Treason to O gauge? My foreign trains in OO

I’ve often voiced a theory that most American model railroaders would only look twice at a European train if said train was loaded with tanks and anti-aircraft guns. That might be an exaggeration, but probably not by much.

 

So I’ll confess that I have a soft spot for British trains with or without heavy artillery.

 This interest is thanks primarily to the Sherlock Holmes stories and old British movies (Terror by Night, The Thirty-Nine Steps, and The Great Train Robbery come to mind). Since O gauge hardware (new or vintage) is a bit hard to source in America, my Anglophile leanings have been primarily satisfied with an OO gauge railroad on a 2x4 sheet of foam on top of a pool table. In the center of my O gauge layout, of course.

 

As with building my first O gauge, the initial step accumulating equipment I happened to find interesting. What prompted me to actually start construction of the layout was a line of very small ceramic structures Walgreens sold at Christmas for several years.

 These looked about the right size, but more important to me, looked more 1930s rural England and not 1950s US suburbia. I did add a few distinctly British railway structure items from Hornby – signals, a country station, an engine shed, and a water tank. I used Bachmann HO snap track for the two mainlines (the only thing I MUST have on a layout is a double-track main for trains that run opposite), and I used trees. Trees, trees, and more trees. Fortunately, I had a quantity of smaller O scale trees available that would be fine as larger trees in OO!

 

One thing that has become apparent with the many project layouts we’ve done at Classic Toy Trains is that the more trees you have, the more photogenic and realistic the layout appears.

 The focal point of my operation was the London Midland & Scottish Railway and I dubbed the layout the Cynosure Division of the London Midland & Scottish Ry.*

 

The London Midland & Scottish was created after “The Grouping Act,” where the British government tried to rationalize private railroad operations. This created “The Big Four”: The Great Western, the London, Midland & Scottish; the London & North Eastern Railway; and the Southern Railway.

 The LMS was composed of the London & North Western; the Midlands Railway, and several other lines. It operated from 1923 until nationalized under British Railways in 1947.

 

Commerce to my little town was essential, so I added a small freight siding near the engine shop. Most of the rolling stock could fit in from the 1920s into the 1960s. I did add a few pieces of more modern equipment and purchased a few diesels in the colors of the English Welsh & Scottish Railway. One of the founders of the EWS was the then-president of the Wisconsin Central and he graced the EWS fleet with the Wisconsin Central’s red and yellow paint scheme, so there was something of a familiar look to the locomotives.

 The English Welsh & Scottish Railway took over five of six freight operations when British Railways cargo and passenger services were privatized in 1996. In 2007 the EWS was acquired by Deutsche Bahn (DB), and in 2009 it was rebranded as part of DB Schenker Rail.

 But that is way too much historic background for a railroad with a 2x4 foot footprint!

 The important thing is doing what we all do – creating a small world in which our trains can run through a universe of our own making. In my case you might find a guy in a deerstalker hat at the station tracking down a henchman of Professor Moriarty, or spot a gaggle of Highlanders, wearing Brodie helmets and slung Lee-Enfields, awaiting a troop train to take them to Dover. All heads turn at the sound of the high-pitched whistle of the express from Upper Chutney!

 

In the end, my OO line simply focuses on imagination and fantasy that make it easy to forget the troubles of the world, even for a short time. The freight always arrives on time, the passenger trains are full of happy travellers, and steam and diesel peacefully co-exist. In other words, we create a place we might like to be in, even for a little while.

 What world, or memory, or movies does your railroad tip the hat to? – Bob

 *My O gauge layout is the Cynosure Division of the New York Central. To learn about Cynosure, research the comic book Grimjack by Timothy Truman.