David Knight tells us the story of the Nether Upton Light Railway, a model railway that evolved over time from a replacement display to a regular attendee at Canadian shows in the Toronto area from 2008 to 2019.
As with many things Nether Upton was born of necessity. The layout previously used for P4 displays, Newquay by Dr Tom Kidd, had been retired and Mark Stapleton and I resolved to fill the gap. Mark had a 00 layout he planned to convert and I decided to start from scratch. A plan was called for…
The initial plan, soon to be modified to reflect reality, but the track outline would remain the same.
Why a “Light Railway”? First, due to the size of the motive power and stock it could be more convincing in a small space. Second it left more room for flexibility in rolling stock and motive power. A glance at the roster of any of the lines run by Colonel Stephens provides the evidence for this.
The basic idea came from a plan by Iain Rice’s “Butley Mill” but without the outside slip. In addition it added an exit from right hand side to connect with Mark’s layout or a short extension of track to allow solo operation at shows or at home. The layout had to be light enough for one person to carry, easy to erect and break down and fit in my sedan.
The underframe was built using L-girder as a base with legs built into the structure for ease of assembly. Diagonal braces were added to stabilise the frame. The main box was made from 6mm ply with cross members drilled out for wiring and weight reduction. The rectangular hole is the site of the future sliding sector plate of which more later.A slightly more advanced state of construction with angled braces on the lower frame and the fiddle yard/sector plate in place. Flex track was used in off scene areas and ply and rivet in the Rice style used for the rest of the bullhead rail. The trackbed is automotive gasket material which raised the track enough for light railway standards.More track detail showing the bullhead rail and the code 55 FB rail used for the yard. The flat bottom rail was glued down using hot glue. A thin bead of glue is applied from the glue gun then re-heated with a soldering iron to even out the layer. The rail is placed in position and heated a third time with gauges in place.
Raised portions of the layout were achieved by the use of insulation foam scavenged from local construction sites. The foam was glued together in layers using “No More Nails”, a thick PVA style of adhesive that binds the foam without dissolving it. The foam was roughly shaped before gluing with saws, knives, rasps, or whatever was handy then once in place finished further to the desired texture. I painted mine with an earthy shade of latex and added Woodland Scenics scatter while the paint was still wet. Further “vegetation” was added later with thin PVA and trees fabricated with dried Sedum flowers coated with scatter.
The first show. A bit underwhelming, the track worked fine but the scenery, meh…. The motive power was a couple of 08s and a Jinty, not really light railway fare but lessons were learned. The structures were from the usual kits except for the engine shed which was scratch-built from strip wood and corrugated aluminium from Campbell Scale Models in the US.Not my best effort, but time was tight and the track worked! This was the end
that needed the most work and would undergo the most change.By the next show some improvements had been made. A Scalescenes factory and terraced houses now hid the fiddle yard a bit better. The balance is also improved from end to end. The front lacks depth though but there’s a cure for that….An extra layer of foam or two is added to the front edge, sculpted, painted and…There is now depth at the front of the layout. Other changes made include the addition of fencing both on the platform and around the tracks and rather than having a straight line for the backdrop it has been made wavy. I was told by an artist friend that straight lines are rare in nature and draw attention but curves are normal and tend to be ignored.
Some detail shots…
Approaching the factory.The shed area, rather too tidy but…
Motive power and rolling stock was an ongoing job. As mentioned previously NU started with a Jinty and a couple of 08s which was all I had at the time apart from a class 24 which would have been decidedly out of place on an alleged light railway so a gradual evolution took place.
A railbus was added for the passenger service.A J72 and surplus NER brake van now in NU livery. The J72 is a Mainline body mounted on a Bill Bedford frame. High Level gearbox and Mashima motor.A BR Sentinel on shunting duty.J72 with coal for the factory.Sentinel in NU livery. We are now moving back from the BR period to the final c1934 time frame.NU Sentinel on a mixed train. The brake third is a Ratio GWR kit that has been de-Westernised.Sentinel on a goods.High Level Neilson TankThe obligatory “Terrier”High Level RSH tankThe view from the bridge. Neil Berrington operating.The Great British Train Show, Brampton, Ontario, Canada 2018
Epilogue…
The Nether Upton Light Railway has ceased operations but lives on as a part of two separate layouts. One half has been added to the home layout as a quarry branch, the other will continue as a portable layout, a Cameo if you will, as Anon Quay, an homage to Arun Quay, but without the single slip.
