Pre-grouping railways are beautifully modelled, along with a stunning early wooden viaduct. Richard also explains how both the lifting section, to allow the layout to pass a door, and fiddle yard work.
I travelled on the Hayling branch line. I was 7 when it closed. Great layout, a joy to see. I love also the boats and sailing barges you have made. Very nice!
What a gem! To me, a very original and beautifully designed & crafted layout. Your pride is obvious & you are right to feel that way, Richard. May it continue to bring you much joy!
I must say that it is absolutely marvelous to be able to see video presentations of beautiful layouts like this which would otherwise never been seen by the public.
Like Mick Bowyer, I have to say the layout is absolutely delightful. I'm currently building, in OO, a similar layout based in the 1950s (with the ugly goods shed!) with Hayling Island station at one end and the bay platform of Havant at the other. Wonderful to see how someone else has approached it.
Lovely layout. I grew up literally on Langstone Harbour as my dad was an inshore fisherman, so regularly in sight of the piles for the old bridge, very evocative and beautifully narrated by Richard.
A beautiful layout! It's great how you have blended the bridge with the background. That's really tricky to do and you have got it just right by keeping it so simple. When I was a young teenager in the early 1960's, a friend and I took a day trip, by train, to Hayling Island. What a thrill to ride behind a tiny Terrier loco, and experience the whole of the line before arriving at the terminus which, to my surprise, seemed quite spacious and spread out compared with the Isle of Wight stations I was used to at home. Thanks a lot, Richard, for sharing your fabulous layout and reminding me of a brilliant day out - albeit 60 years on from your layout!
What a beautiful layout. I have very much enjoyed watching your video, and I am impressed at the detail and thought that you have put in to this project. Well Done.
Absolutely charming, wonderful modelling and I also learned some new that NHS about the HIB too. Sorry to hear you had to demolish your layout, I've had similar issues in the past too. I've only 18'x9' too, plus it's not a room as such, so I've made an outdoor loop and 'U' in our small garden, that's been made more attractive with planting. But as I was bitten hard by the O gauge bug there was no going back. I'd be very mindful of DCC sound, some of it is still awful, due in the main to speaker type and size. But if got right it would add to operational interest. Another option is to have a whistle unit and under baseboard speakers, Eg a cheap 3:1 set up and a button. In the background you could have ambient sounds etc. I'm running dead rail and DCC.
SIZE MATTERS !!! Even in OO scale a reasonably large station such as Basingstoke requires 56ft from Barton Mill carriage sidings at the North end, to the southern end of the Down Goods Yard !! Further just the small Loco shed building capable of holding 9 Pacific locos works out at 5ft 9in long !!! Which is why commercial manufactures DO NOT make buildings to true scale length, except the smallest designs they can find. The average British home is now realistically too small for anything bigger than N Gauge !!!!
