COLESTON

 

 

Here are some photographs of my layout, Coleston. Despite having been started almost twenty years ago, it is still not finished (are layouts ever really finished?). Various house moves during this time have always seemed to involve partial rebuilding, and although the basic station plan has remained the same, the town scene and the curve in front of the engine shed leading to the embankment behind The Barge Inn have changed at every stage.

As different areas of the layout are developed, pictures of my progress will be posted in this section. So please visit again over the coming months (years!) to see how I've been getting on.

On a wet Sunday morning in October 2011, I wrote a little history of Coleston, so if you've a few minutes to spare, this little bit of modeller's escapism might be quite amusing.

A friend has just made a short film about Coleston, and although the layout is not finished yet, it is a rather entertaining little movie - click here to view on You Tube.

Coleston is worked by an array of some eighty-odd locomotives (at the last count!), with a mixture of kit-built, ready-to-run, and modified versions of both origins. The period modelled is late 50s / early 60s, steam / diesel changeover period basically. Although the year 1960 is the central point of time, the yearn to incorporate the last year of the Dean Goods (1956) and the introduction of the 'Western' diesel-hydraulics (1962) has stretched this time scale a bit - well, it's my railway!

 

 

BR Standard 9F no.92246 having just been coaled, is waiting to move off to be turned. Chris Bird, in unbelievably clean overalls, takes advantage of the lovely summer's morning to fill some oil lamps outside.

 

A young photographer (me? - wishfull thinking!) captures double-chimney Castle class no.5071 "Spitfire" as it speeds through the station on a down postal.

 

Dave Maidment and Neil Crawford chew the cud over the weekend's rugby results.

 

The shed staff go to town on an immaculate no.4992 "Crosby Hall", after it arrived on a running-in turn from Swindon - shame they don't put some effort into the filthy "Manor" two roads behind! Even ten years or more after nationalization, the shed and its environs still sport the "old company's" colour scheme - perhaps one day someone will get around to repainting it in British Railways Western Region colours. Although with steam on its way out - I doubt it!

 

The superb Bachmann "City of Truro" eases out of platform 2 heading for the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton line on a local service. In 1957 this loco was actually brought out of retirement in the old York Railway Museum, to work enthusiast's specials. It was also expected to earn its keep on more mundane duties though, and the DNS line was its normal stomping ground. An Edwardian liveried loco might look out of place in a late 50s / early 60s period layout to some people's eyes, but this is what really happened.

 

Collett Goods no.2244 rattles under the Oxford Road bridge, past Preece's brewery with the breakdown train. Eddie Gaisford has just laboured over the barrow crossing with an empty sack truck in the nick of time!

 

 

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