Iain Popplewell

Thank you.You have totally vindicated my OP.It,s great to find someone who's doing exactly what I intend to do,. and so successfully proving the concept works.Your No. 6 looks beautiful.Tremendous stuff keep it up.

Allan Downes another hero of mine.Not just for his humorous writing style but for his modeling style.If I remember correctly he once constructed mountains out of cement in a converted pigsty.Pipers Mead was his inspirational layout of the early seventies.I recently spotted a recent article in BRM I believe were he had constructed pipework (quite convincingly I might add)for an iron works using Yorkshire fittings for Gods sake!The man's a national treasure long may he continue.

Surprised that no one has mentioned Derek Naylor's Aire Valley a narrow gauge system which appeared in a series of articles in the early seventies.As a spotty 12yr old I lived for the next article to appear and it was this layout together with P D Hancocks Craig and Mertonford that finally got me modeling in 009 as soon as I got a Saturday job and the requisite funds.Oh happy days. A few years ago I bought the requisite year volumes of Railway Modeler of E-bay from pure nostalgia.What a joy I could remember the articles almost word for word.The layout was still impressive and inspirational even today. As an aside,I wish modern day writers of articles in magazines were half as erudite as P D Hancock his writing style was wonderful.

Joseph I love your idea of a big five I think it's a big idea.How do you divide up the big four,who merges with who,perhaps the grouping never happened with many smaller mergers instead,the possibilities are endless.I think the idea has more possibilities to a modeler of the "just supposing" school of thought rather than a true freelance layout.Wait a minute though perhaps the NER merged with the Midland my god! what would have run over Stainmore then.The idea's so good I might scrap my layout and start again!

Picking up on HSB's point about the specificity of locomotives to certain companies of course he's right.Like he suggests I intend to "North Easternise" foreign company loco,s by the substitution of Worsdell boiler fittings etc.The fiction being that Lord Ravenbeck being a large shareholder in the NER often has his loco's pass through Darlington works on route to South Farne his island of the East Coast. One of the attractions of freelance modelling is the escapism into just this sort of historical fantasy and at the end of the day you end up with rolling stock etc which is unique to your layout and imaginary world.The purist might argue that this is just as well and the abomination should never have seen the light of day in the first place,but if it's convincing to you who cares.Should you ruin a loco and produce an abomination I suppose in extremise you can always cut it up and use it for spares in a more successful future attempt. I notice Edward Beal has been mentioned,I used to devour his books from the local library as a spotty youth and it's probably from him that I picked up the freelance bug. When I started this thread I didn't think there were many freelance modellers out there, but of course the light railway and industrial modellers have been doing it for years.If some modellers of slightly larger systems take the freelance path it can only be good for the hobby.

Michael you seem a man of my own heart I could not agree with you more.I'm confident you are a happy modeller.Perhaps you might try your hand at a SG line one day.

I agree freelance modeling is not an easy option without discipline it's all too easy to end up with a train set.What I envisage is a layout fixed in time and geography that appears to be credible.Not an easy option but allowing freedom of imagination something lacking from much of the current modeling scene. To say that modeling a fictitious railway reduces the nostalgia element I feel is not true.The whole concept of my layout is a tribute to the vanished world of north eastern railways and industry.I actually believe the high watermark of progress was achieved circa 1910 and in my dreams at least I hope my layout might reflect a little of that.

Good on ya both.By all means do it proper but don't grow up too much it spoils the fun.

I might as well come clean at this point and admit I am building a freelance layout.The layout is pregrouping heavily biased toward the north east in location and rolling stock/locomotives.The freelance nature of the layout does however allow the running of pregrouping rtr of other companies.The fiction being of an island of the North East coast with a substantial iron stone industry and railway system.Lord Ravenbeck the owner of the island is rich and buys freely from the Edwardian manufacturing companies. It might be thought such a layout might seem implausible,but I find pregroup era loco's have a family resemblance with the possible exception of the GWR.I think with careful choice of suitable loco's etc and consistent livery an imaginative layout that is distinctive and unique might result.Only time will tell and the purists may still have the last laugh.

Oh dear I am a silly billy.Error duly corrected thankyou for your help.

In the early days of the hobby it was common for 4mm layouts and indeed rolling stock and liveries to be freelance in nature.This may have been of necessity because of the scarcity of rtr. models and mechanisms/wheels etc.Narrowgauge modeling is largely still of this gendre and I bet they have a great deal of fun from the imaginative freedom this gives them.When was the last time you saw a 00 gauge freelance layout?.By freelance I mean a layout with fictitious company livery and history.The freelance 4mm loco is now almost unknown. In 4mm modeling prototypical fidelity seems to be the name of the game.By pursuing fidelity at all costs the hobby has turned it's back on an earlier happier more imaginative age.I think it is high time the freelance layout was rediscovered. The type of layout I have in mind is consistent in era of stock ie pregrouping etc. and accurately modeled but with the freedom to run loco/stock of different companies or even freelance stock.If a unifying style of livery and style of rolling stock is adopted a truly imaginative layout might be achieved.