HOW TO

Chris Leigh begins a new modelling project reflecting a topical subject and ready for a forthcoming set of models.

PHOTOGRA PHY: CHRIS LEIGH

Sometimes you have to put the cart before the horse. After all, you need to know how big the cart is in order to buy the right sized horse to pull it.

It might seem an odd construction sequence to start a diorama or mini-layout by building the station first. However, with just 4ft by 2ft to play with, and the need to get things looking spot on, I decided that I needed to be able to try out the positioning of the buildings before I laid any track.

As I constructed the station building I researched the subject more closely and realised that, just as the makers of The Railway Children had edited features of the Worth Valley railway into a different order to suit their story, (and affected my ‘O’ gauge layout based on the film) so a similar exercise had been carried out a decade earlier by the makers of the movie that I was now researching.

I have my first Tim Horn ‘fully scenic’ baseboard to build. This is effectively a 4ft by 2ft box with an open front. I’m told by my colleagues Messrs Dent and Nevard that it is best to build the module on foamboard first and then fit it into the baseboard. Otherwise, the sides and back of the baseboard module make access difficult. So, I’m going to take their advice and build on foamboard. This, I suspect, will also make it possible to photograph progress from all angles rather than just from the front.

So, I hear you ask, what am I going to build?

ENTER TITFIELD, STAGE RIGHT

I have wanted to build Titfield station, as it appears in the movie The Titfield Thunderbolt since long before I assembled the first issue of Model Rail, three hundred issues ago. I can’t remember when I first saw the movie but I’ve had a limited edition Dapol ‘14XX’ 0‐4‐2T as No. 1401 for many years. I bought the remnants of two K’s ‘Lion’ kits to see if I could make a working model out of them.

Eventually I gave them to one of my colleagues to see if he could do anything with them. It’s so long ago I’ve forgotten who I gave them to, and with Rapido’s ready-to-run Thunderbolt coming next year there is no point in building them.

I have a Rapido set on pre-order, with DCC and sound so I now need something, however small, on which to run it.

My plan is to model Titfield station, in compressed form, from the makeshift engine shed, over the level crossing and through the station. If it works out, a second scenic board could be added with, perhaps, the stream and the water crane, as Reverend Weech calls it. If I needed any further inspiration, the 2021 digital reissue of the movie with computer enhanced colour and focus proved more than enough!

A LITTLE RESEARCH

It is fair to say that my research has been cumulative over the past 30 years since I joined the staff of Steam World in 1992.

I interviewed the elderly Westbury-based driver, Bert Harris, I think it was, who had responsibility for driving Lion between his home depot and the filming site each day. As part of Steam World’s ‘Walk the line’ series, I visited Bath and Midford on the Somerset and Dorset and then set off to find Beal’s farm and the site of Titfield station. Bizarrely, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Lion itself. I’ve never been to Liverpool Museum and Lion has been there for many years. “I did once mount the North Star, you know, Gooch’s 2‐2‐2 with the double crank driving axle…” Well, actually it was a half-sized wooden replica, but I must stop getting distracted!