Older Inspirational Layouts

[Clive martin]

I have just been looking at one of my classic layout folders ,a layout that i have always liked Reighton by Steve Flint a Yorkshire rural backwater set in the 1980s,model rail supplement and Railway Modeller november 1999 . Carradon Junction cornish china clay branch ModelRailway Constructor june 1987 .Darrowby Model Railway Constructor september 1985 a superb rail blue era depiction of the east coast mainline ,West Park Railway modeller november 1995 set in the 1970s 1980s a layout with some fantastic buildings typical of the humberside area,the next layout is a home layout Carstairs Junction Railway Modeller December 1986 November 87 Febuary 1989 a real modern image layout of its time with lots of detailed locos and stock.

[RJS1977]

Nice video of Buckingham recently posted to the BBC Archive Facebook page, with voiceover by Peter Denny.

 

(Though some of the editing appears to be out of order, as the video shows the milk train departing from LB, then the railcar departing from GJ to LB, then the milk train arriving at LB with the railcar in the bay in the background....)

 

https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1173056213553316/

[Donw]

On 02/08/2022 at 08:56, Nearholmer said:

Ah, but did he have tea trolleys?

 

(Do people really buy these things!?)

 

 

Something you have to smile at through gritted teeth when its a wedding present from the in laws

 

 

You could of course do it properly with a garden layout with a big pond between the two halves. the ferry boat would need to be pretty stable.

 

Don

[DLT]

6 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

Nice video of Buckingham recently posted to the BBC Archive Facebook page, with voiceover by Peter Denny.

 

(Though some of the editing appears to be out of order, as the video shows the milk train departing from LB, then the railcar departing from GJ to LB, then the milk train arriving at LB with the railcar in the bay in the background....)

 

https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1173056213553316/

 

Lovely bit of film, and VERY old, from before Peter's retirement.  Thanks for finding.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[t-b-g]

7 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

Nice video of Buckingham recently posted to the BBC Archive Facebook page, with voiceover by Peter Denny.

 

(Though some of the editing appears to be out of order, as the video shows the milk train departing from LB, then the railcar departing from GJ to LB, then the milk train arriving at LB with the railcar in the bay in the background....)

 

https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1173056213553316/

 

The interesting thing is that the sequence portrayed in the film cannot ever happen! You can't have a train leave Grandborough and one leave Leighton Buzzard like that. there is nowhere for them to cross and the wiring won't allow it if there was. So you can't have 6.50 am departures from Leighton Buzzard for Buckingham and 6.50 am from Grandborough to Leighton Buzzard.

[Happy Hippo]

11 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

The interesting thing is that the sequence portrayed in the film cannot ever happen! You can't have a train leave Grandborough and one leave Leighton Buzzard like that. there is nowhere for them to cross and the wiring won't allow it if there was. So you can't have 6.50 am departures from Leighton Buzzard for Buckingham and 6.50 am from Grandborough to Leighton Buzzard.

Don't allow technical accuracy get in the way of a broadcaster or film maker.

 

They always alter the ciurcumstances to fit in with what the director thinks makes the best scene.

 

Just think how much film they took of the layout and how much ended up on the cutting room floor when it came to editing it together.

[t-b-g]

Just now, Happy Hippo said:

Don't allow technical accuracy get in the way of a broadcaster or film maker.

 

They always alter the ciurcumstances to fit in with what the director thinks makes the best scene.

 

Just think how much film they took of the layout and how much ended up on the cutting room floor when it came to editing it together.

 

Yes but when I know it is wrong I can't unsee it! I bet Peter wasn't pleased when he saw it either.

 

The fact that the railcar re-appears in the Grandborough bay after it is supposed to have departed for Leighton Buzzard is the give away.

 

It would have just been that much more railway like (and more "Buckingham like") if the train from LB had cleared the single line section before the train from GJ was allowed to depart.

 

Still, it is a lovely record of the layout at that time. You can see how much was squeezed into a small room, as this was before the Bourton Halt board was added, which opened up the space quite a bit.

 

One of the other operators in the video, (wearing the light coloured shirt and a tie) is Mike Kippax. I am not sure that I know the third one.

[Donw]

Delightful bit of video despite the errors ( by the film maker not Peter)

 

Don

[New Haven Neil]

I have always been fascinated by the Automatic Crispin, since reading Peter's article in RM about it when I was a lad.  Seeing it working in the film was a treat.

[Donw]

17 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

I have always been fascinated by the Automatic Crispin, since reading Peter's article in RM about it when I was a lad.  Seeing it working in the film was a treat.

 

I have in mind a project to create a modern one using a microprocessor and an SD card to hold the timetable. Got quite a bit to do before getting to that though. Operating turnouts and signals is no problem and I can write the program writing and reading the SD card is doable just need to research it.

 

Don

[Pacific231G]

On 05/09/2022 at 16:28, t-b-g said:

 

The interesting thing is that the sequence portrayed in the film cannot ever happen! You can't have a train leave Grandborough and one leave Leighton Buzzard like that. there is nowhere for them to cross and the wiring won't allow it if there was. So you can't have 6.50 am departures from Leighton Buzzard for Buckingham and 6.50 am from Grandborough to Leighton Buzzard.

 

I was just delighted to see part of that sequence again. It was from the BBC Bristol Small World series and was first shown on BBC-2 on September 4th 1980. described by Radio Times thus.

A series featuring some of the finest model makers and collectors. This week: The railway layouts of Mike Sharman, who confines himself to the period 1830-1870, and The Rev Peter Denny whose layout, controlled by a computer, is set in the year 1907.

I remember this as being one of the earliest programmes to treat our activities (along with three others in a series related to miniatures of different types) seriously as a worthwhile adult hobby (I think only the BBC Further Educaton department's Model World series with Bob Symes had done that before)

Some of the shot  sequences from Small World of both Peter Denny and Mike Sharman's modellng were used in the 2013 Time Shift programme "The Joy of Sets: The Model Railway Story "   which, despite its title,  again took a very mature attitude to a serious hobby but it's good to see the original Small World sequence again albeit that it had to be cropped to Facebook's portrait video format so we're losing something from each side.  I would though love to see the original Small Wold series again but ISTR there were rights issues about some of the  footage.

Putting together a sequence that showed off the railway in its best and most interesting light showign both the trains and the operators would, quite rightly, have been of far greater importance to the Director and Film Editor than following the the sequence of train movements exactly. 

 

Update- i've looked again at my recording of the Timeshift programme and it's only the Mike Sharman sequence that's included. I was certain that it had included part of Peter Denny's section of Small World but, unless the programme was re-edited for repeat- which does happen, I may have just seen the Sharman clip and remembered both parts of Small World.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Pacific231G
typos

[t-b-g]

44 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

 

I was jusr delighted to see part of that seqience again. It was from the BBC Bristol Small World series and was first shown on BBC-2 on September 4th 1980. described by Radio Times thus.

A series featuring some of the finest model makers and collectors. This week: The railway layouts of Mike Sharman, who confines himself to the period 1830-1870, and The Rev Peter Denny whose layout, controlled by a computer, is set in the year 1907.

I remember this as being one of the earliest programmes to treat our activities (along with three others in ther series related to miniatures) seriously as a worthwhile adult hobby (I think only the BBC Further Educaton department's Model World series with Bob Symes had doen that before)

Some of the shot  sequences from Small World of both Peter Denny and Mike Sharman's modellng were used in the 2013 Time Shift programme "The Joy of Sets: The Model Railway Story "   which, despite its title,  again took a very mature attitude to a serious hobby but it's good to see the original Small World sequence again albeit that it had to be cropped to Facebook's portrait video format so we're losing something from each side.  I would though love to see the original Small Wold series again but ISTR there were some rights issues about some of the  footage.

Putting together a sequence that showed off the railway in its best and most interesting light showign both the trains and the operators would, quite rightly, have been of far greater importance to the Director and Film Editor than following the the sequence of train movements exactly. 

 

I would agree. I remember watching the whole series and being delighted that it treated modellers of all disciplines as sensible mature people with interesting hobbies that required a good degree of skill to do well.

 

It isn't the first time that people wishing to portray Buckingham in the media have played fast and loose with what really happens and I don't think that anybody around today other than me would have even noticed. They only had to put two very short clips into a different order to have it all make sense but I certainly won't be losing any sleep over it.

 

Every time I run the layout, I am reminded just how lucky I am to have such a layout and that it is so famous it has even been on the telly!

 

Edit to add:

 

Was it the same program which feature a very young Barry Norman and Wyndlesham Cove or was that a different program?

Edited September 5, 2022 by t-b-g
To add content

[D-A-T]

TBG it was a Bob Symes program. 
 

Edited September 6, 2022 by D-A-T

[Chris M]

Wonderful video. Shows how the hobby can be presented on TV.

[RJS1977]

10 hours ago, Donw said:

 

I have in mind a project to create a modern one using a microprocessor and an SD card to hold the timetable. Got quite a bit to do before getting to that though. Operating turnouts and signals is no problem and I can write the program writing and reading the SD card is doable just need to research it.

 

Don

 

I have one built using a laptop and MERG CBUS components - just needs me to write the timetable for it.

[RJS1977]

9 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

 

It isn't the first time that people wishing to portray Buckingham in the media have played fast and loose with what really happens and I don't think that anybody around today other than me would have even noticed.

 

I noticed ... ;-)

[t-b-g]

I have just received a text from the real Crispin Denny, who is on board a yacht on holiday at the moment.

 

The skipper of the yacht had seen the video and twigged that a had a model railway "celebrity" on board, as it isn't exactly a common name.

 

He said it was a bit surreal being approached in a very non railway environment and asked if he was "the" Crispin Denny of Buckingham fame.

[D-A-T]

Errr

That would be my fault! Sorry. 

My main hobby is sailing and a thread came up on a Sailing Forum about Model Railways. I posted your Buckingham video Tony and then got inundated with queries about it so I posted some more including the “new” video with the Rev Denny in it. Crispin is sailing with a sailing clergyman who picked up on the thread and posted that he was currently sailing with Crispin. I can’t link to the Forum because it is a restricted one and you have to post in other Forums before you are let in! The main Forum is YBW.com.

Sorry once again and I hope no one feels offended or aggrieved.

David

Edit: To add that the Skipper of the yacht is the clergyman, a Rev. Morris. 

Edited September 6, 2022 by D-A-T

[t-b-g]

13 minutes ago, D-A-T said:

Errr

That would be my fault! Sorry. 

My main hobby is sailing and a thread came up on a Sailing Forum about Model Railways. I posted your Buckingham video Tony and then got inundated with queries about it so I posted some more including the “new” video with the Rev Denny in it. Crispin is sailing with a sailing clergyman who picked up on the thread and posted that he was currently sailing with Crispin. I can’t link to the Forum because it is a restricted one and you have to post in other Forums before you are let in! The main Forum is YBW.com.

Sorry once again and I hope no one feels offended or aggrieved.

David

Edit: To add that the Skipper of the yacht is the clergyman, a Rev. Morris. 

 

Please don't feel there is any need to apologise. What you did caused no problems whatsoever.

 

Crispin was more pleased and excited to be recognised than anything else.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Was he automatically recognised?

 

Mike.

[kevinlms]

44 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Was he automatically recognised?

 

Mike.

 

[Pacific231G]

On 06/09/2022 at 04:16, D-A-T said:

TBG it was a Bob Symes program. 
 

Well a series presented* by Bob Symes though, he having been an asistant producer in BBC TV Presentation and on Tomorrows World,  I'm sure he had a major production input into the Model Railway episodes. Model World was a ten part series produced in 1975 by Peter Riding, a staff producer in the BBC's then Further Education Department (later called Continuing Education) When I worked there in the late 1980s - 1990s Peter was one of the Executive Producers and, before Covid, I used to see him at departmental reunions.

If Small World was about the modelmaking hobbies, Model World was far more hands-on and, like Peter's series on photography, cooking and patchwork among others aimed to introduce people to possible leisure pursuits. 

 

*One of the minor irritations of being a factual TV producer is that the public generally think it's the presenter who has produced their programmes.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Pacific231G
clarification

[Invicta Informant]

There were three episodes about model railways in the Model World series, from what I can find on YouTube. Plus there is The Model World of Robert Symes from 1978, which is split over four separate uploads.

 

 

 

 

[Flying Fox 34F]

On 05/09/2022 at 18:43, Happy Hippo said:

Don't allow technical accuracy get in the way of a broadcaster or film maker.

 

They always alter the ciurcumstances to fit in with what the director thinks makes the best scene.

 

Just think how much film they took of the layout and how much ended up on the cutting room floor when it came to editing it together.

Myself and a Colleague have suffered from scenes being mixed up by the Editorial team.   We were followed by a nice lady with a TV grade camera for a Channel 5 project.

She attend several incidents with us, but when it came to see the actual programs, the way items were linked up were wrong.  

 

The worst part for my colleague was how he was portrayed during an incident.  He suffered an awful amount of jokey abuse about his communication skills from the rest of the staff after the broadcast.  The reason, the footage of him announcing his presence on site to the Signaller, (in the correct manner), was on the Cutting Room floor.  Instead, what was seen and heard was, “Alright Signaller, about this Bridge Bash?”

 

He told Management in no uncertain terms, never to send anyone with a camera near him again.

 

Paul
 

[Clive martin]

Hallo guys i have just been looking at YouTube and w hile i was looking for archive footage of Birmingham New Street ,i came across a great bit of footage from 1994 of the late Don Jones Minature New street Railway Modeller August1984,their is not much footage out their of older layouts i hope you all agree with me that this is bit of a gem!