Bleak Bland Bubble…

Next month you will find one of my N gauge layouts in the mainstream press. The resultant fee has already been recycled into another purchase, another gateway model, the Dapol N gauge 'bubble car', the humble Class 121 (or 122)...

I have almost bought one of these several times over the past year or so - the perfect 'HiFi' DMU, short enough to maximise running length on even the smallest of layouts. In reality, the saviour of a number of characterful branch lines and today, synomous with small layouts. As Wrecsam Canalog draws to a close the idea of undertaking a second small HiFi appealed and whilst scouring my list of 'single line branch terminus' settled on developing two ideas a little further.

The first is Stourbridge Town - and set in the 80s before the station was rebuilt with new platform and building. The austere bus shelter and winter setting feels bleak AND bland - the only colour being the yellow ends of the humble DMU. In N the scheme allows a subtle flow in the track, a caricature of the prototype. In OO things feel more intimate - and some horizontal compression and artistic licence will be required - but both ideas sing to me, what do you think?

Stourbridge Town - illustration by James Hilton, photos Jonathan Haven (https://flic.kr/p/ahNDvH) and Don Gatehouse (https://flic.kr/p/2mfKSz4).

The second idea was inspired by a photo I saw on Facebook of the Severn Beach terminus with waiting bubble car, a cold winters day, a lady on the platform in warm coat, braced against the weather. Bleak and bland, the distant chemical works providing a moody silouette against a wintry overcast and otherwise bland sky. Recreating to scale would be difficult in a HiFi but drawing inspiration and re-framing the key components would allow a small N scale scene packed full of character. The trains ran into Platform 1 at Temple Meads - a characterful photo taken at night really had the feeling of a single line terminus, despite the wider station beyond. I wonder, perhaps in O, you could really go to town on a view 'from' the platform, with the window at platform level, and the trackbed below the HiFi's frame. LEDs could be hidden in the lid to ape platform lighting, perhaps even the TV screen could light up with the destination!

Severn Beach branch - illustration by James Hilton, photos Roger Goodrum (https://flic.kr/p/DPL8mg) and Don Gatehouse (https://flic.kr/p/2nf1vpL)

Of course, these are just a pair of a long list of suitable projects - but two that I felt compelled to illustrate. Will either be built, I'm not sure, I'm keen to try out a winter setting and have a few ideas I'd like to try, so perhaps a Mosslanda with the Severn Beach idea is the way to proceed? Who know, perhaps if I do a third then I'd have a trilogy of Mosslanda SLTs? Perhaps their very own exhibition? 

Let me know what you think - or if you'd like help designing your own dream layout then my layout design service starts from £175. Until next time, more soon...

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