Buckingham Central

[Mickey]

Does anyone remember the Buckingham Central layout that appeared on the front cover of the Railway Modeller magazine back in early 1970 i believe it was based on a fictitious town called Buckingham and the town's terminal station somewhere on the Great Cenral Railway?.

Whatever became of it?.

[jwealleans]

Peter Denny's layout? It was acquired by Tony Gee after Peter Denny died and is being restored. Tony exhibits part of it, Leighton Buzzard.

I photographed it at Manchester Show in 2011.

[Mickey]

Thanks mr.wealleans, so the layout is still around then, i remember it having a fair bit of press interest in Railway Modeller magazine back in 1970 and a year or two later when it had grown even bigger!.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
I remember when I was recuperating after being kicked in the head on a rugby field, and buying a Railway Modeller in which Buckingham was the railway of the month, I was hooked (I probably had been on the rugby field as well). It was Peter Denny's marvellous models that provoked an interest in GCR (to go with the GNR & NER).
I'm guessing at 1969/70 for the date.

Earlswood nob

[Mickey]

Good morning earlswood nob, Buckingham Central appeared in the September 1969, March 1970 & March 1971 editions of the Railway Modeller magazine along with a corresponding inside article and photographs of the layout.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

Micky,
Tony Gee is a regular contributor on RMweb so a PM to him on there should shed further information on the progress he is making.
A top EM gauge modeller along with Ken Hill they have built several exibition layouts between them and both were close friends of the late Malcolm Crawley.
Regards.

[Mickey]

Thanks 60129 i was just curious to know if anyone on here remembered the Buckingham Central layout?, i am not sure if the layout was any better then any other layouts around at the time although the photographs of the layout that i remember seeing from Railway Modeller magazine looked very good indeed, it had a Great Central Railway theme with locos, rolling stock and signalling and was a terminal station i recall?.

[James Harrison]

There are a couple of books about the layout (sadly no longer in print, though they do occasionally crop up on internet auction sites)- "Buckingham Great Central", published 1970, and Volumes 1 and 2 of "Buckingham Branch Lines" published around 1995. They've got masses of detail- trackplans, building techniques, stock lists etc., and really provide an insight into the modelling philosophy of the late Rev. Denny.

Thanks 60129 i was just curious to know if anyone on here remembered the Buckingham Central layout?, i am not sure if the layout was any better then any other layouts around at the time although the photographs of the layout that i remember seeing from Railway Modeller magazine looked very good indeed, it had a Great Central Railway theme with locos, rolling stock and signalling and was a terminal station i recall?.

You probably know this already, so forgive me... Rev Denny set it in 1907 and built it as a fictional branchline off the GC London Extension around Finmere. It started out as a portable layout in 1946/47 but was completely rebuilt around 1948/49. In the 1960s he rebuilt it again, giving Buckingham a much more impressive terminus, thus the model evolved from a single track branch line to a double track branch line to a mainline terminating with a four-road terminus modelled on Marylebone and Chester North Gate stations. Pretty much everything was scratchbuilt to EM standards (though of course there were no real standards as such when the model was begun).

[D2100]

... i believe it was based on a fictitious town called Buckingham and the town's terminal station somewhere on the Great Cenral Railway?.
.

Small point, but although the station and the lines connecting it to the rest of the network were fiction, Buckingham most certainly exists (in Buckinghamshire, oddly enough)

i am not sure if the layout was any better then any other layouts around at the time although the photographs of the layout that i remember seeing from Railway Modeller magazine looked very good indeed, .

I would say it was very well regarded in its day, a top class layout that was continually developed, like P D Hancock's Craigshire and Ken Northwood's North Devonshire.

[StevieG]

Was it 'Buckingham' which needed a second operator for the layout's 'other end' (a hardly uncommon necessity for layouts, I know), who in this case was usually the builder's son named Crispin, and I think I recall reading that, for that 'other end', some sort of automated operating arrangement had been created for occasions when no second operator was available, which had therefore been dubbed 'the Automatic Crispin'?

[D2100]

Stevie - spot on

[micknich2003]

The Late Peter Denny's "Buckingham" as appeared in "Railway Modeller" on and off from 1952, and possibly earlier.

[Pebbles]

As far as I know there were three books, "Buckingham Great Central -25 years of railway modelling" Published by Peco in 1972. Two Volumes by Wild Swan "Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch Lines Part One 1945-1967" published 1993 and Part Two 1967-1993 published in 1994. I picked up the Peco Volume, complete with dust cover, for £1.99 in a local charity shop.

[Bryan]

Was it at York last year?

[StevieG]

Stevie - spot on

Thanks Ian. Always though that a very amusing name for a 'robot' operator.
(And at least some of memory of that long ago is still working! )