I'm not a psychologist - for all I know, I haven't even spelt 'psychologist' correctly (if you must know, I'm an IT contractor - we don't do spelling). But many people, when talking, writing or presenting on the subject of garden railways, will not fail to offer an opinion about the psychology of layout design. by which they actually mean 'how believable is it?'
'A railway must have a purpose' is oft the battle cry. It needs to at least give the impression of going from point 'A' to point 'B'. It must provide a service to its customers - not only the passenger variety, but also those industries who rely on the railway for delivery of raw materials as well as distribution of finished goods. In the case of a garden railway, trains need to disappear into a tunnel, to be derailed by an errant hedgehog sheltering therein.
'A railway must have a purpose' is oft the battle cry. It needs to at least give the impression of going from point 'A' to point 'B'. It must provide a service to its customers - not only the passenger variety, but also those industries who rely on the railway for delivery of raw materials as well as distribution of finished goods. In the case of a garden railway, trains need to disappear into a tunnel, to be derailed by an errant hedgehog sheltering therein.
In designing my own garden layout, I had all these ideas and more ringing in my ears. I have made the line go from 'A' to 'B' - with a detour via 'C'. I also have a continuous loop, which ducks and weaves like a punch-drunk pugilist around the various obstacles in my garden. I have 4 stations, 2 of which have their own goods areas. Passengers are covered, believe me. If they ever complain about the prototypically unpredictable service, then I will doubtless further enhance the believability of my model by completely ignoring them.
What I don't have, though, is any kind of obvious freight custom - something which over the coming weeks/months/eons I hope to address. Even as recently as the 1950's the British railway network was liberally scattered with private sidings, owned and controlled by (usually large) businesses but with direct links onto the national metals. Dairies, breweries - even Huntley and Palmer's Biscuit Factory had its own goods vans, thus ensuring that millions of Britons up and down the country had something to dunk in their tea that hadn't clogged the roads in order to get to them.
So enough of my wandering around the subject: What I have planned to do is to create a miniature 'private siding' belonging to the fictitious 'E. W. Badman - Pipe Factors'. Actually, not wholly fictitious...
Ernest Walter Badman was born in Bristol in 1880, went to the Boer War as an officer's batman (must have been a misunderstanding involving his name, surely), returned to join the now expanding Fry's Chocolate Factory's Research and Development Department (Fry's Chocolate Cream, anyone?), met and married a young lady at the factory by the name of Leonora Bane, went to war for a second time as a member of the Royal Flying Corps, returned to take over his brother's ailing coal distribution business, transformed it into a highly successful general haulage business which to this day has now evolved into 2 businesses: JK Badman and Allan Badman Transport Ltd - and was also my maternal grandfather. Sadly for me, he died in 1962, when I was only 2 years old. Definitely my loss.
Sorry, I digress again. You'll get used to that if you ever pay regular attention to this blog or any of my ramblings for that matter. So, here's my first attempt at posting a picture to my blog...
This shows how it looked before work commenced. The wall-mounted flower pots are not integral to the design, and will be removed. As will the pale-looking girl with the tree growing out of her head. The bricks will form part of the 'platform' of the factory. On the platform will be a smaller-gauge railway - in scale terms it's nominally the same as that used for the main line (1:22.5 or thereabouts). In gauge terms, however, it represents a 15-inch gauge railway, the purpose of which will be to move goods-inward from the main rail head to the factory, and to bring finished goods out to the siding for loading onto suitable wagons.
Modelling 15-inch gauge lines to a scale of 1:22.5 is a discipline all of its own, and goes under the name of Gn15. For further information, including a lively and very friendly forum, click here.
This second picture shows a simple mock-up of the private siding in action. The narrow-gauge wagon with its single pipe load is in fact a chassis from an old OO-gauge Mk1 coach. Exactly the right length to hold the pipe. All it needs is a new body and we're in business!
This second picture shows a simple mock-up of the private siding in action. The narrow-gauge wagon with its single pipe load is in fact a chassis from an old OO-gauge Mk1 coach. Exactly the right length to hold the pipe. All it needs is a new body and we're in business!
