Helmdon for Sulgrave

My Story

My definition;
• A model railway primarily exists for fun and entertainment.
• A railway model tries to be a 100% replica of the real thing.

I think the early part of my story is a familiar one repeated through many households across Britain, probably much of the western world. I was given a Hornby train set for my 6th or 7th birthday. The Freightmaster contained a green diesel, five wagons, an oval of track and a cardboard tunnel. Soon dad pinned the track to a green painted chipboard base, and it lived like that under my bed for a while, until we moved house in the late 70's. The track was pulled up and from then on was only ever laid temporarily on my green (specially chosen by me) bedroom carpet.

Through the 80's I saved up my pocket money, and over the years I acquired a few more engines, some track packs, a rake of coaches, and more trucks. I finally ended up with three 60's period diesels and two black tank engines. The track was a simple oval with passing loop and sidings, level crossings, a tunnel, and scratch built card and brickpaper sheds and simple station based on the plans from a CJ Freezer book. In my early teens I discovered the outdoors and cycling, and soon motorbikes, cars...

About 25 years ago, the railway stuff had it's final outing. Every piece of track, truck, train was consigned to a few small cardboard boxes and deposited in the loft. A few more years passed, I left home, and went to college.

Whilst living in the shadow of the Golden Globe pub in Bulwell, Nottingham I wondered about the old railway line that my lodgings now sat on. The garden sloped steeply up to what had clearly been the parapet of a bridge. The station bridge at Bulwell Common. Where did this line go between? Why was it closed? The astute and anoraks(!) amongst you will already know the answer. That line was a now much revered and sorely missed London Extension of the Great Central Railway. It's now more familiarly known as simply the Great Central mainline, and 'The Last Main Line'.

Not far up the line from my Bulwell home, near the centre of Nottingham, was the Victoria shopping centre. At that time (late 80's), at the north end of the 'Vic' centre was a big opening in the ground. It was the north entrance to what had been Nottingham Victoria Great Central Railway Station. The tunnel portals bricked up and what had obviously once been an impressive building demolished to make way for the shopping centre clone. See Nick Willis site for a photo of the hole as was in 1990. It is still there to an extent, though now nearly full of multistory carpark. All that remains of the original magnificant Victoria station is the clock tower.

The railway line journeyed down to Leicester via Loughborough, and on to Rugby, then to Woodford Halse, a village I remember as "that weird deserted old railway town". From there it passed on to Culworth Station where an old school friend used to live, and then to Helmdon, where as a youth I'd ridden motorbikes along the old station track bed. Just a few more miles south of there it passed over the impressive Brackley viaduct, demolished when I was at junior school. Southward it went, ending at the GCR's own London terminus, Marylebone.

Well, the history of the actual railway is a different story from that which I intend to tell, and is best told by the many much more knowledgeable than I, so I'll stick to my own!

Time went on. I moved house a few times, got married, and by coincidence, moved to Helmdon. Then five or so years ago, dad phoned me, "Got all your old railway stuff here in the loft. What do you want me to do with it?". My response was quick, "I'm coming to get it!" After a brief look through the boxes, a few damaged items like the scratch built sheds and station were consigned to the bin. Then what remained of the track, locos and various rolling stock was all packed, in a smaller box, and, alas, placed in my loft!

The End?

Occasionally I'd think about getting the boxes out, and setting the track up again. I did manage to set up a small circle for a village event when there was a prospect of the GCR opening up again. Most in the village were vocally opposed to such a thing. Privately, I wished otherwise.

Lorenzo, our dog, arrived in the summer of 2005. The old station became his place. It had changed a lot in the 20 years since I'd been up there. No longer was it a barren piece of post industrial wasteland it had appeared to me as a boy. Now it bloomed like an ancient meadow. Butterflies, deer, rabbits and foxes, even a colony of lizards and spring orchids. Perhaps it's best to just remember the line in its short heyday rather than cover it up with iron and stone all over again?

September 2006 came around quickly. It was now 40 years since the last train has passed through Helmdon Great Central station. On the 40^th anniversary my wife and I visited the Great Central Railway up in Leicestershire. We were fascinated by the smaller stations that could so easily be Helmdon from the past. That evening we ate on the Charnwood Forester. We promised to return and do it again, but are yet to do so!

So that's how I came to the idea that I'd build a model of Helmdon and base it in the 60's. It's always a fair bet that any model railway line is set at the end of steam, so diesels can run too, a route that I was also going to follow. On second thoughts, what about wartime 40's? Actually the 50's were best, BR with stock from LNER, GWR, LMS probably much in their old company colours?

Oh choices, choices. In what era do I set the line?

More to the point, where the hell would I put such a model railway in our tiny home? My brief foray into my boyish dream of railway modelling seemed destined to come to nought.

Modelling Beginning

All too soon it was the dire Summer of 2007. Those of you old enough to know will understand what I mean when I say that I'm sure it was only last year, no, maybe a couple of years ago, I was sitting on my bedroom floor, watching those engines as they whizzed round and round dreaming of building a huge layout throughout the house. It was nearly 30 years ago. Bloody hell.

We moved home in August 2007, crossing the border by a few hundred yards into Buckinghamshire from my long time home county of Northamptonshire. By chance I happened upon the name of Peter Denny, and his book "Buckingham Great Central" was soon in my hands.

What an inspiration. This railway modelling stuff wasn't some quick instant thing that one would create over a weekend, it really was a hobby for a lifetime, developing, almost as the real thing, only this way, you the builder really are master of that universe.

Then I realised what I'd said in my very first statement, "A model railway primarily exists for fun and entertainment." So not only am I the master, others can even get to enjoy it too!

The measuring stick came with me into our loft. Oh Joy. I have the best part of 30 feet by 10 feet to use. This is going to be fun.

Why stick with an era? Why not do as I please, and run whatever the heck I like? That's what I'll do!

I've not got the patience for fine scale, I like an easy life, so I'll be sticking with production stock and 00 gauge track.

For the moment my double oval of track, occupying an 8' x 4' board in the loft is all I have, but let me tell you, not one of the blokes that have visited us in our new home, have failed to be drawn into the dream. And everyone (well my mates and their sons that venture into that space) seems to love the familiar smell of Hornby!

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