Small layout big impact
Online tutorials inspired Roger Marsh to head in a new direc tion and led to this surprisingly simple diesel layout.
Words: Chris Gadsby
1 The name ‘Marpit’ was devised by taking the first three letters from Roger’s and his wife’s surnames. Marsh/Pitman. He thinks that the ‘Pit’ bit resonates with coal!
Photography: Chris Nevard Artwork: Andrew Macintosh
What makes this layout great?
Roger has made great use of height to draw your eye down to the railway, and the result is that the raised scenery encompasses your peripheral vision, so your experience is preserved by not seeing over the top of the backscene.
We are fortunate in today’s world to have many sources of superb tutorials, and no matter what task you are trying to accomplish, be it fixing something on your car or painting a locomotive, YouTube is awash with videos showing you how to achieve your goal or providing inspiration for your next build (although you often have to sift through an awful lot of dirt to find the gold!).
2 The scenery has a wood and card base to achieve the desired height. Most of the retaining walls are formed from Wills textured plastic sheet, painted and suitably weathered.
Roger Marsh may be a familiar name to some readers, as we have featured his layouts ‘Crumford’ (MR310) and ‘Stone Lane’ (GBMR2023) in the past, and he had his eureka moment for his latest creation while browsing the video site in 2016, discovering a video titled ‘How to build an exhibition standard ‘OO’ model railway’. The model was of a coal loading area, and Roger decided he wanted to have a go at a similar layout to see what would happen. The result is ‘Marpit Sidings’.