Whatmakes this layout great?
Modern-era layouts are full of colour and Paul has done a great job of enlivening what could have easily have been a dreary brown depot scene.
The lone house was scratchbuilt and it’s an accurate model of my own home, apart from the car – I’ve significantly upgraded that!”
bus garage for his larger and more impressive collection of miniature buses. What makes ‘Ledleigh Depot’ stand out is that it lacks the hallmarks of a typical diesel depot layout. It’s big, filling almost three walls of a 10ft by 9ft room. It includes some scenic areas, such as the bus garage and a small housing estate, which enables the depot to be set ‘in the landscape’. It also uses some very clever techniques to make it look bigger than it actually is. The layout only took a year to build, largely because the dominant features were already completed. The bus garage, for example, took a year to build for the first layout, but incorporating it into ‘Ledleigh Depot’ saved a lot of time. “Everything on the layout has been scratchbuilt from photographs, so having parts already done was advantageous. Even the lone house is an accurate model of my own home, apart from the car – I’ve significantly upgraded that!” But why call it ‘Ledleigh Depot’? “I knew it was going to be a freight depot, so I did an internet search for the main railfreight companies in the UK,” Paul explains. “Freightliner came top of
the list. I saw that it had a depot in Leeds, and after getting in contact with the firm, I was invited up to have a look around and take some measurements (for which I’m truly grateful). “The whole depot is far too long to fit into the ten-foot space I had available, but I have managed to include the fuel point and turning lathe. The naming duly followed. The ‘Led’ comes from Leeds and the ‘Leigh’ is the first part of Leighton Buzzard, where I live.”
LIGHT WORK
Some depot layouts assail the senses with lights and sound. Paul’s uses these carefully to create a realistic effect. His Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance DCC system takes advance of modern ready-to-run diesels with light and sound functions and these are complemented with depot lights, street lights and subdued yellow lights in background buildings. He’s even fitted passing cars with lights too! While he was dismantling the cars to fit the lights, Paul took the opportunity to add drivers to each of them as well. Despite the prominence of lights and sound in the vehicles, however, Paul has kept his track wiring simple. “Layout electrics really aren’t my strong point,” Paul admits, “so I decided that all of the points should be operated by hand. I use a simple system of plastic
incorporating Barrow Hill allows me to put splashes of other liveries on the scene”
tubing with 1mm steel wires running through it under the baseboard, eliminating the need for complicated point motors and a mass of wires.” conscious Of COLOUR The low-relief depot building towards the rear of the layout is loosely based on the modern workshops that have sprung up at Barrow Hill. “As I have a lot of Freightliner and Colas Rail locomotives, I was a bit concerned about ‘Ledleigh Depot’ being dominated by two main colour schemes. Incorporating Barrow Hill building allows me to put splashes of other liveries on to the scene. As well as the Direct Rail Services model, I’ve added a couple of lines at the back of the layout that house grimy Lima models, representing locomotives undergoing major overhauls.” Diesel depot layouts can become a little ‘samey’ after a while. By giving ‘Ledleigh Depot’ a little extra space to incorporate a little extra scenery – aided, of course, by his bus collection – and by thinking about view blocking and perspective, Paul has created a thoroughly believable and realistic depiction of a modern, urban diesel depot. The question is: will that bus garage one day make it on to another layout?