Cawood Station

The Cawood, Wistow & Selby Light Railway was my Father and I's first proper exhibition layout. I described Wistow Station some time ago and now have found a photo of the Cawood end.

Being the larger station we allowed it to spread over 2 baseboard, eventually. The MK 1 version was constrained to a single 4ft board but this proved too tight so modifications were made. Both versions weren't too far out in terms of design. The station layout was unusual in that the building was at the end and at right angles to, the platform.

Buildings for both stations were of the same design. Ours were Daler board covered with Superquick brick paper. This method can still provide very effective results if carefully carried out. I still have the block of buildings as it was too painful to throw out everything, so I chopped out the board surface to retain them and binned the rest. Some of the details have since been recycled to current layout which not only saves money but just seems nicer. These bit and pieces gave good service and deserve their place in the sun.

Anoraks might well wonder why I have a J94 and GWR 0-4-2 tank in charge of trains. My response is that that's what I had and they worked. The Lowmac bought from Beatties with a (removed) NCL trailer on it for 50p, Airfix tank wagon and once of my early Parkside vans probably still on it's plastic wheels (metal wheels came to the kits after I bought this one) complete the stock in the picture. I don't suppose many of my early wagons ran that well but we were proud of the layout and would have happily taken it to more shows. This didn't happen so we went on to build Melbridge Dock and the rest is history.

Missing Models: Aultibrig and Mingulay Railway

Well not so much missing, as orphaned. Aultibrig and Mingulay was built many years ago by Alan Gibson (the photographer not the wheel maker). Alan died a few years ago and as he was a friend and fellow member of the Leamington & Warwick MRS, I've been helping his widow find homes for his kits and models.

The layout is built in an utterly conventional way for its time. In other words the boards are well and truly fixed in the attic. The trackplan is a roundy-roundy with a station on one side and a walled running line on the other. Most of the buildings are scratchbuilt although there is a village on the hill at one end that owes a lot to Builtezi. Control involves some switch panels, not quite the legendary Lancaster Bomber spares but nearly, and an H&M Duette. Once suprise for me was the inclusion of a small narrow gauge line on one of the hills. At a guess the layout runs for about 15 feet on each side and is 8 feet wide. Everything is OO, 4mm:1ft.

The model looks a bit dusty now. It hasn't seen any use for many years - Alan suffered a stroke and couldn't get up the attic even though he carried on modelling to a standard I can only dream of. To be honest even though they worked exquisitely, he was never a man for actually running his trains prefering to spend time building them. The layout was primarily a backdrop for his extensive photography.

If you can lay you hands on a September 1982 issue of Scale Trains then you'll see the first part of a series on photographing model railways where he covered the basics and also explained the principles so anyone who wanted to have a serious go could do. I understand these were an influence on a young Tony Wright who has gone on to take the odd snap himself. The layout acted as a stage for this and many other published pieces.

Nowadays this sort of model would be appearing in magazines as a "Layout that never leaves home" but when built it wasn't that unusual - that's how you built your model railway. Taking something to an exhibition was often a major task and the techniques for building truly portable models were still being developed.



The engines and rolling stock are gradually finding new homes. The pick of the crop are in a display cabinet on the living room wall. Others have gone to new homes where they will get the chance to stretch their legs (wheels ?) on new layouts. The kit collection has also mostly found its way to new builder, or at least their maturing cupboards.

All this just leaves the layout. It's a mildly famous model and it would be lovely to think it could survive. But, it is very firmly attached to the house. At some point in the future I am going to have to go and look at removing it. For the time being the attic space isn't required but I'm sure one day this particular elephant in the room will have to move on. Quite how we go about this I don't know - well I do and it isn't pretty. The hatch it will have to exit through isn't very big.

Sadly while this isn't a missing model yet, I don't have the time or space to take it on and so one day it will be unless anyone comes up with a better idea. You are probably thinking that some of the sections could be saved and I'm sure you are right. I once helped move a model of the Swiss Alps with the aid of an angle grinder and replica vintage van (story to be told another day) BUT someone still has to do it. Any volunteers to help ?

The Cawood, Wistow & Selby Light Railway

This Sunday's model isn't missing in the conventional sense, I know exactly where it is. In fact it would be fairer to say it's simply resting.

The station you see is Wistow, and formed part of my Father and I's first exhibition layout - The Cawood, Wistow & Selby Light Railway. Inspiration came from an Oakwood Press book found in a York second hand book shop. We liked the look of the buildings, of which there were 2mm:1ft plans, and the area. At the time it also seemed similar to a fiends models of the East Suffolk Light Railway which were very popular on the circuit.

As it was our first model we did a whole load of things we wouldn't do now:
The baseboard is chipboard braced with 2X1 wood. Heavy.
Originally the scenery made extensive use of cheap flock powder which faded from luminous to beige in the daylight.
The model was too long to set up at home.
Despite being only 12 and later 15 feet long (Cawood station was extended after a while) we had two stations.
I was still learning kit building so the stock had to be largely inappropriate RTR such as a GWR railcar. This didn't bother us much as neither really appreciated the niceties and thought this could be improved.
The layout stood on trestles.
Landscape contours initially didn't exist - the area is very flat. However it was pointed out that even flat areas aren't so when the scenery was re-done, plasterwork sorted out the lumps.
It didn't fit properly in the car, at least with 3 of us in there - at that point I couldn't drive and my Dad never passed his test so Mum had to ferry us around.

On the other hand, it worked.
The points used Peco motors.
All the track was hand built SMP including the single slip on this board.
The board bolted together to form boxes.
We had lights.
Spratt & Winkle couplings were fitted to everything.
There was quite a lot of detail.

All stuff we have repeated ever since.

In fact we were, and still are, quite proud of this model. The buildings were brick-papered cardboard and pretty scale. The station layouts (we had Cawood and Wistow) weren't too far off even if they were compressed - Wistow is over 1/4 mile long in real life. Cawood gave us a particular highlight, at it's first show one a long term friend looked at it and said, "Blimey. Cawood station". It turns out he had lived in Yorkshire years ago and used to drive by the remains every day and recognised it from this - so we much have done something right !

Over the years we made many improvements. The scenery was completely re-worked. That cornfield took 12 hours work with plumber's hemp ! Woodlands Scenics replaced dodgy cheap flock. Details were added. The stock improved a bit. Controls were re-wired at least once. This station was even shown on it's own as a static model at a hobby show held at my school.

As an exhibition model I think it only ever attended 4 shows. After that we built Melbridge Dock having learned many useful lessons. As for our first effort, well Wistow & a single Scenic board are in the shed. Cawood station survives in a box. Many of the details were rescued and appear on subsequent models so the spirit lives on. In fact the buildings were done again in 3mm scale to appear on Flockburgh. Who knows, perhaps we might be tempted to have another go at this prototype some day.

Channel Tunnel model railway

Last Sundays' post about a missing model railway concerned a model of a proposed channel tunnel scheme. This prompted Graham W to take the time to send me a scan of an article that appeared in the Eastern Region Magazine (all the regions of the real railway network published in house magazine, a process that originated from thier earliest days as separate companies) that described the very layout I was interested in !

Thanks to Graham I've managed to wear my fingers out on the keyboard and can bring you the following:
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Channel Tunnel Terminal – model built in less than four months
Described by A.W.Ashberry

Undoubtedly a magnificent model ! And it shows what the Model section of the BTC Publicity division can do. Three enthusiastic craftsmen from Stratford Loco works lent a hand.
Started at the end of June, it was required for demonstration at the Channel Tunnel Study Group's conference at BTC HQ in October. It was widely publicised on the radio, TV and in the national Press and will be shown at the Schoolboy's Exhibition at Olympia in London after Christmas.

The 30ft. X 8ft. Working mode is of the railway terminal at the English end of the proposed Channel Tunnel and illustrates the principles of design and operation. It shows the essential features of a tunnel terminal but is necessarily simplified and reduced to a reasonable size for exhibition purposes. In practise the terminal will be three miles long and six miles from the tunnel mouth.

Built to scale, one seventy-fifth of full size, construction was undertaken at the Model section's workshop at Stratford Works (ER) in East London. Rolling stock and the miniature cars come from commercial sources.

Construction of baseboard and track
The baseboard is built in ten sections each 6ft. X 4ft. which bolt together. It can easily be dismantled for transport and is supported on tubular steel legs adjustable for height. The material used is 5/8in. blockboard.

The rails are of nickel silver soldered to metal plates set in fibre sleepers, enabling two-rail electrification system for model railways to be used throughout. By this method locomotives pick up their current from one rail and the return circuit is completed through the other.
Ultimately the tunnel itself will be electrified on the 25kV AC overhead system, whereas the Southern Region is electrified on the 750 volt AC third rail system. Dual voltage power units would therefore be used on through services.

Both these systems are represented on the model but only in dummy form. The pantographs are, however raised automatically and lowered as they approach or leave the overhead system.
The layout is completely signalled with multiple-aspect colour signals which, although working models are not at present wired up. If this were ever undertaken the relay room would be nearly full-size !

Buildings and scenery
The main buildings are constructed entirely from 3/32in. perspex sheet which when scribed for windows and painted provides a quick method of construction in contemporary style. The locomotive maintenance sheds and signal boxes are built from plastic kits. The scenery is built up on wood formers covered with 1/2in. chicken-run wire netting. This netting is then covered with muslin soaked in plaster which, when dry is given another coat of plaster and covered with impact adhesive. A fine coat of sand is sprinkled over the glue while tacky and finally the contours are hand painted with tempera colours.

A most attractive corner of the layout depicts a section of the white cliffs of Dover. A mixture of Scotch glue and sawdust was plastered over plywood formers and then covered in plaster. The cliffs were hand painted and the sea is a sheet of rippled glass over a painted underlay.

Rolling stock
There are five fine models of the Bo-Bo electric locomotives now in use on the Manchester-Crewe overhead lines resplendent in “electric blue”. Also one French model of the BB 16,000 class which hauls French trains on the Northern and Eastern lines. One 350hp diesel shunter works in the small marshalling yard. Eventually there will be a 4-car set of BR electric stock to work along the Dover-London line represented on the model. One train of French silver steel coaches and two trains of BR standard maroon coaches complete the passenger stock.

The varied freight stock includes perfect models of the new Roadrailer vehicles and Continental and British wagons. The accent is, of course on the double-decked car-carrying wagons. Although shown as open wagons on the model, in actual practise they will be covered.

There is also a train of single-deck wagons on which model cars are run under their own power – through an electrical pick-up. They are stopped on their respective rial vehicles and the train proceeds on its tunnel journey. A train returning from the “French side” with a similar load can be brought into the unloading dock where the cars are run off, again under their own power. This is accepted in the model-making world as a unique feature.

Congratulations are due to the designer, Mr Ron Beddoes, and builders of this fascinating model which will undoubtedly be well received wherever it is shown. This glimpse of the pattern proposed for future cross-channel transport will conjure but one thought in all viewers' minds - “How soon ?”

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This is fascinating stuff. The article contains many fascinating points:
The track was hand built using an early form of PCB style construction rather than buying off the shelf items. Fibre sleepers are notorious for being affected by changes to the atmosphere so you wonder why they did this.
At 30 by 8, this model would well within the reach of most model railway clubs. Anyone fancy a reproduction as a project ? I wouldn't recomend the blockboard baseboards though if you don't have a club full of weight lifters !
The unique car system looks very similar to what eventually became the Minic-car system. I wonder if one influenced the other ?

But the big question still left is, what happened to this model ?

(Thanks to Graham for sending me this article)

Missing models - Part 2

Another British Transport film, this time the appropriately (for this blog) named "Modelling for the Future". 8 minutes showing a model of the proposed channel tunnel rail terminal being built.

In 1961.

This means we have electric locomotives in bright blue and lots of stock that looks suspiciously Triang. Even a working "RoadRailer" system appears which Traing offered for a short period. When built, the commentary tells us the terminal will be fed from the A23, not a motorway as the first section of the M1 was only a couple of years old at this point. Everyone working on the model is wearing a tie and something tweedy - not a pair of jeans to be seen anywhere.

This is yet another fantastic model and yet I've never seen it. Presumably the work was carried out as part of the publicity process that lead to the work and cancellation of the project in the mid 70's. 15 years from model to short-sighted political cowardice is pretty good going.

What I want to know is, what happened to the model ? It was obviously quite large and probably not cheap to build. If intended for publicity purposes I assume the thing could be dismantled and moved around. Did it ever attend IMREX in London ? Is it still stuck in the back of a warehouse - or more likely, did it gradually fall apart until abandoned in a skip somewhere ?

More on the film here.

Missing models - Part 1

Watching a British Transport film the other day - "Railways For Ever!" - among all the nostalgia, one scene leapt out at me. It was in the section of the film covering the exciting future of rail travel and showed a model of what the narrator, John Betjeman, claimed in suitably awe inspired tones, to be the new Advanced Passenger Train.

The scene involved a model railway layout with prominent Airfix signal box. Whizzing by was an APT. Not the APT we know and love (well I love anyway, a fabulous train) but a model of an early design study. The one shown above in fact. The model obviously ran on OO gauge track and as it cornered the coaches tilted realistically. Between the vehicles weren't gangways but those clever articulating units found on the real train when it emerged.

RG Latham has an excellent site on the APT here with many photos. Check it out.

Now what, I wonder, happened to this model ? It was built by a model maker, probably from scratch since the Hornby model was many years in the future. If it hadn't been they could have saved a fortune on "design studies". How the tilting was achieved is a mystery. From memory, Hornby struggled for some time to work out what in the end was a very simple method. In fact the construction as a whole would take some explaining - the sides are apparently seamless and also made from clear plastic, possibly vacuum formed ?

I must admit a model of the APT-E has always been on my list and one of these could be fun too. Mind you, if I wait long enough, Heljan will probably bring one out RTR !