Gavin’s been in touch with his LMS model railway. It’s an impressive track layout to say the least:
“Dear Alastair,
I have been receiving your hints and tips for some time now and thought you might like a peek at my model railway in Gauge 00. It is my first model railway and I started it 5 years ago when I was 3 score and ten years young.
I wanted to re-create some of my home town of Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire UK during the 1950`s when every building was covered in industrial pollution and the L.M.S. railways were still operating as I always liked their crimson colour scheme.
I also wanted to try and create the contrasting countryside and hills and moors which surround Halifax and Sowerby Bridge so I went on location and did panoramic photos for the backscenes.
All the shops and house are lit up inside at night and the shops are complete with interiors. A lot of the buildings are scratchbuilt and the rest are from the excellent Metcalfe card range. These will be replaced in time with the authentic buildings in their right locations.
The hills are from scrap Polystyrene hacked to shape with a breadknife and finished of with course sandpaper to the right kind of “shapes” befor plastering with normal household filler brushed on nearly dry and tainted with black powder paint as a base colour.
With experience and experimentation you can get some very realistic contours and geological features with this method. As the plaster is drying I dipped the almost by now dry 1″ paint brush into green,orange blue or black powder paint as I went along until I had the topographical and colour effect I was aiming for. Just practice as you go!
Buildings were from picture mounting board or balsa wood etched like the sandstone buildings, walls etc of this area.
I drew the buildings on the computer from original on site photos that I had taken, scaling them as I drew them. The railway bridge was made from a high density pizza base which is round and comes on some makes of pizza. It has the surface finish of the sandstone and looks quite realistic.
There is still a lot of finishing work to do, more people and balasting etc. but I have been buiding a 1/12 scale Colin Archer radio controlled cruising yacht in between which is a replica of a full size version I built in Sydney, Australia 35 years ago and which is still sailing out there to this day.
Yours sincerely,
Gavin”
A big thanks to Gavin for sharing his LMS model railway. I think his work is superb.
(It also reminded me of Peter’s layout: Model railway village.)
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if you want to roll your sleeves up and get back in to this fine, fun hobby, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
And there’s the Silly Discount bundle too.
Stunning. Great perspectives. Great set design. One of the very best examples of a balanced foreground and background. First rate craftmanship. The work of a master. What a treat to see. Thank you.
Jim Cope, East Marion NY USA
Gavin,
You’ve done an excellent job on the backdrops which is what most layouts really need including my own. It give the entire seen such great perspective and thereby adds a lot of realism. Thank you for sharing. I wish more people would share they train layout pictures as you and I have done because that also helps me get ideas. Congratulations, well done.
Barry Palmer
Superb buildings and background.
The scenary and buidings are superb …well done
Beautiful backdrops, terrain and structures. Great work. Do they not ballast track? Only thing I noticed that would greatly improve the pictures.
The way he has integrated the model scenery with the background is about the best I’ve seen. Well done!
Colin
Gavin….One of the best ! Every right to be proud of this fine work !
Great job on this layout. I plan to copy the canel scene.
Absolutely superb! What is the size of your layout? Amazing detail!
Sheila, Louisiana, USA
That is so impressive. Wonderful detail.
Fantastic scenary and so realistic, thanks for the top tips and inspiring designs. Well done
John – Milton Keynes UK
just looked at pics first before reading the discription and was thinking looks like sowerby bridge and low and behold it is. looks brilliant and wasnt there in the 50’s but a lot of the buildings are still there
All I can say is WOW!!
what a layout,full of fantastic scenary.and done so well well done
First class work 10 out of 10
Wonderful scenery,well done !
Barry.
Absolutely stunning. Being a very “new chum” to this incredible hobby & being in the same age bracket as you Gavin, your fantastic layout has really spurred me on. I just love the scenery.
Trich Trouton Australia
Every layout of this status just gives me the encouragement to carry on.
A perfect example, congratulations.
Peter Jacobs, Whitby Ontario, Canada.
What wonderful replication! If you travel to the Yorkshire countryside, you can see this scenery in real time – and this replication is an excellent copy. I only hope that my budding effort can produce something half as good!
A wonderful Gavin model. To model a real scene is always a challenge as somebody will always know if you leave something out.
Cheers
Ralph
Very nice scenery..well dome
Tom – Shrewsbury PA, USA
I don’t know how all of you guys do it. I’m retired and I don’t have the patience to build these layouts. I go fly fishing and that only requires patience for one day not months or years. I love checking these layouts out and appreciating all of the time you put into them.
Herb
I am ansolutely stunned that layout is awsome simply awsome there are no other words to describe it
This is a beautiful job
congratulations
Just brilliant!!
I am just starting a layout. I would be very pleased if my effort is half as good as this one. Fantastic.
Fantasic Gavin, a real pleasure to look at. Many thanks Jim. (3 score and 10 + 5.
Gavin: Excellent job on the scenery – I especially like the hill top with the sheep because of the way it blends so well into the background.
Jay, Fairfield, Ohio, USA
you would think it was a photo of the real thing
Those photo backgrounds are absolutely sensational! I can’t believe how well they have been blended into the scenery. The weathered stone masonry on the buildings is equally impressive — what a beautiful layout!
How about some good old “O” gage fast track
I have been trying to get some track layouts
all I cahn find is HO & N
outstanding layout. Where are the trains? Only saw one engine.
Hi Al, I hope that when I do my layout I can acheive the detail that both Dave and Gavin
got on theirs. Here in South Africa we have a sad shortage of enthusiast shops but fortunately I found you and all your followers. Tried your house plans, they are great and fun to do. Keep up the great work. Regards Peter
wowwww greaaaaaaat i never been to or aussie land Ben Nebraska USA
Galvin&Al you all do a realy good thing ,I am new to this and going to try som of this it is all realy good
Outstanding attention to detail.
Very impressed with all the pictures.
Amazing Work Thanks for sharing…..
Cheers
Fantastic scenery! Jealous, jealous, jealous. The sheep were “off the hook” as the young folk say. Please don’t stop sending in pictures. Your work is amazing!
gavin,
superb effort,
you may be interested to hear Sydney is hosting an International Fleet review OCT 3-11,40 warships, 20 Tall ships, flybys ,etc
regards,john
Great modeling. That is my wife’s favorite part of the U.K. She will enjoy seeing your work, also. Art and Pat Gibson – Topeka, Kansas USA
Gavin,
Great work! You have succeeded. Love your arched bridge but I still don’t see which are the the pizza parts.
Very smart. I like the canal part best
Gavin,
Great job on the scenery. Bring the scenes to the backdrop.
Gavin, Thank you for sharing ,I can only say it was an unbelievable treat.
Well done Gavin, well done!
what a really wonderfull railway, excellent workmanship 10/10
BEAUTIFUL, Gavin!!! I love the way you have incorporated the background photos. Now, if I could just figure a way to do something similar with a 19th century desert scene in the western U.S. – – –
Wonderfull job. I am thrilled . you have put all the effort and lot of hard work & thinking. You imaginations are par excellence.
K
Eep it up!
definitely not the B&O
great job. reminds me of watching “last of the summer wine”
I just loved picture 4 with the sheep, superb bit of scenic work, keep it up!
Rod
Love it!
Thanks for sharing.
Steve
I am sooo jealous!
Incredible scenery and detail. Please share it with as many as you can.
Al, Gavin’s layout should be considered a national treasure. I wish I had seen countryside like that when we visited England, Scotland, and Wales (with a day trip to Paris on the EuroStar) in 2009. BTW, are there any of those hairy cattle on the layout? They were my favorite thing of all.
Ken Hecker
Fullerton, CA USA
WOW Very Impressed with all the detail more pics PLEASE!!!!
What a layout, so realistic, would like to see some more of the details, certainly one to be proud of.
Hi Al I am recently retired and have by accident acquired numerous Model train locos, carriages etc.
I have found that there are several armatures in need of rewiring and with no one in Sydney OZ to help I wish to give it a go myself. Is there one of your contributors who can advise me as to the wire sizes the wire lengths and other info that may assist me in my new endeavor
With Thanks Tom
I guess this is what they mean by museum quality
A veritable library of inspiring design ideas. Every picture provides a wealth of ideas just in its detail! Thanks for a chance to enjoy these beautiful pictures,
Steve
At three score years and 16, I am about to embark on this wonderful adventure as a you and me time for my 5 year old grandson. I can’t imagine that we will be able to achieve anything even close to yours Gavin, but we will give it a try. Maybe some day we can feel confident enough to post here as well. Great work and a true inspiration. Thanks for sharing.
WOW I`m blown away as all the others are! Any chance of getting someone to film it for you with a bit of lighting and send Al a Youtube link so as we can all see this fantastic layout moving and alive.
All the very best 4u in your senior years…..
Another John also in Milton Keynes
Gavin I am in the throes of starting a layout and you have given me the best inspiration ever but I hope I can be even 1/2 as good.
It is the best I have seen so far after months of trolling the net.
Send us more.
ken
Im just getting started but that is awesome work love to have backdrops like that someday keep up the great work!
Dave in sequim, wa u.s.a
Fantastic just starting on a similar setup for the Hawkesbury escarpment north of Sydney NSW hope to be half as good as yours also our major show at Liverpool starts today hope to get more feedback.
Best of modelling to all
Bob Tinker
I’m glad I still have a couple of years to go to reach my ‘3 score and ten’ years – I’ll need that long to work out how to get such a terrific-looking result from a model train set that is still a mental image only! What about on-line tutoring, Gavin?
Congratulations on giving us all something to aspire to.
That’s some nice scenery of the English country side. I love those canals .
Absolutely gorgeous! It looks so real. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you took pictures of your landscape where you live.
As a ‘fellow’ Yorkshireman I have got to say – its a right bobby-dazzler.
Seriously the scenery and backdrop are excellent and you have made a great job of capturing the area look. It gives us all something to aim for.
Would like to make contact as Im am in the same line (LMS) and started this year at age 70. I am modeling in east lancashire and really would like to see if I could have copies of the background photos as they would be just right for my layout, which is to be based on the lancashire / Yorkshire border I have had trouble finding the right photos for backdrops!
Anychance of communicating
Robin
Hi, Just another thought, The backdrops are so good perhaps you could tell us how you produced such lengthy and brilliant backdrops.
Definite great use of backdrops . wish I had picked a fe of those European ones while i was over there
I thoght it would be a working layout, not pictures. The pictures were very impressive.
I am just starting to construct a layout and I am overwhelmed with yours…I hope I can build something half as good . Thank you for the inspiration. Best Regards, BILL
Wonderful layout Gavin!! Superb!!
What a fantastic diorama, just outstanding workmanship,Gavin should be very proud of his work
Excellent layout! Well done!!!!!
Fantastic, some of the best work that I have seen in my three score and five, gathering parts and pieces to build another layout, I have a truly high bar in your work to attempt to match. Thank you for the goal.
Thanks to this fine site for the exposure of all the various ideas and examples of great work.
Jim in Arizona
Beautiful scenery! I love the photo background. Is there a track plan?
Astounding, Gavin. Most of these look like photographs of the countryside, they appear so lifelike! I can hardly believe my eyes – nor can I make my brain believe that this is just a “model” and not the real thing! Well done!
True artist. Come visit Ringling museum Sarasota Florida, USA.Amazing models there .
I would like to think that I have an eye for very good realistic work, and you do. Very, very good.
Fantastic blending of background and the layout. Absolutely brilliant! My favourite line. Just one point though – the LMS ceased to exist in 1948, although obviously it took a while for those beautiful liveries to be replaced by British Railways ones (some of which were rather similar to the LMS).
Stunning! So good to see an English layout! Keep up the good work.
very good layout. very colorful.
All things great and small! This one is GREAT!
Gavin, what an awesome job you have done, that is the best scenery I have seen. That inspires me to do better! Just fantastic!
Great scenery pictures Gavin
Wow! Gavin
I thought your photos were taken by Dangerous Dave on the North York Moors Railway – Superb
Andrew in Oz
First of All, Great Job Gavin! There are a lot of things that I really loved about your layout but what hit me with the biggest punch is the awesome job you did ageing the layout in general. Specifically the buildings! They look like they have been there for a while which is the theme that I personally love.. Keep it up, wE can all learn from you!.
Again, well well Done!
Excellent backdrops. Where from or how did you do them