Modelling inspiration - Oakworth and Mytholmes Viaduct

When I started this blog I endeavoured not just to write about the obvious and the latest products on the market. I hope this post helps to keep me within those aims.

This Sunday I again found myself at a loose end and decided with the weather looking advantageous a trip to Keighley to see BR standard 4 75078 and Taff Vale Railway 0-6-2T No.85 would be a good idea. As with last week's post spending time waiting for a train often leads your mind to wander I find and while sat in the field by Mytholmes Viaduct the thought hit me that this would make an excellent layout design for those limited for space wanting to recreate a real location.

Let's start with the station:

Oakworth Station on a glorious spring day. Copyright Anthony French

 



There it is, instantly recognisable from the classic family film The Railway Children, whilst not being a big mainline station with lots of activity a small single platform station with an average size building a goods shed and a couple of sidings. If you wanted a bit more action you could reinstate the passing loop which would have been to the right of the picture.

Bachmann 30-575 The Railway Children Collectors Set (still in stock!)

 

The other big advantage to the station is that Bachmann produce a train pack which as well as including the iconic GNSR Pannier also has a Scenecraft scale model of Oakworth station building included, a massive bonus to anyone looking to build Oakworth and not wanting to build their own station building. As for the Goods Shed, well that depends on how fussy you are really! Either use a similar building straight off the shelf, adapt a kit or RTR Goods Shed or for the adventurous out there build your own from scratch. (I'm sure someone out there can inform me of a RTR or a kit version that's available)

That's the station covered on to the 2nd part of the idea:

BR Standard 4 75078 crosses Mytholmes Viaduct on a beautiful spring evening.
Copyright Anthony French


Shortly after leaving Oakworth the line swings round at 90 degrees crosses Mytholmes Viaduct and disappears into the short tunnel to the right of the photo. In my opinion, this offers the chance to bring the line round on a reasonable curve, while not being quite as sharp 3rd or 4th radius would not be out of place. The viaduct adds an extra scenic feature and the tunnel provides a natural scenic break. Again depending on how accurate you want to be depends on how you go about building the viaduct but for someone looking for a reasonable representation I'd suggest the Metcalfe card kit which can easily be modified.

Then really it's up to you (and the amount) as to how much detail you go into on the layout. If you have a bit more space then a representation of Vale Mill (the church looking building to the right of the picture and the extra bridges can be added. The curved platform could be straightened for a simplified build and then it's your choice if you use settrack or flexitrack. Leaving Oakworth in the Keighley direction is probably going to be a work of fantasy where the line curves back round to the hidden section of the layout with possibly a ficticious bridge or tunnel too!

The same applies when it comes to locos and rolling stock. This layout should be able to suit all budgets, you can be super accurate and buy the latest models, some of which are KWVR residents or previous KWVR residents/visitors or you can renumber the loco yourself. For example the train in the picture you can find a double chimney standard 4 with a BR1B tender from either Bachmann or Hornby's most recent versions and pay 'good money' and pair it with Bachmann mark 1s or you can shop around and find an early Bachmann or even a Mainline Standard 4 and some earlier Hornby/Lima/Mainline Mark 1s to make a fair recreation of the train seen for a budget price.... The choice is yours.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog. I've enjoyed writing this one (and probably could have wrote a lot more!) I'm currently experimenting with a layout design program to produce a plan using settrack, if anyone is interested in seeing the end result please get in touch.

Thanks for reading and keep enjoying your modelling :) Tony