Older Inspirational Layouts

[Barry O]

Hi Clive

The Sundown and Sprawling certainly stood out from the crowd with its straight end to end run of 60' (if I remember correctly) and in my younger days I was far more excited at seeing the latest diesels than the old steam kettles!

Mike made the nose ends of his Deltic out of carved lead. With two motors and flywheels it could pull anything and was used on teh then Leeds Club Layout Leeds Victoria - Dewsbury Midland - Bradford London Road - which was huge and was very inspirational for me.  (it made me realise that you need power to pull decent(12 plus coach) trains

 

Over the years there are so many Layouts which have inspired me - luckily I still get chance to play with Herculaneum Dock, Cwmafon, Denroyd and Bob Harpers 0n2 and 0n3 layouts.

 

Ian Futers with his many smaller station based layouts first got me going as did Nempnet Thrubwell from the Yatton Group. Mike Cooks layouts showed me how to run a layout to timetable...  Lots of layouts with lots of inspiration - Ditchling Green, Aberfeldy and the layouts built by Alan Smith - from Lydney (which just GREW) through to his latest 3mm modelling - including Everingham and its latest revisions.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Barry O

[TerryD1471]

All this discussion is very nostalgic, taking me back to old numbers of RM and others. Being a longtime member of the Wolverhampton MRC, I was very pleased to be at the 1978 exhibition when a large oval layout was exhibited by the Newport club. Although I am not of the Gone West persuasion, this was an excellent layout featuring full-length main line trains (one double headed) and a working slip coach, too. Operationally varied and scenically good IIRC. Can't recall its name, but I think it was a slightly whimsical one.

 

Not long afterwards (c 1980-1) the late, great Frank Dyer brought Borchester Market to our show. It needed a furniture van to move it as it wasn't intended to be an exhibition layout, but I endorse everything that everyone else has said about Frank's contribution to the hobby.

 

Going back even further there was a layout featured in RM called Tapton Junction (?)(3rd rail electrics) in 4mm which, at the time, I found very impressive, with long rakes of Exley coaches and much operating potential.

 

Honourable mentions too, to North Devonshire, High Dyke, Garsdale Road, Rewley Road, Buckingham and anything by Gordon & Maggie Gravett!

[dikitriki]

Bredon, built on a 6'4 x 4 ft board to show what could be achieved with proprietary stock in a limited space. Incredibly atmospheric. It was in the RM in the mid 80's if I remember correctly.

Kyle of Tongue too, which captured the bleakness of the Far North perfectly, and inspired my first Lima Class 33 to 26 conversions. The less said about them the better!

I remember Bredon well, it made the same sort of impression on me - it still exists and is in the process of being converted to a DCC demonstration layout. Quite by chance, the builder, Allan Wood, is now an active and very valued member of my Heyside team.

 

Richard Lambert

[br2975]

I forgot to mention in my earlier post, one other inspirational layout (for me).

.

D.E.Lloyds' - "Augher Valley"

.

Featured in the RM during the early 60s, but apart from me, who remembers it, where was it set and what scale ?

.

Brian R

[RJS1977]

Hiya Brit15,

Did you not go to our 75th anniversary show, two years ago? The big trams were back for this very special show, along with many, many other fine layouts! A shame if you did miss it!

 

"Manchester back then was THE show here in the North West. I still have all the programmes from the 60's (somewhere in the loft - yet to find !!). Quite a few layouts mentioned more than likely where exhibited here - just that it was so,so long ago I can't remember them."

 

Yes! many of the layouts mentioned in this thread were at that show, IMHO it was nearly as good as the MRJ show.

To misquote Arnie "We'll be back"!

Cheers,

John E.

MMRS exhibition manager.

And of course the Big Trams were also out for Warley last year, although operation seemed to be somewhat limited (technical difficulties?) each time I walked past, which was a shame as it's one I definitely remember from my childhood.

 

I think the first layout I remember seeing "in the flesh" was the outdoor lines at the now long-closed London Toy & Model Museum - quite an impressive sight for a young boy! Other past favourites seen in the flesh were "Chewton Mendip" and "Boldon Junction", whilst those only read about included "Buckingham", "Sherwood", Ken Payne's "Last Great Project" and David Jenkinson's garden line.

 

Would have loved to have seen the Compton Down Railway, as my parents live not too far from it, but never did and too late now of course.... :-(

[RJS1977]

I'm not sure your memory is so flawed. I remember seeing something about this exhibition layout in Model Railway Constructor (God, remember that mag?) and it being electrically controlled and fired live steam, and yes, Gauge 1. it was called the GMT layout - which stood for something like Getgood, Mills and Thompson, the owners. I'm ready to be corrected but I'm pretty certain on this one. The very concept left something of an impression on this (then!) young mind.

 

Yes, there was the GMT system. Before my time and I never saw it, but I remember it being discussed in RM a few years back when the Hornby Live Steam system came out as the principle was very similar.

 

Just been reminded of another "inspirational" layout I only ever read about but never saw - an indoor SM32 (as it was called then!) NG line with electrically controlled live-steam locos, one of which was clearly VoR-inspired. It was in RM c1981 and included a low-level terminus with turntable, continuous run and reversing loop in the sort of space it would normally take to do the same in 00!

[Pacific231G]

I forgot to mention in my earlier post, one other inspirational layout (for me).

.

D.E.Lloyds' - "Augher Valley"

.

Featured in the RM during the early 60s, but apart from me, who remembers it, where was it set and what scale ?

.

Brian R

I certainly remember it and it was in the list of inspirational layouts that I posted earlier.

 

Augher Valley was Railway of the Month in the April 1964 RM and I'm looking at it now.

 

It was 00n3 and based on an imaginary line in Ireland- for which Lloyd says he wrote a complete history- but using stock drawn from various real Irish 3foot lines including some very attractive County Donegal railcars.

 

The layout filled a room ascending from Fivemiletown where the works were, past Moyasta Road and Manorhamilton Junction (an end on junction between the original line to Manorhamilton and the Castlemalin extension railway) to its upper terminus at Castlemalin. Lloyd describes the line very well in his article and it had a detailed working timetable and goods working using playing cards. He says the layout had taken three years to reach its current state and talks of a possible mixed gauge extension at the lower end. However, looking at the photos it appears that only Fivemiletown was ever fully completed scenically as in an article about building early 00 coaches for the "Rocket" in RM for December of that year Lloyd describes the AVR as "now alas no more" though it had appeared as the background to some traction engine conversions in an article "Iron Maidens" in RM that August.

Of course there's no way of knowing when these three articles were written as opposed to being published and he doesn't say why he abandoned the Augher Valley.

 

Update: I've now found a later article by David Lloyd about a later Irish 00n3 layout and he mentions that Augher Valley was sold soon after the 1964 RM article was published because he was getting married an moving into a smaller house.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Pacific231G

[RJS1977]

The late Bob Head had a rather magnificent Gauge 1 line in his garden complete with two scale length bridges. One being the Royal Albert Bridge. I believe the other was one of the bridges on a French TGV route.

 

He also had a huge 'shed' with a Gauge O layout in it and a 4mm line in one of the other outbuildings.

 

It's all gone now, although you can still see the Royal Albert Bridge as you drive out of Shifnal on the A464 heading towards Albrighton.

 

This was model railways on a grand scale that made even Pete Waterman's 'Leamington Spa' look quite small.

 

Regards

 

Richard

 

Tried looking for it on Google Street View last night but couldn't see it - which side of the road is it on?

[talisman56]

David Jenkinson's "Garsdale Road".  The first layout I saw in a magazine and went "That looks like the real thing".  Never saw it in real life though.

 

First copy of "Railway Modeller" I bought (Sept '70 '66?) had 'Garsdale Road' as RotM - very impressive and really pulled me into trying to make a realistic model rather than proliferating 'train sets'.

 

EDIT: Correcting my flaky memory which reminded me that 'GR' had to at least be in the mid-60's... just after I had clicked on 'Submit'!

Edited February 15, 2013 by talisman56

[Donw]

I  believe that there was some problem with Bob Head's layout. Friends who had helped with the layout had throught they would be able to continue using it but I believe the family had a different opinion.

Ken Payne is a sociable fellow and entertained a lot of visitors at his layout.

When we visited David Jenkinson my friend Steve found himself torn between watching a G1 Flying scotsman with teak coaches on the garden layout or the Kendal 0 gauge layout in the shed. Nice dilemma.

Don

[stoke_ferry]

One layout that inspired me (it must have done, by the number of pictures I took at the time at exhibitions!) was Pennyfeathers Green (OO) by Stuart Marshall (and featured on the front of one of the early covers of BRM). Effective scenery and reliable operation, and encompassed all that I was looking for in a model. 

 

Stuart 

[New Haven Neil]

A small but perfectly formed one?   Llanastr.  A little late for the period I really meant when I started the thread, but I loved the MRJ article about it.

[Tangoman69]

Tebay (shipley MRC), is a layout that does it for me.

It was one of those layouts that I would travel to visit and would spend ages admiring the scenery and watching the trains go by.

 

The WCML through the Lune gorge is a particularly interesting place for me, it seems to hold a special interest.

Tebay is also a place that was approx half way between Bolton & Durham where Tangowoman & I would 'Rest up' on the long journey.

The better half even recognised areas we had been on the layout watching the trains fly by.

[andyrush]

Mothballed is probably a better description while we decide what we can do with it.  It's built like a battleship but the scenery isn't - if it were to be 'restored' it would need an awful lot of work to bring it up to modern standards.

Ah, Swaveney - but we were young then!

 

Most of the rolling stock is in a display case in my studio/workroom (tip!), although the Stirling Single and the GN 4-4-0 reside in Edinburgh. The GN 0-6-0 (with its MW5 motor...) had an outing on Thursford last year, and after a general oiling up it ground its way back and forth quite happily.

 

The GE 4-4-0 was my token offering at Roger Kingstone's celebration of the formation of the Great Eastern Railway on his garden railway last summer - right colour, wrong gauge!

 

Nice to hear the layout mentioned

 

Andy

[Pandora]

from the 1960s,  Sundown and Sprawling by Mike Cole of Leeds, in OO.

 

An end to end,  the two stations were termini, mainline run  of about 40 to 50 feet,   64 feet in length 3 feet in width,  all diesel, the vast majority being scratchbulit, remember all you could buy at the time , the Dublo CoBo, Triang Brush type 2,  and EE3.

 

You name the class of diesel,  it was on the layout.

 

After ceasing to exhibit, it became a graden layout

[LN Lancs]

David Jenkinson's "Garsdale Road".  The first layout I saw in a magazine and went "That looks like the real thing".  Never saw it in real life though.

absolutely, this was the most inspirational layout I ever saw in the press in the 70s

[westerner]

First copy of "Railway Modeller" I bought (Sept '70 '66?) had 'Garsdale Road' as RotM - very impressive and really pulled me into trying to make a realistic model rather than proliferating 'train sets'.

 

EDIT: Correcting my flaky mamory which reminded me that 'GR' had to at least be in the mid-60's... just after I had clicked on 'Submit'!

I think you'll find That Marthwaite was David Jenkinson's mid 60's layout and Garsdale Road was late 60's(67) early 70's(72) and I too saw this inspirational layout in RM which I did not start taking 'til Jan 1970 dates are from David's book Historical Railway Modelling. Si suspect your first go at Sept 70 was correct.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

The Little Long Drag would have been spectacular if he'd finished it.

 

I wonder if there's any way to set up an RMWeb online museum of some of these inspirational pikes?  Being stuck unseen back issues of old mags, they don't get nearly the recognition they should.

 

A couple of pics. a trackplan, biog of the builder that sort of thing.

[Guest]

I wonder if there's any way to set up an RMWeb online museum of some of these inspirational pikes?  Being stuck unseen back issues of old mags, they don't get nearly the recognition they should.

 

A couple of pics. a trackplan, biog of the builder that sort of thing.

 

That I like, that I like very much! We owe a lot to these guys (and girls), and they and their work deserve to be enshrined for posterity. It would not be going too far to say that we are where we are because of them.

[Pacific231G]

The Little Long Drag would have been spectacular if he'd finished it.

 

I wonder if there's any way to set up an RMWeb online museum of some of these inspirational pikes?  Being stuck unseen back issues of old mags, they don't get nearly the recognition they should.

 

A couple of pics. a trackplan, biog of the builder that sort of thing.

That would be great but remember that,unless they're really old, most articles in magazines are still the copyright of the author, photograper or their estates, and often the publisher (for the page layout and artwork) I think simple redrawn trackplans may be alright though if they count as new artwork.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Pacific231G

[martin_wynne]

Nonsuch to Ruxley, the 1960s layout of the Epsom & Ewell MRC. It was serialised in "Model Railway Constructor" starting March 1963.

 

As a 14-year-old schoolboy at the time it opened my eyes to what a "proper" engineered 00 model railway could be -- all scratchbuilt and fully signalled with working lever frames, block instruments, interlocking, mechanical operation of points (even across baseboard joints with a system of plungers in the end of each board). It was utterly different from anything I had seen in the Hornby-Dublo catalogue or even the "Railway Modeller" and I read those articles over and over again.

 

By coincidence it is now exactly 50 years since the first article appeared, and in all that time I don't think I have seen anything to quite match it. That older tradition of building a working miniature railway seems to have faded away.

 

If any member of the Epsom & Ewell club from that time is reading this, my thanks for the lasting inspiration that layout gave me.

 

Martin.

Edited February 11, 2013 by martin_wynne

[RJS1977]

The Little Long Drag would have been spectacular if he'd finished it.

 

I wonder if there's any way to set up an RMWeb online museum of some of these inspirational pikes?  Being stuck unseen back issues of old mags, they don't get nearly the recognition they should.

 

A couple of pics. a trackplan, biog of the builder that sort of thing.

 

As has already been stated, it would probably run into copyright issues if it was set up by RMWeb (apart from layouts which have appeared in BRM of course!). On the other hand, I wonder if PECO could be persuaded to set up an online archive of old RM articles for selected layouts? (perhaps this could be as a "freebie" taster to a "pay for" complete archive).

[Linners]

I've only just seen this thread, and what a wonderful one it is too! My very first Railway Modeller, back in 1982 featured Mike Cook's Ashburton. I loved this layout, even though BLT's were a cliche even then. Someone mentioned Mac Pyrkes S and D layouts, but I recall that even he tried his hand at a GWR BLT - St David's. Again I found this hugely inspirational at the time.

 

Gordon Gravett's Llandydref convinced me to have a go at modelling narrow gauge in 7mm, and his later layout Ditchling Green remains a personal favourite. How wonderful to have created a layout that not only entertains and fascinates, but endures as well.

[sn]

I remember RM featuring a layout called Denthead. Mid 70's ? I think it was 00. It was built by a young guy who had a great deal of skill for his tender years. I think I was about the same age but he was light years ahead of me! Lots of kitbuilt locos etc. Always wondered what else he might have gone on to build. Anyone remember this layout based on the S&C?

 

Jenkinson's big adventure in his shed in 00 (again S&C) a layout I think that was never finished , also made a big impression on me.

 

And whatever happened to that wonderful female modeller of around the same time who built wonderful buildings galore for a LBSCR line? Her name escapes me.

Edited February 11, 2013 by sn

[Barry O]

I remember RM featuring a layout called Denthead. Mid 70's ? I think it was 00. It was built by a young guy who had a great deal of skill for his tender years. I think I was about the same age but he was light years ahead of me! Lots of kitbuilt locos etc. Always wondered what else he might have gone on to build. Anyone remember this layout based on the S&C?

 

Jenkinson's big adventure in his shed in 00 (again S&C) a layout I think that was never finished , also made a big impression on me.

 

And whatever happened to that wonderful female modeller of around the same time who built wonderful buildings galore for a LBSCR line? Her name escapes me.

Vivien Thompson was the lady in question and her modelling was (hopefully still is) very good. She helped out at York Show for a few years when she had moved to Yorkshire.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Barry O