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…
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.
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.
Some detail shots…
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.
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.