Little Wiffendale (009)

Layout History

When Scalescenes, the online designer of downloadable kits for making cardboard buildings and structures, released their set of 009 scale narrow gauge railway buildings ( https://scalescenes.com/product/r029-oo9-structure-set/ ), I had to have them as a) I like building these kits, and b) I thought one day I put together a small "plank" layout for them to sit on, a working diorama effectively. Browsing the online blog of well-known modeller James Hilton, I came upon his treatise on simple layouts using just two points., but which still offered plenty of operating potential. ( https://paxton-road.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-perfect-two-point-cameo.html .... the other blog postings also make great reading!) . I set out to see what I could come up with as an exercise in compact, simple, lightweight, easily stored and transported, modelling.

Layout Description

It’s late summer 1938. Across Europe the dark clouds of war seem to be threatening, but in Little Wiffendale, deep in rural England, that seems a long way away, and life continues much as it has for decades previously. The harvest needs to be brought in, the sheep need tending to, and village life goes on, all helped by the Wiffen Valley Railway, which has served the valley’s communities since late Victorian times. In the 1920’s the railway became part of Col. H F Stephens group of light railways with many new corrugated-iron buildings replacing tired timber ones. Despite increasing motor vehicle competition, the narrow gauge railway still connects the valley to the town of Wiffenham and on to the outside world.

A peaceful, rural, idyll….. for now.

Little Wiffendale, the model, is an 009 4mm/ft scale narrow gauge light railway, built as an exercise in simple, lightweight, compact modelling. It fits into a couple of plastic boxes for ease of storage and transport and can very quickly be set-up for play at home or exhibition. Control is simple 12v DC, point operation by wire-in-tube. All the buildings are made from Scalescenes downloaded kits and textures, my favoured supplier of cardboard buildings (www.scalescenes.com), designed by John Wiffen. The name of the layout is my way of saying thanks to John for his great range of kits. In the spirit of many of Col. Stephens railways, the rolling stock is a mixed bag of things old, new, borrowed, and, indeed, blue….!