TONY HARRIS set out to see if he could follow the railway rulebook accurately as a Hornby Dublo three-rail model collector. Dublingham is the result.
Gauge: ‘OO’ | Period: 1960s | Region: Midland | Operating team: Tony Harris and friends
I think the UK has lagged behind the USA in terms of operation for many years. I have always been inspired by Rev Peter Denny and Norman Eagles work in this area, but there isn’t a great amount of published information on this aspect of railway modelling.
Once I delved in I realised there is so much to learn, and that railways were run to get passengers and goods from A-to-B in a safe and efficient manner, then to make a profit. As a Hornby Dublo collector/modeller, could I operate this stock according to the rule book?
Tony Gee kindly supplied me with the last Buckingham Branch timetable, and was happy for me to use the timetable for my ‘ideas’. My timetable takes all the goods workings into and out of Buckingham, which is a total of 14 trains a day. However, there seems little point running to a timetable at exhibition if the viewer has no idea what is going on. A large 24in computer monitor is built into the storage yard which is a crucial part of the layout, as it aims to describe the current train and its purpose and offer background and context for the audience.
I wanted to experiment where possible, so the baseboard is 30mm blue foam, with 5.5mm plywood construction with the aim of being as lightweight as possible. PECO code 100 setrack and Streamline electrofrog turnouts are employed to give maximum reliability. The handbuilt third rail is constructed using PECO Individulay chairs and code 75 rail, glued using liquid poly. I fitted Romford 60:1 gears to Wrenn/Hornby Dublo 08 shunters which has resulted in good slow speed running when used with Gaugemaster Handheld feedback controllers.
Hornby Dublo plastic bodied wagons above the chassis still stand up today, and many are still seen on layouts. I augmented this stock with a variety of, mostly van kits, mounted on Dublo wagon chassis.
ORDER YOUR DISCOUNT ADVANCE 2023 GREAT ELECTRIC TRAIN SHOW TICKETS HERE.
