Buckingham Central

[Mickey]

Thanks for the response guy's, as a young teenage railway enthusiast back in 1969/70 and a bit of a Great Central Railway fan back then as well i remember buying a Railway Modeller and the Buckingham Central layout was the featured layout and even though i wasn't into railway modelling as such although i did visit a couple of railway modelling exhibitions around 1970/71 i recall i was fairly impressed with the photographs of this layout and was wondering if anyone on here remembers this layout and whatever became of it?.

Obviously people still remember this layout and it's still around.

[Bryan]

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! )

There was also the other layout from the late 60s - 70s with an automatic theme to it.
Saw it at the Bluecoat School exhibition in Liverpool.

OUGHTTOGO

As the modeller said. Its what his wife said should happen to it.

[JASd17]

Jack Dugdale's Ortogo has been mentioned on the Forum before.

John

[Mickey]

Was the Buckingham Central layout of 1970 of OO gauge?.

[JASd17]

Peter Denny's Buckingham layout was EM.

According to legend Peter is supposed to be responsible for the 18.2mm gauge, as his measurements were 0.2mm out. I am not sure how true this is.

John

[Mickey]

Peter Denny's Buckingham layout was EM.

Thanks John.

[john coffin]

When you think of the quality of the whole Buckingham series of layouts, done by a vicar, and therefore on a small budget, in his spare time, after the congregation and his family, and at a time when the quality of production locos and so on was interesting to say the least, much of his stuff was built by hand.

I know what has surprised Tony Gee is how well the Layouts ran considering they were mainly rigidly fixed in the House in Cornwall, and had to be dismantled and moved toward Doncaster. Bringing them completely up to date would ruin their historic value. Peter Denny made things like so many who modelled in the 1940's 50's and 60's with stuff like papier mache and cardboard, or even rolled baked bean cans!!!!!! They certainly stand up to todays' standards.

It is also useful to know that various parts of Buckingham were in the Railway Modeller before those dates mentioned above. Mainly I think because Peter Denny and Cyril Freezer were well known to each other.

It is amazing how many vicars/priests were quite important in railway history collection and publishing

Paul

[notascoobie]

That fisheye lens photo of Buckingham station concourse on the front cover of RM was a life-changing experience for me. I went on reading Peter Denny's stuff and then George Illiffe Stokes (Buildings in Miniature) and Aherne (Locomotive Construction) and so on. The books are still on my bookshelf and regularly re-read. I still regard those modellers as being on the top shelf of our hobby.

Regards,

Vernon

[john coffin]

I seem to remember that Madder Valley, the layout by John Ahern was preserved at Pendon,
which along with Roye English's magical buildings, is still a great place to visit for modelling at the highest level.

Maybe we should go back to the time before tv and x boxes to do proper modelling again

Paul

[Mickey]

Great posts guy's i didn't think anyone would remember that Buckingham Central layout?.

Talking about layouts i'm not into your hobby to much guy's although back around 1993/94 i did buy a Lima 'Crab' and some Lima B.R.Mk1 coaches in maroon which i though looked pretty good and with there metal wheels they sounded like the real thing when riding over the rail joints plus a 2 tone B.R. green. Brush type 4 and a green Western and several Hornby steam locos being a G.W.R. 28xx a Black 5, 8F, 9F and a unrebuilt Battle of Britain.

I prefer layouts that aren't to 'glutted' and actually use to like the BBC Blue Peter layout which was fairly basic layout with no scenery with a girder overbridge in the centre on it.

[jwealleans]

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of a visit to Buckingham and an operating session. The layout is in the process of being restored, but is run regularly. Despite being in part over 70 years old it still works in the main and is run to the sequence Peter Denny worked out and left with it. The Leighton Buzzard section is not presently attached, but that doesn't present too many operational problems as trains are terminated at Grandborough Junction. Photos are largely unedited and speak for themselves.















The chassis of the 0-6-0 in the foreground is made from a piece of wood. It still runs. The 9C hauling the Directors' Saloon was built by Tony Gee.

[2512silverfox]

Talking about historic layouts of quality, how many remember Jim Russell's Little Western? Laid in EM and filling a very large loft, it included work from some of the finest modellers of the late 50s and early 60s.

[James Harrison]

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of a visit to Buckingham and an operating session. The layout is in the process of being restored, but is run regularly. Despite being in part over 70 years old it still works in the main and is run to the sequence Peter Denny worked out and left with it. The Leighton Buzzard section is not presently attached, but that doesn't present too many operational problems as trains are terminated at Grandborough Junction. Photos are largely unedited and speak for themselves.















The chassis of the 0-6-0 in the foreground is made from a piece of wood. It still runs. The 9C hauling the Directors' Saloon was built by Tony Gee.

Lovely set of photos.

[williewhizz]

Authenticity? Who knows - one of Peter Denny's motivations for modelling the GC was, he confessed, that there were so few "experts" on that railway around in the 1940s/50s, whereas every man and his dog claimed detailed knowledge of the Great Western, even back then.

But what Buckingham does have - even today - is Atmosphere, by the bucket-full. Even with all the modern techniques, materials and information available to us nowadays, it still has few equals and virtually no superiors.

[john coffin]

Interesting photo of the 2-4-0. We spend so much time worrying about detail, but can you see how out of alignment the coupling rod pins are
makes you wonder how it works?

Rev Denny was a like many of his time, often a little inexact with all his details but what he did do was provide an image which even now
is rarely matched by modern layouts and modellers, and really captured and still captures the atmosphere of pre grouping railway around
110 years ago. Or at least what those of us younger by quite a long way from that imagine it was.

Paul