Layout: ‘Bakewell’
Inspired by a TV programme, ‘Bakewell’ impresses on every level, but Robert Brooks has been careful not to over-egg it…
Now part of the Monsal Trail, Robert Brooks has replicated this former station.
Bakewell. It’s a small Derbyshire market town with fewer than 4,000 people that shares a name with a well-known dessert. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Bakewell tart, or the cherry Bakewell, is the signature pastry that puts the Peak District town on the map, but these are, in fact, variations of the Bakewell pudding, which can trace its origins back over 150 years.
But enough about desserts. The railway that once served the town once was the Midland Railway’s main line from London St Pancras to Manchester. This famous through-route closed in 1968 and is much missed by enthusiasts.
But inspiration for Robert Brooks didn’t come from the countless photographs of the line’s classic locations but rather its proximity to a university.
“My choice of location is a little surprising,” explains Robert as he leads the way through the garden to the outbuilding where his creation lives, “as I didn’t have a connection to the line, or Bakewell itself, when I was looking for a subject to model.
My son started at Sheffield University in 2012 and at that time Julia Bradbury had just discussed the Monsal Trail in her Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury TV programme. I did the walk myself and decided that of all the disused stations, Bakewell would be the best fit for the space I had available.”
That space is just shy of 15ft by 10ft, and has allowed Robert to produce a reasonably accurate track plan – with a couple of compromises. The goods yard, for example, has had to be flipped
through 180º and curved tighter than the prototype.
Explains Robert, “I went through an extended period of planning while I worked out the logistics of fitting in everything I wanted – the station, the goods yard and Headstone Viaduct – but the build began in 2013.”
What made things more complicated was that Robert designed the layout to be sectional, so that it could be moved if necessary. He needed to make sure that points didn’t foul baseboards joints and had to include extra connections in the layout’s power bus wires. This was a blessing in disguise, for the layout moved from its original loft home into his garden railway room.
The station commands Robert’s railway room.
Much of the real thing survives and the car park now serves people who want to follow the trail, so Robert wasn’t short of photographs and real-world visit opportunities to get his 1:76 scale version just right.
He says: “I’ve built it with a full interior. Everything I could find about the station has been included, even the toilets! The base structure was produced for me by York Modelmaking and I then finished it with a covering of Slater’s Plastikard.”
The station is an impressively accurate representation of Bakewell in the 1960s. The canopy on the Matlock-bound platform is missing – intentionally – as it was removed long before the station closed. We often speak about elements of layouts which help to locate them and these are in abundance at ‘Bakewell’. Not only does the bright blue Midland Pullman which surges through the station give quite a large clue, but the distinctive Midland Railway lamps and nameboards and Scale Model Scenery kits pinpoint the location even further.
“The Pullman is so distinctive I just had to have one,” Robert says. “Many of the classes I have are preserved and I’ve ridden behind examples of the real ones.”
‘9Fs’, ‘Black Fives’ and ‘8Fs’ are all suitable for the Matlock-buxton line in its heyday. But one of Robert’s favourite is his re-creation of a 1990s Royal Train. He’s replaced the single doors on the Hornby coaches with double doors and used tracing paper in the
windows to depict net curtains. It might be historically out of place but it does look at home crossing Headstone Viaduct at Monsal Dale.
The viaduct and adjacent tunnel portal is one of the most recognisable locations. Robert just had to include it and though the distance to Bakewell has been considerably reduced, you really don’t notice.
A drop level baseboard was used to give the full effect of the viaduct with the River Wye running underneath, but a crawl underneath the goods yard and into the operating well is required to fully appreciate the quality of modelling Robert has achieved.
“The foundations of the viaduct are formed from 2in by 1in wooden blocks, then I’ve simply covered the outside with grey card and some embossed stone sheeting. To give the valley a firm base, I carved some polystyrene blocks using a hot wire cutter and laid a grass mat on the top, as the large area was just too much for a solely static grass approach.”
Those are the bigger aspects of the layout, but ‘Bakewell’ is just as impressive on a smaller scale and, thanks to Modelu, it’s even more personal to Robert.
“A miniature version of me is in the goods yard, alongside some other figures from Dart Castings. I’ve not overly populated the layout, just a few figures here and there to give the impression of a few things going on. As it was a 1960s layout the line was in
decline so I couldn’t justify crowded platforms!”
Robert’s quest for realism even caused him to look for alternatives to off-the-shelf track. This resulted in him attending a Missenden Abbey Railway Modellers’ course (www.missendenrailwaymodellers. org.uk) on building track with copper-clad sleepers.
“The C&L and Templot templates are useful for ensuring you get the geometry right so I used them for the points, but for the straights and curves I found it just as easy to use SMP parts. It takes an awful lot longer than slotting together fixed or flexible track, but I do think it looks more realistic.”
Robert has spent a long time getting everything as accurate as possible, from hand-building track to using CAD images of the station. The Modelu figure of himself? Well, that’s just the cherry on top of the Bakewell.