Layout you always wanted to make but can't?

[Sad Sprinter]

Do you have a layout you dream of but is impossible to make for some reason? Be it costs, space, lack of time, or lack of the right models. I'd love to make an end to end layout, NSE era on the Southern region, focusing on when the Eurostars ran on third rail. Sadly, they don't even make Eurostar models anymore, let alone enough SR stock.

 

[Ken H]

Do you have a layout you dream of but is impossible to make for some reason? Be it costs, space, lack of time, or lack of the right models. I'd love to make an end to end layout, NSE era on the Southern region, focusing on when the Eurostars ran on third rail. Sadly, they don't even make Eurostar models anymore, let alone enough SR stock.

Love to do an end to end. Running model trains round tight curves always looks unrealistic. Fiddle yard each end. Wont happen- dont have the space.

 

[SteveM70]

When I was younger I always fancied doing Tywyn, with both the mainline station and Wharf and Pendre on the Talyllyn

Back then I was lacking in time and money, now I’m lacking in space and money

Both times, I suspect I was lacking in modelling ability

The other one is have liked to do is Crianlarich

 

[Peter C]

Space had been an issue for me for a long time before I decided to get rid of my layout last year - time had also become a problem. But if those weren't limitations, I'd love to be able to build a model of Oxford as it was a few years ago (I'm thinking 2019) or maybe Birmingham Moor Street as it is now. I've been to Oxford loads of times and loved just watching the trains go by, and Moor Street would allow for the heritage features to contrast against the modern trains. Another issue is cost - the stock would be prohibitively expensive (IETs for Oxford and then 172s, 168s, 68s and DVTs for Moor Street) and much of it would probably require bodging or kit-building in some form.

Actually, now I think about it, Didcot Parkway and the railway centre would be lovely too, but that sort of space is usually only found in gymnasiums...

-Peter

 

[william.martin]

If it wasn't for space and the Mrs's I would do Euston station/approach.

 

[RichJF]

I've always wanted to build a layout set either on Barbican/Moorgate pre-Thameslink/electrification, or Holborn Viaduct.

The whole Widened Lines & Snow Hill Tunnel area fascinates me!

 

[sprinterguy]

Sadly, they don't even make Eurostar models anymore,

The online second hand market is an excellent source of an abundant supply of reasonably priced Eurostars.

I'd say the larger sticking points with that particular train would be the lack of additional vehicles to create even a representative formation without significant amounts of cutting and shutting, and even an abbreviated set really would require a LOT of space.

 

[M&NEJ]

I always wanted to re-create the Iron Mountain line (Erzbergbahn) in Austria, complete with rack and adhesion tank locos. But I've never seen a class 97 commercially available and it'd be beyond my abilities to make my own!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I've long wanted to do Huddersfield in model form, but I've always lacked the space and the skills to do it justice.

Love to do an end to end. Running model trains round tight curves always looks unrealistic. Fiddle yard each end. Wont happen- dont have the space.

Yeah, tight curves are unfortunately a necessity if you want a circuit. I remember someone (it may have been Gareth Dennis but I can't remember if it was and don't want to misattribute) saying that a true 00 scale version of the 125mph turnouts on the ECML would be something like three metres long.

 

[yoyothehobo]

I always fancied doing Wigan North Western/Wallgate, multilevel, lots of variety, junctions, split level etc...

 

[Intercity110]

A large RES deopt, general TMD and terminus staion (euston style- parcel bays) based on what would happen if the beeching cuts never happened, based in northampton in the 90’s

 

[Ianigsy]

A busy Edwardian joint station with lots of pre-Grouping stock going to and fro.

An imaginary 1980s East London station with Eastern Region DMUs and Southern EMUs terminating either side of a set of buffer stops while the Underground provides a through service from an adjacent platform and transfer freights use a through line.

A Minories-style terminus set in the North West in the 1990s.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Glasgow Buchanan Street. I have built a truncated version but would love to build it to scale.

 

[4COR]

Redhill would be lovely, but expansive, mostly due to the direction of the Reigate/Tonbridge branches!

 

[RichJF]

Redhill would be lovely, but expansive, mostly due to the direction of the Reigate/Tonbridge branches!

Redhill 'OO' gauge model railway

This famous Southern Region station is the setting for a spectacular homebased layout by RICHARD FOOT. He explains how and why he recreated it in ‘OO’ gauge. Photography, Trevor Jones.

www.keymodelworld.com

 

[L401CJF]

I always wanted to have a cut-away style Merseyrail underground layout with some 508s to run around on it. It quickly became very apparent that it just wasn't possible.

However with 3d printed 508 kits available, and recently being gifted a 3d printer for Christmas, it turns out things are possible after all! I've got 2 508s in progress currently and have managed to draw up and print some 1970s brown cladding. So I'll have my dream come true!

Moral of the story, never say never!

 

[4COR]

Redhill 'OO' gauge model railway

This famous Southern Region station is the setting for a spectacular homebased layout by RICHARD FOOT. He explains how and why he recreated it in ‘OO’ gauge. Photography, Trevor Jones.

www.keymodelworld.com

I recall seeing this now - it's nicely worked to fit it in a more linear fashion - think he has a much bigger loft than me though!

 

[swt_passenger]

I always wanted to have a cut-away style Merseyrail underground layout with some 508s to run around on it. It quickly became very apparent that it just wasn't possible.

I’ve got a somewhat hazy memory of an April 1 story in Airfix magazine, maybe in the late 60s, which had a story about someone’s layout based on London Underground, it was supposedly cut and cover under the floorboards. Does anyone else remember that?

 

[L+Y]

I always wanted to have a cut-away style Merseyrail underground layout with some 508s to run around on it. It quickly became very apparent that it just wasn't possible.

However with 3d printed 508 kits available, and recently being gifted a 3d printer for Christmas, it turns out things are possible after all! I've got 2 508s in progress currently and have managed to draw up and print some 1970s brown cladding. So I'll have my dream come true!

Moral of the story, never say never!

Somewhat linked to this, I'd love to do the Kirkdale and Bank Hall area at the end of steam- it'd be a massive layout, but with convenient scenic breaks, and lots of operational interest with the scrapyard, carriage sidings, and a mix of filthy steam engines rubbing shoulders with shiny new class 50s. Alas, lack of space and modelling experience will likely undermine the dream!

 

[Class15]

Always dreamed of making a layout of Poplar docks in the late 50s / early 60s, won’t happen anytime soon

 

[Gloster]

I’ve got a somewhat hazy memory of an April 1 story in Airfix magazine, maybe in the late 60s, which had a story about someone’s layout based on London Underground, it was supposedly cut and cover under the floorboards. Does anyone else remember that?

You may be thinking of Going Underground… by C.A.Parfitt that appeared in the April 1983 Railway Modeller. It was quite subtly done, with close to the end a mention of how the writer’s wife ‘slipped down the hole for the Bank/Embankment section and broke her leg’.

 

[swt_passenger]

You may be thinking of Going Underground… by C.A.Parfitt that appeared in the April 1983 Railway Modeller. It was quite subtly done, with close to the end a mention of how the writer’s wife ‘slipped down the hole for the Bank/Embankment section and broke her leg’.

Don’t know, 1983 would be far, far later than I was thinking of. By then I had had nothing to do with model railways for many years, and I’ve never read the magazine you mention.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I always wanted to have a cut-away style Merseyrail underground layout with some 508s to run around on it. It quickly became very apparent that it just wasn't possible.

However with 3d printed 508 kits available, and recently being gifted a 3d printer for Christmas, it turns out things are possible after all! I've got 2 508s in progress currently and have managed to draw up and print some 1970s brown cladding. So I'll have my dream come true!

Moral of the story, never say never!

Those units look fantastic, you've done a great job with the paintwork too!

 

[L401CJF]

Those units look fantastic, you've done a great job with the paintwork too!

Cheers! Don't look closely! I'm new to all this building and painting malarkey so all things considered I'm pretty happy!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Cheers! Don't look closely! I'm new to all this building and painting malarkey so all things considered I'm pretty happy!

Sometimes paradoxically getting things spot-on in model form can look out of place, it's often best to get "close enough" without being perfect.

Speaking of 3-D printing, I've been toying with the idea of getting one for a while. I'd love to be able to make a class 141 in model form, perhaps using an old Hornby 142 for parts.

 

[Cowley]

Cheers! Don't look closely! I'm new to all this building and painting malarkey so all things considered I'm pretty happy!

They look properly good actually. Really impressive.

 

[L401CJF]

They look properly good actually. Really impressive.

Thank you!

 

[devon_belle]

O gauge model of LSWR Waterloo?

Slightly more achievable (but personally distant) would be N gauge Yeovil Junction. I think a model club in that area are tackling the Yeovil area in 2mm, so perhaps this dream will come true for another...

 

[Ianigsy]

I always wanted to have a cut-away style Merseyrail underground layout with some 508s to run around on it. It quickly became very apparent that it just wasn't possible.

However with 3d printed 508 kits available, and recently being gifted a 3d printer for Christmas, it turns out things are possible after all! I've got 2 508s in progress currently and have managed to draw up and print some 1970s brown cladding. So I'll have my dream come true!

Moral of the story, never say never!

I remember at the time of the Mersey Railway centenary celebrations there was an O- gauge layout exhibited of either James Street or Hamilton Square in mid-20th century condition. Every so often I keep trying to find it, but with an unrelated layout called James Street on the current exhibition circuit it isn’t easy!

 

[Ken H]

I remember at the time of the Mersey Railway centenary celebrations there was an O- gauge layout exhibited of either James Street or Hamilton Square in mid-20th century condition. Every so often I keep trying to find it, but with an unrelated layout called James Street on the current exhibition circuit it isn’t easy!

Isnt there a Liverpool overhead layout somewhere?