Layout: Scrapyard

Got a piece of board that you’re thinking of binning? Don’t scrap it, urges JACK BOSKETT – consider its potential as a layout baseboard.

Jack Boskett shows you how he built a scrapyard diorama from leftover materials.

Afew years ago, I made a wooden cover to hide some electrical equipment at my old office. It was just under 5ft by 4ft and held together with two sides, making it 12in tall. I moved out of that office recently and it seemed a shame to throw the wooden cover away.

That’s when the modelling gear kicked in. I’ve often fancied modelling a scrapyard and so I challenged myself to build as detailed a diorama as I could in the shortest possible time. But even then, I certainly didn’t expect to finish this in just four hours…

WHY A SCRAPYARD?

Famous locomotive graveyards are few and far between these days, but one such yard is EMR Kingsbury in the West Midlands. I went there in 2010 to help recover some parts for a preservation group. Inside the yard were Class 08s, 37s, 56s, 86s and 87s ready for disposal.

From what I remember, it was a mess. It was located on muddy, slushy ground with bits of locomotive, from engine components to body panels, everywhere. I recall tripping over an air horn which stuck out of the mud and, after a bit of digging, I had recovered two perfectly good Class 56 air horns, which I bought.

It was just around the time I finished working at Long Marston depot in Warwickshire, where lots of locomotives and rolling stock are stored before being stripped for useful spares, after which their carcasses make their final journeys to yards such as EMR Kingsbury. At the time, it was when the Class 87 fleet had been withdrawn and I remember long lines of ‘87s’ at Long Marston, all waiting to head off by road to Kingsbury for scrap. They were in reasonable external condition and, as an enthusiast, it was sad to see.

Yet there is something strangely mysterious about a railway scrapyard. As a professional photographer, I am quite a creative person and I love to experiment with my work and push my knowledge and camera to the limit. I gladly sank my teeth into modelling the different textures, colours and details of a scrapyard.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this diorama and I plan to take it to model exhibitions across the country. It just goes to show that you can make something out of nothing in a short space of time, using just a piece of scrap wood.

Above: I’ve built a number of layouts over the years and have amassed quite a collection of bits and pieces. I searched through my scrap box to find material worthy of going on the scrapyard scene.

Left and right: Rail enthusiasts collect pieces of locomotives, most notably flame-cut panels with numbers on. I cut around the numbers on the locomotive bodies and placed them against the wall outside a container. During my visit to EMR Kingsbury, I was allowed to have a look at the flame-cut number panels in one of the containers. There were quite a few in a large pile, particularly Class 37s and 56s. There were also some nameplates lying around, too.