The transition years of the 1960s have been captured delightfully in ‘N’ gauge by RAY TAYLOR and ANNA BASS, who reveal the inspiration for their joint creation. Photography, Mike Wild.
AMBLETON VALE is an ‘N’ gauge layout set in the mid-1960s in an imaginary market town somewhere in southern England. When it’s not at an exhibition, it lives in its four storage boxes in the downstairs hallway of our tiny house. We’ve been a couple since 2009 and discovered by chance that we shared an interest in model railways. Ray had ventured into ‘N’ gauge a couple of times in the past but never really been satisfied with the results, and Anna had liked model railways whenever she came across them but, growing up in an era when model railways were assumed to be interesting only to boys, had never been encouraged to own one.
Above: A Graham Farish Class 40 leads a race day special past the racecourse on the approach to Ambleton Vale.
Above: A hay lorry is unloaded at the back of the stables.
When the idea germinated and we decided to build a model railway, the result – inspired by lack of space - was not Ambleton Vale but Feldspar, a layout in a coffee table. At that point we had no plans to exhibit at model railway s…
