Sydney Gardens

Builder: Steve Jones Issue it appeared in: MR210 July 2015 Chosen by: Chris Nevard, model maker and photographer

Steve Jones’ layout appeals to me because I regularly visited the real location in the 1980s to photograph trains. Sydney Gardens, with Brunel’s ‘God’s Wonderful Railway’ was, and still is, a great place to watch trains snaking through a unique location. ‘Sydney Gardens’, modelled in ‘OO’ gauge, is an excellent bit of model making, as well as a fabulous miniature vista to watch trains flying through the landscape. When close up and down low, you really feel you are like a giant visiting the actual location – such is the accuracy and attention to detail. But it’s not just about the detail – many layouts are very detailed, but they don’t feel like a real scene in miniature. Many models of real locations fail, even though they might be accurate technically, but they lack that special something that makes them believable. For me, ‘Sydney Gardens’ captures that special something.