Poggy1165

Yes, I think grimy Yorkshire with the L&Y/GN would be ideal for such a layout - dark retaining walls and mills and terraces of housing rising from the valley sides. A visit to the KWVR at Keighley (especially if you can reconstruct in your mind the old GN route to Queensbury) would be good inspiration. The GN in West Yorkshire is a neglected prototype, though to my mind it's the most interesting bit of that railway. It had a way of burrowing an unlikely path between other railways, often with steep gradients, sharp curves and lots of tunnels. Just the job really for a model in a tight space.

I can only say that as a kid I stood for hours on Cheadle Heath Station - which no longer exists - to see Flying Scotsman arrive there on a railtour, and I was not on my own. Even in those days, no other loco that still existed could have got me to do that. She was incredibly famous and still is. Some of it is undoubtedly down to PR, but as much can be said for many people and institutions. Now more than ever!

The plan reminds me of certain versions of the famous Ashdon and Midport, and that really cannot be bad. I think multi-level may be the answer to 7mm in small spaces, though I agree it certainly helps not to be tied to the rigid geometry of Peco points. I am myself trying to cram 7mm scale into a ridiculously small space (for 7mm) so I appreciate some of the issues involved. By the way, I like the idea of the goods yard being 'down the line a bit' from the station, something not that uncommon on the prototype, but very rarely modelled. Scope for some interesting shunting movements.

Very common on L&Y vans, and to my knowledge on quite a few LNWR wagons and a few GC ones. The idea was certainly to assist loading large and bulky items, but they had this 'orrible tendency to leak, and on the GC at least a fair few were replaced with conventional boarding in pre-group days. I'd love to know what the huge L&Y vans were used for. My guess - and it is only a guess - is that one traffic might have been raw cotton from Liverpool to t'mills. But if anyone knows better please say, as I'm working out whether I can justify one of these beauties. (Probably not, but there's a 75% chance I'll end up buying one anyway.)

The AVR was a very special railway. I remember that the way you built the locos was quite ingenious - a bit too ingenious for me to copy at the time, though I did try.

The RSU is an expensive purchase, but so are etched kits if you end up throwing them away in frustration. The alternative is to go on a soldering course, and unless you belong to the right club, that usually costs money anyway. I'd start with a relatively simple wagon kit to be honest. The D&S GC 4 wheel brake is a good example, if you can find one in your scale. This should build confidence to go onto something harder.

I can't get over how good this layout looks. It's a perfect representation of steam sheds as I remember them. Except there are no snotty schoolboys hanging about yet, complete with duffle bags and notebooks.

The little Ivatt is just the job for this area. I remember one shunting the coal yard at Crumpsall only a short time before steam finished altogether.

I think one main difference is these places were much busier than they are now. A couple of years back I visited Blackpool, mid week in July. It was practically deserted. In the 1950s you'd have struggled to find a paving stone to stand on. From a railway point of view - excursions, and lots of 'em. Something that has practically died now. Some places even had special excursion platforms not used by ordinary trains. And to go with the excursions, you really need a fan of carriage sidings. (And the stock to fill them.)

The trick with etched kits (IMHO) is to lash out on a resistance soldering kit and then use solder paste. Before I discovered this way of doing things, I never completed an etched kit in my life.

I'm tempted to say that we seem to be short of Magpies this year, but that instead there are an unusually high number of crows for a relatively urban location. However, a neighbour reported seeing no less than 16 magpies lined up on one of the opposite roofs, so perhaps they're just holding a parliament. A recent scattering of pigeon feathers plus the odd wing beneath the pergola suggests that our local bird of prey is still at work. Not sure whether it's a kestrel or a sparrowhawk - as it tends not to hang about to be studied - but occasionally one of our feral pigeons or one of the growing colony of collared doves 'fails to return.'

One of the finest model railways ever.

I would suggest that to produce a free-lance layout that is convincing is far harder than to follow a prototype. For example, if you model the Bishop's Castle or the Maryport and Carlisle, you have a pattern before you, and all (all!) you need to do to make it convincing is to bring the model as close to the template as you can. Others, with a good knowledge of the prototype, will say 'Wow, what a good model of the Bishop's Castle/Maryport and Carlisle/Whatever.' Whereas for a truly free-lance layout the pattern is in your head, where no one else can see it. Unless you know a great deal about the technical and historical aspects of railways and are an exceptional modeller as well, you have a real task on your hands to create a convincing layout. There is a dangerous risk of just creating a melange of models you happen to like. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's what floats your boat.

Very impressive project, and it demonstrates that you don't need a vast amount of space to enjoy 7mm scale modelling. (Though it helps. And being very rich helps too.)

Thanks for this Philip. Ross Pochin - now there was a modeller! I remember staring for long periods at his locos on display at the Manchester Show, awestruck by their quality.

I would submit that railway modelling is as much an investment as a hobby, given that most items (if kept in good order) can be sold on, and some may even have added value - for example a well-made kit. You will certainly get something for an old model railway. See how much you get for a used season ticket book for football, for example. I gave up football a long while back because even then the admission prices were getting stupid - for the price of a ticket to watch a Premier League club you can easily buy an O Gauge wagon kit. (An O gauge loco kit if you attend away matches at the other end of the country.) That's how I justify it (to myself) and I reckon the pleasure of building it will last more than 90 minutes, while unless I chuck it in the dustbin it will still be in use (or saleable) long after the match would be forgotten. Railway modelling is a bargain!