MANTLES WOOD

FACTFILE

Layout name: Mantles Wood

Scale/Gauge: 1:76 scale / 16.5mm gauge / OO

Size: 17ft x 13ft

Era/Region: 1956-61 / London Transport / BR

Layout type: Continuous Loop

I should never have gone to Pendon.

We moved into the first of two houses in High Wycombe late 1975. An outing to Pendon was a ‘must’ one Sunday early in 1976. Even half a century ago, it was totally absorbing. The quality of workmanship was both inspirational and overwhelming – ‘I could never do anything like that’.

Needless to say, further visits were made over the next 40 years and I came away with a few pointers, like how to use view blockers, the importance of keeping tones muted, plus that buildings should ‘grow’ out of the ground and not be plonked on.

I’d long wanted a layout of my own and felt I might have at least one decent layout in me, but how on earth could I achieve something like that? Of course, Pendon is a team effort; I’d just have to cut my cloth accordingly.

Our first house in Wycombe wasn’t really suitable for much of a layout, but I did start collecting stock, as funds permitted. At the time, I was thinking of somewhere the Western met the Southern, though, over time, my ideas changed.