L'ULTIMO

The ~et in Walk through-you're there mailway

co............ed by Richard S arpe

Designed by Roy Jackson

Layouts redrawn by Steve Thompson

© Gauge 0 Guild 1990

The copyright of this publication is the property ofthe Gauge 0 Guild. Reproduction of the publication or any part of it without the specific written consent ofthe Gauge 0 Guild constitutes a breach ofcopyright.

Extracts from John Betjema.n's Collected Poems reproduced by kind permission of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd

A GAUGE 0 GUILD PUBLICATION

Contents

Getting the most from a small layout

The layouts:

Dallington Road Weston Green Stackton Tressel Poorsea Old Wharf Yard Nidd Creek & Pateleyville Selbury Works Sidings East Lynne Henton Bridge Wild Swan Yard Borrobol Hemlock Byte Roa Island Alfrescote Huntingfield Road Fordwich Kopper Mine Railroad Poverton St Johns Micro Freight Terminal Barchester Yam Valley Little (Goods) Avon (Riverside) Darenth Port Lairge Market Quse Valley Light Railway West Dodford Railway York West Stackton Binge Petfield Nether Norton Oval Ash Beadnell and Bamburgh Stratford (Waterside) Black Canyon Scarborough Central Severn Mill West Brockton Frogpool Porth Gwyn Ryecroft Mill Black Lake Sidings Alfriston Daventry (SMJR) Rivendell Upwole

Appendix - Useful information and advice

Acknowledgements

About the Gauge 0 Guild

Ralph Nuttall

Trevor Booth Keith Seaman Michael Ward Ken Brennan Peter Lloyd-Lee Ken Sheale John Allison John Tarrant Ray Hensher Dave Downing Peter de Salis Johnston Paul Fletcher Frank Kilroy Roy Jackson Keith Blasby Paul Rowlinson Bob Vickery Malcolm Carlsson Malcolm Carlsson Albert Kiernan John Strong Chris Turnbull Richard Winton Ivan Ma~:ted

Richard Chown COlin French Bill Reynolds Barry Hall Mike Heathcote Brian Thomas Frank Gray John Allison David Hunter Giles Barnabe Mike Vincent Peter Hardy Chris Leach Mike Williams Tony Collins Emlyn Davies Brian Anderson Jim Read Richard Barton Richard Allen Derek King Andrew WaUs

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8 10 11 12 13 14 16 16 18 20 20 21 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 48 48 49 50 51 52 53 53 54 54 56

58

62

back cover

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Gett g the most from a small layout Ralph Nuttall 3888

Why a small layout?

Many yea~'s ago I set out to build a large garden railway. Despite the great deal of time that has gone into its construc­tion there is still a long way to go before the line will become fully operational. During the same period I have completed two small layouts. The satisfaction gained from building the small layouts has outweighed that obtained from the larger layout because I have seen tangible results in a short period of time. I tend to be impatient, but the results ofseeing a layout develop encourage the builder to carryon and inspire the achievement of higher modelling standards.

A second advantage of constructing a small layout is cost. A sma]] layout requires less stock and can be built relatively cheaply, particularly if you are able and prepared to scratch build some of the items required. Scratch building everything is feasible if the layout is small but would be impractical on a large model. Having said this, it is necessary to add greater detail to the smaller layout.

Effective use oftracks at different levels.

Soon after completing my first small layout I dismantled it and immediately set out to build a new one, hopefully better, using the experience gained in constructing the first. Since my first effort was built in a short period of time, at low cost, the deci­sion to start again was easily reached, particularly since many items from the first model could be re-used on the second.

On auy model railway it is important that the standard of modelling is uniform throughout. This is easier to achieve on the smaller layout. On long term projects the later modelling tends to be of a higher standard than earlier efforts, and it shows!

Layout design

My experience is that in planning a model railway - of any size -there is a tendency to attempt to put too much onto the avail­able baseboards, whether it is track, buildings or scenery. No matter what size of baseboards you build, they will never be large enough for what you had envisaged; on any layout you are compromising over and over again.

The track plan must be designed with some thought to the locomotives and stock to be used so that sidings, run arounds,

Coal draps - real three-dimensional modelling.

headshunts are of adequate size. The design should allow movements that will keep both the operator and the viewer interested; a simple design, well thought out, can keep an operator occupied for hours and hours.

I have found that you cannot have enough isolated sections on the small layout. I suspect that, like me, many modellers tend to have more locomotives than are needed for their layouts, but they can be accommodated on isolated sections and used as necessary. This is most useful when the layout is displayed at an exhibition, where you can show offthe locomotive you spent the winter building. A small locomotive shed, coal and water­ing facility or diesel refuelling point are useful features for holding and displaying surplus motive power.

Using different levels can also be effective. For example a goods yard or industrial siding may be at a different level from the main trackwork. A 'double decker' design allows even more scope; the tracks on the two levels need not be connected.

Trackwork Large radius points take up a great deal of space while small radius ones may not look right, though they do not look out of place in an industrial or narrow gauge setting. One way around the problem is to make use of three way points, slips and diamond crossings; they are not difficult to construct from

Low reliefbuildings concealing hidden sidings.

6

the kits commercially available. A traverser or sector plate in th€ hidden sidings is useful, reducing the number of turnouts required.

Locomotives and rolling stock

As I said earlier, the layout should be designed with the type of rolling stock to be used in mind. Large locomotives can be run if the design makes provision for their use; the small layout need not be inhabited exclusively by small locomotives. A model of a locomotive depot could justify u-sing the largest lo­comotives. To my mind it is the speed at which locomotives run on a small layout that determines whether they look out of place; I like to see locomotives travelling very slowly in this type ofsetting. An additional area ofinterest can be created if open wagons can be filled and emptied, for example when visiting colliery screens. This can be done by hand if the wagons are hidden from the viewer.

Buildings

Buildings give individuality to the model railway and help to create the overall atmosphere, especially when they are scratch built. Railway buildings, in palticular signal boxes, tend to place the model in an exact location. Detail on and around

Tier upon tier - emphasising the impression ofdepth.

windows, door handles, drainpipes, gutterings and chimney pots all take the eye. Some people have the patience to produce individually each rooftile, stone or brick but the commercially produced plastic sheets ofbrick or stone can be effective when painted or dirtied. Stonework looks good if individual stones are painted, although this takes time. If the buildings have large windows it may be necessary to detail the interiors.

Scenery On a small layout it is important to maintain the interest of both the operator and the viewer and one way in which this can be achieved is in malting stock disappear from time to time. Trains can vanish into the hidden sidings, but there are other options. Locomotives can be out of view inside locomotive sheds; wagons in goods sheds or in factory buildings. Stock passing behind buildings or under bridges for just a second can enhance the scene. A short cutting will give a similar effect but requires more room.

Bridges, both over and under the railway, add to its appeal. Overbridges can help to divide the layout into a series of dioramas, making it appear longer than it is. It is important

Goods warehouse disguising a fiddle yard entrance.

to build up scenery at different levels to create the model landscape; this should be thought out at the design stage.

Detail This is especially important on a small model layout: since the scene before you is not large, what there is must contain enough detail to hold the viewer's interest. A series of themes along the length ofthe railway can help to do this, for example passengers on the station, crates and barrels at the goods depot, ladders and bicycles leaning against walls. Careful placement of figures also helps. The signalman leaning out of his cabin, ash being shovelled into a wheelbanow at the locomotive depot, children on a fence waving to the train; all these small touches add to the overall impression we are trying to create.

Conclusion This chapter has given some insight into factors that have a part to play in the design and construction of a small model railway. It has been written in the hope that it will provoke thought and also encourage you to have a go at building a layout; it's a challenge and it's fun. The excellent results attained by our fellow modellers, as shown in this book, demonstrate what a great variety of model railways can be built in a limited space - we cannot fail to be inspired by them. I am certain they will lead to many more small layouts being constructed in the fu ture.

A 'variety ofstone and brick finishes holds the eye.

Photographs Ralph Nuttall 7

DALLINGTON ROAD 'Bare slopes where chasing shadows skim,

And, through the gaps revealed, Belt upon belt, the wooded, dim,

Blue goodness of the Weald.' Trevor Booth 5960 Sussex, Rudyard Kipling

Cattle Dock STation Building Sec/or Plate

Road Bridge 'Nissen' Store & Woodyard

Trevor Booth has two explanations for the coming ofthe railway frontage which has attracted favourable comment at exhibitions. to Dallington Road: either a westward extension of the Kent and On such a layout precise calculation of the length of a headshunt East Sussex Railway beyond Robertsbridge, or a Colonel Stephens or the positioning of a turnout can make all the difference engineered branch offthe Hastings main line. Either way, as the between smooth operation and frustration. Here it has been name suggests, the station is a generous walk from Dallington honed to perfection. and therefore truly in the Stephens style. In fact it is probably just as near Burwash, Kipling's Sussex home. The period is late 1950s, for the very acceptable reason that

Trevor likes British Railways' lined black livery. It certainly Measuring but 8ft by 2ft 6ins this layout properly justifies the suits TerTier no. 32655, a regular performer on the branch. The epithet 'minimum space', though the photographs make this very other' stalwart is an ex-SECR Class 01 0-6-0 tender loco, often to har'd to believe. Originally 7ft by 2ft, with the sector plate over­ be seen in the company of a birdcage brake third of similar hanging by a further' 12ins, the enlargements have been made parentage. An ex-LSWR horsebox finds itself used for straw­purely for scenic effect. In particular the layout now has a curved berry traffic; the sun always shines at Dallington Road.

Photographs Trevor Booth 8

9

WESTON GREEN Perfectionist pastiche Keith Seaman 3814

After a not unusual progTession from Hornby tinplate through 4mm modelling to N gauge, Keith Seaman's return to 7mm scale passed through P4. His decision to embrace the demanding standards of ScaleSeven is therefore not too surprising. But demanding though those standards may be they are increasingly popular, and perfectly practicable in capable hands.

Despite an upbringing not a stone's throw from Midland metals, Keith decided on a Great Western theme for his 0 Gauge layout; it would portray a 'typical' GWR branch telminus. A range of fa­cilities was required, sufficient to generate an interesting miscellany of traffic: cattle dock, coal siding and goods shed in addition to a small loco shed and the usual passenger arrangements.

Not finding anyone prototype station exactly to his liking he has cast his net wide, drawing ingTedients from several English locations. The station building is borrowed from Abbotsbury , the engine shed - minus outbuilding - from Ashburton, the signal box from Lambourne and the weighbridge hut from Fairford. After all, ifpreservationists can uproot and re-erect the real thing why not the modelmaker?

Following the layout's initiation on the exhibition circuit Keith decided to expand the fiddle yard substantially, to the size shown in the trackplan. Storage capacity now totals some 30ft, removing the need for 'crane shunting' with its attendant risks of damage to paint finish and detail. In addition it is now possible to run a considerable variety ofstock, including the occasional Midland visitor!

The station baseboards have also been enlarged, the new width of 3ft pelmitting widening of the passenger platform and the provision of a satisfyingly convincing scenic setting.

Photograph Ken Cottle Cattle Dock

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Having decided to support his layout on trestles for ease of portability ­and simple height adjustment into the bargain - Michael Ward was un­able to resist the temptation ofnaming it after the home ofthose two well known 'dear ladies'. Set amid gently rolling Suffolk countryside the flavour of this small terminus is unmistakably GER/LNER. The empha­sisis on shunting, carried out as often as not by aJ15 orJ69. The coaching stock is in semi-retirement, enjoying a quieter existence after more glamorous duties on the Norfolk Coast Express.

The layout demonstrates what might be termed the Tardis effect, after the time machine to which no estate agent worth his commission could resist applying the accolade 'deceptively spacious'. In fun fig, with all baseboard sections in use, the layout requires a space 13ft by 10 ft. But removal of three optional baseboard sections permits the essential elements of the layout to fit within a room some 10ft by 8ft. This is a cunning way of allowing an exhibition layout to be enjoyed also at home.

The fiddle yard is also rather special. A first conventional sector plate carries piggy-back fashion a second smaller one allowing the release of locomotives without handling.

East Anglian idyll M£chael Ward 0401

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Photograph Richard Ward 11

POORSEA Iberian inspiration Ken Brennan 6330 It was during a period of residence in Spain that Poorsea first saw the bright light of day. On a balcony in Oropesa - the anagramatic origin of the station's name - a 6ft by 18ins baseboard module was gradually cloaked in a very convincing representation of a small branch terminus complete with bay plat­form, run-round loop and goods siding. Fit­ting all this in required turnouts of4ft radius - indeed one turnout, at the end of the loop adjacent to the signal box, was tightened to 3ft radius - but fitted in it was.

Poorsea station is a fiction but in Ken Bren­nan's eye it lies on one ofthe·remoterparts of the old London and South Western system. If required the trackplan could accommo­date a couple of short ex-LSWR bogie car­riages and an M7 0-4-4T, but smaller locos were generally used.

For Ken's purposes it was then assumed that a group of preservationists acquired the site after closure by BR. An ambitious lot, they quickly tired ofmere shunting and began re­laying rails along the fonner branch track­bed. Thus arose the need for a destination, rapidly provided in the shape of Goffs Sid- Loco Siding

ings built on a second 6ft by 18ins module. For operation the two modules were clamped end to end, though an intermediate running section might have been added had not a return to England led on to Poorsea, phase two.

Storage Siding

Southern Railway

Mere Sidings ($.R.)

Back in a more settled location the two modules were set up along opposite sides ofa garden shed and interconnected by an external running track. Although this included a 1800 curve ofjust 2ft 8ins radius it was found that short bogie carriages could be operated successfully. The system now measured 16ft by 6ft and plainly deserved a more dignified name - the Rowbarrow Branch. Poorsea itselfwas essentially unchanged, though it acquired a little more breathing space at each end. But the other end of the line was transformed into Goffs End, providing an interchange between the original branch - now relegated to tramway status - and the rest of the railway system.

Does the story end there? Plainly not: as we go to press, photographs arrive bearing testimony to extensive revision ofthe tracIc layout at Goffs End. But then the best layouts are never finished!

Photographs Ken Brennan

Sunday service 12

Signal Cabin Srarion Building

POORSEACrane

Carriage Siding GOFFSEND

Loco Goods

OLD WHARF YARD Under new management

Peter Lloyd-Lee 6728

As the railway prospered its traffic outgrew the original station facilities which became increasingly congested. Expansion ofthe station site, now surrounded by other buildings, was impossible. But when a nearby rail-served private warehouse and wharf suffered a decline in use on the opening of a new quay nearer the river's mouth a solution was found. Coal and general merchan­dise traffic was moved to the old wharf, releasing space at the station for parcels and perishables and an expansion of the pas­sengerfacilities. Stationmaster Edwards was so pleased with the outcome he gave his staff a half day holiday. It rained.

Peter Lloyd-Lee's layout design concentrates on the old wharf after its adaption to the new regime. There is considerable scope for variation of detail while preserving the central theme. After tentative sketching of a 12ft by 3ft scheme he settled for 9ft by 2ft 6ins. He comments that the length could be further reduced if necessary but that by concentrating on short four-wheeled goods vehicles and small locomotives it is possible to employ compara­tively tight curves, exploiting fully the width of the baseboard.

Road Bridge

The two sidings facing the 'wrong' way are a deliberate comp­lication in shunting: as the run-round loop is used only for this purpose it need accommodate only three or four wagons at a time, regardless of the length of trains moved to and from the fiddle yard. Since all movements are within station limits it is quite in order for wagons to be propelled onto or off the wharf. Moreover space need not be taken up by brake vans. And it matters not if the loco comes into view while transferring wagons between the fiddle yard roads as in reality it may be shunting the station sidings only a few chains away.

Access to the fiddle yard is disguised by a road bridge which, with its approaches, forms the basis of a three dimensional back­ground. The effect of a crowded, almost claustrophobic, urban setting is enhanced by tall warehouses and other low relief buildings along the rear ofthe layout, as illustrated in the layout plan. Peter stresses this extensive use of velt.ical surfaces to increase the visible area ofthe presentation. He further suggests the useofa frame at the front ofthe layout, with integTallighting, to produce a diorama effect after the fashion of Dave Rowe or the late Jack Nelson.

Tall Warehouses, &c

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Switch-engine Shed Drill Track Ashpit

NIDD CREEK & ~TELEYV LLE JO NT TER 'They have their exits and their entrances; these standards, however, the name adorning the Avanarth

And one locomotive in its time plays many parts' Kuppa Steel Tank fabrication company's workshops is beyond with sincere apologies to the Bard the pale. That edifice incidentally has a particular purpose in

concealing a staging yard - not, it will be noted, a fiddle yard.The Yorkshire Crummies via Ken Sheale 1661 Most of the buildings draw inspiration from the Baltimore dock

It was a great uncle from Vancouver who first introduced your area where trains peregrinate along the streets to reach the dock scribe to North American railroad parlance. A 'depressed flat' it warehouses. An unusual feature is the train feny tenninal. In seemed was not a morose apartment but a well wagon. And a the sequence of movements used at shows there are supposed to 'crummie'? Well, one gathered that after a long trip conditions be two sailings daily but the operators have so far failed to find inside a caboose - brake van, he meant - could become a little, anyone willing to cany the 4ft long vessel around the exhibition shall we say, unsavoury. The reader will therefore appreciate hall until it is next due to dock. There are limits to realism. why we have chosen to communicate with the Yorkshire Crum­

At 21ft this might be thought a fairly generous 'small layout' butmies through an intermediary.' Or should that be interpreter? then its operators are wont to wheel out eight-coupled locomo-

The beholder ofthis layout must be prepared not only for strange tives fully thirty inches long. Size it seems is relative. And to be - to British eyes - sights on the baseboard, and even stranger honest, could the full name of the NC&PRR reasonably be fitted sights behind, but also for some quite dreadful puns, Even by along the fascia of anything shorter?

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INAL AILROAD

Wright Fish Meal & Ice Factory Howard's Terminal Warehouse Durham Southern Warehouse

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Photographs Dennis Astle 15

Optional Fiddle Box

SEL U YWORKS S D NGS In which we learn of cable shunting and other dark arts John Allison 2819 John Allison has a knack of making a very little pointwork go a long way. Selbury Works Sidings employsjust three turnouts yet permits an extensive variety of shunting movements.

The layout centres on a pair of 4ft by 19ins baseboards on which the visible action takes place. To the left is a third, narrower 4ft board suppoxting a 3-road, 2-position sector plate. On the right the layout ends in an arched brick wall but when space pennits one arch is opened up to allow access to an optional fiddle box.

The chiefevidence ofSelbury Works itselfcomprises an imposing three storey warehouse based on a real example owned by Messrs Cadbury. Along the front is a series ofloading bays opening onto the sidings. John doesn't say whether his warehouse contains chocolate Easter eggs, office stationery or supplies to facilitate the practice ofblack magic, but whatever the goods they keep that diesel electric shunter mighty busy.

The smaller building clad with corrugated sheeting has an internal loading dock served by an awkward trailing siding. This is the scene of the promised cable shunting. Crude but effective, cable shunting is a method of moving a goods wagon into or out of a siding facing the wrong way without trapping the locomotive in the process. Although not unique to Selbury it is unusual to see this operation recreated in miniature.

r John has something of a penchant for the unusual, whether I f

operabng methods or scenic features. On another of his many layouts wagons are moved around by working capstans. Here, while the entrance to the sector plate is disguised by the well tried device ofan overbridge, this particular sbucture fonnerly carried a narrow gauge indusbial line and workmen are to be seen preparing it for demolition.

'The Victorian world and the present in a moment's neighbourhood'EAST LYNNE John Tarrant 3221 Pershore Station, John Betjeman.

Originally a through station somewhere on the SussexlHamp­shire border, the end of passenger services left East Lynne the terminus of a truncated rural branch line kept open to serve the local brewery. Although the habitues of the nearby ale houses have not lost their thirst, their needs are now met - after a fashion - by something called lager and the town brewery has closed.

The one consolation, for some at least, is that the station and brewery siding have become available as the nucleus of a preservation centre, though the nouveaux cheminots were unable to save the rest of the branch.

Now the old brewery line serves as a headshuntfor the remainder

ofthe site. With a little more fettling up itis hoped that it will also form the destination of stearn hauled rides. There are plans too for the construction of a preservation building over the short siding adjacent to the passenger platform, the existing diminu­tive loco shed being quite inadequate for the new restoration activities.

For a modeller with catholic tastes the preservation theme provides a marvellous reason for assembling on the same layout locos, rolling stock and lineside equipment from all peliods and regions, entirely according to personal taste. It also gives some opportunity for the display of models which are incomplete or only partly restored.

Proposed Preservation Building 16

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17

Photographs John Tarrant

Loco Shed Grounded Van & Carriage Bodies

HENTONBR GE An Impressionist painting

Ray Hensher 4600

Cupboard Signal Box

Two themes emerge fl"Om Ray Hensher's account of Henton Blidge:

atmosphere and flexibility. Wishing to build a working layout within a reasonably sh01t times­

cale he took a conscious decision to aim for a good average standard overall. He felt he might otherwise end up with a

layout which, though possessing pockets of excellence, lacked cohe­sion and took much longer into the bargain. His objective thus became a

convincing representation ofa railway in the context of the town and country it serves - not highly detailed but having the light 'feel'.

Experience of other projects had also convinced him of the twin advantages of a flexible initial plan: ideas can be modified as construction proceeds; and interest is sustained. Finishing a layout can be a mistake.

On moving house a spare attic'bedroom some 12ft square became available. One corner was taken up by an irremovable cupboard containing important pIumbing equipment - the hot water tank. A continuous single track run with a tangential terminal station suggested itself. A cunningly positioned road overbridge would imply greater length to the station. Then, after a year or so, the circuit was doubled giving up and down main lines. A third phase of construction has seen the addition of sidings serving a brewery.

Trains are run to a timetable and to make this a social activity operation can engage the attention of several operators. There are various operating schedules, lasting from one to three hours. Slacking and inattention are not encouraged - names will be taken!

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Coaling Stage 19

Fiddle Yard

'The lap lap lapping of the weedy Bure, A whispering and watery Norfolk sound'WILD SWAN YAR I

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Coal Yard Crane Ston~ Walling

Itwas one ofDr Ian C Allen's evocative collections ofphotographs of the EastAnglian railway scene that provided the stimulus for this layout's design. The real Wild Swan Yard was a small coal yard in Great Yarmouth, spawned by the Midland and Great Northern Joint and surviving long enough to be shunted by Drewry diesels of Class 04.

In Dave Downing's hands it has been translated from its semi­urban location where the Bure and Yare approach the chill North Sea to an altogether quieter, rural setting. The BR period captured by Dr Allen is retained but there remains a strong fla­vour of the late and lamented 'Muddle and Get Nowhere'.

At 7ft 6ins by 12ins this is a genuine 'minimum space' design. The addition of a short extension beyond the yard entrance brings greater flexibility Lo shunting movements but is not essentiaL The trackplan is very simple, employing just four standard Peco turnouts. But the opportunity is there, for the modeIler keen to extract every last inch of running space, to construct his own pointwork from one or other of the excellent kits or sets of components now available. Photograph Dave Downing

Such is the wealth of equipment now available to the 7mm modeller that locomotives well suited to both the geographical location and the space constraints of this layout are easily provided. In addition to the 04, an 02 diesel and a steam Sentinel are often seen. The temptation to add an ex-GE tram loco must be hard to resist, Toby face or no!

BORROBOL The indoor garden railway Photograph Peter de Salis Johnston

Peter de Salis Johnston 3078 and the Borrobol team

What better way to preach the garden railway gospel to the un­converted than to take a sample along to exhibitions? Not just a bit of track, you understand, but creosoted timber, granite bal­last, plants and all. Thus was born Borrobol, a layout designed specifically to bring pleasure to its builders and enlightenment to the viewer.

The basic inspiration came from Borrobol Platform, a halt on the Highland Railway's line to Wick and Thurso. The portrayal of this lonely outpost in David St John Thomas' The Country Railway drew Peter de Salis Johnston's particular attention to the charming station building with its pagoda roof - not, it seems, a GWR peculiarity after all - and from then on there was no looking back. Not that a consciously Scottish theme has been pursued; on the contrary, Borrobol can be dressed with locomo­tives and people of almost any region or period and still create a convincing railway atmosphere.

The Borrobol team has divided the trackwork into two quite in­dependent systems; one to Fine Standard with two rail electrifi­cation, and the other Coarse Standard with stud contact. Within

Gated Entrance

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HEMLOCK An 0 Gauge experiment

Paul Fletcher 5079 and the Tamar Valley Group

When the sinner tu:rneth away from 4mm scale there isjoy. When the sinner turneth away also from the GWR there is joy indeed! Paul Fletcher and his colleagues were on their way to building Hemlock Byte.

This foray into the 7mm world would be wisely tempered with realism. They would build a layout which though ambitious in the standards set - and, be it noted, achieved - was not so vast an enterprise that enthusiasm, time or funds might evaporate before it was complete.

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Quayside Crane Lean-to Tanks

It would be a shunting layout, presenting a suitably engaging industrial scene in the manner of a stage set so as to conceal the operators' sandwiches - and preferably the operators too - from the public gaze. And what could provide a more suitably engag­ing spectacle than a treacle mine?

The mine, refinery and associated quay were originally intercon­nected by a 3ft gauge horse tramway cut into a steep, wooded hillside. 'Modernisation' saw the introduction of standard gauge track and mechanical traction, but on the original tightly curved and heavily graded alignment: cost, you understand. Thus emerges a plausible Victorian-style operation.

These, however, are the 1950s. The quay is disused, silled up, all attempts at dredging long since abandoned. Now the refined treacle leaves by rail tanker or in antiquated wooden barrels loaded into merchandise wagons. How much longer, one won­ders, can this intriguing relic retain its rail connection, staving off the depredations of Messrs Foden or Volvo?

each there is a deliberate blend of different suppliers' compo­nents. There is even a short length of nineteenth centurybaulk road, with the rails laid on longitudinal timbers. All of these features provoke comment and discussion, forming excellent talking points at exhibition.

The track layout is simplicity itself, and therein lies another advantage. It is so simple that joe public - even very junior joe public - can be ushered to the controls: an all too rare opportunity at exhibitions. And so it is that when Borrobol fronts the Guild's display stand at the MRC's Easter Show in London selected, responsible youngsters are invited to drive the trains under close supervision while senior family members are persuaded of the delights of 0 Gauge. Junior's reward for services satisfactorily renderedisa boldly marked G.O.G. paper hat, donned with great pride and subsequently paraded around the han as a mobile advertisement. And who knows how many of these tyros will themselves turn to 7mm modelling in later life? Photographs courtesy ofModel Ra.ilway Journal

21

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OA ISLAND (BR) 'a cargo of.. ..road-rail, pig-lead,

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Cargoes, John Mase/ield

Frank Kilroy 2130

Juined to the rest of Cumbria by a narrow causeway, Roa Island lies between the southern tip of the Isle 6fWainey and the ex­panse of Morecambe Bay. It lost its railway in 1931 when the Furness Railway branch from Barrow to Piel passed into history. That the iron road ever visited Piel can now be discelned only from the masonry base ofthe one-time station water tank and the more obvious if less tangible clue provided by the name of the Railway Hotel.

But in Frank Kilroy's imagination the branch soldiered on into the early days of British Railways. And the original, somewhat sparse maritime facilities - lifeboat house and launching ramp - ~

have been supplemented by a wooden quay sufficient to accom­modate occasional small steam coasters, a prime if slightly salt­caked example of which happens to lie alongside on the occasion of oUI' visit.

The station layout follows the prototype quite closely, though foreshortened of necessity. One siding has been sacrificed and another re-routed to run along the interloping quay.

Although built primarily as a terminus to a larger garden railway Roa Island (BR) has been exhibited as a small layout in its own right. For this purpose it is connected to a compact fiddle yard which has proved more readily portable than the garden.

Photographs· ofprototype Ken Norman of layout Frank Kilroy

23

L

Road Bridge

Fiddle Yard r

E\~t=::::::=-----C=:===::1~~~=--------==~ ALFRESCOTE The outdoor indoor railway

Roy Jackson 0520 Photographs Roy Jackson

To Fiddle Yard For many the whole point of a small layout is that it will fit into the spare bedroom, conservatory, granny flat (sorry granny), gardener's privy or whatever else selves to keep out the rain and the neighbours' cats. But there's no reason why it has to be sited indoors and Roy Jackson - ahead ofthe packin anticipating the benefits ofglobal warming- has built his small layout in the garden. There he basks, glass of Chianti by his side, soaking up the sun in Mediterranean Stevenage while the rest ofus swelter in ill-ventilated attics, consoled only by a bottle of Tizer.

Despite its fresh air setting the layout adopts the classic telminus to fiddle yard configuration. The station, on a board only 9ft 6ins by 15ins, would live very happily in many an indoor location. Just five turnouts are used yet provide sufficient scope for entertaining operation: main passenger platform, a bay for parcels and push pull workings, and a brace ofsidings with facilities for coal, livestock and general merchandise.

By way of a contrast the fiddle yard exploits the great outdoors rather more freely, occupying fully 16ft. This length accommodates an unusual anangement which allows locomotives to run round their trains - or iudeed indulge in a little shunting - without the need for handling of precious paint finishes with lasagne-sticky fingers. Heavy duty stop blocks cater for those little mishaps that are wont to occur when the operator is temporarily distracted by a vino­emboldened wasp.

24

Signal Box Station Building Bottle of Chianti

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Passenger Platform

UNTINGFIE D OA Keith Blasby 7145

The locomotive shunting the yard mayno longer carry Royal blue livery or have vermilion coupling rods but even now, with Everest climbed and the papers full of coronation pictures, this corner of west Suffolk is unmistakably Great Eastern ten-itory.

The variety oftraffic generated by the surrounding rural commu­nity is considerable. The station building, its ornate Flemish gables more than a match for the strange new blue and white enamel signs, stoically handles passengers, parcels and newspa­pers. The goods yard sees coal, cattle and other livestock, agricultural machinery, grain and sugarbeet - lots of sugarbeet. Was it Jack Ray or Barrie Walls who suggested grape pips as a realistic 7mm scale representation?

With this plan Keith Blasby sets out to demonstrate that a

Goods Bank

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narrow site need be no obstacle to interesting operation. He has accommodated a small passenger terminus with goods facilities justifYing a variety ofrolling stock within an overall width ofonly 12ins. This might be considered sufficiently unobtrusive for erection along the wall ofa living room or bedroom; well it's worth a try!

The overall length of 21ft could be trimmed, but at the expense of train length. Such compression must be kept in proportion if a wasteful roismatch between the fiddle yard and the remainder of the layout is to be avoided. However some lengths may be irreducible: for example the loco release at the end of the passen­ger platform road cannot be shortened ifit is already barely long enough to accept the largest loco to be run.' 25

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FOR we The Lambton Worm Paul Rawlinson 7313

If your partner seems at all apprehensive at the notion that you may just be - well- planning a model railway then best keep this page well hidden.

Paul R.owlinson entertained the perfectly reasonable ambition of building a compact terminus-to-fiddle-yard layout for operation in the confines of a small cottage. But to quote his own masterly understatement 'the plan is different from when the layout was conceived', He continues '...yes you've guessed it, the layout is too big to erect indoors!'

Ifthere is a moral to this so rry tale oframpant Hudsonism it must be that we should all remember the Wearside worm which 'growed an' growed an' growed an aaful size'.

Set loosely on BR.'s Southern Region, the station layout owes something to Swanage and will accommodate trains ofthree Mk1 carriages, A 1955 to 1975 timespan allows the operation ofboth steam and green and blue period diesels. To help the transforma­tion from one end of this era to the other there is a removable set of coal bins in the goods yard which can simply be lifted off the layout and replaced by a stone apron when modern Foster Yeoman hoppers are to be run - an interesting and unusual idea.

Although it adds to the overall length of the layout, the use of a fiddle yard complete with loco release arrangements has been preferred to a traverser in order to reduce the handling of stock.

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Cliffs & Mountains

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o P I RAIL OAD The appeal of simplicity

Bob Vickery 0719

Leaving the main line some twenty miles distant the Kopper Mine Railroad penetrates a mountain to reach the source ofboth its in­come and name. The line emerges from a tunnel mouth into the barest of stations served by the occasional - very occasional ­passenger train. The mine entrance lies just beyond. Staple traffic is the outward move­ment of ore, the return workings sometimes bringing in supplies or mining equipment.

Shunting is minimal, both passenger and freight trains being propelled from thejunc­tion: quite acceptable in tills neck of the woods apparently, but the observations of Col. Yolland and his fellow Inspecting Offi­cers would make interesting listening! The exchange of loaded and empty cars is per­formed by the train engine using the single siding. A small four-wheeled diesellocomo­tive then emerges from the mine and re­moves the empties. Behind the scenes re­marshalling is largely carried out by crane shunting.

Careful examination of the rolling stock re­veals a passing - and entirely coincidental ­resemblance to the Timpo American Civil War train set and the Tri-ang Big-Big gon­dola and hopper wagon. But at exhibition the simplicity of presentation has a calcu­lated appeal, not least to the younger viewer, and demonstrates the convincing solidity and presence of 0 Gauge.

Photographs Bob Vickery

27

RTON ST. JOHNS....., When is a terminus not a terminus? Malcolm Carlsson 6477 The use of a prototype terminus as the basis for a through station might seem a strange idea. But. in this case the result is a highly adaptable layout capable of operation either as a through station between two fiddle yards or as a terminus served byjust one such yard.

Poverton St Johns is based very loosely on Laxfield station on the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway. Although much compressed, meas­uring just 7ft 2ins by 18ins without fiddle yards, it retains the essential features in­cluding a passenger pIatform which is a scale MSLR 130ft in length. This is quite suffi­cient for one or two venerable 45ft bogie car­riages hauled by a diminutive 0-6-0 tank loco.

The track layout is beautifully simple - there are just four turnouts - but includes run­round facili ties, particularly impOItant ifthe layout is used in the terminal role. Wye turnouts are used in the goods road, saving

precious inches.

In designing this layout Malcolm Carlsson has taken great care to avoid any appearance ofsharp cur­vature, despite the use ofturnouts with a radius ofjust 4ft 6ins. The all impOItant platform section of the line is dead straight, with very gentle transition curvature at the signal box end. The overall im­pression, of gently flowing track­

Loading Dock work, is very convincing. I

Starion Building Lamp Room Signal Cabin

Level Crossing

Photographs Malc.i)lm Carlsson 28

------

- -- ---

Photographs Malcolm Carlsson r-~__M1CRO FREIGHT TERMINAL If you can't expand outwards....

Malcolm Carlsson 6477

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When planning a layout on paper it is all too easy to forget that real life offers a third, vertical dimension. In open country the natural topography may call for a cutting or embankment. In an urban setting the additional pressure to make full use of expen­sive land can require features of construction not justified else­where.

Malcolm Carlsson's design for a tiny freight terminal measures just 6ft by Hins, including fiddle yard or traverser. But it features a goods warehouse fully three storeys high, and the visible part of the layout is bounded by high retaining walls.

These structures afford great modelling potential in their own right: the warehouse will call for a building style and materials appropriate to the chosen locality; and the retaining walls can be a veritable feast of decorative masonry courses and blind arches, providing niches for everything from old huts and discarded permanent way materials to a tribe of feral cats.

The substantial warehouse enlarges the traffic potential and interesting shunting sequences will be possible despite the sim­plicity of the track layout. This centres on a three way turnout of 3ft and 2ft radii; perfectly feasible, it is suggested, if operation is confined to small four or six coupled locomotives with a wheel­base no longer than a scale 11ft. The same constraint would of course apply to the rolling stock but in fact this would exclude velY few of the vehicles normally found in such a setting.

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29

Goods Shed

Coaling Stage CHESTER All steam and surplices

Albert Kiernan 5426

The mid-nineteenth century setting for this layout owes much to Anthony Trollope's The Chronicles ofBarsetshire. The scribe himself does not appear, being far too busy journey­ing around by train on Post Office business, penning fUlther copious works en route. But the close observer may be rewarded with an occasional glimpse of the Bishop's chaplain, the awful Revd Obadiah Slope, returning to Barchester to damn the poor and - evenhand­edly - curse the rich.

One practical attraction of this early period for the small layout builder is that six coach trains can be less than 4ft in length. The run-round loop and the fiddle yard have been proportioned accordingly.

The layout has developed in two stages. In its first guise it had to fit into a roam 9ft 6ins long. The fiddle yard was therefore built on castors, to be wheeled into place in an adjacent hallway when operation was to begin. Subsequently a larger room has become available and an L-shape has been adopted, ex.tra sections ofbaseboard being interposed between fiddle yard and terminus.

AlbeIt Kiernan admits to a second, more modern source ofinspiration in the work ofa real gentleman of the cloth, Peter Denny, doyen of the 4mm scene. His Buckingham Great Central has taught valuable lessons to modellers in many scales and it is good to see his influence at work in 0 Gauge. The Denny touch is certainly to be seen in Barchester, not least in the 'traintable' arrangement whose ability to rotate through 180" can eliminate stock handling entirely.

Overbridge

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Fiddle Yard

Photographs Ian Blackburn

Gothick glary or Dibnah's delight? 30

CaNle Dock

An heroic pose

YAM VALLEY A layout of many parts

John Strong 3345

Loading Building Tunnel Mouth Shed N.G. Station

NARROW GAUGE

STANDARD GAUGE

End B EndC EndD Sector Table

Loading Building

End A

Mine Office

EndB EndC EndD

When John Strong began work on a modest test track he little knew where it would aU lead. His original need was to tryout rolling stock on a 4ft 6ins radius reverse curve be­fore deciding whether such a feature could reasonably be included in a larger L-shaped layout then being planned for the loft.

Only later, when ill health brought about a change of plans, did the idea of using the test track as the basis for a small exhibition layout arise. What has emerged is a compact 7ft by I8ins shunting' layout on which an entertaining sequence ofoperation can be generated with very little stock -perhaps a couple ofsmall1ocos and a short goods train, with a railcar for passenger interest. Standard 6ft radius Peco turnouts have been used. Plain track, almost all of which is curved, is laid to a radius of 4ft 6ins.

But that's not aU, for the layout is crowned - literally - with a I2mm narrow gauge sec­tion serving a mineral mine. Hidden trackwork accommodates no fewer than six short trains, and a concealed full/empty exchange area enables convincing use to be made ofthe mineral loading building. A setting in the Lake District or upper Weardale is suggested.

And ifyou thought he'd finished there John has one further trick up his sleeve. When the layout returns from exhibition duty the standard gauge line drops neatly into place to complete the loft layout, now re-configured as a continuous run to simplify operation.

31

LI Borrowing his basic theme from the Wissington Railway north-east of Ely, Chris Turnbull has sited this 1950s goods layout 'somewhere in the

LE (GOO S) Fenland freight Chris Turnbull 5440

bleak Cambridgeshire fens'. It represents an interchange between British Railways and a British Sugar Corporation beet processing fac­tory.

Although beet traffic is the mainstay of opera­tions and the chief reason for the line's contin­ued existence, other agricultural produce is handled together with some general merchan­dise. The hand crane ou the loading bank is still in working order.

The trackplan is fictional, the Wissington Rail­way's Abbey interchange sidings having proved too large for the purpose. Chris observes that many layouts rely either on sheer size or the use of exquisite detail to make an impression. His preference is forwhathe unashamedlydescribes as showmauship.

He mentions two operational features of par­ticularinterest: fly shunting, to facilitate which the layout includes carefully chosen gradients; and a taped commentary, to explain operabons, the fictional basis for the layout's existence and the factual backgTound to sugar beet growing and sugar manufacture. Both have been well received at exhibitions.

Photographs J W Tumbull

Jemima Puddle-dul 32

Crane Screen Fiddle Yard

Office Loading Dock Roadway

k solicits a cab ride 33

Grain Silo Level Crossing

Building it in easy stages

Richard Winton 7076

--------------­

(R VE SI E)AVO

The central, original section of this layout comprises Riverside Yard, at the mouth of the Hampshire Avon. In the foreground are sidings on a quay, backed by a grain merchant's premises with a tall silo. Grain handling equipment extends from the silo to the quayside, spanning the sidings. To the left are large hoppers into which sea dredged aggregates are discharged from vessels moored at the quay. At the rear of this section runs the passenger branch toAvon (Riverside) station. Initially represented by a traverser, the station proper will emerge during the second stage of construction - a quayside terminus with further sidings for parcels traffic. This is Southern electric territory and each of the two platform roads will be long enough to hold a 4 car emu. Set in the comparative modernity of the 1970s the layout caters largely for wagonload traffic generated by warehousing, a cement depot and a small fertiliser factory. A short engineer's siding will be added to provide an excuse for running unusual vehicles. A white and black painted LSWR signal box provides a pleasing link with earlier times.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Richard is planning a third stage comprising a connection to Avon Junction. This will begin behind the aggregate hoppers and lead to four storage roads, one of which will be provided with a passenger platform aITanged to give the

Photographs Alan Mynett impression of a junction with the main line.

Turntable Storage Sidings Hidden Sidings Goods Shed Station

34

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Pandora's box

Iuan Maxted 7153

Th readers of smaller scale persuasion who, despite their afflic­tion, have persevered thus far: a warning! An inveterate 4mm scale modeller, Ivan Maxted succumbed to the temptation of building a small train for a friend's 0 Gauge layout. 'Little did I realise' he laments 'that once you have worked in the larger scale it is very difficult to summon up the enthusiasm to continue work in 4mm'. Now ensnared, Ivan felt committed to the construction ofa 7mm scale layout ofhis own, portable for exhibition purposes. Thus was born the 0 Gauge Darenth.

Nineteenth century plans tojoinDartford and Sevenoaks through the Darent valley came to nought, though the upper valley was used for the South Eastern and Chatham's link between Swanley and Sevenoaks via the quaintly named Bat & Ball. Indeed between Swanley and Otford the line forms part of the meander­ing boat train route through Maidstone.

Ivan's layout assumes completion of the original proposal by our old friend Colonel Stephens, his Darent Valley Railway following the lower reaches of the river from Eynsford down to Dartford with an intermediate stop at Darenth. Built in the early 1900s to light railway standards this DVR was funded by locallandown­ers and businessmen unable to withstand the Colonel's persua­sive manner.

Following the Stephens theme the station layout draws on the example of the Kent and East Sussex Railway, though the loop is extended to form a siding at one end in partial compensation for the curtailment of goods facilities compelled by the narrow baseboard. The other end of the loop is provided by the turntable­type fiddle yard, saving space and a turnout into the bargain.

Signal Cabin Mess HtIt Carriage Workshop

Earty work on stage 1 - the quayside section

After three or four successful exhibition outings with the original 12ft layout, Ivan added a fourth board beyond the level crossing. This has increased storage space significantly and services are now usually operated by four trains, chosen to represent the 1940s and '50s. Typically the viewer will see a short passenger train, a mixed passenger/goods, a goods which shunts the sidings before moving on, and a departmental working. More unusual are visits by the permanent way inspector in his smart new Wickham trolley; let's hope he removes the keys lest it be highjacked by the headmistress of St Trinian's!

Horton Kirby

Orford To Maidsrone

DARTFORD.---­

To Lonoon

Level Crossing Coal Loco Shed 35

PO T AIRGE MARKET 'No! the lough and the mountain, the ruins and rain

And purple-blue distances bound your desmesne, For the tunes to the elegant measures you trod

Have chords of deep longing for Ireland and God.'

The buriaJ ot" Thomas Moore, John BeUeman

The absence from this collection of a broad gauge layout from across the Irish Sea was becoming woefully apparent when de­tails of Richard Chown's Port Lairge Market anived, albeit with a West Lothian postmark! It is a welcome Celtic contribution nonetheless. Readers familial' with Richard's larger Ca.stle Rackrent layout will immediately warm to this atmospheric portrayal of - in railway terms - ancient times.

Port Lairge Market has an important role as a test track when the big layout is not set up, but also sees service on the exhibition circuit in its own right. It is designed as a goods station but when, on occasion, the platform is graced by a passenger service certain liberties ap­peal' to be taken with proper operating practice. Richard assures us however that the requisite operating depart­ment representative and handsig­nalmen are to be found in attendance if only one examines the scene closely enough!

Further liberties have certainly been taken however in refining the trackplan to maximise the length of the loop. In order to shorten the crossovers the six foot way has been nalTowed until the crossing noses are almost opposite each other. Here Richard gives an impor­tant practical warning: don't be tempted to take this too far - even if the use of narrow-bodied rolling stock would al­low - since if the crossings are exactly opposite the re-raiIing gang will never have a day off. You have been warned. / Photographs Richard Chown Sector Table

TedcastJe's Coal Store Shannonside Dairy

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Turntable Storage Yard Yard Crane Goods Siding Station Building

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OUSE VALLEY LIG RA LWAY 'And wet the elm above the hedge

Reflected in the winding Ouse' Colin French 5182 When the LNWR branch from Wolverton to Newport Pagnell was built it was the sponsors' intention to continue to Olney. Earth­works had already been begun when the extension scheme was abandoned. !tis along these abortive diggings that Colin French's Ouse Valley Light Railway runs.

Thus itis that Olney - already well known as the home ofWilliam Cowper, writer and hymnist, and world famous for strange rituals involving pancakes - has acquired another mark of dis­tinction. For the OVLR is independent, and a unique blend of local and company influences. While an LNWR flavour is almost inevitable given the connection at Newport Pagnell, echoes of its other near neighbour, the Midland, may be seen in such touches as the station fencing.

Olney Hymns, John Betjem.an

Depicting the terminus at Olney, the layout is a shade over 11ft overall including a 3ft 3in diameter turntable fiddle yard carry­ing three tracks. In operation four trains are run; two passenger and two goods. The latter comprise three wagons and a brake van. Traction is provided by small four-coupled locomotives.

Like many another 7mm modeller Colin is a 4mm convert who took some persuading that the larger scale is anywhere near practicable within reasonable bounds of space and cost. The success of the OVLR has convinced him otherwise. Now he's mutteling about a garden layout!

Photographs Jim. Crichton

Burbage's Abattoir Cattle Pens

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At last - a proper engine.'

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WEST ODFOD RA LWAY Engine Shed

Jam tomorrow The West Dodford Railway does for a parbcularly lovely part of north Worcestershire what the Kelvedon, Tiptree and Tollesbury Light Railway did for the fruit growers of eastern Essex: it serves the local jam factOlY. Renowned as the creator of connoisseurs' con/itures, this establishment sends its products - by rail of course - to discerning tables far and wide. There is even a regular consignment for Sodor where the Fat Controller's favourite chunky breakfast mannalade is an indispensable aid to the smooth running of the island's railway system. Situated in a 10ft long shed, the factory's sidings communicate though an end wall with a 4ft headshunt representing the rest of the system. Both LMS and GWR locomotives work trains into the yard using the main, centrally positioned reception and depar­ture road. This has no release crossover and the train engine must wait until the factory's yard pilot removes the wagons and vans to the sidings.

Bill Reynolds 5757

The layout is designed to permit entertaining shunting se­quences. Bill Reynolds makes these more demanding by using the random card system in which a pack ofcards each represent­ing an individual wagon is shuffled to determine the make-up of the next train.

The factory's shunting locomotives work from the small loco depot in a corner of the layout. There is the usual range of basic servicing facilities and, equally important from the modeller's point of view, space to stand spare locos where they can be admired.

The reception road also handles passenger workings in the shape of factory workmen's trains, adding further operational variety, and there is a basic signalling installation controlled from a ground frame adjacent to the loco shed.

38

Road Bridge Coal Cattle Dock

Several former North Eastern Railway stations still display on a panel of glazed tiles a map of the company's onetime system. Its hold on north-east England was so firm itcould afford to view with some contempt such inso­lent insurgents as the Hull & Bamsley. Setting aside the oddity of the Derwent Valley Light Railway the tile map of York is pure NER. But you will look in vain for York West.

Garry Hall has other ideas. A man with a liking for large en­gines he decided that not only was 0 Gauge practicable in a modest space, but that sizeable locos could be run on a small(ish) layout. Within an overall length of 20ft he has created a scene in which even a Pacific does not look absurd. Examine the photo­graphs and judge for yourself.

The presence ofthese 'eviathans is explained by York West's loca­tion, south of the city and ap­proached via a triangular junc­tion with the east coast main line north of Chaloner's Whin. Both station and fiddle yard will hap­pily play host to a couple ofmain line carriages coupled to one of Gresley's big engines or a Riddles 9F. A Stanier Duchess is a little harder to explain but give Garry time..... More ordinary fare con­sists ofthree suburban carriages and an N2. But further catholi­cism is shown by the appearance of a Sprinter dmu: this we are to understand is a ve,)' early proto­type from York carriage works!

Having made his point with barely 20ft of layout, Garry is now contemplating two inserts, at least for exhibition purposes. One would expand the centre of the layout, enabling the goods line alongside the station to be­come a headshunt; the other would introduce a 90° curve at the fiddle yard entrance, convert­ing the layout into an L-shape.

Photographs Gar,)' Hall

Loco Shed

YORKWES 'A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.' Francis Bacon

Garry Hall 7168

39'Beats me how these things hold together'

Photographs Mike HeathcoteSTACK ON INGE Making an exhibition

Mike Heathcote 6557

Set on the north side of the Cotswolds between Moreton-in-Marsh and ChippingCampden, this fictitious 1930s GWR branch terminus boasts among its patrons no lesser luminaries than Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket. In­deed when the layout is exhibited some viewers seem to spend more time looking out for the illustrious pair thanwatching the trains, which is a pity as there is so much to be learnt.

The working of this layout is a salutary reminder that activities at real railway stations usually bear some relation to the traffic on offer. A country terminus would serve not only the adjacent town but also the outlying farms and villages. A few minutes' work with pencil and paper will create a list of goods likely to be moving into and out of such an area, immediately suggesting the types of rolling stock which will appear and the facilities neces­sary for loading and unloading.

In the period chosen for this layout the railway station would still be an important focus of local commercial life: that would be reflected not only in the density of railborne traffic but also the frequency and variety ofvisiting road vehicles. The horse would be much in evidence.

It seems obvious to say that a layout is intended to be looked at. Yet sometimes it appears that a layout builder has given this little thought. For example a line constructed partly in cuttings and then exhibited too high off the floor is inaccessible, not least to the younger fraternity whose continued recruitment is essen­tial to the wellbeing of our hobby.

How interesting therefore that Mike Heathcote has tapered the ends of Stackton Binge, not only improving the general view of those standing there but also encouraging viewers to look along the tracks. For that is the very aspect of the prototype most familiar to those who have observed from an overbridge.

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Are you sure this is where the water goes Fred?!

Coal Goods Road Bridge 40

PE F ELD 'Our muddled coastline opposite to France:

Dickensian houses by the Channel tides With old hipp'd roofs and weather-boarded sides'

The Town Clerk's Views, John Betjeman

Brian Thomas 5720

Perhaps the real charm of Petfield lies in its ordinariness; the viewer immediately feels drawn to it, as though part ofthe scene pOItrayed. As Brian Thomas modestly puts it 'I can't claim any original trail-blazing ideas - merely a fairly fortunate combination ofodds and ends'. That the combination owes rather more to careful desi.gn than mere fortune may explain the layout's popularity on the exhibition circuit.

It is 1962. Originally part ofthe South Eastern and Chatham, Petfield station is now in the clutches of British Railways who continue to work most ofthe services by steam but hint at a new era by sending a Drewry di.esel to shunt the yard. The Southern Railway's period ofstewardship is commemorated by a pair ofart grotteau pre-cast concrete lineside huts. Luckily the matching concrete lamp standards intended for the passenger platform received the attentions of the Luftwaffe en route and were never erected.

The main buildings are based on prototypes on the New Romney branch. They have been chosen for their modest size so as not to dwarf the layout, this careful attention to proportion being a major factor in the positive impact created.

The loop is long enough to enable a loco to nm round a three coach excursion set, though the everyday passenger service is a push-pull working. Goods trains can load up to four wagons plus brake van and convey minerals, livestock and general merchandise. The headshunt beneath the road bridge is assumed to 1ead to a private siding, bringingfurther variety of traffic. At present the main line runs straight into a fiddle yard, but work is rnalready in hand to construct the next station down the line - a passing loop on a curve. ~ :-0 rn..,

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'Crompton' on a trial run - the beginning of the end?

Fiddle Yard

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Photographs Brian Thomas 41

Level Crossing

N THER NORTON Avoiding the rabbit and burrow effect Frank Gray 4670 Not everyone is drawn to the kind of layout in which the train approaches the only station from an adjacent tunnel mouth only to return thither very shortly after. Certainly Frank Gray had other ambitions, wanting trains to travel from A to B, preferably via C. But could this be done in the space available?

GoodsGoods Shed Signal Box Sector Plate

some tail chasing, but normally the through tracks beneath Washcombe are regarded as part of the fiddle yard and trains can be stored there until required to represent a subsequent working in the timetable.

WASHCOMBE

Confining an extended run to an area barely 11ft by 6ft brings with it the penalty of small radius curves, but if only a continu­ous run will do then that penalty becomes a challenge to be overcome with true modeller's ingenuity. A leaning towards short items of rolling stock will help, and attention to running clearances will be essential. But plainly it can be done.

Set in the very early years of British Railways, Nether Nor­ton is a through station 'some­where west ofTaunton'. It is also the junction for the branch to Washcombe Harbour which generates both goods and pas­senger traffic. This gives plenty of scope for interesting move­ments at both tenninus and junction, and goods sidings are provided at each location.

Additional storage for rolling stock is provided by a fiddle yard incorporating a two road sector plate, positioned on the opposite side of the layout from thejunc­tion. To make maximum use of the available space the branch terminus is superimposed on the fiddle yard, and is therefore approached on a rising gTadient. If the operator feels a desperate need for action he can indulge in

42 Photographs Frank Gray

Concealed 'Exit' Nodding Donkey Manhole Wagon Loading

OVALASH A pointless exercise! John Allison 2819

Workshops Compressor Group

Don't fancy building pointwork? Concerned that ready-made turnouts might be expensive? Fear not. John Allison has the solution: just lay plain track. With a little well thought out subterfuge and a larding of diversionary tactics the viewer can be deceived for quite a while.

The subterfuge lies in the disappearance of all bar one of the tracks into buildings at the extremities ofthe layout. The scene is industrial - a steelworks - and the structures represent work­shops and wagon loading facilities. Curtains on the latter, ostensibly to suppress dust, also add to the concealment.

The diversionary tactics can be chosen to suit the location. Here for example a group of workmen clusters around a mobile com­pressor, one of them using a road breaker while the other three look on; such authenticityl. Another workman lowers materials down a manhole to a concealed colleague. A working colour light signal controls the 'exit' from the works, protecting an offscene junction. A little less probably a nodding donkey lifts oil from a well; but the model pump was available and looks well in this workaday setting, so why not?

Built expressly for exhibition, Oval Ash sets out to provide a complete audio-visual experience. Tape recorders and a Q Kits sound controller reproduce the sounds of trains moving both on and off scene as well as supporting the little cameos with the sounds of an air compressor, pneumatic drill and so on. There is even the occasional and mysterious sound ofhammering from the bottom of that manshaft.

For portability the baseboard is in two sections which, with their back and end scenes, clip together to form a boxjust 3ft 9ins long. Rolling stock, electrical equipment and the operator's smoked salmon sandwiches fit into a suitcase. On occasion John has transported the whole thing by train; the 12ins to 1ft variety that is.

This little cameo, from another of John's many layouts, proved irresistible

Photographs John Allison 43

Cattle Dock Station Building Coal Level Crossing

Abandoned Line BEADNELL

BEADNELL &BAMBURGH 'Against the breeze the breakers haste,

Against the tide their ridges run And all the sea's a dappled waste

Criss-crossing underneath the sun.'

Winter Seascape, John Betjeman

Signal Box

Beadnell, on the coast of rural Northum­berland overlooking the Farne Islands, never had a railway. David Hunter how­ever supposes that a short branch was built from the nearby North Sunderland Railway which ran between Seahouses, a couple of miles up the coast from Bead­nell, to Chathill on the east coast main

David Hunter 6674 line.

The North Sunderland, all of four miles long, remained fiercely independent right up to its closure in 1951 but often looked to the North Eastern and later the LNER for the hire oflocomotives, and occasion­ally coaching stock too. David has chosen the latter period - and more specifically the 1930s - for this unusual might-have­been.

But the story does not end there. Having built and successfully exhibited Beadnell David is now planning a follow-on using the experience gained. This time it will be supposed that the North Sunderland branched in the opposite direction -north­wards to Bamburgh. Comparison of the two trackplans gives a fascinating insigh t

BAMBURGH Loco Shed

into the way in which a design can be developed by bringing in new ideas while retaining the best features ofthe oliginal.

The re-design makes better use ofthe left hand baseboard section, added to Bead­nell as an afterthought. The run-round loop is now clear of the passen'ger plat­form, increasing the complexity and inter­est of passenger train operation, and its length is now exactly matched to that of the sector plate. Access to the goods sidings has been moved well clear of the entrance to the fiddle yard, keeping shunt­ing movements in full view, and space has been found for a small loco shed.

Will there be a third version? Only time will tell.

Signal Box Sration BUilding Goods Shed 44

Sector Plate

Photographs David Hunter

s ATFOR (Waterside) Ancient and· well· less ancient

Giles Barnabe 6920

Station Building Water Tank Cattle Pens Timber Yard

PLANA WarehouseGoods Shed Tramway Cottage

This steam tramway terminus in two guises serves as a valuable reminder that many of the station layouts familiar to us from the later days of steam traction were not always so. They evolved, sometimes by addition and sometimes by more drastic remode11ing, often changing several times in a long working life.

Giles Barnabe's two plans show different developments of Stratford (Waterside) on the Iural Stratford-upon-Avon and Moreton-in-Marsh Tramway, a former horse waggon-way made obsolete by other local railway developments in the 1860s. This fictitious undertak­ingowes much to the Oxford & Aylesbury and Wantage Tramways. Itis the haunt offour­wheeled rolling stock and is operated by small Victorian tank locomotives.

Both layouts assume the use of4ft 6ins radius wye and 4ft radius handed turnouts to give an overall length of 2 metres. Plan A as illustrated could function as a shunting layout, but both plans rea11yrequire the addition ofa storage or fiddle yard iftheir fu11 operational potential is to be realised; this would bring the total length to about 3 metres.

Plan A shows the Tramway still operating with the track layout of its horse-drawn days. There is no loop and either a second locomotive or ch ain shunting is necessary. The wagon turntable, once a common railway feature, serves a warehouse.

The 'modernised' version shown in plan B is much more familiar to 20th century eyes and represents the S&MT in the 1920s. Motive power now includes a Terrier and a Manning Wardle 0-4-0ST, both obtained from the nearby, defunct Edge Hill Light Railway.

Goods Shed Engine Shed Tramway Cottage

Station BUilding PLANS Coal Merchant

45Sector Plale

-------

II IIBLACK CANYON !! __11

--?AA~·;· ~8:::::G ';

Hear that lonesome whistle blow

: Mike Vincent 2242

, --- ...... > -LOWER LEVEL

Low Level Spur

-----.- ----­~--~-

~------UPPER LEVEL Freight Loco Shed Works

Mine Complex

Photographs

Mike Vincent

3 Foot Gauge Standard Gauge Mixed Gauge

46

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Depot Iro''I II 11 •

II / · ·

[><I)>---<<! --(}

II ..l

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Freight

-

Loco Servicing

We are in arid Colorado, 'lfit looks as though it has notA rained for six or nine months, that is just how it is supposed to be' writes Mike Vincent. The River Gunni­son is perhaps a little weal)' from its long, long labour of carving out Black Canyon: the roar of cataracts has been replaced by the roar of exhaust steam.

A The deepest roar emanates from an articulated com­pound Mallet battling against the grade. An altogether quicker beat is likely to herald a geared Shay or Heisler locomotive hauling ore from the mine at one end of the layout. This is an entirely narrow (3ft) gauge area from which a single track descends to the main level ofthe lay­out. Here standard gauge track is found, though most is dual gauge; the pointwork is a revelation! A fiddle

yard is built into the overall length of the layout, hid­den beneath the mine area.

Though the canyon has lent its name to a fictitious railroad, there is or was, Mike assures us, a prototype for almost everything on show. The catholic selection is deliberate, the aim being to include as wide as possible a cross-section of American railroad practice consistent with the presentation of a convincing whole. Look at the photographs and see for yourself.

47

Engine Shed Retaining Wall Backscene Signal Box

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Platform 1A Platform Canopy

SCARBOROUGH CE T At \ \

'And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves

Chris LeachSEVERNMILL The daily grind

0; Perhaps the most refreshing thing about Chris Leach's t--........... own account ofSevern Mi11 is that it is described as a~=-:t=-:_~~;;;;;;;±;;;;;;;;;~L~~

fun layout. All the more impressive therefore is its success in illustrating the potential of narrow gauge for making the most ofa tiny space. IiisbuilttoO-16.5. That means 7mm scale on a track gauge of 16.5mm, approximating to a scale 2ft 4ins.

The mill is very much older than the narrow gauge railway which was built in 1878 to serve the local

\ woollen trade. The Great Western Railway came Water Tank Signal Cabin Station Engine Shed even later on the scene, constructing a standard

gauge branch from Shrewsbury to Bedsyde from which a siding approaches the mill.

Opposition by the local landowner prevented the GWR actually reaching the mill, with the result seen today: the 4ft 81/ 2ins metals only just creep onto the layout, necessitating either trans­shipment of goods or the use of special narrow gauge transporter Photograph wagons, as were in reality used on Chris Leach the Leek & Manifold Light Railway.

A two road fiddle yard is concealed at the back of the layout and con­nected to the public side by a 180' curve, mostly in tunnel. Trains emerge close to the mill before run­ninginto the diminutive station. As there are no run-round facilities shunting is carried out by two loco­motives.

And yes, the mill really is driven by water.

Water Mill

'Who turned the tap off?' Road Bridge

Peter Hardy 1637

Scarborough Central is one of a series of small layouts first de­scribed in Semaphore, journal of the Norwood MRC. Its proto­type arose from the awkward trailing junction at Falsgyave between the Scarborough & Whitby Railway and the NER. Whitby trains setting forth from the shorter, high numbered platforms on the south side of Scarborough station had to cross the main departure and arrival lines before reversing to gain access to Falsgrave tunnel and the coast line.

In the mid-1930s the LNER sought to reduce the summertime chaos alising from this inconvenient arrangement by extending Scarborough's long No.1 platform and incorporating a short bay - 1A - in the same face. Operation was then further improved by pelmitting locomotives to propel passenger trains into and out of platform lA, removing the need to run round on the main line.

Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand' Beside the Sea.side, John Betjema.n

The layout represents the immediate surroundings ofFaIsgrave tunnel mouth. Some fairly complex pointwork, including a single slip, pelmits an intIicate series of shunting movements. Two imposing McKenzie & Holland signal gantIies span the main tracks. The tunnel's single track saw not only the local workings to Whitby and Middlesbrough but also considerable traffic to and from Gallows Close goods yard and Northstead carriage sidings lying just beyond the north portal. These are represented at the right hand end ofthe layout by two short lengths oftrack and a low relief goods shed.

The fiddle yard also breaks cover at the left hand end ofthe layout through a loco shed, again in low relief. The 'tunnel' itself conceals a double slip, an uncommon feature in a fiddle yard but a useful space-saver.

48

Goods Shed

WEST BROCKTON Severn Valley similitude Mike Williams 7862

One decision the layout builder must face, un­less he is blessed with almost unlimited time, is whether to give priority to operation or detail. In constructing West Brockton, Mike Williams has plumped for the latter: a glance at his exquisite station buildings will explain why. The attention to detail - from rain-water pipes

to roses, £launchings to fire buckets - makes an immediate impression on the eye. This is a real railway building. Any moment now the back door will swing open and out will come the stationmaster's wife, a basket of washing under her arm and half a dozen of the gypsy's best wooden clothes pegs in her mouth. You would have thought that she of all people should know that a sooty 0-6-0 on the pick-up goods always shunts the yard on Monday afternoons!

Its shunting done, the washing ruined, the recalcitrant will slink off in the direction of Shrewsbury, looking for fresh clean sheets at Eardington or newly laundered shirts at Bridgnorth. For this is the Sevem Valley Railway, in modern times surely one of the most gazed-upon stretches of line in the country. And it is these modern times that Mike has chosen to model, realising like another of our contributors that the preservation scene offers almost un­limited scope for indulging personal preferences for both locomotives and other rolling stock.

West Brockton itself is of course fictitious, though anyone who has travelled along the SVR will probably spend some time trying to work out which ofthe stations through which he passed this is! A fairly simpIe through station, it includes the inevitable passing loop, supplemented by modest siding accommodati{)n. The running line disappears into a sur­rounding loft, providing about 3ft of shunting space at each end of the layout. Such a design readily lends itself to conversion into a continuous run where space permits. But that might encourage more operation, at the expense of all that lovely detail; life is full of compromises.

Platform 1 Station Building

Platform 2 Waiting Shelter Road Bridge

Photographs Mike Williams

Inspector Bull arrives to investigate the disappearance of the signal box

Boat Sheds

o

'The Ship Aground'

'From where the coastguard houses stood One used to see, below the hill,

The lichened branches of a wood In summer silver-cool and still'

Trebetherick, John Be~jeman

Pilot's House

ROGPOOL Tony Collins 6995

Somewhere in Cornwall, should your search be sufficiently diligent, you will stumble upon Frogpool. But be warned; many another has searched in vain' Fortunately Tony Collins' miniature reconstruction is more easily accessible and at exhibition quickly gathers an enraptured audience.

In truth itis something ofa mongrel: station building from Adlestrop; signal box from Burghclere; lamp room and stores from Tetbury. For an exercise such as this the likes of Paul Karau's Grea.t Western Branch Line Termini and Chris Leigh's GWR Country Sta.tions are indispensable.

The sector plate has two functions, as a fiddle yard and to complete the loco release arrangements. Thus when a passenger train arrives at the passenger platform the loco runs round via the loop to the sector plate, before backing onto the train. When the train departs the sector plate resumes its fiddle yard role.

When a goods train, comprising perhaps a covered van, a couple Photographs Tony Collins' collection of open wagons and a brake van, arrives in the loop the first

vehicle is uncoupled and shunted into the goods shed. The loco then runs round the remainder of the train, by way of the platform road and the sector plate, and positions the open wagons in the coal siding. Before reassembling the train the loco and brake van then wait in the adjacent headshunt, clear of the loop, while another passenger train arrives and departs.

'But Dad, we'd rather stay on the beach!'

50

Sector Plate Road Bridge Signal Cabin Lamp Room Srarion Building Lamp Hut

Permanent Way Hut Coal Office

•• •••

Grounded Carriage Body Signal Box Sector Plate

/

Hydraulic Crane Harbour Master's Office Gravel Loading

OR IHGWYN Authentic unauthenticity

Emlyn Davies 5901 and fellow members of the Merseyside MRS

When George Borrow strode south from Caernarfon to Ffestiniog in the autumn of 1854 he seems to have ignored entirely the isolated peaks and quiet coves of the Lleyn Peninsula. Ifhis feet did deviate westwards his travelogue Wild Wales makes no mention of it. Of one thing we can be certain: he did not set eyes on Porth Gwyn, for it is fictitious. Or so thought the members of Merseyside MRS until at one exhibition two elderly gentlemen, having studied the layout at length, offered congTatulations on capturing so accu­rately the Porth Gwyn they remembered visiting for boyhood holidays. There's real authenticity for you!

It is supposed that the Cambrian Railway, ever short of cash, sought an outlet to tap the lucrative Irish sea trade. The directors' eyes lighted upon Porth Gwyn, a small natural harbour on the Lleyn Peninsula, be­tween the LNWR's Holyhead to the north and the GWR's Fishguard to the south.

The small quayside caters for general merchandise and the export of gravel, but despite those early, gTandiose plans local fishermen find plenty ofspace to land their catches and mend nets. Not surprisingly there is boat building and repair, albeit on a modest scale. The left hand end ofthe layout, starting at The Ship Aground, is an afterthought. It features a small creek off the harbour and, though it carries only a single piece oftrack, creates a most attractive setting.

Essentially this is a shunting layout with a high degree of scenic interest. The occasional appearance of a passenger excursion of four or six wheeled car­riages brings operational variety. Just occasionally there is a foreign visitor in the shape of a George England LNWR well tank with Mr Worthington's inspection saloon - a lovely little train.

... ... ~. '" '"

Photographs Emlyn Davies 51

Storage Sidings Cattle Dock Station Buildings

Quarry Loop

L..-IU:-+.....""1- sector Plate

Photograph Brian Anderson

RYECROFT M LL Curvaceous cunning

Brian Anderson 2666

When space is limited the move from a straight layout to an L-shape brings with it the challenges of curvature.

Rather than set a single minimum radius Brian Anderson has been selective. On the pas­senger platform road a comparatively large radius of 7ft has been used for appearance' sake, while on the running line approaching the station the radius tightens to half this figure. In the station area generally the minimum curvature is 4ft radius, reducing to 3ft 6ins on the crossovers.

Although the layout measures little more than 9ft by 8ft overall, the platform will accommodate three bogie caniages and the middle reception road in the station six wagons.

Set between the wars in former North Eastern Railway territory -all slotted signal posts and spiky milemarkers - Ryecroft Mill handles a wide range of traffic. On the NER coal drops are almost de rigueur but the inclusion of limestone from a nearby quarry is less common; Brian suggests Weardale as a likely setting.

The quany siding and its stone loading equipment serve another purpose in concealing the unusual fiddle yard arrangement: unusual in that its storage sidings are on display as part of the station environs. The chosen anangement, using a single reception road close to the edge of the baseboard, maximises the space available for the station.

The loop in the quarry siding is optional but avoids long propelling movements and also adds operational interest. The provision of a second crossover in the station yard allows a goods train to enter the yard and the engine to run round while the platform road is occupied. Because there are relatively few storage sidings it is a gTeat convenience to leave carriages there between trips.

52

LACK LAKE SID GS The two~faced layout Jim Read 4482

Like many a good layout it all began with the name, in this case an area to the north ofWest Bromwich. Then came the discovery of the Black Lake Foundry Company's fonner premises. Now a foundry would not only send out castings but draw in coal or coke, metals, chemicals and timber. Nearby were a couple of spring factories; more coal, coke and steel. And there was a pie factory; even more coal plus animals on the hoof- or trotter. Here then was the potential for a varied goods traffic and a corresponding vari ­ety of goods stock. A workmen's platform would justify the use of one small carriage.

Having settled the name and the traffic Jim Read turned his mind to the question ofportability. He knew he could comfortably transport and carry a single 5ft by 2ft baseboard without fear of problems with the Guild's illicit-use-of-steroids-by-exhibitors committee so the overall dimensions were set. At exhibition it might prove possible to add one or two small extension boards to

Fig. 1

lengthen individual sidings, but essentially the layout was to be self-contained. The dice were cast. The opening throw compl"ised four pamllel roads linked by a ladder ofthree crossovers (Fig.!). This results in just two sidings and no fewer than six headshunts, offering minimal capacity for rolling stock. Substitution of three-way points brought distinct benefits ofcompression and increased the number of sidings to four (Fig.2). It was then that the idea of

Fig. 2 :s abandoning the strictly rectangular baseboard and opening up the trackplan into two separate gl'OUpS of sidings joined by a wagon exchange road produced the essentials of the final layout (Fig.3).

Fig. 3

The clothed version, now under construction, is shown in the main plan. The gap opened up in the centre ofthe layout is filled by wagon turntables over which traffic is worked by capstans, a la John Allison.

That's not quite the end of the story however, for Jim has one further novelty in store. Viewing from one side of the layout the observer sees Black Lake Sidings, But if the baseboard is turned round the viewer is presented with Moxley Road, another indus­trial scene but of a different era. So with quick reversal and a change of rolling stock one is transported from, say, the pre­grouping world to a distinct whiff of diesel exhaust. Well it's either that or the smell of the pie factory - you must choose for yourself.

'Now over Polegate vastly sets the sun; Dark rise the Downs from darker looming elms,

And out of Southern Railway trains to tea Run happy boys down various Station Roads'

ALFR STON Original Sin on the Sussex Coast, John BetjemanRichard Barton 7714

The Cuckmere Valley Light Railway -later the East Sussex Light prototype examples include nearby Newhaven (LBSCR), Bembr­Railway - follows the course of a line projected in the 1890s but idge and Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, and St Albans (LNWR). never built. From a junction at Berwick on the LBSCR between

Just two turnouts complete the essentials ofthe layout. In addi­Lewes and Polegate it follows the Cuclanere River for a couple of

tion, however, interest is added to the station throat area by twomiles to a terminus at Alfriston, beneath the South Downs,

sidings emerging respectively from engine and carriage sheds. These are accessible from a sector plate beyond the scenic break;

Richard Barton has produced a design for Alfriston station which fUlther reducing the need for pointwork.

is remarkable both for its compactness and its economy of pointwork. The key to these features lies in the 25ft turntable for Buildings on the layout follow no particular prototype but reflect loco release to the run-round loop. This is a comparatively the influence of both the Brill Tramway and Colonel Stephens' unusual feature but was not unknown in the nineteenth century; empu'e.

Sector Plate Carriage Shed Ground Frame Station Building Parcels Office

Engine Shed Workshop Water Tank Coaling Stage Hinge Goods Dock 53

Starion Building Signal Cabin Facrory

88 G\

, I

RIVENDELL Adapting to circumstances Derek King 4674

Having decided that 0 Gauge would provide an ideal introduction to railway modelling for his young son, and identified a suitable bedroom site, Derek King sat down to consider what use might be made ofthe lOft by 2ft space then avail­able. After eliminating an industrial scene - too exacting for small fingers - and a number of other possibilities his self-imposed design brief became the re­creation of a small country station.

A fundamental decision was to run a fiddle yard along the whole length of the layout. While reducing the width available for the visible, scenic area this brought the advantage of extra storage space, permitting a greater variety of stock to be run. Access to this hidden realm is gained by way of a sector plate

.g <:: whose entrance is disguised by an angled footbridge.

~ (f)

To give the impression of a through station a road overbridge spans the tracks at the other end ofthe passenger platform, creating a more conventional scenic break. Originally this marked the extremity of the layout, but a subsequent change of site has yielded a further precious foot or so of space beyond the road bridge, an area now occupied by a short off-scene traverser.

The platfOIID road and the sector plate will hold comfortably a locomotive of modest dimensions and two carriages. The siding serving the cattle dock and coal merchant will accommodate up to six wagons. Originally a further two could be left in the adjacent road while.still permitting an 0-6-0T to run round via the loop. However with run­round now possible by way of the traverser the loop has been converted into another siding, substantially increasing the on-view storage space.

Having plundered Tolkien for the layout's name Derek is remarkably reticent on ,the subject of hobbits and the like, but who knows what miniature figures may emerge from that hidden realm of a fiddle yard after the lights have been turn­ed out Is the rolling stock always in the same position next morning?

Goods Shed

54

~VENTRY (SMJ ) The storm clouds gather Richard Allen 0053

frons tone Siding

It is July 1912. A small 2-4-0T sets out southwards from Daventry (SMJR) for Byfield. AB the passengers gaze from the pair ofStratford-on-Avon & Midland Junction Railway six-wheeled car­riages at the smoke rolling gently away across the sunlit Northamptonshire countryside they are blissfully unaware of events that will unfold just two years hence.

After calling at Newnham and then Everdon Road the train pulls up at Woodford & Hinton, a rela­tively new junction station dating from the opening of the Great Central's London extension. Its connecting services to Marylebone have brought new life to this rural backwater, previously un­able to compete for London traffic with the LNWR's service via Weedon.

As the train leaves Woodford a few passengers remain on board, most travelling only to Byfield but one or two intending to change there onto the SMJR main line between Stratford and Blisworth.

The London extension has also brought a second, shorter branch to Daventry: leaving the GCR main line a few miles south of the famous lattice girder bridge across the LNWR main line at Rugby, it approaches Daventry from the north-west and joins the SMJR branch at Daventry Junction, a short distance from the terminus.

LNWR

Ironstone Sidings

Charwefton

SMJR

To Stratford-on-Avon sMJR

To Bfisworth

To London

Richard Allen assumes that both branches are worked from their respective main lines. This saves space at Daventry by obviating the need for a loco shed. and also brings a greater variety of motive power. There is also variety among the rolling stock: carriages in SMJR and GCR liveries; a daily through coach to Marylebone; ironstone traffic from the nearby quarry; and a works train complete with SMJRtool van engaged intermittently on extension of the goods facilities

All curves on the layout are some 11ft in radius. Running the track diagonally across the baseboard both avoids a reverse curve and opens up triangular spaces for the station buildings and goods yard

The unusual fiddle yard is focused on an 18in turntable, long enough for the usual pair of carriages or a small loco and one wagon. Trains are assembled on the running line; a loco first, under its own power, and the vehicles by finger power. Depar­tures from Daventry run straight onto the turntable. The ironstone siding also leads directly to the turntable; as it must double as the headshunt for the loading bank and cattle dock it cannot be used for storage.

55

'I see the little branch line go By white fanns roofed in red and brown,UPWOL

The old Great Eastern winding slow To some forgotten country town'

Essex, John BetjemanAndrew Walls

Just such a small EastAnglian country town is Upwole, terminus of a single track branch with one intermediate station. Although these are the early BR years the local passenger trains generally consist of two or three ageing, non-corridor Holden or Gresley car­riages. In the summer months holidaymakers' specials arrive from further afield bringing more exotic stock and locomotives.

Goods traffic is diverse: agricultural machinery, fertilisers and feedstuffs, coal, and milk from local dairies. There is also sub­stantial movement of livestock, including pedigree cattle and horses from several studs in the vicinity. YOITocks the donkey­a noted local character often to be seen in a small field adjoining the station - sometimes wishes he too had a pedigree, though come to think of it he can't quite remember why.

This layoutis an excellent example ofthe advantage gained by in­corporating a fiddle yard or traverser within the overall track plan rather than tacking it on at the end as a separate, blank­faced entity. In this instance it is the goods yard which is carried along the front of the traverser area, improving both visual impact and operational convenience.

Operation is further enhanced by the inclusion of a second run­round facility, in the goods yard. This allows the shunting of goods wagons to proceed independently of the handling ofpassen­ger trains, improving the interest of working for viewer and operator alike.

Station Building

Goods Platform

/

56

Photographs Barrie Walls

That's all, folks!'

Signal Box Traverser

57

Cattle Dock Coal