THE FIRST STEPS

RICHARD FOSTER takes the first step in his layout project by assessing the landscape of the real thing, and working out how to work it into the space in which it will live.

• Pencil • Paper • Bits of Peco track • Station building • Bachmann Ivatt ‘4MT’ • Hornby Gresley teaks

I’d never call myself particularly well travelled but I’ve managed to get about a bit. I’ve been as far as Australia, Canada and Malaysia and, of our European neighbours, I have ticked off France, Germany, Hungary and Poland. I’ve visited bits of Ireland and the Channel Islands, and there are very few parts of Britain that I haven’t explored. The one constant from all my travels is the desire to model where I’ve been. I doubt I’m alone in feeling this way. Every holiday seems to add something else to my list of layouts that I really want to build. Even a recent trip to Bamburgh instilled in me a deep fascination with the eccentric North Sunderland Railway. So, from my list, what should I build first? A Welsh slate quarry? Something London Transport? The Canadian Pacific’s spiral tunnels? Or what about the wonderful Puffing Billy Railway, in Australia? None of these in fact; my chosen project is less than three miles from my front door. What’s the rationale behind this seemingly illogical choice? I’m a Fenlander. I’ve always lived in the Lincolnshire Fens and it’s only after I started to travel in my late teens that I’ve come to appreciate the scenic beauty of the flat fields and huge expanse of sky. It’s a tranquil, colourful landscape, full of colour and wildlife. Barn owls and buzzards are common sights on my commute and I’ve even seen an otter swimming in one of the man-made waterways known as ‘main drains’. The sea is only a stone’s throw away, and at the right time of year you can see seals bobbing about. I do find it a bit strange when people comment that the lack of hills makes the Fens boring. That’s not how I see it! The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway was very much like the landscape in which it was set. Its history is a little tortuous but it came into being on July 1 1893, formed from a number of smaller enterprises. It was, as its name suggests, a joint concern and owned by both the Midland and the Great Northern railways. It also interacted heavily with the Great Eastern Railway, too. In fact, both the M&GN and the GER operated another joint railway, the Norfolk & Suffolk Joint Railway, between Cromer, via Mundesley, to North Walsham, and from Yarmouth to Lowestoft. A quick look at the accompanying map will illustrate where the M&GN went and where it connected with its parent companies and the GER. The bit that we’re interested in is the section between Spalding and Sutton Bridge,