At the interchange...

For some time I’ve pondered the idea of a small layout where instead of the locomotives being the actor, it’s the rolling stock that takes centre stage...
This stems from memories of Bristol Harbour railway as a child, watching the coal trains come, go and be shunted down the branch from Ashton Gate, across the new cut and into the harbour side coal depot of Western Fuel Company. The fledgling preservation effort on the dock railway saw the Peckett, Henbury give brakevan rides at the weekends, but the overgrown track with a mix of cinder ballast and inlaid road surface with complex point work was a young boys dream.

Of course my real passion wasn’t just the trains, but in particular the Hudswell Clarke diesel, bright yellow and bedecked with wasp stripes. I had a pair of Matchbox trains I took everywhere, the yellow diesel (or course) and Duck (which I think I’ve got in my hand above - excuse the shorts!)

The reason I’m sharing this because it’s this emotional connection to place that is more important to me than strict prototype accuracy. What this scheme intends to demonstrate is a concept, not a finished article. It’s not a new idea, switching loaded wagons with empties, but I’ve applied it to a prototype that sings to me, and one that fits very neatly with the concept.
Prototype photos Paul Stanford.

I’ve talked before about marrying available space to prototype, in this case I’d envisage this to take up one wall of a single garage and viewed at about 50” from the ground to give a view into the scene from above, and aid operation. The sector plates are not covered, to make things easier, and couplings at the end of the fixed coal rakes would be better if automatic. The layout could be presented as a cameo, with a lighting pelmet and wings, but would also suit a more traditional board and backscene approach with lighting overhead.

It would be possible to model different eras by a few different rakes of wagons. I’d probably ring the changes from the 1960s to 1980s with a rake of 16t, a rake of the later 21t hoppers and then a rake of the air brakes Railfreight branded HEAs. A BR blue 08 would work loaded trucks in from the right, run round, collect empties and leave. The industrial diesel, perhaps a Ruston, or a ex BR 03 or 04 in yellow (in lieu of the Hudswell Clarke) could collect the loaded trucks, and replace them with more empties. In might be necessary to have two tracks under the terraced houses along the back of the layout, details that would need evolving once a given space was allocated. The preservation movement could be replicated by a Hornby B2, GWR toad plus a few random wagons dotted about on the harbour side. The key to giving the character of the docks is both the mix of track type AND the steam crane in the centre of the scene which would need scratchbuilding.

I hope what this goes to show is that layouts don’t need off stage fiddle yards amd staging. If your space is limited in length perhaps a little extra depth and some creative thinking might give you operation you didn’t envisage possible. I’m happy to work with you to design your own dream layout, in addition to offering a cameo layout design and build service. Get in touch to discuss this more, until next time, more soon...

EDIT: Photos in the illustration are by Paul Stanford, author of the book ‘50 years of railways around Bristol’, published by Strathwood.

Comments

  1. I think there's a lot of opportunity to be explored in this style of layout operation and considering the question of how we can use staging as more than just a place in the sky where trains go to or come from. A few years ago I was playing with an idea for a very small layout (my A Side B Side: https://princestreet.wordpress.com/2018/06/11/9562/) where the plan was a lot like what you're proposing as something we move wagons around outside the main game board.

    I struggle with a sense of space and travel within the confines of the cameo scene. These kinds of plans don't need anything to go anywhere as they explore the context of what is happening here. You could even further amplify this sense by muting the decoration and details on the wagons to almost generic forms in strong contrast to high levels of finish and detail on the engines so that contrast in resolution between the wagons and the engines is like a spotlight to guide attention to what is happening what is its echo.


    Chris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like this idea of two sided two person operation...
      Here that could work with the BR and industrial crews running their turns separately, or with DCC in parallel.
      All I need is the space, the time, the money and a co-conspirator...

      Delete
    2. That's another of those triangles eh? space-plan-collaborator

      I don't feel like it's something we hear of as much in American modelling but certainly it seems so often in British model railways--perhaps more because of the exhibition layouts and the frequency of their creation compared to the rate at which modules and modular layouts are regarded here? It's fun to think of projects that could be built together and with friends. When I was young one local modeller was really the epicentre of our club and his layout was open for our contribution so we each took turns making things for it. It's a different composition when its representative of what we create together compared to what we create to share with someone else.

      Chris

      Delete
    3. I sometimes wish I lived closer to modelling friends... I have done in the past, but even then we've never managed those joint projects we chew over. The feeling of running each others layouts, and sharing rolling stock is fun though, and something I've missed over the past 12 months.

      Delete
  2. I see you have used two of my photographs taken at Wapping Wharf without my permission - which were published on the Bristol Harbour Railway blog - please either remove them or do the decent thing and credit them to me and highlight my book 50 Years of Railways Around Bristol; which also features the shots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My sincere apologies, they were saved without a credit and then despite trying to retrace my steps I couldn’t find where I’d saved them from, if you let me have your name and a link to the book I’ll happily update the original post.

      Delete
  3. Thanks for responding quickly. The shot of saddle tank Henbury was by my father John Stanford taken October 1981. The Hudswell diesel was caught by me, Paul Stanford, in July 1985. They feature in my 2nd railway book https://www.amazon.co.uk/50-Years-Railways-Around-Bristol/dp/1857945662

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for leaving a comment on my blog - I appreciate you taking the time to share your views. If you struggle to log in, please turn off the ‘block cross-site tracking’ setting in your browser.

James.