According to Chris…
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Chris looks at how markets for the three main scales have changed over the years.
Where scales and gauges are concerned, manufacturers and magazines have to cater for the largest market, and in the UK that is ‘OO’ gauge, by a considerable margin. ‘O’ gauge and ‘N’ gauge come next. It is inevitable that most of us model railway journalists will come from the ‘OO’ camp, and equally inevitable that those who model in the minority scales and gauges will feel that their particular interest does not get enough attention.
In my experience, ‘N’ gauge modellers are far more vociferous about this perceived imbalance. ‘O gaugers’ tend to do their own thing and are well catered for by the Gauge O Guild Gazette, so they are a little less interested in what appears in the mainstream magazines. They were also not really catered for by ready-to-run manufacturers, though that has since changed dramatically.
It was nearly ten years ago, (MR139, January 2010) that I made my first excursion into ‘N’ gauge. I built Hayling Island and the Langstone Harbour bridge in order to use the new Dapol ‘N’ gauge ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0T. I recall it wasn’t a particularly happy experience, primarily because I was frustrated by a lack of specific accessories to make the construction easy. I realised just how well-supplied 4mm:1ft scale modellers are with pretty much everything they need being available off the shelf.
Since then, I’ve continued to dabble in both ‘O’ and ‘N’ alongside my mainstream ‘OO’ and ‘HO’ North American interests. My ‘N’ gauge Staines West branch line now has all its main scenic features in place but the terminus station remains incomplete because I could not find any suitable canopy columns.
The columns and valancing at Staines West were of standard Great Eastern design. Yes, GER, despite its location in Great Western territory. This anomaly came about because the engineer, John Wilson, was also building the Mildenhall branch at
the time. He used the same design of columns and valancing for both stations and went on to become the resident GER engineer, when the design was adopted as the GER standard.
I was able to obtain the valancing from York Modelmaking’s standard range, but not the columns. They can’t be laser-cut, and in ‘N’ they are too small for 3D printing. Thus, my construction work halted until, in an e-mail consultation, York Modelmaking suggested that they could laser-cut the brackets plus various tiny circles and hexagons which could be threaded onto plastic rod to create the columns.
Ironically, this consultation came about after the company had produced some very fine ‘O’ gauge canopy brackets for a model of Tetbury station that I’m building in 7mm:1ft scale. I’m finally building the Timber Tracks kit that I bought ten years ago at a show in Bristol, but I thought I could improve on the brackets supplied with the kit. With my rough drawing tidied up by Matthew Hunt, Model Rail’s art editor, the result really does enhance the model.
That, in turn, has prompted me into building a little (well, 4ft by 2ft) diorama in ‘O’ gauge, that could well be developed into a layout, perhaps in another ten years’ time! In the meantime, here’s a glimpse of what I’m up to, and a fascinating Colour Rail photograph of the real Tetbury station.
The latter is of particular interest as it shows Pressed Steel railcar No. W55032 at Tetbury on an unrecorded date. It is the only picture that I’ve ever seen of any modern traction other than a diesel railbus on the Tetbury branch. There was a spell during the severe winter of 1963 when the railbuses all failed and the larger bogie vehicles replaced them for a while. However, these railcars lacked the folding steps that enabled the railbuses to serve the rail-level halt platforms, so the service must have been of limited use.
It’s 55 years since I last rode on the branch, shortly before it closed. Today there’s a wooded public park where the terminus was, a car park, and an arts centre in the old goods shed, but it’s good to know that I can still make ‘discoveries’ in readily accessible archives. Modeller diary: Chris Leigh
Chris is giving a talk entitled ‘They enjoy it so much, I don’t know why I pay them’ at The Model Railway Club, Keen House, Calshot Street, London on September 12 at 1930.
‘N’ gauge modellers are far more vociferous about this perceived imbalance