Ford Modelling the Great Western Branch Lines

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78500-566-4
Verlag: Crowood
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten

Modelling the Great Western Branch Lines is essential reading for all those who wish to build a model railway based on the branch lines of the Great Western Railway. The author guides the modeller through projects which are graded from simple to more advance. Each step is clearly described, explaining the techniques used and how alternative methods and materials could be employed. Topics covered include an historical overview of the subject; full listings of all tools and materials; a series of detailed model projects using the best of the currently available commercial model making products; an introduction to scratch-building lineside terms and, finally, suggestions as to how each project could be further developed.

Chris Ford has been a modeller since childhood, starting with simple plastic and balsa wood kits. By his teens he had become almost exclusively interested in railway modelling. Chris has built many model railway layouts over the years both for home use and public exhibition display. Most of these layouts have featured in the model railway press and two have won the coveted Reiner Hendriksen award. This is Chris's third book for Crowood, following his acclaimed Modelling Narrow Gauge Railways in Small Scales and Modelling the Southern Region 1948 to the Present.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ford, Chris

Leseproben

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The ‘typical Great Western branch line’ is the way that countless model railway layouts are often described. This only comes second to the term ‘classic’. When applied to descriptions of a model, the reality and irony is that neither ‘typical’ nor ‘classic’ is an apt description for what usually follows, which can often veer worryingly towards the unrealistic and the twee. There is, of course, nothing wrong with these slightly twee creations, which can, and do, give a vast amount of pleasure to the builder and the viewer alike. The Great Western Railway (GWR) branch-line model can be quite emotive for these very reasons, creating equally reactions of joy and total derision.

The truth is that in model terms it has over time become regarded as something of a cliché, far more than other similar branch-line models, and has resulted in a stream of repetitive models that are almost carbon copies of earlier examples. These frequent statements of Great Western layouts being clichéd are somewhat unfair, as although the Great Western Railway models may well be more numerous, the accusations of twee and unrealistic can in reality be levelled at any similar model of any railway company, without exception. And as the real thing drifts back further and further into history, the copying of other models will surely become ever more prevalent, as this is all the research that most people will bother to undertake. This slim volume is unable to fill these gaps in research in anything like a full and conclusive way, but hopefully more than anything else, it will nudge the reader into investigating some of the history of the Great Western branch system in a deeper fashion than may have previously been the case. If this happens even in a small way, then the book will have been deemed to be a success.

The classic and typical Great Western branch engine in the shape of a 45XX Small Prairie Tank. The numbering of GWR locomotives is confusing, but each class is usually referred to by the initial number of the class even if that bears little resemblance to the number on the cab plate. Here, number 5572 rests at Didcot Railway Centre.

THE GREAT WESTERN BRANCH AS A SUBJECT FOR A MODEL

Why then is the GWR branch such a popular subject? There could be a number of reasons.The first is that more than likely to many people the GWR branches ran through some of the most beautiful scenery in the British Isles, although this could be countered by the fact that every British railway company was in the same situation. If this was a primary reason, models of the West Highland Railway in Scotland would outnumber anything else by ten to one. Secondly, it may be the attractive green locomotives with the gleaming copper fittings hauling chocolate and cream coaches, but in human terms we are fast losing anyone who can actually remember that scene in real life and much of the Great Western Railway’s money was made hauling dirty coal trains out of South Wales and transporting goods toward and away from the ports of Bristol and the Mersey. The third and more likely reason is that not only was the Great Western the country’s longest lived and physically largest rail company, invoking a certain local pride in those who lived in its area, but the model trade and press has pushed the Great Western like no other line throughout the history of commercial model production, making it almost the default entry point for any modeller coming to the hobby during the last sixty years. This makes it the most straightforward for the novice, as there is just so much available with a Great Western slant. It is only in the last decade or so that the other three 1923 Grouping companies (the London Midland & Scottish Railway, the Southern Railway and the London & the North Eastern Railway) have had anything like as much attention from the model manufacturers.

Another classic in model form, the 14XX 0-4-2 tank. This is a Hornby model (ex-Airfix) shown here as it comes, straight from the box. The prototypes were originally numbered in the 48XX and 58XX ranges, but the 48XXs were renumbered after World War II to 14XX and the entire class is usually referred to in this way, even the pre-war examples.

WHAT SCALE?

At the time of writing, there are some nine suitable ready-to-run (RTR) locomotives for a Great Western branch-line layout, and that’s just in 4mm scale (OO gauge). There are a similar number of coach designs and the list of suitable wagons in RTR or kit form is simply endless. All that from current new product manufacturers, without starting to access the buoyant second-hand market. The situation in N gauge is similarly good, with four or five locomotives to get you started, but a little less in the way of rolling stock. The range of locomotives in 7mm scale (O gauge) is greater, although these are in the main in kit form and are not necessarily aimed at the novice. However, there is no reason why someone armed with a basic toolkit and plenty of enthusiasm shouldn’t try one of the excellent Springside Models locomotive kits for the scale. There is recently, though, a sudden push to produce RTR locomotives and wagons in the larger scale and the modeller with even a modest amount of cash could now view this as a good entry point. The general understanding is that 7mm scale is almost four times the size in area terms as OO, so much less is needed to make the same visual impact, though naturally there is a little more baseboard area required for even a modest layout.

All in all, there is no excuse for not building a GWR branch-line layout and every reason to feel enthused by the sheer avalanche of material that will pour out from your local model shop. In fact, it is more than possible to build the layout purely from commercial shop-bought items, especially as in recent years there has been an explosion in the availability of ‘ready-toplant’ resin buildings … at a price. These buildings are somewhat expensive when compared to the equivalent plastic kit or scratch-built structure, so if finance is a concern, there are large savings to be made by doing much of this work yourself. However you wish to approach this and whatever your skill level, putting a GWR layout together is by far the most straightforward route to an attractive and accurate model branch line in any of the popular scales.

WHY A BRANCH LINE?

In historical model terms, branch lines always came in second place to the glamour and speed of main lines, but sometime around the late 1950s to the early 1960s there was a shift in the general approach. This was largely triggered by the hobby becoming generally cheaper to enter. Beforehand, it had been the preserve of those who were financially better off and the models reflected this. Much of the rolling stock consisted of high-value items made by toy manufacturers in Germany, or hand-crafted at great expense in the UK – definitely not the playthings of the lower-middle and working classes. Then three things gradually happened: the prices of the models came down; the hobby was marketed as something for the ‘aspiring and upwardly mobile father and son’ to do (a gender-specific ploy that would definitely be frowned upon today); and in Britain the scale shifted downwards from the usual O gauge to something closer to what we know as OO, making these newer small-scale models affordable to the masses. The young family could now afford the train sets, but did not necessarily have the available requirements in domestic space. The idea was put forward that the best way to proceed was to build a compact branch terminus. This could be worked up whilst you gained confidence and acquired rolling stock, at which point the layout could be expanded (presumably when you moved to a larger house) to the large main-line layout of your dreams.

The social-climbing aspirational desire of the postwar masses was not lost on the model-makers and the idea of the pure branch-line model gained a traction that has remained ever since. The unforeseen outside factor during this post-war period was the rapid closure of the prototype branches by British Railways at around the same time, further prompting interest in rural branch lines that before had been regarded as not worthy of notice. As the branches closed, so the interest in preserving them in model form grew. The final piece in the jigsaw was probably the work of one man, Cyril Freezer, editor of both Model Railways and Railway Modeller. He promoted the idea of the Great Western branch line as an ideal with almost religious zeal. The model trade recognized the trend, duly followed, and the cult of the GWR branch in model form was complete.

Many of these reasons for choosing to model a branch line still hold true today, to some extent more so, as the size of the standard British home steadily reduces. The ‘build a branch – expand to a main line’ course of action will certainly still work now, but whereas previously the result could be quite crude with little in the way of scenery around the railway, we can now easily produce a high-quality model that will far surpass anything that could have been produced in 1960.

Here, an N gauge GWR layout shows how compact a terminus station can be. This model is built in the space of 45 × 12in (1,143 × 305mm).

The other modern development which could not have been foreseen in the early days of modelling has been the rise of the model railway exhibition as almost a hobby in itself. Every weekend, a travelling circus of modellers gathers in halls of various sizes all around the country to display their...