Sparcells - a Tri-ang TT layout

[swindon_alan]

Hello everyone, I've been hovering around RMweb for a few months now and decided to take the plunge and join up.

 

Up in the loft about six months ago trying to suss out a potential wasps nest I happened upon a train set that I bought for my boy about ten years ago which he never took to. Immaculate Hornby OO gauge DCC twin goods set. Having been a complete model railway (lapsed) - and real railway - anorak all of my life I couldn't resist and set it up running around the lounge floor. Bought some more track and an old school Class 31 to convert to DCC but then I had a real nostalgia moment and remembered my first "train set" when I was about nine. My dad bought it for me, it was Tri-ang TT, a Jinty and a few wagons. The oval circuit wasn't in the box but there was yards of straight track and lots of accessories in a large paper carrier bag. I loved the thing, played with it for hours and for many years. Even then as we know, Tri-ang TT had been out of production for a few years but it was all mum and dad could afford, bless them.

 

So I got the urge and started to collect. Apart from the nostalgia element, because it was only sold for between 1957 and 1967 there is only a limited range and it is quite possible to collect one of everything that Tri-ang manufactured (I adore looking underneath to see "Made In England" on every item).

 

I am now quite a long way down the road, I have nearly all of the rolling stock, trackwork, buildings, accessories and old school H&M controllers - thanks eBay - necessary to put "Sparcells" into reality along my 5.3m garage wall. I'm designing it to be portable so I will be able to take it to exhibitions. I am not a purist so the original 12mm gauge will do me but I want to produce a layout that is much closer to model railway than train set, so I'm ignoring the play type bits like elevated sections and cute tunnels. The emphasis will be on an approach I read many years ago in Model Railway Constructor - the author called his layout "Mainly Operational". That is my interest more than making unbelievably awesome realistic scenic dioramas like the excellent Little Muddle or Pendon. No weathering or painting rails rusty I'm afraid, although granite chippings, flock and vegetation will feature!

 

I will follow up with posts every day or two on what I have got and done so far. As a taster, I have settled on a name for my layout as "Sparcells". This is name of the farm that my estate outside Swindon was built on. It is right on the crossover between the GWR Golden Valley line between Swindon and Stroud and the Midland and South Western Junction (joint LMS and SR) branch between Cheltenham and Winchester:

 

 

(I will scan this map and others properly in later posts)

 

This gives a very good opportunity to provide a 1964-ish historical scenario for a terminus built by the SR to support a fictitious post-war New Town that boomed in the early Swinging Sixties due to relaxed by-laws - more to come on this! So I can "correctly" run all of the Tri-ang TT locos and stock of all flavours - steam and diesel locos; maroon, green, chocolate & cream coaching stock and all of the contemporary goods wagons.

 

I hope that this will be of interest to fellow modellers and something a bit different!

 

On that note, what to do with four naked bogie well wagons? Hmmm. Gaining inspiration from the future layout's location of Swindon in the north of Wiltshire on the M&SWJR line which leads south to Salisbury Plain and hence Army country, why not put an MoD rake together? That could be a viable traffic from up't north. I scoured eBay for 1:100 stuff and found a Russian company (?!?!?) that makes loads of plastic military replicas at the scale. Specifically they do Dingo scout cars and Crusader tanks. I also found some white metal 25 pounder artillery made for some odd war gaming fraternity. So the Dingos and the guns are of the period - early/mid 60's but the Crusaders are WWII really. I could kit bash them and make them look like Centurions which are historically more accurate, but what the heck. They will do.

 

The Crusaders and the Dingos came in sand camo colour which is fine considering the Aden Emergency was 1964-1967 so that works. The Tank Regiment were deployed in that crisis which gives licence. I made up my own matching paint from spare touch ups. Dib the tyres with a Sharpie pen and silver the tank tracks up with a cotton bud and we're finished.

 

I think it works quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

More to follow!

[NCB]

More power to your modelling! Interesting location. In the 1960s I used to travel between my parents and university a lot, from Stroud to Paddington on the ex GWR main line. The Stroud to Swindon bit in particular had great views of the countryside, along with the drama of climbing Sapperton Bank and through the tunnel. I can still visualise the M&SWJ line passing underneath. After services were discontinued on it, I think the Swindon bit was still kept open to serve a power station.

[swindon_alan]

Hello NCB and pleased to make your acquaintance.

 

The Golden Valley line is still spectacular and now we have dualling between Swindon and Kemble as well. I'm quite blessed with where I ended up, I frequently walk a section of the four miles of ex-M&SWJR trackbed (now part of the national cycle routes) into town. I can also hear the whistles of the Stroud HSTs and Class whatever DMUs from my garden as they pass by the back of my estate. Of course, being in Swindon with all of the GWR history, Railway Village, Steam museum, remnants is so evocative but originally coming from Bracknell in Berkshire on the ex-LSWR line from Waterloo to Reading I have never lost that "southern" feeling. That is what really fires me up about this layout - I can encapsulate my own personal railway experiences and imagine it for real on where I actually live!

 

Stubs of the M&SWJR line around Swindon did indeed survive for some time beyond closure. North to Moredon power station as you note and almost south to Chiseldon where it was utilised to bring materials for the building of the M4 motorway.

[swindon_alan]

Well it has been a while but I'm back and due to the unfortunate circumstances we're all under, so is Sparcells. First two baseboards cut and painted, station terminus all measured out, will get on with cork underlay and drilling holes this weekend in lieu of the framing woodwork arriving from Wickes the week after next. Six carriage mainline rakes fit nicely as do three carriage suburban sets in Platform One. DMU space in Platform Four. Original Wrenn crossovers need some fettling but I'm poised with SEEP point motors..!

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

I, along with many others, often wonder where the hobby would be if TT had taken off, strikes me as a perfect scale for modern living.

More power to your elbow.

 

Mike.