Tutherside (009)

Layout History

My latest 009 layout has come about by the combination of two independent thought processes. A few months ago, I was about to take an old broken TV set to the recycling centre, when a germ of an idea was placed in my head. I recalled that, many years ago, I had seen a few “novelty” layouts based in old small cathode-ray TV set cabinets with the innards removed. Before me I now had a whopping 32” flat screen enclosure, which I thought may be capable of being used for something similar, but with more space for increased operating potential, but I parked that idea, while priorities lay elsewhere.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I developed a yearning for a simple, easy to run 009 layout to act as, effectively, a test track. I thought I could explore the use of Peco 009 Setrack to keep things simple – I know some people will recoil in horror and disgust at the thought of Setrack and dead frogs, but I was willing to give it a try. In effect, I wanted a 009 “train set”, a just-for-fun layout – I never had a traditional train set of any scale/gauge as a kid, and I feel as if I missed out. Now was my chance!

But, my fertile imagination did not stop there. Could I combine these two ideas together? And then the layout name, and ideas for its contents came to me in a flash of inspiration. When I was young, we only had the two channels on the TV – BBC and ITV – and when my Dad wanted to see what the alternative channel was showing he would say to my Mum “Ey up, our Mother, see what’s on t’otherside….”. (We are northern.....). Actually my Dad didn’t talk like that at all – despite coming from good working class Hull stock, he was the headmaster of our village school and always insisted on speaking proper to set an example…..

So, the way forward was clear. “Tutherside” would be a simple two-sided 3’ x 2’ 009 layout with the optional TV set frontage forming a proscenium arch with integral lighting should any exhibition manager consider the layout worthy of an invite. One side would be rural, the other industrial with a mill and a canal wharf.  Scalescenes products are going to be extensively used, I do like them. Although just for fun, I still intend to take a lot of time over the scenics to produce a good quality presentation for the layout. Each side has a couple of short sidings which can act as a very basic fiddle yard when the alternative side is being shown. As a bonus, the name “Tutherside” has a very Viking-origin ring to it, which fits in nicely with my fictional Wolderness Light Railway in East Yorkshire, the setting of my other two 009 layouts. With the small layout being quite light, if anyone at a show asks “What’s on Tutherside?”, I can just unplug the feeds, lift up the layout, turn it round by 180 degrees, and plug it back in again. Question answered!

As the layout building proceeded, I decided to drop the idea of the using the TV set frontage as it was an unnecessary complication.

Layout Description

Tutherside is a large  village in the Tutherdale area of North Yorkshire. The village grew up around the castle known as Tutherside Tower, which now is home to a military museum and is occasionally  used by  Civil War re-enactors. Across a stream feeding into the river Tuther, the nearby Castle Inn is  a popular pub with locals and tourists enjoying a fine range of drink and food. The beer garden is a popular meeting point for the Tutherside Morris Dancers and local folk musicians. The main village station on the Tutherdale Light Railway is close by the inn. The railway is a 2-foot gauge line serving the needs of the dales inhabitants and provides a link to the standard gauge main line lower down the valley. In another part of the village, a small canal terminates at a small wharf, The canal, although mainly superseded by the railway,  is still used to take large, heavy loads down the valley to link in with the River Ouse and the rest of Yorkshires waterways system. There is also growing leisure use. Close by the wharf is the Top Bun bakery, proprietors Messrs. Wallace and Gromit, providing mouth-watering breads and cakes to the dales people. The flour for the bakery has to make a journey of little more than 20 yards, as the adjacent Tutherside Mill is still using the power of the River Tuther to grind the grains needed to make fine flours. The wharf and the mill are served by sidings off the railway, for both incoming and outgoing goods.

In the 1960's the Tutherdale Light Railway is still serving the dale, as it has done for many years, and whilst freight traffic is not as busy as it used to be, and there is still some use by the locals to get to and from the outside world, there is increasing use of the railway by tourists eager to sample the scenic delights of the dale without having to navigate the narrow lanes that lead up to the head of the valley.

Layout Specification

Exhibition Details:-

Layout Size - 3' wide. 2' deep, but because of the rotation it needs a space 4' wide by 3' deep.. Operating space approx 4' deep required behind layout.

Operated from rear, viewed from front

Scale 4mm/ft, 009 Scale

No. of Operators - 1

Layout has integral lighting structure

Programme Description - Tutherside is a compact double-sided layout designed principally to just let me simply watch trains going round through either idyllic countryside or rural industries. At shows the layout is turned every twenty minutes or so to allow viewers a different perspective.

Exhibitions Attended:-

Aug 2023 - Little BYG Show, Borth y Gest, Porthmadog

Aug 2023 - Corris Railway Model Railway Exhibition, Machynlleth.

Mar 2024 - Merseyside & NW Narrow Gauge Group Meeting, Rainford

May 2024 - Minffordd Gweithdy Workshop, Ffestiniog Railway

Sept 2024 - Bala Lake Railway Model Railway Show, Bala

Oct 2024 - Merseyside & NW Narrow Gauge Group Meeting, Rainford