 If you buy the British
Model Railway press, some of you may be familiar with my occasional ramblings and model railway photography. This website is
a chance to me to prove that I also mess about with the hobby in my spare time when not looking through a viewfinder or
tapping on a keyboard. It's also really nice to have an escape in this world that doesn't need 'F functions' or digits - and
if you get it all wrong 'CTRL Z' won't undo any mistakes!
Combwich took far too long to get to the
current stage, what you see here started in 1980. Over the years various bits of it have been replaced and modified, I think
now it has reached its final stage. The track, baseboards, signalbox and station buildings are the only original bits dating
back to the early stages. Most of the other bits like landscape were revamped fully from 2000 onwards after 15 years storage.
The wharf and river were recent additions too.
Cement Quay & Arne Wharf and now Catcott Burtle have
taken far less time, months
rather than years. These days I have less patience and get bored quickly, so keeping the layouts small is the way to go if
ever they are to get to some stage of completion. However saying this, a large simple roundy roundy does appeal - as I
imagine sitting back with a pint of something nice watching a long freight train winding around the
room .....
All four layouts are portable, the three most recent being very much so. The odd time I do a show I'm generally a one man
band, so things need to be simple with the minimum amount of hassle. Combwich is 'portable' but not in the same sense as the
other three. It does make it out onto the road from time to time but needs a van and a posse! By contrast, Cement Quay, Arne
Wharf & Catcott Burtle can be simply popped into the back of the car with the rear seat down.
Catcott Burtle, a could have been scenario is
heavily influenced by the BBC TV film Branchline
Railway, with the layout's creator being taken in by the wild open feel of the area much dominated by willow, water
and big skies.
Many spots where roads crossed the railway utilised manned level crossings rather than bridges, with each crossing having its
own crossing keeper and railway cottage. Several of the cottages had no running water or electricity right up to closure in
1966, the water being delivered by
train in milk churns!
Catcott, one of the many crossings on the line never was a halt or had sidings. In the parallel universe world here, imagine
if to serve the local peat deposits things had been very different?
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