Jason T

Hi Pete. Bacup is no more, there was no real way of converting it to EM and the baseboards were truly awful. Plus, I became more interested in industrial railways when building The Mill so the next layout is likely to be a gritty industrial line weaving its way past the buildings of Bacup (all saved and stored) with exchange sidings if space allows

Those terraced houses look really familiar; I have rows and rows of them that look almost exactly the same

How about coming on a recce for locations over my way Mark? Loads of railway related books and crannies around the Wrexham/Trevor district and handily close to Llangollen for some proper decent riding

The 2nd? Marry a Spanish woman and they go on until the 6th! Merry Christmas Clive (and everyone else of course)

Really sorry to hear this, Jim was such a lovely bloke and always stopped for a chat whenever our paths crossed.

Not the mill on, erm, The Mill but another one.

You wouldn’t believe how many spare buildings I have that didn’t quite fit into Bacup. A full, huge mill for starters......

Hey buddy, long time no see. I bought RM last week (first time I’ve bought any mag other than MRJ in years) and saw your article. Looks proper good and reads well; job well done. J.

I was moving house that weekend; you could have been shouting in my ear and I wouldn’t have noticed! Resident of Chester now, in case anyone was curious.

It’s been a while but the layout was out on Sunday 14th, at a get-together in the Trough of Bowland. Surprisingly, given that it was four months since it last saw power, I had trouble free running all day. Only one photo but I kind of like it.

PM me; I do love the WD and have the EM conversion kit ready and waiting but it doesn’t really figure in future plans for small industrial layouts.

Hi Ian, I may but not sure which yet as I want to plan out what will follow and what buildings will fit. As for swapsies, that could be an option. Loco wise, there’s one Black Five still in OO, a Standard Five, a Crab, Ivatt Mickey Mouse Mogul, Jinty, Patriot that had the weathering started, a 4F, a WD, an Ivatt Mucky Duck (missing a front step - it’s somewhere but being elusive - and cab side windows replaced to get rid of the fishbowl effect), Stanier 2-6-4T, Fairburn 2-6-4T, Clayton (!!!) and a Derby Lightweight DMU awaiting re-numbering.

I never said it would be easy. I’ll try and get photos.

So stage two of this realignment is to sell off a load of the OO locos and stock that is just taking up space and capital that could be invested elsewhere (Judith Edge and High Level will be seeing some of it). Just about all of it is weathered and locos & wagons converted to 3 links. Before I hit up eBay, if anyone is interested in buying any locos and stock that ran on Bacup, pm me.

Never mind a few bits Jim, I’ve basically saved a town’s worth of buildings including a Mill (not yet complete) of considerable size that was built for an extension beyond the station, which was shelved when we had to move house and the space was no longer available. Somewhere, I also have a rather large sheet of Wills walling that I started to hide the joins on but never finished.

That’s just not me at all Larry; I just love the grubby nooks and crannies in old industrial towns, a rundown railway weaving its way between filthy buildings and crossing streets, a water feature so dirty that no life would want to survive in it, remnants of earlier industries either crumbling away or repurposed. Small industrial locos shuffling a ragtag collection of wagons amongst all this. Uplifting? No, but reality often isn’t.

Well, the deed is done. I managed to salvage all I wanted to including some full scenic areas, all buildings, most of the turnouts, all point motors and key for the future, two baseboard frames (one 6’ x 2’ and one 5’ x 2’, including C&L alignment dowels). 11’ x 2’ to start something new is pretty exciting (over twice the length and also wider than The Mill) and small enough to be exhibitable. My mind is already working overtime with the possibilities of what could come. With the buildings I already have, expect something Northern, grotty, urban and industrial,

Onwards and upwards is my motto. I felt that although far smaller in size, the modelling I did for my part of The Mill (joint effort with Chris) far out surpassed what I did on Bacup. I put a lot more effort into just about every aspect of The Mill, partly due to it being an exhibition layout and therefore under close scrutiny of my peers. Rest assured that whatever comes next will be documented somewhere on RMWeb

It’s been a long time since I updated this thread, mainly because Bacup has been in separate pieces since moving house three years ago. Whilst exhibiting The Mill at Railex a couple of weeks ago, quite a few people asked what was happening with the layout so I thought I’d update everyone. Basically, I don’t have room to put the layout up, it’s suffered somewhat from being stored (track at baseboard edges, nothing serious) and to be honest, my interests have moved on to EM gauge, industrial settings & locos and smaller layouts - The Mill is more fun to operate than Bacup! So as you will probably guess, Bacup is to be dismantled, track sold on (if anyone would buy it) and scenic items salvaged for future use. All the buildings were constructed in such a way that they can be reused (many are fully detailed on all sides, despite not being visible on Bacup), something planned from the start as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get it out of the attic in Oxford. As such, many will reappear on future projects, albeit improved upon (see below). I have already started to convert locos and stock to EM but a recent thought is that I don’t think I’ll ever build a layout big enough to justify a large number of locos & stock so I am contemplating selling a lot of it off. With all this in mind, I have started on a mini-project closely linked to Bacup and that is painting the window frames on the buildings. Once I found out that white paint was so rare in the late 50’s, the glare of those frames really annoyed me but I didn’t have the time (or inclination when construction of The Mill began) to deal with it. I now intend to revisit every building and sort it out so that when they come to be reused, it’ll be one less job to do. The below shop and adjoined houses were among the first buildings for Bacup. It may not look like anything has changed but to me, the window frames are infinitely better through getting a lick of paint

Sounds like you had a cracking weekend chaps, with the layout receiving the praise it deserves. Totally with you on small layouts; it took Chris and I a similar time to break The Mill down and get it packed into the car after Railex. Large layouts are lovely to see and operate but let’s be honest, they are a pain in the backside to set up and dismantle. I dread to think how long it took to break down The Summit after Railex!

Very true Ian, and the longest a loco is used is thirty minutes (and that is only if we tie ourselves in knots with the shunting- easily done). On another note, a video including the layout appeared on the Railex thread, unfortunately featuring the 48DS on Sunday morning when it was behaving badly (due to an unbelievable buildup of crud on the pickups). I would hate for anyone to think that this is how the loco or layout usually perform as other than that, it behaved impeccably all weekend.

The Digitrax system has three settings for (what I presume to be) voltage, handily labelled N, OO and O. We only ever use the ‘N’ setting (same on Bacup). Do any knowledgable people know if I am right about the voltage and whether this would negate Chris having to alter any CV’s or add electrickery to his Neilson?

Thanks to everyone who popped over to say hello at Railex this weekend; we had a great time both with the layout and in the pub. It’s very gratifying to be asked so many questions about the layout and be able to respond with hopefully useful responses. It’s the interaction with viewers that makes it so enjoyable.

You’ll be building stuff for years yet mate. Off the top of my head: The railway cottages next to the road bridge Signalbox (scariest of them all - the windows are make or break on a box, hence why I went for etched brass ones) More sheds, lineside huts, etc. than you care to think of Convincing road vehicles (not just shiny bought ones) Platform clutter (including the likes of benches) Yard clutter Signals (including ground signals) Decent telegraph poles, etc. Rolling stock galore And a thousand other things. ‘Might get bored when there’s nothing else to build’ ........ ha!

The difference with Bacup is that it is end to end rather than roundly roundup. With the exception of DMU’s, there is always an element of operational interest in the scenic area. When I was operating it (long time ago now), the maximum number of trains out front would be two; one passenger and one freight - even locos would be moved off stage (to the shed) when not in use. I did a lot of prop shifting off scene despite having about 8 cassettes, and it did become a pain. Whilst you currently think you won’t have many trains to actually run, I reckon that will change as time passes. You don’t need to be ‘timetable obsessed’ to get bored of four trains eternally passing, in a very short time. As Scott hints at, how much time do you really reckon you will spend sat looking at a scenic fiddle yard rather than being in the central well where you’ll most likely have your control panel, home comforts and by far most impressive view of the layout? The FY doesn’t shout lost space to me; building a second station shouts Quart / Pint Pot. Bet you’re wishing I’d stayed away now