Warden Central ( BBC Archive, 1967 via YouTube ) Vic&Loue Martin, O Gauge 7mm ?

Discussion in 'Members Personal Layouts' started by Echidna, Jul 19, 2022.

  1. Echidna

    Echidna Full Member

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    Hello All, this layout was recently featured on YouTube, and is based on the StPancras-StAlbans Midland Main Line in the late 1930s.

    It appears to run between two sheds, and trains run to a preWW2 LMS Midland Division timetable, and trains are signalled utilizing genuine second hand Double Line Block Instruments, and fully working signals. ( This would seem to be quite rare, though a number of O Gauge layouts from the 1950s&60s did feature this mode of operation. )

    They are a retired couple, who wear full LMS official uniforms purchased as surplus from the BTC BR. I vaguely recall reading about a similar couple in the 1960s whilst still at High School, but I cannot find a reference in the Railway Modeller, so it must have been in some other magazine, MRN or MRC perhaps.

    So, does anyone have any further knowledge of this layout, or the couple who built and operated it, or an article that refers to it please. It would be even more amazing if it still exists 55 years later !

    Regards to all,Echidna.




     
  2. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    G'day Echidna,
    This is a hard one.
    All I can find to date is another film....
    If you search for ...Do It Yourself Railway : Model Trains (1966).…...
    This film is in colour and shows a bit more of the railway
    All the best
    Cheers Gormo
     
  3. Walkingthedog

    Walkingthedog Full Member

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    Just watched it. Priceless. Obviously the couple will be long gone but who knows about the railway.

    The Isle of Sheppey has a Miniature Engineering and Model Society so might be worth contacting them. If anybody knows about it they should.
     
  4. Echidna

    Echidna Full Member

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    Dear Messrs Gormo and Brian,

    thank you for the additional info, I will follow it upland if I make any progress, an update will be provided,

    Best wishes and regards, Echidna
     
  5. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Just found another possibility from RMWeb 2013
    One layout that impressed me as a teenager was Warden Central. This was an O gauge layout with a through station in a shed and reversing loops built in long boxes on stilts around part of the garden. The scenics were nothing special but there were lots of trains and it was operated by Vic (surname forgotten for the mo'*) and his wife to a timetable using proper block instruments. It is probably no coincidence that this is how Bradford North Western is operated (but NOT by my wife).
    Vic was the Warden of Warden Manor, Warden Road, Warden Point, Warden, Sheppey. [​IMG] This was a TocH holiday centre where I stayed with my parents on a couple of occasions. It's now for sale.
    I never saw the layout featured in the model press although it did feature in a newspaper Sunday supplement once. I probably still have the cutting but...

    Ian
    * Vic Martin
    Edited to add Vic's surname
    I believe it received a substantial mention in Jack Ray's A Lifetime With 0 Gauge

    :tophat:
    Gormo
     
  6. Echidna

    Echidna Full Member

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    Hello All,
    1 / finally I have an update, having just found my copy of "A Lifetime with O Gauge - Crewchester and others" Jack Ray (Atlantic Transport Publisher / Pendragon Books, 1992, ISBN 0 906899 54 0 ) ref Ch 9 The Gauge O Guild Slide Scheme pp 73 - 74.The course scale O Gauge railway has 3,000 ft of track and over 50 trains, all operated to a timetable, and utilizing full Double Line Block Instruments worked per the Midland Division of the LMSR Rule Book and Operating Instructions as applicable in 1938 !
    2 / re the genuine LMSR Porter's Uniform ( Station Assistant on the old VR, and these days Customer Service Representatives ! ). After 1948, BR had a lot of surplus LMSR Porter's Uniforms, which were sold off at 10/- (50p) each. They bought a few, and never needed to buy any working clothes for 20 years ! Vic Martin pointed out that when you play cricket, you wear cricket whites ( or did, multi coloured pyjamas is the go now ), when you play football, you wear the appropriate clothes, so why not wear a railway uniform when playing trains ?
    3 / it is a shame that there appears to be very little in the model railway press about this impressive railway, especially as Jack Ray considered it to be comparable to the famed West Lancashire O Gauge railway, which operated on similar principles.
    4 / Jack Ray's other book "Model Railways and their Builders"( Atlantic Transport Publishers,1995, ISBN 0 906899 53 2 ) is also a worthy read.
    5 / thank you to the assistance of Messrs Gormo and Brian, for their assistance in ( eventually ) finding the in print article.

    Better late than never I suppose , with best wishes and regards to all, Echidna.
     
  7. Walkingthedog

    Walkingthedog Full Member

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    Well worth the wait.
     
  8. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Thanks for the update Echidna and I`m glad you found your book....:thumbs:
    :tophat:Gormo
     

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