MODERN DEPOT CLUTTER
I’m looking to add some interesting ‘clutter’ to my ‘O’ gauge modern diesel depot layout. What sort of materials are likely to be scattered around such a site? Gavin Carr, Colwyn Bay
George says: Compared to the steam era or later BR period, railway depots are much tidier and well organised these days. This is due mostly to stricter health and safety legislation and environmental regulations. There’s also much more emphasis on security, especially with the rise in metal and cable theft over recent decades. As a result, most equipment is likely to be neatly stacked behind barriers and anything of significant value stored indoors, or in a locked compound. Only the heaviest, bulkiest or lower value items are to be found outdoors, although much depends on the nature of the location. Due to the variety of private operators and contractors who now own and maintain railway depots around the UK, operating practices differ, so prototype research is the key to finding out what’s likely to be scattered around the depot environs. Open days are probably the best way of gaining inspiration, either directly or via photo-sharing websites such as Flickr. Having visited Direct Rail Services’ open day at Carlisle Kingmoor last year, I was interested to see how the various spare parts were organised. Mechanical and electrical components were, unsurprisingly, stored inside the main depot buildings, but other parts were arranged outside on pallets, clearly labelled and organised. Brake blocks were the most common, neatly stacked and arranged by locomotive class, but there were also other items, such as buffers and track components laid out in piles. Some were even shrink-wrapped or wrapped in (very soggy) cardboard boxes. No doubt a special effort is usually made to tidy up depots prior to public open days, but a generally neat aspect is the general rule for 21st-century installations. Avid plastic kit builders are likely to have plenty of brake components in their spares boxes and these could be cut and stacked to represent locomotive parts. Spare buffers, too, are easily obtained and pallets are available from a number of sources in all scales, such as Knightwing, Merit and Ten Commandments. Saving off-cuts of track and sleepers (cutting away the moulded chairs) provides plenty of permanent way stores.