Childhood models: Didcot, Jameston, Robington and St Andrews...

I've shared in earlier 'Childhood models' updates about feeling very lucky to have grown up with two model railways, and a best friend who had another. Today I'm going to share some photos (old prints) from the British outline layout in our single garage 'train room'...

These are in no particular order I'm afraid, but I'll try and describe the layout, the place names refer to the track plan (not to scale and drawn from memory) here:

The first photo, at the top of this post, is the diesel depot, shown centre top of the plan. This was hard to reach as it was over a big steam engine shed, you can see a Lima 31, 33 (inside the shed) and 60 on shed. Some modern wagons are on the long loop siding at the front, I still have the Tiphook one. A Bachmann Class 4 and GWR liveried Mk1 'support coach' are in the steam depot, the Class 4 on the access tracks...

Here a Bachmann Class 46, with un-realistic embellishments that I'd copied from Tinsley's fleet of 45s, on the loop line where the Tiphook wagon is in the top photo - The peak was a lovely smooth powerful runner, but lacked the finesse of a Lima model in terms of the bodywork.

Dinmore Manor was a Bachmann model and is seen here on the branch line between Jamestown/Jameston and Robington. The tracks here were quite close together but vertically different heights - this top level of the branch was a good 3-4 inches lower than the double track mainline behind. 

A photo of the Didcot shed area, you can see a Replica 57ft BG under the parcel office in the background, that was a lovely model and my only decent Mk1! The steam depot has a repainted Bachmann 57xx (7754), Dinmore Manor just weathered out of the box Bachmann, a Mainline Collett goods (seem in a previous Childhood post), behind that is the Standard 4 BR2 tender - at front Maniobier castle - an ancient GMR / Airfix tender drive model that I had been given as a baby! I repainted it and added full lining and nameplates, we used to go on holiday to Manobier, explaining the choice of name.

This photo was taken a few years ago when we sold the house - the layout was scattered with debris and hadn't been run for years, but I wanted to share it as it shows the impressive GWR engine shed my Dad built in plywood overlaid with styrene sheets. He was particularly pleased with the roof lights, which were printed acetate sheet... out of shot was his magnificent GWR coaling tower, a real work of art - alas I don't think I have any photos of that anymore.

This is another shot taken when we were selling the house - showing the station at Jameston on the mainline, with the branch station below. Despite all being packed into the shed, the layout had lovely flowing curves to the track work and didn't feel cramped. 

A Bachmann Class 4 at Jameston on the rake of Centenary coaches, that came with the GMR Castle. This was before I added a connection between the two lines here, so that trains could leave the station on the right track of the mainline.

The final photo, my Bachmann Pannier, and an old GWR Lima railcar (I still have the latter) at Robington. The engine shed had been a joint project between my little brother Andrew and my Dad, but didn't fit at his named station so ended up at Robington! The station building was a GWR waiting room that my Grandpa had scratch built in styrene in the 70s - I still have that too... some of the trees in the background made it on to Creech Bottom, and more recently East Works. The fenceposts were all salvaged too, and I've a healthy stock of these despite being nearly out of the trees! The Pannier was sold however, as it was a poor runner.

These pictures don't really do the layout justice, but it was before the days of digital cameras and I struggled to get photos with my normal camera. These were probably taken on my Canon SLR in the mid 1990s. It's a trip down memory lane for me - I'll share some more about the second layout, the Canadian monolith another time. More soon...