EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW
HOW TO SET THE TITFIELD SCENE
After more than a year, Chris Leigh has finally completed his layout based on the eponymous location from The Titfield Thunderbolt.
PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS NEVARD/CHRIS LEIGH
There’s an old adage that a layout is never finished. That may be true, but there’s no question that my Titfield diorama would have to be finished, and that it would need to be finished in time for the arrival of Rapido’s Titfield Thunderbolt 70th anniversary train pack. Did I succeed? Only just!
In this last Titfield Project Workbench I have brought together all the detail items and the finishing of the diorama in a series of short step-by-step projects which cover the main features of what I did and how I did it.
These will cover the Dutch barn engine shed, Canal Cottage, the scenic breaks at either end of the diorama, and some of the detail items such as rolling stock and vehicles not included in Rapido Trains UK’s coverage of the film.
THE SIGNAL BOX
Titfield’s signal box, or more accurately, ground frame hut, was pure fantasy. It did not represent any type of building found on the GWR and it was constructed so that one end wall could be removed in order to film Reverend Weech operating the starting signal.
The signal was also a movie ‘prop’, operated by a rope. The poor synchronization of this sequence is one of the movie’s weakest moments, but I felt it essential to have both the signal and signal box on the module. For ease, I used a Dapol working GWR home signal though the post is round and the
STEP BY STEP
1
The shell of the building was made up from 2mm mount board with the shape and position of the timber panels roughed out using pictures in the book and paused frames from the movie as a guide.
2
The timber frame panelling was cut from postcard and the walls and panelling were painted and allowed to dry before the postcard panelling was glued in place.
DUTCH BARN ENGINE SHED
My Titfield diorama posed a number of problems, especially in finding suitable models or kits for the key structures. Prior to the release of Peco’s Monkton Combe laser-cut kit, I had to scratchbuild the station building, which was featured in the June 2022 issue (MR300). To be honest, I wouldn’t have had it any other way, as I wanted to go ‘all out’ on this model, with hanging baskets and every possible detail.