Archive 7: Creech Grange 006.5…

It was all Tim's fault, one Christmas I visited him and he showed me his Busch feldbahn models commenting how well they might work in OO gauge as 18" or even 15" gauge models. Today's 'Archive' is about the layout that came from that, Creech Grange...

One thing led to another and the layout was born, a strange faux history linked it to my Purbeck 009 layouts and the 'estate railway' style allowed me to interchange Sand Hutton and Eaton Hall prototypes at my preference.

I was excited to exhibit it at ExpoNG in 2017, and then it featured in Railway Modeller as well - despite it's small size. The circular nature and split scenes was inspired by Belfield Hall, an 09 layout, and in my case the central spine of trees and structures, along with hedges and fence lines divided the layout into 4 distinct viewing windows. To accentuate the narrow-ness of the gauge, I also included a P4 siding with a Cooper Craft wagon I was very proud of when I was in my teens, with the OO wheelset pulled out to P4 and superglued in place.

The scale / gauge combination is the perfect blend of modulability, cuteness, narrow-ness and space saving character - and I hope all of the layouts I've built in this scale have encouraged others to play with it - until tomorrow, and the last in the Archive series, more soon...