Armchair Modeller Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I have been interested in the Inversnecky & Drambuie for a long time, as it was one of the pioneers of 2mm modelling and one that got good publicity in the years after WW2. There were at least 2 articles on it in the Railway Modeller in the early 1950s. The main article was in February 1954. This includes many of the photographs shown on the 2mm Scale Association's web site. This refers to an earlier article in the July 1952 issue. I recently got hold of a copy of this earlier magazine. The article is specifically about the fiddle yard. There were no photographs, unfortunately, but it does include this drawing: One thing that has puzzled me for some time about the photos on the 2mm site is this one - It clearly shows the passenger train that appears on other photos of the I&D. I cannot work out anywhere on the layout with that track plan. I can only think that it was someone else's layout, or maybe part of the I&D that did not appear in the final version? I guess it is unlikely that anyone would know at this late stage. Mr Bryant certainly did change his layout. The turntable fiddle yard was a change for his earlier arrangement, according to the February 1954 article. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Here is a sketch of the main layout. There were 11 points altogether. The fiddle yard, which is drawn in my last post, was 2ft 8in long, making the total length around 15ft. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nth Degree Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I can't help with the question but great to see old 2mm models of such high quality, even back then. How did they do it without modern etching technology? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 They had etching then. It was used for making the signals. Reading the main article in Railway Modeller it is really interesting to see how advanced the I&D was for its time. I will cover a few details soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Does that plan represent the full layout? I know it was extended over time. The NRM has two sections of the layout, there was a third which Mr Bryant may have taken with him when he moved to Canada. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold bcnPete Posted February 26, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 26, 2012 Is Mr Bryant the same Mike Bryant who developed the MBM coupling system?... Thanks for posting the information on the layout...its great to see one of the pioneers for this scale... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 As far as I know, the sketch in my second post, plus the fiddle yard plan in my first post are the full layout. The fiddle yard was a late addition. Previously, it sounds like the layout ended with dummy tunnel mouth on the back (main line) platform on Drambuie. Drambuie was reputedly taken to Canada, along (I assume) with the fiddle yard. Inversnecky Pier and Seatown Inversneckie boards are definitely in the NRM collection and were shown at an AGM a few years back. The Feb 1954 article suggests that Mr Bryant was unhappy with some aspects of the I&D - particularly Drambuie station. He was planning to build a completely new layout. I don't know if that ever happened. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Is Mr Bryant the same Mike Bryant who developed the MBM coupling system?... No., it's a different one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I believe it had a couple of pages in one of the Chris Ellis edited mags but that would need digging for - I also came across a reference to an article in MRJ #89 pp226 by Tim Watson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tequila Sunrise Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I too am curious to find more about this fascinating layout. It would be great to gather as much as possible together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 One thing that has puzzled me for some time about the photos on the 2mm site is this one - It clearly shows the passenger train that appears on other photos of the I&D. I cannot work out anywhere on the layout with that track plan. I can only think that it was someone else's layout, or maybe part of the I&D that did not appear in the final version? I guess it is unlikely that anyone would know at this late stage. Note on the back, according to the 2mm site, suggests it was taken at Central Hall Westminster 1949 shows so it may have been a work in progress - the "ground" looks like hessian or sacking, which was probably all that was available due to rationing. Note the subtle display of the makers name on the matchbox Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Stewart Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I believe it had a couple of pages in one of the Chris Ellis edited mags but that would need digging for - I also came across a reference to an article in MRJ #89 pp226 by Tim Watson I belive it was in Scale Model Trains and possibly July 83, I'd need to check funnily enough Iwas looking through it the other night.. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sykes Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Is Mr Bryant the same Mike Bryant who developed the MBM coupling system?... I believe RWG Bryant who built the I&D was Mike's cousin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Note on the back, according to the 2mm site, suggests it was taken at Central Hall Westminster 1949 shows so it may have been a work in progress Saw that thanks, but the curve and the buffer stops with the hill slope in the background are impossible to place on the 1954 version of the layout. If it was part of the early I&D then something must have been changed a fair bit. MRJ #89 pp226 (1996) by Tim Watson is just a very brief resume with a couple of photos of the Inversnecky Harbour station and Seatown Inversnecky. There are also 2 photos of stock. It suggests that Drambuie is held by the Macclesfield MRC, not in Canada. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I was at school with Mike's son, back in the early/mid 1960's...Sutton Coldfield..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 MRJ #89 pp226 (1996) by Tim Watson is just a very brief resume with a couple of photos of the Inversnecky Harbour station and Seatown Inversnecky. There are also 2 photos of stock. It suggests that Drambuie is held by the Macclesfield MRC, not in Canada. If that is true - I would have thought it would have been offered to NRM to mate (meet) with its brothers - a note to the club secretary might clear it up? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 I found this note on the Internet about R Bryant (dated December 2003) On 3th December, R.W.G. (Ron) Bryant, builder of the famed Inversnecky & Drambuie 2mm scale layout, died peacefully in a residential care home in Ottawa. He was an active modeller until quite recently, when health circumstances forced a more intensive care regime. Further searching onthe Internet suggests he changed to 3mm scale in the mid to late 1950s. I have a very faint recollection of seeing an article in Model Railways of a 3mm scale freelance Scottish layout built in Canada - maybe the North Caledonian Railway or something similar. I now wonder if it was RWG Bryant's? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I was at school with Mike's son, back in the early/mid 1960's...Sutton Coldfield..... He was a 2mm modeller as well at one time, assuming it is the same son. I remember seeing him demonstrate making rather nice LMS corridor coaches from paper. He had built a lovely looking patriot class loco but it wouldn't pull traditional coaches so he had to devise a way of making lightweight ones. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium CF MRC Posted February 26, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 26, 2012 The part of the I & D layout which existed at the Macclesfield Club appeared at the Scale Show, organised by the 2mm Scale Association and the S Gauge MRS in Bletchley in 1996. We tried to get the section from the NRM, but they would only let us have it if we accommodated one of their staff in a suitable hotel for four nights and arranged secure courier transport for the model. We declined. The model is an amazingly effective piece of artistry. Mike Bryant was the doyen of the 2mm Scale Association products development through the 1980's along with Phil Kerr. Hugh's Patriot was legendary, and I remember him spending a happy Saturday afternoon at a show trying to get it to pull his train of Iightweight coaches on Chiltern Green. We suggested inflating them with Helium. Tim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 You say existed - i.e. in the past tense. Do you know what happened to it, eventually? Does it still exist? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 2mmMark Posted February 27, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 27, 2012 Here are some photos of the Inversnecky Pier & Seatown sections taken at the 2mm Scale Association's 2005 AGM. The colouring and restrained texturing still stand up well today. Some of Ron Bryant's rolling stock was posed on the layout, along with a tinplate Bing LNWR 4-4-0 and coaches. Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 2mm Dabbler Posted February 27, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 27, 2012 I believe it had a couple of pages in one of the Chris Ellis edited mags but that would need digging for - I also came across a reference to an article in MRJ #89 pp226 by Tim Watson Scale Trains for February 1984. Five pages including a layout plan, although I would suspect the latter was derived from photographs rather than measuring the layout itself. Here are some photos of the Inversnecky Pier & Seatown sections taken at the 2mm Scale Association's 2005 AGM. The colouring and restrained texturing still stand up well today. Some of Ron Bryant's rolling stock was posed on the layout, along with a tinplate Bing LNWR 4-4-0 and coaches. Mark This section is also now on display at the NRM inside a low glass cabinet (or was in 2010); the stock shown in Mark's photos remain in much the same position. I'll second Mark's comments about texture and colouring. Michael Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 I am very glad I started this topic now, as some really useful information is coming through. The MRJ article by Tim Watson mentions that the Drambuie section was to be on display at the joint 2mm Scale Association/S Scale Scale Show at Bletchley in October 1996. I wonder if anyone still has any photos? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrislock Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I first heard about this fascinating layout from Modelling The Old Time railways by Edward Beale in the mid1960s. This book was constantly out of my local library until one day it disappeared and I never saw it again. I managed to find a first edition copy online a few years ago for the astonishingly cheap price of £9. On page 157 is a photo of Drambuie loco depot. I haven't seen this photo reproduced anywhere else, though I don't have access to those early magazines which are referenced above. On page 246 is a plan of Inversnecky Pier. On the same page, the author goes on to describe a C.W.A. Mitchell, J.J Langridge, J.W. Charltonand R.R.W. Bryant as the "champions of 2 millimetre". Mitchell is credited with building the Stroudley tank, and Charlton is credited with the NE 0-4-4T which appears in the above photo.. Beale credits Langridge with building the rolling stock for I&D, with Bryant handling the scenics ( and I assume the track). . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted February 27, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 27, 2012 I remember attending the exhibition at Central Hall in 1963 ( If my memory is correct) when the Groves were showing their layout. Stuart Hine and Mr Wall were on the association stand and I think some of Mr Bryant's stuff was in the display case. Pretty impressive when you remember that Drambuie pre-dated the association by a decade. I remember Mike Bryant doing a lot for the association i the eighties. He was very helpful. But then so are most 2millers. Don Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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