Memories and Schemes

So many memories awakened.

Right now, assembling this rake of goods wagons may be one of the best things I’ve ever done. It brought back so many memories of what I’ve done in the past, particularly my interest in light railways and model railway layout plans based on them.

The first was probably Belchford Road in EM gauge. A terminus with a kickback siding that by necessity had to be cable shunted. That was fun to do, and always drew an interested crowd whenever it happened. It’s too bad that no pictures remain.

I remember the station on that layout. It was inspired by the structure on the light railway that really fired my interest in the subject. 

Wingham Canterbury Road. 

I forget where I saw my first picture of the station. Model Railway Journal perhaps. But this short dirt platform with corrugated iron walls and the small wooden station building struck a chord with me. I took these screen shots from this wonderful Pathé video from another time to illustrate the charm.

I had seen pictures of other prototype single line termini (SLT) Dyserth, Eyemouth, and Old Ynysybwl for example but I never considered them as subjects for a layout. They did nothing for me. Eyemouth had a really delightful station building that respected modeller Ian Futers has reproduced many times on his different layouts. Lovely as it was, it didn’t interest me. 

But Wingham Canterbury Road was different. The platform is so short that the station name feels longer! That scruffy, cinder platform can’t be much more than 50’ long. That’s just about 14” in O gauge. A true micro station. The station building itself can’t be much bigger than 6’ x 18’. So much charm in such a small space. No wonder I was captivated. 

Seeing my goods train assembled started me thinking about modelling this station again. This time in O. Wouldn’t it be fun to build it and see a mixed train stood at the platform?