How far would you bend reality?

[Tim Hale]

I apologise for repeating this question that has been asked ‘elsewhere’ but WT has a seemingly different vibe.

OK, the backstory is simple, I intended to build a layout on a favourite station, Downton on the old SDJR, south of Salisbury but the available space precluded the sidings on both ends of station. This link might provide some context and I baulked at the chance, instead almost all the station buildings were constructed and used on what was actually built, a similar station but with just one set of sidings.

​

Similarly, the stock that I eventually acquired was based on whatever ran on the line at the start of BR with the addition of an M7 and P+P set but even that was a local resident. Apart from the station buildings, there are a few anomalies, the iron footbridge, signal box and West Country thatched cottage (a Victorian brick villa is waiting in the ‘roundtoit’ drawer) and the lovely updated Southern National L5G has a Wilts & Dorset L5G understudy in the wings. In short, change of running-in boards (also in the ‘roundtoit’ drawer) and minor changes are all possible EXCEPT…….where should compromise cease?

Btw I forgot to mention that I curved the platform to suit the space, reinstated the redundant platform that was taken out of use before WW2 and it is 16,5 not 18,83

I would be replacing a plausible fiction based on a peculiarity of history with a compromised version of reality, what could go wrong?

Tim

 

[Heather Kay]

Best Beloved and I had a grand plan back in the day. We modelled railways based on an area around North Bucks, where Best Beloved had grown up and served his apprenticeship. We created a whole network of railway lines around a mythical place called Linford Garden City, as if Milton Keynes had been created at the start of the 20th century.

We extended the Newport Pagnell branch from the West Coast Main Line and on to Olney and the Midland line - something that was actually planned in the 19th century, earthworks built, but money - as ever - running out. I even drew up a fake Ordnance Survey map to show the new garden city with all the railways, renaming the M1 as the A5(M). It was all entirely plausible, and even took some local people in when we exhibited a layout in MK!

So, taking parts of a real railway, transplanting and rearranging to taste, is all part of the modelling fun.

 

[Stuart D]

…….where should compromise cease?

........

Tim

That's an interesting back-story, Tim.
We all compromise to some extent, and in differing ways, so I would suggest the answer is "exactly where you want it to cease" - it's your railway after all - Rule 1 definitely applies!
You can always give the model station a slightly different name as David Jenkinson did years ago with Garsdale Road (i.e. not quite an exact model of Dent) if you feel the compromise makes it too unlike the real thing.

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi and thank you,

Since starting the build in 2010, I have felt that Downton should have been built albeit somewhat truncated and on a curve. The problem was in between my ears, I could not accept the failure that led to losing half the sidings but I continued to build/acquire all the necessary stock peculiar to the line therefore I doubt if I was really letting go.

OK, Stuart, thanks for raising that doubt about names, the station Downton has been completely erased only the old road bridge remains therefore it is an ‘unknown’ except in photographs and I think that if I did change the name it would ‘spoil’ the concept despite the model being compromised. My only regret was not building Downton with sidings at each end by the dint of moving it centre stage rather than to one side of the available space but a bit too late now.

As far as stock is concerne, there is a tentative promise of an S11 4-4-0 in the near future to replace the M7 that was a local resident at the southern end of the line. Moreover, in the early ‘50s a workmen’s only a twice-daily return service was powered by a Bournemouth M7 to ferry construction workers to the newly expanding Porton camp.

At least changing to Downton would be a return to reality of a sort…

Thanks once more

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi,

There is just one remaining of the friends that started the project twenty-odd years ago, Bill Jones made the station buildings, another contributed research and stock, all gone.

Finishing it as Downton, even with so many compromises needs to be done. The last of the locos (my responsibility) are almost complete, that will be a fitting conclusion.

Tim

 

[LarryG]

Hornby and Bachmann's core buyers are bending reality every day otherwise these companies wouldn't survive. It could be said that the minute we lay a length of 4mm/00 track, we are really bending reality. But I know what the OP means.

I first choose an area; That sets the topography. Then I see which railway company served that area and that sets the locos, rolling stock, signalling, and architecture. THEN I start bending reality. We have to! We reduce track lengths to fit the space available to us. We bolster up the timetable from the reality of four trains a day and a twice weekly goods. It's why so few photos exist of many town and country branch lines.

During the age of steam, most men worked a 6½ day week, although those on shift work had more free time during the day. Few photographers would waste their valuable leisure time on a quaint branch line when nothing happened for hours on end. Mainlines offered so much more.

I have bent my BLT to almost ridiculous proportions by saying it was upgraded to take heavy materials during construction of a dam. I said that the LNWR were involved in the heavy finance of this upgraded Cambrian line in exchange for running rights. We get away with such activity (much of the time) if we apply real railway logic.

 

[Roger Pound]

My own little layout, Whatborough Yard, is a purely fictional branch line which never existed, nor was proposed (to my knowledge) . The LNW/GN Joint line did exist and was well used in it's time and I recall seeing Stanier 8F's with loaded coal trains, illustrating the original purpose of the line which was the conveyance of Yorkshire coal to the southern sheds of the LNWR. The back story to any model railway line is always going to be a matter of invention loosely based on fact and as my good friend Stuart says above , Rule One applies. At the end of the day it is inevitably down to the individual as to how far he or she wishes to go.

Roger

 

[michael mott]

What remains of my hold on reality went out the window when I discovered that old electric drills made for great experimental locomotive motors. Regarding modelling an exact place one generally needs a fair bit of space, time and patience, especially if one is making a model of some place in the distant past. Fortunately there is a dearth of photographs and written testimony of a good deal of the British railway system.
As it has already been said it is your railway anyway. "The YRA"
Michael

 

[Boyblunder]

Go for it Tim. I spent several holidays at Downton in the late 50s where my mother had relatives. Sadly I have no recollection of the station but happy memories of walking on Pepperpot Hill, fishing for Millers Thumbs with a jam jar in the rivers and clear mental pictures of Bullied Pacifics at Salisbury station. Very few other people will know it wasn’t on a curve, until you published your thoughts probably only you!

 

[oldravendale]

IMHO Rule 1 always applies. However, may I suggest that photo collections such as Tim Mills' are invaluable in capturing the essence of railways of the '50s and '60s? Even if not used in the replication of prototypes they help to show "what you can get away with" in order to not entirely destroy the atmosphere you are working to create.

(BTW, I'll be back with Tim's collection again quite soon. Other priorities are taking all available time right now.)

Brian

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi everyone and thanks,

The reality is simple, this really awful sketch is Downton as it was from the mid'30s until closure, the down platform was out of use but was still there until demolition. The down track was used as storage and the signal box was taken of used, trains could no longer pass in the station.

​

Whereas this is the layout as is

​

Not a huge difference just the loss of the sidings at the Southern end and the re-instatement of the down platform. There is a scenic break that mitigates the missing sidings but 'selective compression' seems to be quite common and the essential components of station buildings etc are present and correct.

Next year will be ten years since Bill Jones passed, finally his buildings will be used as they should have been.

Tim

 

[Compton castle]

I call it the Hollywood approach, Bend reality to suit your needs. You can capture the essence of the real place but in the space and with the constraints you have

 

[Focalplane]

Well, my Moor Street isn’t anywhere near exact, the room is too small. But I intend to capture the essence of the place I frequented in the mid 1950s. The relief lines south of Snow Hill Tunnel have been omitted completely. I also have Rule 1 trains.

But my research knows few boundaries largely thanks to Warwickshirerailways.com and an imperfect 60 year old memory! The soon to be completed water tank could be my epitaph!

What I hope is that the finished layout will be instantly recognisable.

 

[Allen M]

Hi all
My latest W.E.Lt.R. is a could have been.
My Mitton Mill layout is in Stourport on Severn and is parallel to the original GWR/SVR station.
In my world the Bewdley rail cut off or the S&W canal where not built so local man took advice and help from Colonel Stephens and built the Wilden & Enville Light Railway following much of the line of the actual canal and providing a similar service.
Very small but I am a builder rather than a runner so it works for me.



Regards
Allen

 

[Tim Hale]

Thanks,

The compromises are just a bit too far and a plausible fiction is preferable to a compromised reality.

Tim