johnarcher Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 By that I don't mean the usual sort of imaginary station, but can people think of layouts that tried to realise to some extent a place from fiction (a novel especially) There have been the fantastical Angst-Lesspork, and, I think, a Hobbiton, but from more 'normal' literature? Dave Rowe did LLaregub a long time ago. I have considered two possibilities - P G Wodehouse's Market Blandings (Borders town, c 1920, maybe light railway, or GW) and, more likely, Skebawn or other places from Somerville & Ross's 'Irish RM' stories (SW Ireland, c 1910, 00n3, based on 2 or 3 similar real lines). (There is, I believe, a large-scale garden line based on the latter, but naturally that can't model the surroundings as a small-scale one could). Does anyone know of any others, or have any comments on the whole idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westerner Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 There was a series of layouts with station names of places in the radio serial "the Archers". I can't remember the builders name unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 1, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 1, 2015 There was a series of layouts with station names of places in the radio serial "the Archers". I can't remember the builders name unfortunately. Ray Earl and his wife did at least a couple I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanders Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Well of course, a few people have layouts based on the Isle of Sodor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I'm sure there've been layouts named after some of Thomas Hardy's Wessex locations, eg Casterbridge being the best known. Also those from Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnarcher Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Thanks for the suggestions, though I really meant something more than just using the name - as Dave Rowe did with Llaregub. For instance, I'd envisage Market Blandings as combining some appropriate street/s (based on eg Bridgnorth), with specific places from the books - such as the Emsworth Arms with its beer garden by the Severn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 1, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 1, 2015 I know of two people who are building a layout based on a station at a town which has appeared under other names in several tv programmes - often with 'Midsomer' somewhere in the name. So it's a station at a real town which has been given a fictitious name for a tv drama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted February 1, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 1, 2015 Well of course, a few people have layouts based on the Isle of Sodor... My late grandpa always said Toryweck would be a fun station to model! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted February 1, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 1, 2015 Thanks for the suggestions, though I really meant something more than just using the name - as Dave Rowe did with Llaregub. For instance, I'd envisage Market Blandings as combining some appropriate street/s (based on eg Bridgnorth), with specific places from the books - such as the Emsworth Arms with its beer garden by the Severn. Sorry if it sounds like a contradiction in terms but you want a fictional name that looks just like a real place?? And if someone's interpretation of the real place does not gel with your own? Or have I misunderstood. For what it's worth Market Blandings sounds more like a Lincolnshire village to me - but what would I know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I think if you read all the books you'd have a pretty good idea of the timetable that operated at Market Blandings. Including trains from Paddington as I recall, so probably wasn't a light railway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnarcher Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 I think if you read all the books you'd have a pretty good idea of the timetable that operated at Market Blandings. Including trains from Paddington as I recall, so probably wasn't a light railway. Sure, the books are quite clear that Market Blandings was on the Severn so it was surely on the GW. I would be tempted to think there might also be a light railway heading off west, but, I agree, that would probably be pushing it too far. "a fictional name that looks just like a real place??" - I think my idea was that these fictional places are like a type of real place - Blandings a Severn valley market town, Skebawn the SW Ireland version (probably not unlike Skibbereen), Barchester - SW England, cathedral city (Wells eg?). So one would be freer than modelling an actual real place, but have the novel to give the feel of the place - and so have real towns of that kind as a basis, but with some buildings, shops, even people from the novels. And if it's based on fiction you are fond of (as I am of all those above) that feels like an attraction in itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CKPR Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 What about Lyonesse, the legendary land to the west of Cornwall, or South Riding, from Winifred Holtby's novels ? There have been layouts set in both those places and I think Barry Norman or Iain Rice did a plan for a layout for the plan in one of their Wild Swan books. Also, what about the hitherto overlooked Craigshire, north of Dunbar and home of the Craig & Mertonford, maps of which were provided by P.D.Hancock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted February 1, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 1, 2015 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Forest-Boland-Light-Railway/dp/0340042028 I always wanted to visit the Forest of Boland Light Railway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnarcher Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Forest-Boland-Light-Railway/dp/0340042028 I always wanted to visit the Forest of Boland Light Railway. I didn't know of that, but BB's two 'Little Grey Men' books are the ones I remember most clearly from my childhood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 As an enthusiast for the works of the immortal Jane, I have this alternate slightly more easterly GNR route back story to enable a station at 'Netherfield' with the real branches at 20 miles N of KX running east to 'Meryton' and west to Welwyn, Luton and Dunstable. There was even an Elizabethan eventually running on the route that actually got built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Welchester Posted February 3, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 3, 2015 Market Blandings must be on the GWR, because you can get there from Paddington. It must be in a dairy farming area, because there is a regular milk train (useful for the early departure of exposed impostors from the Castle). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Statement of the damn obvious alert, but my "King's Oak" confection is from the fictional location of the 1960s-1980s television soap "Crossroads", created by the scriptwriters from "Kings Heath" and "Selly Oak" in Birmingham but located somewhere between Birmingham and Coventry in the Meriden Gap. And no, I didn't select the fictional home of "Crossroads" because my modelling skills would result in wobbly walls or the frequent explosions and fires which seemed to afflict the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Statement of the damn obvious alert, but my "King's Oak" confection is from the fictional location of the 1960s-1980s television soap "Crossroads", created by the scriptwriters from "Kings Heath" and "Selly Oak" in Birmingham but located somewhere between Birmingham and Coventry in the Meriden Gap. And no, I didn't select the fictional home of "Crossroads" because my modelling skills would result in wobbly walls or the frequent explosions and fires which seemed to afflict the place. But do you have a 47 hauling a dead 'West Midlands' unit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold John B Posted February 3, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2015 The late Tom Harland's opus, "Bramblewick", while readily identifiable as (mostly) Robin Hood's Bay until the loco shed was added, took it's name from a series of books by Leo Walmsley - who renamed RHB as Bramblewick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted February 3, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2015 There are full maps of Gotham City's rail system, drawing on "Batman Begins". Eg third and fourth map on this page: http://www.chrisroberson.net/2008/05/mapping-gotham.html Apparently it's a monorail system. Now there's an unusual project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Hmmmm.... Interesting topic. I guess that it would be possible to harvest ideas for a number of Scottish lines and atmospheres from the Rebus opus of Ian Rankin. Thanks for seeding the idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Then there's "Postman Pat" of course.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim H Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 There's the HO scale Miskatonic Railroad, based on the locations from the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. The centrepiece is Arkham station, based on the prototypie at Salem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jongudmund Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Ooh, that's good, the Miskatonic Railway. If Market Blandings is on the Severn and has a direct train to Paddington I think it would be more likely to be near Gloucester. It feels like a more Cotswoldian name than a Salopian name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnarcher Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Ooh, that's good, the Miskatonic Railway. If Market Blandings is on the Severn and has a direct train to Paddington I think it would be more likely to be near Gloucester. It feels like a more Cotswoldian name than a Salopian name. The Miskatonic does look interesting, thanks for the link. I haven't read the books very recently, but I'm sure Wodehouse says Market Blandings is in Shropshire, and the beer garden of the Emsworth Arms (where so many plots were hatched over the excellent beer) bordered the Severn. A couple more - where the books say enough about the town and the community to give something distinctive - how about Tilling from the Mapp and Lucia books (a Southern branch, or something Colonel Stephens?), or Lochdubh (Hamish Macbeth books) - clearly has no railway now, but maybe used to have a remote branch? I've only seriously considered two - Skebawn as mentioned before, and Trollope's Barchester (Broad gauge GW branch, c 1855-60?) - a bit too big a project for my available space and remaining lifetime, especially if you include the cathedral! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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