Your Top Ten Favourite Layouts

[Greybeema]

Stoney Lane Depot
St Denys
Cross Street

to name but 3

[Skyline2uk]

Challenge accepted...

N gauge

Hedges Hill Cutting (would have been on here even if I had not had a go :-P)
Stoney Lane Depot (got me a picture of the month on the Facebook group)
Banbury
Horsley Fields
Sheaf Valley Railway
George Street I  (II only doesn't make the list cost it's not quite finished yet and it gives me an excuse to shorten the list :-P).
Lowbeck Hall East
Littlewood

Other gauges:

Aberdeen Kirkhill (wonderfully original HST depot)
Shaftesbury (Modern image 0 gauge with smoke and sound)

Many more I could have listed, but that's the ten that came to mind quickly flicking through here and my exhibition pictures.

Skyline2uk

[Bealman]

I'm not a list-maker, but if I would have a list, Elvinley would be on it!
Gerard 

Yep, that is indeed a really nice piece of work. 

George

[ParkeNd]

Black Country Blues
Chee Tor
Elvinley
Leamington
Elliott Bridge


That's 5 at least. Top one is my favourite.

[Ben A]

Hello all,

I saw Acton Mainline  at a show in 1995 and it inspired me to take up modelling in N.  I sort of assumed that other exhibitions would have similar quality modern image n gauge layouts but I was wrong.

However, others that have inspired me, in no particular order though:

Drem, and later Law Junction.  Great work combining railway and scenery, and good stock too.

Chee Tor. Fantastic scenery and great attention to detail - even etched lily pads!

Peak dale. Usually good stock, great for watching the trains go by especially when they run it "modern."

Hedges Hill Cutting and Stoney Lane Depot:  very nicely observed depiction of the urban scene and highly skilled modelling of individual buildings - ie not just rows of Metcalfe houses. Good stock too.

Also, a few years ago I saw Steve Farmer's layout.  I can't remember the name but it had kits of scratch built OTP and engineers' stock, and that inspired me to have a go myself.

Sorry it's not ten, and not ranked, but these are among the layouts that have inspired me.  I'm sure there are others I'll think of!

Cheers

Ben A.

[r711zzr]

In the 1980s as a child 'Kyle of Tongue' did a lot to keep me interested:

it had trains I recognised - blue diesels at a time when modern (then) layouts were in a minority
buildings I recognised from holidays in the area (& glencoe)
looked realistic due to the presentation & realistic operation

[Bealman]

Yes... I liked that Kyle of Tongue layout - of course I only ever saw it in RM, but it had a most definite Scottish air about it. 

Thanks for the list Ben! Yes, Chee Tor had etched brass lily pads! Awesome! Believe it or not, at one point I even started to investigate the viability of getting it exhibited in Australia!! As you can imagine, I didn't get far with it.

Do you know it's fate, please?

George

[GerryB]

My list of layouts that have had an influence on my railway  modeling over the years, in no particular order:

Little Long Drag (EM) David Jenkinson
Yatton Junction (EM)
Kingswear (The EM gauge version)
Petherwick (EM) Barry Norman
Faringdon (EM) Stephen Williams
The Buckingham Branch (EM) Rev. Peter Denny

Ditchling Green (O) Gordon Gravett

Chee Tor (2mm)
Calverdale (N) Andy Calvert
Nether Stowey (N) Andy Calvert

I managed to see Nether Stowey when it was exhibited at Derby some years ago, and it was while chatting to Andy that I first started thinking about the advantages to be gained from modeling in the smaller scale.

Sorry there are no links, the above have either been seen at exhibitions or in magazines over the years.

Gerry

[joe cassidy]

For me, as an aspiring LMS modeller, the most inspirational N gauge layout is "Springdale" by Roy Schofield, which was "Railway of the month" in the January 1999 issue of "Railway Modeller", with a follow-up article in the February 1999 issue. It also featured in the 5/08 issue of the NGS Journal.

What is special about this layout is that it manages to create a really convincing evocation of a mainline station in LMS/LNER territory during the 1930s with pre-historic technology, i.e. locos and coaches built from kits that don't exist anymore, in a space of 183 x 114 cm.

I have waited in vain for Roy Schofield to manifest himself on this or some other forum so that I might ask him how he did the ballasting, which actually looks like what you see in old photos of such sites.

My second choice would be "Hellifield" in OO by Stephen Rabone ("Railway of the Month" in April 2004 with follow-up article in the April 2006 issue of RM) which shows just how much railway you can build around a single island platform scenario (very space-saving) and be true to prototype to boot !

Best regards,


Joe Cassidy

[port perran]

I'm not good at remembering layout names ( I guess that's down to advancing years) but two that spring to mind(from this forum) are Elvinley and Fintree Junction although there have been many, many other very inspiring layouts which have appeared here over the last few years.
I do wonder whether it might be a good idea for members to publish a few photos of their layouts (perhaps a max of 4) under a new thread so that new forum members can have a look (I know they can be found in the Media section) and perhaps gain some inspiration. There must be quite a few that last saw publication on here at least a year ago and hence would have been missed by new members.
What do others think ?

[Newportnobby]

Hope I'm not breaking the rules by choosing an 11th, but a superb example of the N gauge modeller's art is Whiteswan's Claywell, High Hackton & Bampney.
A layout to aspire to

[joe cassidy]

What strikes me about this discussion is that there are more layouts by individuals being cited than layouts by clubs.

Perhaps exhibition managers might take this into account for future reference ?

Best regards,


Joe Cassidy

[Chris in Prague]

A tough one to answer George. But give me a few months and I hope it's going to be the layouts by Chris in Prague, Pete33, and BobWild.

I'm very flattered but Cant Cove won't begin until early summer to have any scenery and I reckon it will take at least until summer 2015 before it begins to look as good as Parkend already does. Cant Cove is really only a small station with a yard and a short branch, nothing like as interesting as Parkend will be.

[Chris in Prague]

I would like to mention Port Perran as having influenced my plans for Cant Cove (and, much later, Penmayne) as a great BR WR steam / diesel transition era Cornish layout full of character. I'm really looking forward to the new developments and the link to Padstow! 8-)

[joe cassidy]

Another on my list would be Saint Albans Priory (think that's right) by Kevin Knight.

What pleases me about this layout is the way the track/ballast blends into the surrounding area.

Best regards,


Joe Cassidy