny-north-western/

I imagine it will be a couple of years before trains are even running at all, then several more years before the implementation of any kind of full service and many years more before scenery, buildings, signalling etc is completed - in other words, this is my(our!) lifetime layout.

Cheers,

John E.

[Pinkmouse]

As I said last time this came up ; The Settle-Carlisle line. All of it.

[LH&JC]

The Manx Electric Railway, a condensed model including Douglas (and the horse tramway), Groudle (with the Groudle Glen Railway) & Laxey, with the Laxey wheel & the Snaefell Mountain Railway up to the bungalow, that way I can model the TT as well. That would be a challenge, and would be a challenge to find somewhere big!

The time period would be the 1990's when there were numerous special events, 2 of which had Isle of Man No.4 Loch & No.1 Sutherland visiting at sepatate times, (1993 & 1998 respectively) but the main steam visitor was No.15 Caledonia on the Snaefell Mountain Railway in 1995, admittedly it was from the Bungalow to the summit but modeller's licence and all that!

[45157]

Forgetting the dream to re-create my days sitting on an embankment on the West Coast main line watching countless Pacifics, my realstic dream layout would be Macduff (GNSR)

Small compact location with all the basic elements present (station, goods, loco shed, turntable etc) for lots of operational interest.

Although it is a small location I would like to do it without compression and as my preferred scale is 0 Gauge I simply do not have anywhere to put it.

 

I will content myself with what I have at the moment and keep building appropriate stock (perhaps an exhibition layout once I have enough stock) just in case.

 

regards

Stewart

[Jenny Emily]

Easy - if money was plentiful, I'd buy around ten miles of old railway line and have my own 1:1 play paradise. I'm sure DB could give me a good deal for a selection of gronks, a 37 and an assortment of freight stock to play with.

[Oldddudders]

Having a relatively small HO walkaround layout (the barn is 17' x 20') I know how it feels to have a layout with several "places" on it. I also know that none of them is yet finished! Thus the mega-dreams in this thread would take years to fulfil, even if you decided to bring in contractors to do baseboards, electrics, scenery even - and got people like York to make your buildings. Automation of some sort would quickly become necessary to run anything like a plausible service on some of these huge ideal layouts - is that where your dream really takes you? Wouldn't suit me, I don't think.

 

If I had more space and more money, 4mm scale models of e.g. East Grinstead or Midhurst, both LBSC, would be absorbing to operate alone, and that's where I think my pleasure lies. Driving the trains with max realism - and no pressure.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, it is clear that Jim S-W regards the construction as a goal in its own right, as he has said he doesn't much care if he never finishes New Street. So perhaps he's already living his version of the dream.

[Dave777]

There goes an already written blog entry

 

A stretch of 1970s 4 track GNR/LNER mainline with some engineers/carriage/storage sidings for pottering about in while trains circulate on the 4 tracks. Strictly urban, North London, housebacks and warehouses scenery. Big fiddleyard with extensive selection of weathered stock.

 

The only problem I have is that I'd definitely employ someone to build the baseboards, lay the track and wire it all up so that I can then take over at the actual 'modelling' stage, but then the sheer amount of building construction and detailing required means I may need to get someone to do all that for me too... at which point I start to wonder if I'm actually getting further and further away from what I consider 'railway modelling'.

 

So, instead of putting the lottery winnings into building that dream layout, instead I think I'd just enjoy having an entire modelling room in my country mansion where I could pretty much carry on building the sort of layouts I build now - fairly small and quick to finish.

[Mallard60022]

I'd get Norman Soloman to build me Clapham Junction in P4 circa 1960. Barry Norman to 'dress it up' and certain gentlemen to do the loco and rolling stock fleet. I'd provide the warehouse, kettle and tea bags and I would also build a privvy for the scenics from a Wills Kit just to show willing! I would then employ a team of enthusiasts to operate it to a proper timetable whilst I watched! They would be selected for their willingness to do things 'my way' and stand aside if I needed to play.

P. I. N. Occio

[edcayton]

I'd buy Tebay if it is still in existence.

 

Ed

 

Mind you, I'd need some friends to help operate it. Any volunteers?

[Ian J.]

I've always wanted to do a model of Bournemouth West to Bournemouth Central via Branksome and the 'triangle' circa 1961 - not sure whether I'd stick to OO for convenience or go 18.83, but if money was no object at all I suppose 18.83 would become more viable as I could get other people to do the conversions of the RTR steam locos

 

Failing that, I'd love to do the complete Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway, but as a fictional preserved line. The beauty of that is that the reduced operational requirement means I could probably handle it without automation (but where would be the fun in that if I couldn't use my computer programming skills to sort out a running system?)

[Kris]

Up until about 3 years ago I always responded that my dream layout would be a model of Sailsbury in the 1930's with both SR and GWR stations still working, along with both sheds and all 3 yards. Would have required 40 - 50ft in 2mm. If someone would drop a completed model with all stock ready to go into my possession I would be thrilled, but I now don't believe that this is my dream model. I have realised that there is no way that I could hope to run any form of service on a model like this, without it looking as if there was some form of strike going on. I know that I would quickly become dissatisfied with this. I am very glad that I have realised this now, given that I had reached the point of drawing up plans for half of the layout - I had access to the space for this much then.

My dream layout now is a rationalised dream, still reasonably grandiose those. I still dream of a layout containing 2 main lines. Neither of these connect to each other. One of the main lines would just be a couple of running lines with a pair of loops and a spur for adding extra stock via cassettes. These lines to would just show trains running continuously, either under some form of automation, or just having a single train running on each line. The second line features a small station and a couple of sidings. This line would be run by myself. I could build this in a space of about 25ft x 15ft. This is far more reasonable and achievable in my eyes. Since considering this I have realised that building stock for this layout is the biggest challenge and this is the dream part - to build the layout and run an accurate service not using the same stock unless prototypically used. This would require about 800 coaches of various types most of which are not produced. There would also be a need for a couple of hundred wagons, with milk tankers making up a large percentage of these.

I realise that the chances of me building stock in these quantities is very low, so as a compromise I would be prepared to run a representative service and look at running services from different ages.

I feel that it is reasonable likely that I will get to at least start this layout, all I need is a bit more space than I have at the moment. I will most likely start with the first line I described allowing me to start small as this line would need a space of 15ft x 7ft. Once this was built I would then look at extending to build the rest of the second line. Developing the layout in this way would give me more of a chance of completing it.

[Mr Brunel]

The entire Great Western Railway circa 1930/1940s, including Paddington, Swindon and other landmarks.

Now just how big would that be...

[trisonic]

I'm happy with what I'm doing alone.

 

 

That being said if I was planning a "Waterman" type layout with plenty of pro help I'd do "Shenfield and Hutton" an interesting junction on the ex.GER lines in Essex in about 1962 - just to ease my ex-pat cravings for childhood scenery.....I can understand why no one has done this subject (that I know of) - catenary on intensive suburban service - extremely limited suburban stock available etc., etc., but the mainline service was great. all those B17's, Brits, Class 31, 37, 40's (as we refer to them now).......

 

I've finally come to accept that the logistics in getting materials etc., from the UK curtail my UK modeling (but I may change my mind tomorrow....and that's my biggest problem)

 

Best, Pete.