Roving Camera 3: Warren Lane

On the eve of the falling of the snows in the middle of December 2010 I was very privileged to be invited into deepest Essex to photograph Warren Lane a super present day depiction of a modern container terminal.


As you’d expect the container gantries all function via remote, so trains as they come and go can be loaded and unloaded which adds interest beyond that of trains simply coming and going.

We often tend the think of ‘modern image’ model railway buffs as box openers rather than modellers, the Warren Lane team buck this, with nearly everything being scratchbuilt, from the overhead electric catenary right through to many of the specialist road vehicles designed for moving the containers about the terminal. The working gantries are Heljan, but they have been cleverly repainted into Freightliner colours to remove them as far as possible from out of the box condition.

Enough from me, take a look at the dedicated website at www.warrenlane.co.uk and pick up a back copy of the June 2010 issue of Model Rail Magazine

Roving Camera #2: Brinkley

A heady mix of 1950's ex-LMS locomotive, GWR and BR blood & custard liveried coaches powers through Brinkley - Click on the photo to enlarge!

At the end of September I was invited down the clubrooms of the Glevum Area of the Scalefour Society to photograph Brinkley their beautiful S4 layout for Model Rail magazine. Whilst I have no idea what  Glevum AG stands for (it could be a foreign football team for all I know), I do know that it involves a fabulous group of highly skilled modellers who very much enjoy themselves creating some masterful and innovative layouts - which is about as good as it gets in my book! Clicking on the link above will show you what they're all about. Even though I don't model Scalefour, if these chaps were in my area I'd sign up and get involved with all the S4 bits that don't require a ruler!

I'll let the 'Glevums' describe the layout, they'll do a much better job than me, so here is an excerpt from their website:

'Brinkley was a small peaceful country town on the Northamptonshire/ Buckinghamshire border until, as a result of not being able to reach agreement on running rights over L.N.W.R. metals, the Midland Railway decided to build a direct link from Wellingborough to the G.W.R. at Oxford. In addition to providing lucrative cross country passenger and freight services, the line attracted business from the Northamptonshire ironstone quarries sending ore to South Wales steelworks and return traffic of Welsh coking coal to the local steelworks.'


I'll endeavour to update this page when I know which issue of Model Rail Brinkley is due to appear in.

http://www.hwdmrs.org.uk/Wycrail.htm

Roving Camera #1: Abbotswood Junction

It's the era of the Austin Allegro, flairs and to quote celebrity photographer David Bailey, 'the age of the long haired bank clerk', as a 'Rail Blue' liveried Brush type 4 thunders through Abbotswood Junction with a Class 1 passenger express. Click the photo to enlarge!

This post hopefuly marks the beginning of a regular series of tasters of what I've been photographing for Model Rail magazine over recent weeks. Whilst at such an early stage it's not always known which issue the featured layout will appear in, it will hopefully give you an idea of some of the wonderful model railways coming your way Model Rail.

Last week I popped over Gloucester way to photograph Phill Bullock's excellent Abbotswood Junction - a super OO gauge layout based the real location just south of Worcester in that rarely modelled era immediately after the end of steam. Then much of BR was still steam infrastructure with manual signalling, old style track layouts, but with a fascinating blend of BR green and Rail Blue diesel hydraulic and electric traction often hauling a similar eclectic mix of stock

Abbotswood is a proper crowd-pulling decent sized 'watch the trains fly by' kind of layout, it having no station as such, so the joy is pure action and a complete antidote to the plethora of shunting layouts that dominate the exhibition scene.

But that’s enough from me - I don't want to give too much away, in time you’ll have to buy the mag and read the article and see he rest of the photos, but hopefully the above photograph will give an indication as to a great layout Abbotswood Junction is.

I'll update this page when it's known which issue the layout wil appear in.

• Visit the real Abbotswood Junction http://www.trainspots.co.uk/locpage.php?ts_number=1038 
• Visit Model Rail here