There are certain articles I always go back – Chris Pendlenton’s North Shields in MRJ No 58 is a prime example of this, so much so I’m on my third copy of it now! Another on is one article in Iain Rice’s much missed RailMODEL Digest Issue No. 2 (along with an excellent article on Southwell) on Iain Rice’s specialist subject, layout design.
He is, of course, very well known for his books and articles on this subject, both in the UK and in the USA. The two approaches from ‘typical modellers’ on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean are quite different. UK modellers often seem to think about exhibition layouts with the emphasis being on appearance and American modellers seem, if their magazines are to be believed, to focus on operation. In Issue 2 Iain Rice proposes a plan which combines a UK prototype with an emphasis on operation.
Go back fifty or sixty years and many UK layouts were set up for operation – layouts like The Sherwood Section, for example, were very much focused on operation. Layouts like these seem to have mostly died out as many people lack the time, money and space for such ’empires’. The plan here addresses these rather nicely. It’s inspired by the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Vally Railway in Wales, which was known for class 03 and 08 diesel shunters which had been reduced in height to clear structures along the line.
Big Trains, Little Trains 