'READING STATION' MODEL RAILWAY - 160 FEET LONG AN AMAZING 2.3 SCALE MILES!! 

Absolutely brilliant, the realism is amazing.

I'm a retired driver who regularly drove through Reading and the detail is amazing as signals and routes are recognisable, well done to you.

Exactly the kind of layout I would like, though I'd probably set it in the mid 60s so I could have both steam and diesels running.

I love the double header tractors and cromptons class 33s and the 73 I love them all I would love to see this layout.🥰😍🤩

And what a glorious tribute it is!! It’s also lovely to HEAR the trains as well as seeing them.

Sorry to hear John isn't able to enjoy this layout as he once did, what an incredible thing that's been built. I hope it's able to be enjoyed for many years to come. Thanks for the upload.

I am from Reading and only just remember how it used to look before the new station was built, gave me lovely memories of watching the trains come through as a kid with my grandpa, fantastic job!

Naughty Hst going round with reds on at the front, awesome layout! I’d love to have a play :)

Stunning this has to go into my top ten favorite layouts 👍

My layout is a small one because of the size of my house, but it’s quite an intricate micro layout with a fiddle yard and a scenic board with a freight line, a station and a through line. Welcome to Walmington-on-Sea!!

The central track between platforms 4 and 5 was known to us spotters as the Warpath. I used to watch Westerns and Warships come hurtling through and of, course, the 125's later on. It's changed so much since my spotting days in the 70's

this is stunning , congratulations to all involved in bringing to life

I was very lucky to be shown this layout a few years ago by John. John used to come to see my layout "Lostwithiel" on the Boconnoc Estate.

Nicely done,thanks for sharing,,

Thanks for the glimpses of your beautiful Layout , the the stock look at their best here👍

Wow thanks for sharing this amazing model layout of reading station thanks Steve

That layout is awesome, the cinematography is pretty cool too. My Dad took me to Reading station in the early 80s to do some trainspotting and it was over an hours drive from our home and I thought I was in heaven sitting there watching the HST125s and the other locomotive hauled trains, for my Dad it was a cheap afternoon out for the cost of two platform tickets. This video is amazing and really bought back some memories of watching trains at Reading as a child

Wow nice video with lots going on. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic layout, the track work is exceptional.

I used to live in Guildford. I would take the train (steam hauled “N” class or similar) to go train spotting at the western end of the down platform. The first time I went, probably 1967/8 as I came upon a group of other spotters, they were all shouting “Caledonian 123” and “City of Truro” had just gone through! I never saw 123, but on a visit to UK in either 2010 or 2014 I saw “City of Truro” at Alton on the MHR. I have a younger brother who lives in Truro. We were at Reading station several times on those two trips, and have seen the station nearly finished on the rebuild. Always catch the 0759 to Truro. Is it still running to that timetable I wonder? Now residing in beautiful Picton, S. Island, NZ.

Impressive! Lovely, realistic train speeds.

❤️Great layout 🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃

Pretty good. And I used Reading every day to commute to Tilehurst, and for Train Spotting at lunchtimes.

This is incredible.

Wicked cool. I like the rough bumpy track.

This layout has captured the ‘feel’ of Reading and itself surroundings very well, excellent work! Really enjoyed watching.

Very nice indeed 👌 Would love something like this, its finding the Space,

Superb!

Great layout enjoyed it loads. Used to spot there in 1980s good times. Well done for all the hard work building it

Very nice. Must have been a lot of work !! I used to go to Reading by train with my Mum and Sister, from Wokingham, when I was a kid. It was good seeing the two lines with buffers where the Wokingham trains used to stop. I'd forgotten it. When I started work, at Weldale Motors in Reading, 1977, and before I started driving, I used to use the train from Wokingham to Reading. Usually the old Slam door CIGs in Blue and White. Happy days !! The Line also passed through Emmbrook on a high embankment at the end of my old School playing field. Many happy times watching Westerns, Brush 4s, 2s, Hymeks etc, etc. I liked your printed backdrop too. Got me thinking, If budget allowed, if it would be possible to have screens running video footage of an actual scene, in a similar way to some News or daytime shows, So you'd have Moving Cars, People etc ?? Thanks. Antony.

Nice layout that must have cost thousands of pounds i love the 8 carridge hst and the hoover the details of this diorama look very real I wish I had the space to create one but I ain't so it's wistful thinking for me at this moment in time sadly!!! 😎

Wonderful layout with such a level of detail . Sorry to read that layout will be taken down,it needs to be preserved as a model railway masterpiece !

I used to do train spotting but mainly where I live in Swindon. It's certainly an idea to take up again and get some ideas for my model railway. An idea too to try a visit to Reading for the variety of lines running there.

Marvelous

reminds me of working in an office block overlooking the station a few years ago! Only thing missing is seeing Clan line going steaming past every now and then as it goes to and thro from its London base.

I love how realistic this looks, excellent!

Beautiful layout looks so real looking at the train at 4:15 watching it bounce at shift,makes you think you're looking at the real thing

Modelling at its finest.

Wonderful layout

Train modeling is important as it can show to the future generations how the world was during the different epochs of railway. Many layouts can be considered as living museums of the matter.

Hi brilliant layout just one thing as a Reading lad Reading Station was never that clean lots of oil and dirt everywhere and plenty of rubbish on the tracks. Still love the layout takes me back when I was young. Thanks

An excellent model of the old station prior to the remodeling of the station which has be the biggest pigeon nest in Berkshire when you look up !!

Shame it's missing the K&A bridge on the Eastern side, but very nice to see the old station building before the glass concourse was erected. I remember mostly freight trains using the centre lines between the platforms and nearly all passenger traffic stopped at the platforms Definitely reminds me of my youth and taking trains into Reading with my mates, absolutely stonking layout

❤️😎

Fantastic layout looks like the real thing.

Absolutely awesome layout, stuff of dreams. It really pains me to see the coaches "dancing" around like that though. My layout is thrown together in comparison, and I don't see that on mine. I've heard it's a Bachmann trait, hopefully not. Excellent layout though, superb in every way. Cheers.

Look good

Wow! Where would you build such a layout? Mightily impressed.

Truly impressive vast-scale evocation of how Reading station used to be. Yes, my Bachmann carriages also get the shakes like that! It might be good to change the old 'Southern' lines in the foreground into a functional section with a hidden end and an electric unit shuttling back and forth.

Seem to have got the track layout and signalling completely right, although to model post-1989 they really ought to have the footbridge at the London end (plus platforms 4a/4b were an island).

Do you have any BR blue class 47s for this layout, which were a common sight in Reading?

The backscenes work very well to make it look very realistic. How did you go about taking the photos / lens focal length to print size to keep,things looking to scale?

Looks an amazing layout! So many recognisible features, especially the signals (is the gantry spanning 3 tracks scratchbuilt or RTR? ) Thanks again for sharing, awesome!

Great vid, what's happened to the layout? I hear it's being dismantled? 😕

Amazingly reproduced. Needs some dirt and graffiti and Caversham railway bridge improving to really seal the realism though. A+ Top effort and skills.

Does this gentleman have any with John Southern who had Dobwalls Steam Railway?

A layout which I guess we’d all love to own. Just a shame there was no diversity in traction 37,33,50’s and the Hst units and the wobbly coaches that spoilt the film for me but it’s a stunning layout and well done for completing it

This would be a far-more interesting railway if it was set in the steam age with many different types of engine and different coach liveries from different regions. I pity the train-spotteres of today because, when you've seen one type of train, you've seen many the same. Not to mention the far-more complex track compuations!

Is it 00/H0? Looks more like EM or P4, John has created a seriously fine model.

I was expecting the train to be 160 feet long. Kinda disappointing they all short.

Oh . . . One other thing, I thought you got the speeds just right, this is often overlooked and spoils any realism.

Sorry not to see any Southern EMU’s in the station.

There's no such thing as "OO/HO", and the two scales are not interchangeable. This is OO (unless they scratch-built every single locomotive, coach and wagon).

NICE LAYOUTS SPOILT BY SERIOUS IGNORANCE OF OPERATIONAL RULES !!! Visually a nice layout, & a reasonable recreation of Reading General station area. But like so many layouts today, falls flat on it's face when it comes to Operation. The line through Reading in this era is in reality operating under "Track Circuit Block Rules" !!! At 0:51 the Class 50 hauled train crashes a Red signal, and again at 7:25 & 14:38 & 18:21 with the Class 33 hauled freight. Which reveals there's NO Interlocking built into the wiring system used, which is an absurdly simple addition on 12v DC layouts !!! Red lights visible on the rear of locos hauling trains, would of course quickly result in such trains being stopped by red signals. As this is a serious offence as it implies there has been a collision, and the Driver would most likely have been issued with a "Form 1 charge" meaning suspension & a minimum of 3 days loss of pay pending the results of the necessary Inquiry !!!! Weird use of Plough vans (these look like Brakevans but aren't) with 30mph speed restrictions & tail lamps that shouldn't be there !!! Container trains with 8ft 6in high containers on flat wagons, which means they are "Out of Gauge". These 8ft 6in high containers must be loaded in the "well wagon" type container wagons, the reason why such wagons were built !!! The problem of actually installing ANY type of European Block Signalling System on layouts, is the GAPING HOLE currently with DCC. The reason being that the American NMRA club with around 2 Million members, dictated the requirements of how DCC would be wired, for the whole World. And of course the Americans are totally unfamiliar with ANY of the "Block Signalling systems" used in Europe & many other countries. Instead DCC is wired to allow for the American CTC (Central Traffic Control i.e Radioed instructions to Drivers to permit movement). Which is of course the main reason the US Railroads have more crashes & derailments per month than the whole of Europe in one year !!! So totally unhelpful when building any type of European layout, unless it's an "Industrial" freight only layout !!! Indeed this exact problem was what caused Fleischmann to be virtually bankrupted, as they spent £2 Million in research to add a very clever flexible method into DCC master controllers, to allow most European Block Signalling systems to be added to layouts with a direct interface to connect moving trains with the signals !!!

Reading General appears to be strangely desrted .