Layout: Fawley
Ten years in the making, Malcolm Snellgrove’s homage to the line that served a refinery takes a simple approach to maintaining operational interest.
Malcolm Snellgrove’s layout takes a simple approach to operational interest.
Sandwiched between Southampton Water and the New Forest National Park is a small ribbon of land measuring just 10 by 1½ miles. Before the 1920s, it was just an agricultural area with winding roads and a few small villages. That was until the Atlantic Gulf and West Indies Petroleum Corporation (later Esso) decided to call it home.
That oil refinery, the largest in the UK (more than a square mile), significantly boosted the population of Fawley. So much so that four years after construction began on the refinery in 1921, a branch line from Totton to Fawley was opened by the Southern Railway in 1925. But why did Malcolm Snellgrove choose this particular branch for his layout?
“I felt that a model based on Fawley might be of interest at the local exhibition of the Southampton Model Railway Society,” explains Malcolm. “It isn’t a scale model as there’s severe compression on both length and width to make it viable to work on at home, and even with this I can’t erect all the boards inside at the same time.”
The refinery was in its infancy in the period Malcolm is showing, so although there is oil traffic, it wasn’t the behemoth it is today. The branch was operated as a light railway but despite this it was built to normal railway standards, making use of concrete wherever possible over the approximate nine and a half mile route.
“I’ve based the layout on
“The branch was operated as a light railway, but it was built to normal railway standards, using concrete wherever possible”
the 1939 working timetable when there were only three Down and four Up passenger trains a day, predominantly bringing workers to and from the refinery. Only one worked to and from Totton, which extended to Salisbury on a Saturday, while the rest went to Southampton with one to Andover Junction.
“In terms of freight, there were just the two Up and two Down trains. Due to the refinery, a lot was oil but there was also coal and the usual freight. There may also have been some material for the maintenance base for Imperial Airways flying boats, which was next to the goods yard at Hythe, but I’m yet to find any photographic evidence of this.”
Having a limited service means that Malcolm hasn’t had to have an extensive fiddleyard capable of holding dozens of locomotives and rakes of rolling stock. Just nine locomotives is all he needs to accurately represent a day’s work.
“Considering I started building ‘Fawley’ about 2009, but due to work and other commitments have only been able to finish it since I retired three and a half years ago, not having more than necessary has had its benefits! The age of the model has caused some problems during the build as some of the electrical
connections and the underlay in the fiddleyard had perished, but thankfully these are all sorted now, fingers crossed! As I need to put up and take down the layout, having lightweight boards was a key factor and I’ve achieved this with plywood blocks and dowels, joining the boards together with bolts. They’re easy to take apart and straightforward to replace should one fall to the ground and get lost!
“Laying the Peco Code 75 track was straightforward enough thanks to the foam underlay, which was given a ballast finish before laying. One thing I wish I’d done is use a fine grade of ballast over the entirety of the
layout rather than just part of it, as this would have improved the look instead of having two different grades on the same layout.”
We know from his articles in Model Rail that Chris Nevard is a master modeller and we’ve followed his tips and advice for numerous years. Well his advice has also reached ‘Fawley’, as Malcolm explains.
“Chris told me that the best way of making a realistic yard is to use the earth itself to create it. I got some earth out of my greenhouse and dried it before sifting it and finishing with the extremely fine pieces. I mixed this with plaster to give a nice fine texture, perfect for replicating the yard surface.”
INSPIRATION
It isn’t just Chris Nevard who provided Malcolm with some tips for his model railway. In fact, he’s taken advice and inspiration from a few different sources over the years.
“The plans for the station building and the signal box are in the late John Fairman’s book Thefawley Branch (Oakwood Press). Marchwood station building, though, is the same as that of Fawley and that one is still standing – handy when I needed reference for the build. The signal box is made from card and plastic card and I’ve detailed the interior, although the frame is not visible as this was at the rear of the box.
“The fencing has metal post uprights kindly supplied by J. Douglas Smith of ‘Swaynton’ fame. These are great, but I’ve used fishing line for the wire, forgetting that if the fish can’t see it in the water, I can’t see it on the layout! The trees are salvaged wire frames and part lacecap hydrangea stems as per Jas Milham’s article in MRJ.