Reading the latest Railway Modeller sometime in mid-1979 I came across a letter from a chap called Don Mason, calling for anyone interested in forming an association of people wanting to model narrow gauge railways in 7mm scale to contact him. I'd been unhappy at the inconsistent running that my efforts in 009 were achieving - reading the posts on the NGRM-Online forum this seems to be a problem that many people encounter - my track-laying was probably the culprit, from what I read. Anyway, I thought that a move to the bigger scale might enable me to get better results, so I replied to the letter.
And so it came about that six of us met at Don's house in Nottingham that December. In no time at all we had formed the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, and I found myself cast as the Membership Secretary. Don became Member No 1 and I was No 5. I soon disposed of my 009 stock and bought some of the Peco kits which had recently become available. As I had thoughtfully kept the baseboards from Banwy Valley Mk 1 it seemed reasonable to use them as the start of a layout in the new scale. I was still thinking in terms of the Welsh lines so, after much agonised thought about a name I came up with - Banwy Valley Mk 2
There was quite a steep learning curve involved with getting my head round the bigger scale - I had to adjust my thinking on volumes as well as lengths and widths. The space up in the loft was more than enough to cope, so my new 8 foot long layout fitted right in, and the small amount of time I had at home was taken up with constructing scenery, locos and rolling stock, as well as coping with the growing membership of the 7mmNGA.
However, the RAF played its joker again, and at the end of 1982 I was posted to Suffolk, and everything had to be packed or binned for the move. At first we had to go into service accommodation, so there was no room for a layout, but we found a small estate of houses just starting construction in a nearby village and put our names down for a plot. As work on our house hadn't started yet I was able to look over the plans and found some space that I commandeered for a railway room. Actually, 'room' is probably a misnomer - it was about 5 feet 6 inches long and 4 feet 6 inches wide and had no windows. A railway modelling cupboard was more like it. However, it was mine, and I designed a shelf layout to run round two sides at a height of 5 feet, so that I had room for a desk and work bench underneath. With yet another burst of originality, this was called Banwy Valley Mk 3
Another move came at the end of 1985, this time to Germany. Much of our furniture went into store, and the baseboards went too. However, I sold off the locos and stock as my interest was moving on to industrial lines, and I wrote in Narrow Lines about 'junk-strewn works yards' and 'dark, dank, anonymous sheds'. Once we were settled into service accommodation I started to develop these ideas into a layout called Baigent's Yard .
The Yard was a good way to work on techniques for getting the atmosphere I wanted, and a new set of locos and stock was started. I also discovered German model shops, and a whole new world of accessories became easily available. As well as the modelling I completed my Open University degree and started on some research and writing on narrow gauge railways that was to occupy me for the next 10 years. I also took the opportunity to visit several German narrow gauge railways. Once my interest became known to my bosses I was given the job of running the Model Railway Club on the base, and spent my time trying unsuccessfully to wean the members off proprietary HO and N gauge and onto narrow gauge.
We returned to England at the end of 1990, back to our house in Suffolk, and I started to build a new layout on the industrial theme. This time it was small enough to fit into one end of the railway cubbyhole and, never one to discard a good name, I called it Baigent's Basin . Baigent was my wife's maiden name and using it for my layouts gained me no end of brownie points
The Basin survived another move in 1993, to a 200-year old Suffolk timber-framed, thatched cottage. Then, in 1996 I took early retirement from the RAF and signed up as a Civil Servant, working for the RAF in South Wales. As the job involved flying RAF aircraft it wasn't too big a wrench, but the Basin had to go, and I sold it as a complete going concern. However, the railway bug hadn't gone away, just moved on to bigger things.
Page created 31 May 2011 Last edited 2 August 2011