Modelling Against the Clock

‘OO’ GAUGE LAYOUT ‘NORTH TYNESIDE’

Surely building a layout should be relaxing and fun? Not for Kyle Humphries, who enjoys the challenge of working to a deadline.

Words: Chris Gadsby Photography: Chris Nevard Artwork: Andrew Mackintosh

What makes this layout great?

This layout gives you a tangible sense of scale. The people look tiny compared to the locomotives, and here the locomotives look tiny compared to the shed. You really feel as though you are looking at the site from a hot air balloon.

Modelling to a deadline adds a whole new dimension. Every time something doesn’t quite go according to plan, you glance up at the calendar – two months to go. On the opposite wall, the clock, normally an innocuous device, glares down at you menacingly as you refill your static grass machine for the seventh time. Tick, tock, tick, tock. ‘Why won’t this post stay upright?’ you think to yourself as beads of sweat drip off your forehead, the heating on full blast as you try desperately to cure the resin water for the canal scene at the other end. It sounds more akin to something out of a horror movie than building a model railway. Wasn’t this meant to be a relaxing hobby?! Fortunately, for a seasoned modeller like Kyle Humphries, who has a wealth of experience, the heat of building to a tight deadline is quite natural and this is his eighth commissioned piece. We have featured several of Kyle’s layouts in Model Rail before, and his latest one is now available for all to see in a north-east museum.

“I was invited to take my previous layout ‘Margam Moor’ (GBMR2023) to an open day at the North Tyneside preserved railway, as one of the railway’s locomotives, No. 401, was originally built for Port Talbot, where ‘Margam Moor’ is set. There was a reunion gala with 401 and 403 which are both ex-Port Talbot locomotives, so it was felt that having the layout at the gala would be fitting. Conversations were had, and a model of North Tyneside was agreed upon. The plan was that it would be in the museum for the gala the following year.”

3 things we like

1 These trainspotters having their photograph taken.

2 Can you tell which lamppost is a different height?

3 The shed interior detail.

The build was completed ahead of schedule and appeared at the 2023 Warley exhibition, attended by Kyle and members of the North Tyneside railway.

“It was an ideal situation. I had been on the Warley shortlist for a couple of years with ‘Margam Moor’ but I’d sold it before I got the invitation. Given that ‘North Tyneside’ is of a similar spec (16ft by 2ft 6in) they were happy for me to exhibit this instead. It was perfect. I could spend a couple of days showing it and teaching its new owners how to operate it but not have to take it home. They bought a van with them so I wouldn’t have to drive it to Newcastle.”

REAL ‐LIFE CHALLENGES

Modelling a real location is a unique challenge that requires a different set of skills. It’s not about coming up with fresh ideas, but about capturing the essence of a place, making it true to life. For Kyle, this was a journey filled with intriguing non-negotiables that he had to include in his layout.

“There are so many quirks. The headshunt has a kink, which was a vital feature to include as everyone involved on the railway knows it is one of the defining features that sets it apart from the rest. This took a lot of pinning and trial and error to get right. There’s also the platform. Somebody messed up during the build with the lampposts, and now one is a couple of feet taller than the rest. It’s not noticeable until you see it, at which point you cannot ‘un-see’ it. Also, on the platform, the benches are different, with one GWR and one NER. It was both strange and fun to model!”

Staying with small details, many of us know the frustrations with threading wire through fence posts. Now just imagine having to do it not once but twice.

“Every post is laser ‐cut and the holes are incredibly fine to thread the wires through five times per post. There are over 80 posts. It was a right pain and then, just as I had finished, my son kicked a football that landed on the layout and I had to do the fencing all over again. Lucky me. The fence was one of the areas where I did compromise though, as I pulled it off-scene a little early compared to the prototype, but there was no way I was going to have it cross a baseboard join.”

Of course, we can’t discuss ‘North Tyneside’ without highlighting the large and impressive shed to the right-hand side. This was Kyle’s most significant undertaking by far, and he spent almost 50% of the entire build time on this one structure.

Present at ‘North Tyneside’ is a heavily modified Bachmann Class 37, depicting a prototype undergoing restoration. Kyle’s friends thought he was mad to tear apart a new locomotive, but adding a smoke unit and a West Hill Wagon Works engine has created an eye-catching feature.

“The shed has a foamboard core with plasterboard attached on either side of it and plastic card on the top of that – a five-layer structure, so to speak. With part of the roof open to allow viewers to see inside, I had to make the interior look as good as the exterior. Luckily, I have my own 3D printer. All of the small details have been printed at home, and I’ve only had one bad print in the 18 months since I started using the printer. Some worry about the cost of resin, but a single £30 bottle can go a long way when printing things so small. I use it for everything from small details to wagons. It is possible to make a rake of 30 wagons from a single bottle of resin which costs around £30. This is a lot cheaper than buying them!”

Some modellers find building to a deadline is the best way to make a layout, particularly if they have lots of ideas. Kyle is one such modeller. He wants to model a lot, but he doesn’t have the space to store everything, so it suits him that the layouts can move on. The only question now is, what will he do next?

FACTFILE: ‘NORTH TYNESIDE’

MODELLER CV: KYLE HUMPHRIES

“I average a new layout about every year, or every other year at least. My interest lies more in trying to do something that nobody else has done before and pushing the boundaries, doing something that’s a bit different. My full-time job is within modelling, so I have lots of time to think up new ideas.”

SEE MORE

The North Tyneside Steam Railway museum is free to enter with free parking next to the museum entrance. Heritage train rides also operate on Sundays and Bank Holidays during the running season and on Thursdays during North Tyneside school holidays.