Working in 3mm:1ft scale, PAUL HOPKINS and JOHN WAKEMAN explain how they created this evocative pastiche of Portsmouth’s railways using readily available products wherever possible. Photography, Trevor Jones.
JOHN and I are Bognor Regis Model Railway Club members. This 3mm scale layout came about when we were looking for a new project. A Southern electric prototype with a local bias was interesting, and an opportunity arose when the 3mm Society launched ideas for the 50th-anniversary celebrations. The theme would be ‘50 Something’ to be displayed at the Annual General Meeting. Our entry would be a layout incorporating 50ft of track with a nautical feature.
ABOVE: Portsea Town station throat area, with Greatham Street area in the background. An Adams ‘O2’ 0-4-4T climbs the incline to the highlevel platforms with a short freight for the Royal Navy Dockyard and is about to pass the de-icing van parked in EMU carriage sidings below. Bulleid ‘Battle of Britain’ 4-6-2 34051 Winston Churcill is ready to depart from the low level terminus once a Class 205 DEMU has cleared the points.
We worked out that 50ft of track would allow us to model the railway between Portsmouth Harbour station and the high-level plat…
