This new three-box layout is currently destined to premiere at the Cheltenham GWR Modellers Exhibition April 2027 and is built on experience gained from over 20 years of exhibition layout building.

As with my other layouts, it has to be compact enough to be both transported in a small hatchback car and stored conveniently at home.

Unlike Garfield and Susan’s Sidings however, Dock Green has the capacity to show a train arriving in the scenic section and then leaving in the same direction. In this sense, it is more like my Capital Works layout, but with room for more than a small tank engine with one short wheelbase wagon.

In fact, Dock Green has a 25 inch scenic section long enough for a single diesel railcar, tank engine and autocoach or a freight train with a brake van. It also has a single platform station to make use of my passenger rolling stock, but, unlike Garfield, the trains do not have to reverse or the engine run round its carriages. A train arrives, pauses if appropriate, and continues into the third, off- stage, area.

The catalyst that turned Dock Green from a blue sky concept to a reality was the incessant tidying of my girlfriend who emptied a living room shelf that allowed a baseboard measuring 10 inches wide and 58 inches long. This was based on the width two pairs of Hornby R189 single arch bridges which defined the scenic area.

The wooden baseboard itself was built by my talented carpenter neighbour Francis with the caveat that it had to be less than two inches deep to allow a model low relief bonded warehouse – Bachmann Scenecraft 44-204 – to fit under the shelf above. Although never having built a model railway baseboard before, Francis came up trumps with a structure strong enough to carry the plywood curtain walls and other scenery and equipment. The whole structure is 9.5 inches high.

Due to the construction method, the track – with rail sides pre painted enough to cover the scenic section – had to be positioned and tested after the two L shaped plywood end walls had been added and the whole structure painted Dulux Cannonball Grey. Due to the slender format, no points are used on Dock Green. Just straight tracks serving the warehouse loading dock and station platform. As such there are no moving parts to fail or interrupt the smooth progress of small locomotives. Once the trains move to the hidden ends, there is enough headroom to remove and replace locomotives and brake vans to form new trains.

The right hand end, as viewed from the front, has a shelf for spare stock while the left hand end has the Gaugemaster Series E power control equipment. The 12 volt dc output from this goes to a switch, built by my good friend and radio enthusiast Malcolm, which allows either the front (station) or rear (warehouse) track to be energised. One train movement at a time is sufficient for one operator and this electrical arrangement saves the weight and expense of two controllers.

Building the scenic section started with the plywood back scene being attached to the two 90 degree end walls, once these had arch shaped holes cut in them, using the R189 bridges as templates. The inner surfaces of the scenic section were painted Dulux First Dawn, as was my tradition. Once glued in place, scenery was applied from the back forward, starting with the R189 bridges and Bachmann Scenecraft warehouse. The rear track could then be fixed relative to the warehouse and ballasted.

The length of the passenger platform, together with the width of the two R189s, defined the width of the scenic section. The platform was built from a card kit and, with end ramps removed, measured 18 inches. This, like the 5 inch long enclosed set of platform steps, was purchased ready built from the 9681 sales coach at Norchard on the Dean Forest Railway.

The steps reached up to the deck of one of the bridges, allowing platform access in the manner of my native Churchdown from 1942 to 1964. However, as I envisaged Dock Green as being just for dock and warehouse workers – and a privileged few others – there was no need – and no room – for a booking office. In the case of Churchdown from 1942, the booking office was an asbestos shed just off the bridge. It still exists as private property.

As a limited access station – not listed in public timetables – Dock Green would have been behind a closed gate when trains were not due. As such, there was no need to cut into the parapet wall of the bridge – just simulate a closed wooden gate with an orderly queue of dock workers waiting for the train home at the end of a shift.

The platform was completed with modified Airfix/Dapol fencing at the back, Peco Modelscene gas lamps (Set 5004, which also illuminated the streets on the four R189s), an advertising hoarding at the far end and a sign with plastic card backing Slater’s 5mm high lettering (Ref 1104)

Waiting for a train is a set of Bachmann Embarking Military Personnel (36-430). I was particularly keen to include a sailor and Wren to suggest that Dock Green was indeed near the docks and it is not impossible that other military people could have arrived by ship as well.

Looking down from the bridges were a set of 1950s style trainspotters (Bachmann 36-401) and the Warehouse loading dock was populated by some of the same firm’s Factory Workers and Foreman (36-403). Another member of these became the crouching driver of a modified Airfix/Dapol Dock Crane.

The area to the left of the Warehouse was found to be too narrow for road vehicles but just wide enough for the brick base of the Crane. The reason for the crane on Dock Green was to lift cargoes from ships and the dockyard beyond the Warehouse wall and deposit them either next to the loading dock or directly on to railway wagons.

Nowadays, of course, such cranes are largely redundant as goods come and go in ISO shipping containers handled at dedicated terminals served by bogie flat wagons and articulated lorries. As such, the crane helps date Dock Green to the 1960s at the latest.

The base was made from two spare sides from the Airfix/Dapol Engine Shed topped with black plastic card.

The crane itself was bought partly pre assembled at the Hucclecote Model Railway Exhibition as part of a bag of components. The model had been assembled with the door on the wrong side and the access platform (on the left) had to be removed to allow the crane body to sit flush against the back scene.

Two holes used for toyish hand cranks were plated over with black plastic card and this in turn provided a foundation for a new catwalk made of stanchions from the Dock Crane kit and small square section plastic rod. The crane was then mounted on a supporting ring made from a toilet roll tube.

To explain how the crane operator reached his workplace I added a safety barrier to the edge of the roof and, behind it, a small hut with a door covering an internal ladder. This came with the Hornby Skaledale Utility Lamp Hut (R9782), a real version of which was once part of Gloucester Eastgate Station. Happily the Skaledale product fitted into the recess under the crane jib, along with an otherwise spare relay box from the Wills SS82 set.

Before installation, the four R189 bridges had been sprayed with grey primer and then a coat of dark brick colour. Although they had been designed to carry one single railway line over another or a road, their recessed decks also lent themselves to creating a single carriageway road (painted black) with grey pavements on each side.

As with most layouts, road vehicles can be added to give an additional sense of time and place. In keeping with the crane and small warehouse, one road bridge supports a green London Transport AEC tower wagon. This is Corgi Original Omnibus model 42102 with the LT number 724J and the registration plate AXM 602. This would have been used for maintaining overhead wires as used for trams and trolleybuses. The last London trolleybus ran on 9 May 1962.

On the other bridge is the Scammell ballast box tractor and low loader from Lledo set DG112003. This was bought second hand from Cheltenham Model Centre, as was the tower wagon, and was in the markings of Anderton and Rowlands Fairground. This would originally have carried folded dodgems, but I needed it to carry a Bristol Aeroplane Company crate which was out of gauge for a Lowmac railway wagon. Unfortunately, research found that for tax and insurance reasons, Showman’s vehicles can only carry fairground equipment and not general goods. Luckily, I was able to cover over the Anderton and Rowland cabside branding with some white electrical tape. These would also make the cab doors more visible when opened.

Evening  All.  Welcome to the other Dock Green Station on my beat.  You won’t find it on a British Railways timetable and you won’t get on the platform without a pass or a good story. 

There aren’t any houses nearby so the passenger trains bring in bonded warehouse and other dock workers each morning and take them home again at night.

Sometimes Merchant Navy sailors and even military people catch the trains into London.  It depends which ships have docked for the crane to unload their cargoes.

Dock Green platform is also used to change freight locomotive crews, taking wagons between yards or further afield.

That, and the vans going to and from the warehouses, attracts trainspotters.  They  mostly behave themselves but there is usually an old time copper to keep them in order.  Mind how you go!