The 1990s atmosphere around Old Oak Common Depot was the inspiration for GARY PAYNE'S ‘OO' gauge home-based layout -a scene that has changed beyond all recognition today.
GAUGE: ‘OO’, 16.5mm SCALE: 4mm: 1ft SIZE: 12ft x 8ft REGION: WESTERN PERIOD: 1980s-1990s CONTROL: DCC, Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance
Above: Electric Multiple Units 4-CEP 7134 and 4-VEP 3588 pass a Class 08 shunter working in the yard. PHOTOGRAPHY, RICHARD WATSON
Inspiration for Old Oak Bridge came from childhood memories of different locations around London as I looked to create a fictitious layout based on small cameos with their own real stories behind them. My intention was to develop a layout portraying the latter years of British Rail (BR) with BR blue and grey, Network SouthEast and the small number of sectorisation liveried trains that appeared in the mid-1990s.
As a young lad I lived at Rayners Lane in Harrow, so travelling on the Underground to visit my nan at Ruislip was an experience only a smile can show. I would spend many hours watching my grandad turning brass on the lathe, as he built large scale steam locomotives. To the rear of the house was the underground tube depot, where the Metropolitan Vickers Bo-Bo electric Sarah Siddons used to be stati…
