Create a simple backscene

Peter Marriott formulates the ideal layout for legitimately displaying all of your model locomotives, regardless of era, mode of traction or origin.

Let’s face it: whether we’re ‘N’ gauge or ‘OO’ aficionados, steam or diesel enthusiasts, or fans of the rural branch line or the bustle of the main, the one aspect of railway modelling that unites us all is that we all have more model locomotives than will fit on our layouts.

The usual solution is to build a depot layout. But what if you don’t have the money or skill to build such a layout? What if your collection is so broad that you need more than one to show off all your locomotives?

This is the answer: a display diorama that takes up the minimum amount of space, and thanks to the joys of digital photography, can be built over a weekend.

Can it really be 12 years since Bachmann dazzled us with the stupendous prototype Deltic it produced for the National Railway

Museum? Since then, any new tooling associated with the NRM has always been something a bit special. Remember Bachmann’s City of Truro, Midland ‘Compound’ and Butler-henderson, not to mention Rapido’s APT-E and Stirling Single? Even the forthcoming SECR ‘D’ from Dapol seems to be keeping up with that tradition.

The NRM collection really required a suitable display space to show the locomotives at their best. But the NRM at York has only one track into the museum itself. Locomotion, the NRM’S Shildon outstation, has seven approach tracks, set in a concrete apron, plus a running line behind. This makes it a much more modellable location.

Due to the limited size of the baseboard – 81cm by 40cm (roughly 2ft 6in by 15in) – I could only model the front of the museum building. This is what makes such a diorama so easy. Rather than go to a lot of effort painstakingly recreating the Locomotion frontage, I used a photograph.

You can, of course, use a photograph of any location you want, from a modern diesel depot to a two-road steam shed. The only difficulty will be getting a square-on, obstruction-free photograph and you’ll more than likely need permission to photograph the location of your choice.

Once you have your photograph, it’s easy enough to turn it into something you can use on a model. I took my photograph on a memory stick into my local branch of Jessops and

had an A2 print made. It cost just £15 and its semi-matt finish worked well on the project.

I toyed with locating the building at one end of the diorama, but that would only allow the central part of the structure to be modelled and, after a little bit of experimentation, I decided it would that it would be better to model the building lengthways, slightly off-centre and at an angle. The two main lines outside the perimeter of the museum could also be included on the baseboard, albeit with only enough room for one locomotive on each line, but that still meant ten models could be displayed at any one time. Thanks go to Dennis Lovett of Locomotion Models.

The first stage was to remove the sky and the foreground from the photograph. I used a Swann-morton knife with a new blade and a steel ruler over a self-healing cutting board.

I carefully smoothed the picture down with my hand to ensure there were no air bubbles under the photograph and, when satisfied, left it to dry.

I fixed the backdrop onto a piece of 5mm white foamboard using Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue. I used a flat paintbrush to spread a thin layer of glue on the reverse of the photograph.

The concrete apron was made from layers of mount board, built up to the tops of the sleepers. A final layer filled between the tracks. Leave room for the model’s flanges.

Creating the concrete apron required a lot of mounting cardboard and it took quite a bit of adjusting to get it looking right! Use a black felt pen to colour the edges of the card.

With the card fixed in place with Scenic Glue (and dry), I mixed some brown and grey acrylic paints to match Locomotion’s concrete. It took a couple of coats to cover the card properly.

Use a pipette to apply Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement. Work carefully and allow the glue to slowly penetrate the ballast. Avoid the temptation to squirt the glue into the ballast.