Stage inspired by the actor...

Childhood hey, that period in our lives where our carefree imagination dreams of all that is possible. Narrowing in on railways I always had a favourite, ever since I can remember, first of all ‘Duck’ from Thomas the Tank Engine, then later GWR Panniers of all types...

A fairly recent line up of my Pannier collection, all modern Bachmann.

As I grew older I read and absorbed all I could of my Grandpa’s GWR book collection, moving on from my original Hornby 8750 style tank to a more elaborate Bachmann Branchline rehash of the original Mainline 57xx. I bought plates from the 7754 society at Llangollen, so my own model became one I could see in real life, if I remember mine was finished before theirs was, in BR black... when they painted theirs Great Western, I painted mine... 

My first ‘grown up’ Bachmann Branchline circa 1994 57xx Pannier, 7754, on my childhood layout my Dad built.

Further exploration and development of my passion came when I chose to build a Nu-cast kit of the 16xx as my second ever kit and etched chassis model, one that I ended up selling to Modelu’s Alan Buttler on eBay! Anyhow, that 16xx made a real impression. I loved the look of its small wheels, yet nearly full size body, but squat next to everything else. Photos of the prototypes on single coach trains on the Cardigan branch caught my imagination and I saw there, a layout I could build and imagine myself...

Alan’s photo, my 16xx with a chimney he added... it was a neat kit, and ran, to a fashion.

Fast forward 25 years and I’m living near Llangollen. My interest in general railway history has me trawling local history books and railway titles, I stumble upon a photo of the Ruabon Brook Tramway... my heart stops, a 16xx squeezed between a cutting, the main road and the engineering works, the line dropping away to the right... absolutely hooked in that one second. My thoughts of recreating this bit of local history started right away... inspired by a Chris Nevard trick of using a 3 way point I figured I could build an incredibly detailed and charismatic little layout in around 3ft... and by twisting reality and taking inspiration from ‘the best bits’ of the branch. I even began work on collecting some models for this, but then a combonation of factors saw the project take a back seat...

This pair of wagons were first built from childhood wagons.

Until this arrived... 

The Model Rail 16xx by Rapido... front NEM mount aside, this is a beautiful model, it is weighty, slow running out of the box with fine detail, surpassing even Bachmann’s latest 94xx Pannier in the detail stakes, look at the tank top lift rings! Even better, the motion between the frames...

I am in love...

Out comes the digital sketch book and original my plans, the juices flowing again...

This scheme is an interesting one, it was drawn before my more recent flurry of design where I’ve been thinking about distilling some of the principles I use in the process. It is perhaps the natural unconscious result of these same ideas... it is interesting to reflect which have been used in its gestation.

By the 1950s all that was left of the Ruabon Brook Tramway was a stub, now accessed from the J C Edward’s private siding that left the back of the goods yard at Trevor, winding tightly behind back gardens and dropping quite sharply down towards the Llangollen Canal before serving the aforementioned brick and tile works as well as crossing a narrow embankment behind terraced houses to Monsanto Chemicals before climbing the bank up to Hughes and Lancaster in Acrefair, the latter accessed by a problematic trailing spur requiring shunting across the main road. In addition a private siding left the station at Trevor serving another brick works owned by Robert and Maginnis at Garth. The prototype was worked by these light weight Panniers, requiring good traction for the steeply graded route, hauling short trains serving just a few industrial customers...

My design draws on these influences and steals a basic two turnout plan, using a three way point to add an extra siding, into a compact scheme used by Chris Nevard on the wonderful first version of Brew Street. The plan offered a pair of customers, with a tricky kick back siding and it struck me that drawing on the inspiration of the prototype with quite a big dose of modellers license a scheme that feels like the area could be produced in a small space. 

Unlike previous designs this one makes the most of the vertical... the size of the customer buildings and the gradients involved, the mix of cuttings and embankments meant this could be used to add real interest... the eye starts on the top left, naturally, following the top line, taking in the cropped scene before wandering to the underpass, drawing you to bend down, stop, peer through down the road, just as a Pannier crossed the bridge above and brings you into the scene entirely. From time to time a locomotive from the Brick works scurries out and leaves or collects wagons from the front siding whilst the branch train shunts both the works, and the brick works siding whilst leaving wagons and the brake on the main, not usual operation but hey, this is almost industrial in nature and the prototype... 

What is fascinating with this scheme, is how it’s inspired as much by the emotion from the ‘lead actor’ alone, as much as the location. Sometimes it can be just this that turns a scheme into a successful project, motivation to drive things forwards. When I begin a scheme, I try to understand what is driving me, sometimes it’s the prototype industry, or perhaps the location, it could be a memory or it may be the locomotives. Understanding this is important because it informs what follows, it needs to be front and centre of your layout design. In the meantime, now I have the ‘actor’ sorted for this project... no space for it, but the energy and passion as I’ve said stems from that childhood love of Panniers, a chance to relive that fascination with the characterful little locomotives and mixed with a local interest. However, even if I don’t build Ruabon Brook, it will look great on Pont-y-dulais once dirtied up, and worst case, and it’s certainly no worse, it could always provide motive power for a Cardigan branch shelf micro in the future...