Purbeck lament…
More years ago than I care to remember I built Creech Bottom, a gloriously rose tinted slice of never-been narrow gauge on the Purbeck heath…
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| Quintus, scratchbuilt on a Minitrains chassis, now in the collection of Stephen Fulljames |
It was built during a time of innocent excitement in the 009 world, where Peco were bringing out ready to run wagons and Minitrains made wonderfully running models. I learnt my craft of multimedia kits in this gentle world, developing the first Narrow Planet steam locomotive kit with help and support from Steve at Light Railway Stores, the O&K.
Looking back I miss the artful approach. Combining scratchbuilt locomotives with modified plastic kit rolling stock the whole took on a coherent look, cute too, as I often played with proportion to ‘suit’ the narrow gauge. My 009 collection today is mostly Eastern European in flavour with a smattering of US - but I’ve held on to a few scratchbuilt models - namely the Sand Hutton ‘Waril’ and Black Hawthorn ‘Brian Clarke’. More recent re-imagining of an 009 layout has been overseas, before that Ridge was a strong contender - but this was to use the larger kit and RTR engines in my collection. What if we went back to basics, what if I revisited the purest of imaginary creations, what if I built another 009 model from scratch?
But where to start? The plethora of RTR or ‘plonk on’ bodies described as kits covers a lot of the typical (and sometimes not to typical) examples. That being said there is a sketch in one of my notebooks showing an 009’d version of Thames, the Manning Wardle that ran on the Norden system before it was regained to 2ft… I’d planned to use a Minitrains Krauss chassis, so a Bachmann Percy might work?
Or perhaps all this nostalgia is fuelled by the usual heady mix of first coffee and dog aroma on a Sunday morning. However things pan out, these reflections filled me with warm memories and good intention. Until next time, more soon…
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Glad to have been able to give Quintus a home - she fits right in. https://fairlightworks.narrowplanet.co.uk/2025/03/dress-rehearsal/
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve - and it's lovely to see the small but perfectly formed 'home' for Quintus develop - good luck with the show!
DeleteI've been wondering what to do about 009. I did give it up almost completely for about a decade after I got into 0-14, sold nearly all my stuff and thought I was done with it. Got back into it again in around 2008, resurrected an old layout and built several locos and quite a bit of stock.
ReplyDeleteAfter several years of little activity (partly due to the RTR onslaught, which nearly saw me give up again), I'm currently working on getting my Inglenook back into its APA box, which will at least protect it and allow the odd excursion to shows or whatever. I've sold a lot of the accumulated stash, mainly to finance other things, leaving me with enough locos and rolling stock (mostly complete, with enough projects that I don't need to buy any more) for a small layout or two, though for now it's more about finishing things off.
Good luck with whatever you do, James...I guess the thing is to make a start and see how you feel about it.
Cheers,
Simon.