The Indian summer at Creech Bottom, 1968…
There are just a few more years before abandonment of the tramway at Creech Bottom, the last deep mine working in the Purbeck ball clay field…
It was a sweltering hot summer, reminiscent of this year, and the driver has gone under the loader for some shade from the unrelenting sunshine. The Ruston, originally used in North Devon, sports the side frame extensions seem on any Ruston that was above or below 600mm gauge, the line at Creech being 2ft3. Today, a number of excellent books on the tramways are available authored by Chris left and published by Twelveheads Press, although you may struggle to find details of, or find the mine at Creech Bottom on a map…
Looking back at this photo from 2015 I am still very happy with the layout. It was the first I had finished for many years, my first foray into serious 009 and my first exhibition layout. Built upon an IKEA ‘Lack’ shelf it was just over a metre long and just under a foot deep with a two road sector plate hidden behind the mine in this photo… what it taught me was my feelings around palette choice, neatness of finish and recycling were something that would carry on through my modelling in a personal capacity in the years to follow. You can see a bit more on the old EHLR site here. Until next time, more soon…
This is such a beautiful layout. I never get tired of seeing photos of it and while I believe you when you say how large it is I have so much trouble reconciling that dimension in my head against what appears in the photos. The choices you made on colour and texture as well as the various sight lines cast through each scene constantly make it seem so much larger!
ReplyDeleteThe humble colour choices on the rolling stock so beautifully feed into the narrative of the railway maintaining its physical plant as well as it can if not what they'd like to. It's easy to feel how visiting this would relay a sense of hope and confidence in place because, well, the future is a long way's into, well, the future.
Thank you for the update!
Chris
Well it’s long gone, it met the skip a few years ago before I subsequently built the more ambitious ‘East Works’, also now left but sold to an admirer rather than scrapped. I’ve a feeling the subject will be revisited in the future…
DeleteI had a look at the link and this is an excellent little layout ... both scenery and operational wise ... the choice of backdrop add so much depth to the layout ... excellent work James!
ReplyDeleteThat’s very kind Rob, it was a great layout but sadly lives on only in my memory.
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