Current Layouts

Copper Wort

This is my fourth railway modelling project which is currently under construction.A scene of an Edwardian period Burton-on-Trent brewery and High Street circa 1902.

The concept of the layout is one large brewery premises located in the centre of Burton on Trent at the turn of the 20^th century. Breweries at this time were often very large concerns and the property and land footprints spread throughout the town in all directions. Private railways served the brewery premises which were served from Midland Railway secondary lines running down from the main line in and around Burton railway station. This created dozens of level crossings across most of the town centre streets. I wanted to create a town scene and level crossing amongst the brewery to show this concept working.

I wanted a lot of the renowned Bass red paintwork on the vast array of brewery buildings. Striking, definitive and memorable from an earlier visit to The National Brewery Centre in Burton on Trent more than 20 years ago. In contrast the High Street, typically late Victorian / Edwardian, has a lot of browns and beiges. Brilliant white is a thing of the future in my little model world.

The track plan is based on Worthington’s Brewery around the High Street road crossing and includes maltings, brew house, ale stores and cooperage. The track design is taken from Cliff Shepherds book Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent and bent round into a hexagon shape. Each hex board includes scenic centrepieces and when joined up provides the complete process story.

Buildings are based on the breweries of Bass, Ind Coope, Trumans, Peter Walker and others, located in and around Burton on Trent. There is a High Street scene on one board that divides the brewery in two. Brewery trains have to squeeze behind buildings, around tight corners, and across the road crossing to get from one part to the other.

Construction of the buildings is essentially embossed plasticard sheet on a mount board sub base using the same principles as used on my previous projects, and as described in detail in the forthcoming book (Wild Swan Publishing - expected publish date mid 2020).

OO gauge and 4mm to the foot scale the layout has 6 boards forming a large hexagon 2 metres x 2.4 metres overall size. Five of the boards are fully scenic and the sixth is a storage board for a couple of trains, as the rest of the stock is left ‘out front’ to be shunted about.

July 2020 The project is now very nearly completed. You can follow the whole construction process over the last few years in more detail by going to https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124064-copper-wort/page/1/ Full model building construction details and use of model figurines are explained fully in my forthcoming book to be published by Wild Swan later in 2020.