British Railway Modelling (BRM) Magazine Black Country Blues Special Issue

Set in a generalised location somewhere in the Black Country, maybe near Wednesbury, maybe Tipton or even Darlaston the era is somewhere post-TOPS and before steam-era infrastructure was cleared away. The locomotives may be blue but the name also pays dues to the local Staffordshire Blue hard bricks which abound in railway structures in the area.

It was going to be a tough schedule for the team to meet the show deadlines along the way as the layout grewe from it’s initial plans dropped on a pub table during the competitive tender process for the project. Looking back we still marvel at what the team achieved and the standard to which forced upon themselves, EM gauge track, handbuilt with appropriate signalling and models of actual buildings from around the area.

Individual boards were regularly swapped between the cars of the team for one another to complete their part of the work. Don’t forget to add in that many of the team held full-time jobs so the work was often under the hours of darkness but a wider team grew across the country and even aboard to participate in a layout which captured the imagination of many RMweb members. Cornwall to North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire to Switzerland we salute you all!

This compendium is the first time all of the articles, which appeared in the pages of BRM during the project have been brought together.