'Lest We Forget'
(OO9 Micro/Diorama Layout)

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Another case of something that sat around for ages before final inspiration struck. I'd had the idea for some sort of small war time trench layout for some time. The board was made and track laid a couple of years before this finally happened. Then it got taken apart and I tried the idea in a box file, but wasn't happy, so put it to one side again....

I saw a simple track set-up that was similar to what I'd started with on a FaceBook group. I liked the idea of one of the forks being hidden rather than my initial single end.... and that was the catalyst for making it finally happen! So much so that it was then made in just six days, including the plastic kit building! In fact it was finally completed, appropriately, on Armistice Day.

Obviously there is historical significance with this one, and actually even more so for myself...

This is a First World War Trench Railway scene, more diorama than it is railway layout. It depicts a small supplies yard for the war front. The trains arrive via a small tunnel for supplies to head to the main trenches.

All the other layouts on this site are built in N Gauge (2mm = 1 foot), but for a change, this one is built using OO9, narrow gauge railways in OO scale (4mm = 1 foot).

The palisades are made using several coffee stirrers and stained. The retaining wall/tunnel entrance is scratched from Metcalfe builder card. The Mk.1 Tank, and the soldiers are by Airfix, and the Spad bi-plane is by Revell. My first attempt at plastic kits in at least 12 years!

The one building on the layout is a old two level stable house made in card, but this time not by me.... this is the other bit of history. It was made by Herbert Couchman, a chap that I knew some 55+ years ago, sadly long gone. He was the person who got me into model making all those years ago. This building used to form a part of his large Tudor Village model, part of which I own but sadly it's baseboard has collapsed over the years. Not only did he make the model, he also made the some of the grass scatter that's used on this layout! To bring the whole thing full circle, he fought in the First World War, so it seems appropriate that one of his models has ended up on this diorama.

The track is by Peco. The medical/hospital wagon is Bachmann, the loco shown is a scatch built 3D print running on a Kato chassis.