Another project for The Collector, and another Micro Layout. Even with more space to work with at the moment in the new house, I really need to break this habit of making micro layouts and start doing more imaginative, larger projects...
The roots of this go back to last year, and the National Open Gardens Scheme- out Wressle way, there's a house where the late Colin Shutt decided to build himself a light railway on his land, in best British Eccentric Fashion. If I had the land and more importantly the money, I'm sure I'd do the same!
A private preserved railway is something of an oddity in this country, there aren't many such lines, and the rare open day was bringing out the enthusiasts. Me and Elder Child called in as part of a grand-tour of small preserved railways in the area, getting fodder for articles.
Interesting mix of buildings- this 'fake' house alongside the line being a particular oddity.
Anyway, thoughts turned to making a micro layout inspired by this, and given Hornby make a lovely model of the Ruston 48ds, it seemed good subject fodder for The Collector. And then the house move happened, so it didn't get started for nearly a year.
I started by the usual method of raiding boxes and scraps for anything I could re-use; part of the aim of the project was to try some new techniques, and the Ready to Plant resin Skaledale models which I've not done much with before.
The initial plan, which was typically over the top. I was thinking in terms of making this a good micro layout with a lot of play potential. But I quickly fell out with this; not just the complexity of the folding board, which limited what scenic bits could go where, but also because it didn't capture the simplicity of the inspiration which had one loco, one set of points, and two wagons.
A change of plan saw a new board being quickly built to fill an underbed storage box.
More playing, to create a composition I was happy with. Yes there'll be a lot there, but I thought I could break it up with a few scenic features to disguise how small it really is.
I love having a water feature on any layout I do; this would be a small, shallow stream, using some more of the ripple-effect plasticard that I used for a seaside themed diorama.
More packing foam for landforms.
Simple, lightweight bridge from plasticard-covered foam and mountboard.
Lots of resin ready to plant walls, all bought second-hand. The tracklaying left something to be desired, though I'd be burying the majority under scatter and ballast. Basically the flexitrack was so flexible that I struggled to keep the sleeper spacing, and really should have re-laid it.
Static grass sheet, as a base layer for the final treatment. This stage of building a model always demoralises me, as it feels like it's never going to come together.
The real location; either side of the level crossing, the trackwork has a completely different character. Neat and tidy on the station and shed side, overgrown light-railway on the other.
I tried to replicate this on the model too, but then decided actually it looked a bit better with it all buried in scatter.
Using an ancient Hornby Dublo wagon with massive wheel flanges to clear troughs through the scatter, so the more modern Hornby models would run reliably.
I wanted lots of colourful flowers and plants around the layout, so broke up these 'flower hedges' into more manageable plants to put around the house and gardens.
Interior for the greenhouses. card shelves, and Javis hedges.
On the real railway, the shed is something of a lean-to.
Mine would be a little more ornate, just because I had a (Ratio?) platform canopy in the scrapbox, which I planned to attach to the side of the barn.
The real loco; a lovely Ruston 48ds, which is what inspired me to do the project. I have several of these awesome little Hornby models, but wanted a home for my first one that I'd bought.
I replaced the flat wagon however, adding benches to this one as a kind of improvised passenger vehicle.
The real railway has two wagons, but I thought that two would overpower my layout.
One of the views I really wanted, up the lane. The idea I wanted to try and convey was this was an old railway which bisected the grounds of a small, Lake District farm, and when the railway closed, the home-owner kept the length on his property. I ended up with a whole backstory of him being a Londoner who'd made his money as an architect, he was a lifelong railway enthusiast, and he'd bought the property specifically because of the railway when it was open. Being both rich and a Southerner, he is known as 'his Lordship' to all the locals.
The real house at the inspiration is surprisingly modern-looking.
I used a slightly older-looking house, picked up in one of Hornby's new-year sales.
I also added a bit more colour, not least because I had loads of adults and kids in bathing costumes and summer clothes, leftover from the seaside-themed diorama I'd just built at the same time. It made sense then to set this diorama in summer, and presume that some of the old farm buildings were now holiday cottages.
The summer house, where His Lordship ran his successful consultancy architecture business from; it started life as a shade for a set of ornate Christmas tree lights.
Hopefully this shows my attempts to break up the scene and disguise just how small the layout is, cramming it full of small cameos and angles.
One of my favourite views of the layout. In fact, this might be one of the favourite builds I've done, just for how colourful and jolly it turned out. OK so its a bit operationally limited, but I really like it nonetheless.
...aaaaaand in print.
Hopefully, a version (with a bit of creating writing) should be appearing in the Micro Model Railway Digest too.
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