Inglenooks and Minories

As I've mentioned in other sections of this site, I have never built a layout before, so embarking upon a realistic scale model of a mainline station and junction complex would be a foolhardy exercise, without first attempting something less challenging. Banbury Merton Street station has always had considerable attraction to me as an ideal location to model. It's local, and a terminus, which as far as I can gather is somewhat unusual for an inland rural location. As a local station, there are quite a few local resources in the library and museum to work from. I already have a number of books on the subject of the N&BJR and Buckingham Railway, so as a first attempt at scratch building realistic structures, it could be a good start.

I love the Internet! I spend more time looking at other peoples models and web sites than I do working on my own, certainly as far as the modelling goes! In my travels I have found a number of resources to be a great inspiration, and Carl Arendt's Micro/Small Layouts for Model Railroads has been chief amongst them, introducing me to classic designs such as Cyril Freezer's Minories (in a little more detail here), and classic shunting puzzles such as A.R. Walkley's Inglenook and John Allen's TimeSaver.

After many, many, many designs and playing with set track to see if the plans worked, I've settled on a design for my very first layout. I surprised myself with my choice as it really has nothing to do with my ultimate aim! It's not particularly a shelf layout as it is 20 inches deep, though only 4 foot long without fiddle yard. The idea is to produce something I can learn basic modelling techniques on, and have something that is easy to store, and not cost too much should I get bored and pull it apart again! Below is the design, based on an Inglenook, and designed to work as a 5/3/3 puzzle (see Adrian Wymann's Shunting Puzzle website for info on the rules of the game).

The backscene surrounds the left, lower, and right sides of the layout as viewed above, operated from the top side, or from behind (lower side) if in public. To add more scenic and operational interest, I've added a small station with the end of a runaround loop which continues off scene under the three arch viaduct providing the scenic break to a possible future fiddle yard. The theme of the layout is a very small preservation railway, on a defunct section of track, ending at permanently closed crossings where a branch junction once existed. That way there's no argument as to prototypical operation, or a particular reason for shunting wagons, the preservation society volunteers move the wagons about to take them to an off scene workshop for service or restoration.

Though set in no particular location or time, I've named the plan "Brackingham" in honour of the two larger stations on the Banbury/Verney Junction branch, Brackley and Buckingham. The size could be reduced further by setting the back scene at the boundary fence, removing the road and some of the tree lined embankment, however that would make it apear much more cramped.

Back on plan, the above is my Minories inspired representation of Merton Street. It has three exits to the left side so that it could be used along side Brackingham, in conjunction with a separate hidden section or fiddle yard. Not strictly a real model of Merton Street, not least because of the Minories track plan, but I've also moved the goods shed to the rear of the layout, adjacent to the cattle dock, when they were opposite sides of the station at the real Merton Street. To save any argument, I've named this plan "Banbury Minories Street". A real terminus, the back scene does not need to obscure the view of the station forecourt, so I would like to leave the right hand end open. To the left end, the tracks exit to 'rest of world' through holes in the backscene.

In order to disguise those obvious holes, the lines exit between an embanked allotment to the rear, and various gas works structures to the front. The usual solution, as I employed in Brackingham, is to use a bridge to create a disguise for any hole. Alas there was no such bridge on the approach to Banbury, but there was a large gas works. Given the liberties I've taken with the track plan, one could argue I should have added a bridge to the mix!!

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