South Hants Model Railway Club

Colne Valley - fact and fiction

The Colne Valley and Halstead Railway opened between 1860 and 1862 and remained an independent concern until amalgamated with the LNER at the grouping in 1923. It survived into British Railways ownership, finally closing to passengers at the end of 1961 and to all traffic in April 1965. The line ran from the Great Eastern station at Chappel and Wakes Colne (still open and the headquarters of the Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society) to Haverhill, originally to its own terminus, but latterly to the Great Eastern station in the town. A number of extensions were proposed, principally north to Cambridge and south to Colchester but none materialised. My layout is based on a station at Great Bardfield, on the road to Finchingfield, in time honoured fashion some distance from the local community. In theory, the line runs from Great Yeldham on the CVH, crosses the Great Eastern at Dunmow and finishes at an end-on junction with the same company at Ongar, latterly part of London Transport's Central Line. There was in fact no such line proposed by the CVH, although a station at Great Bardfield figured in a number of schemes mooted by other concerns, principally the Elsenham and Thaxted and the Central Essex Light Railway.

Scenery

Like most things on the layout, the approach to the scenic side is very straightforward. The baseboards are essentially open-top, although much of the station area is surfaced with plywood. The station approach road slopes down towards the entrance near to the bridge and this was achieved by slitting either side of the road with a saw, bending the resulting ply 'tongue' downwards and pinning and gluing it to a convenient cross-member. The remaining roads are made from 1mm ply, cut with a knife and surfaced with very fine wet and dry paper. The wet and dry is rubbed down with a piece of the same to give a patchy surface which is as near as I have managed to get to the effect of worn tarmac. The station platform is surfaced the same way. Although expensive, I find the thin ply easy to work and flexible for gradients and the amount used on a layout like this is comparatively small. The wet and dry paper does play havoc with your knife blades so be prepared to get through a few.

Contours are created with blocks of expended polystyrene cut with a hot wire and stuck in place. This is covered with plaster impregnated bandage (Mod-roc), painted brown and surfaced with Woodland burnt grass' to give a subdued effect. Before adding the weeds, wild flowers and other foliage, clumps of coarser material were added at random, generally to cover any bald patches remaining. Trees are built using similar methods to those of Ray Hodson's except that I prefer to use a mixture of Polyfilla and PVA glue for the bark rather than hot glue. The result is more brittle but I find it easier to work. I recently bought some instant bark from Greenscene, but have not had a chance to try it yet. The bushes, weeds and smaller plants are a mixture of Woodland Scenics foliage, Scalelink etchings and N scale 'lavatory brush' trees which when cut up make excellent nettles and rosebay willowherb. The lineside fence at the back of the layout uses Ratio post and wire fencing with the pointed tops removed from the posts to shorten them and disguise their GWR origins. I have yet to add the lineside fencing on the viewing side. I have the fence posts ready and waiting - etched examples of the genuine East Anglian article from Ambis Model Engineering - but with 130 plus to plant, paint and wire I am still summoning up the will to start. Some of the road signs are from the Tiny Signs range. Others, including the finger post at the station entrance, have lettering printed on paper by bubblejet printer and stuck on. The sprinkling of cast figures on the layout were beautifully painted by Andy Kern.