00 Scale Shunting Puzzle Layout - Little Bazeley

Due to its limited size, Little Bazeley Sidings was designed to accomodate short wheelbase stock which was still a common feature of 1960s freight operations on British Railways. This is the main type of freight operation on this layout, but despite the limited length of tracks Little Bazeley Sidings can also be operated within a 1980s timeframe.

The year is 1966 - England's football team has just won the world cup, and our trainspotter who has ventured out to Little Bazeley uses Ilford black and white film to capture the scenes he finds on his travels.

The choice of period (a very loose 1964-1969, being the very last years of the British steam/diesel transition era) just about allows for comparatively short standard wheelbase stock of 10'-0" (3m). Scaled down to 4mm scale / 00 gauge, this translates into goods wagons about 3,2" (8cm) long, i.e. short enough to allow for the capacities needed for an Inglenook Sidings setup within the given space of 4' x 1' (120cm x 30cm).

The locomotives used on the layout are the conveniently short Cl 08/09 and Cl 04 diesel shunters, standard motive power for a 1960s layout.

Class 08

The Class 08 and 09 shunters were built between 1955 and 1962 at BR Crewe, Darlington, Derby or Doncaster works, based on a pre-WWII design of the LMS (the SR had a diesel shunter of similar design, too). With 995 locomotives built, this is easily the largest BR locomotive class, and quite a few Cl 08 and 09 are still in everyday service.

Excellent models are available by both Bachmann and Hornby. This late green BR livery model was the first incarnation made available by Hornby when introducing their Cl 08 model in 2005.

Class 04

Built by BR as the 'standard' small 0-6-0 diesel mechanical shunter, the Class 03/04 fleet were used in areas where smaller size shunt or pilot locos werde needed, such as docks or areas where traffic flows were light. The single cab design could be driven from either side of the cab and had a manual gear control.

Bachmann introduced the model a couple of years back, with sporadic repaints ever since. The model of D2228 in (appropriately) weathered BR green livery of the mid to late 1960s was produced in 2004.

Somehow, the Cl 04 has become the standard shunter at Little Bazeley, performing the unspectacular chores dependably and smoothly. In real life, this could indeed have been a typical operating field for the class, given the light traffic flows to be expected at such a location. In model terms, the Bachmann loco is excellent at slow speeds once it has been properly run in.

[click for larger image]

The warehouse setting at the sidings beyond the station of Little Bazeley allows for a fair variety of freight stock to be used. Not being too specific about who exactly receives and ships what - further disguised by the very general signs reading "Sussex Storage" - can justify almost anything popping up here (assuming, of course, that business has not gone down the drain by the time period the layout is set in). However, the most common type of goods wagon one would expect to see at such a location no doubt is the common closed van in various incarnations.

Bachmann 12t ventilated van / Dapol engineers' fitted van [click for larger images]

Dapol banana van (left) Dapol express pracels van (centre), Dapol fruit 'mex' van (right) [click for larger images]

A special type of operation which a warehouse allows for is container traffic - in this case, 1960s style, involving either a 3-plank wagon as carrier vehicule or the purpose-built ex-SR conflat wagon. The latter are available ready-to-run with their standard SR removal container, which is replaced by BR AF containers in order to update the stock to the 1960s period.

Bachmann 3-plank with BR container (left) Dapol conflat with SR container (centre), Hornby conflat with SR container (right), Bachmann BR AF containers (below) [click for larger images]

Heavy goods which are transported in crates can see the use of purpose-built equipment such as the 'lowmac'.

As mentioned, Little Bazeley Sidings can also be made to represent 1980s freight operations, although in an admittedly limited way, as the length of the sidings obviously can't be changed.

This works because the motive power remains the same - the trusted Class 08 shunter - and simply appears in a livery appropriate for the 1980s, i.e. BR blue.

As for the rolling stock, this is mainly represented by the ventilated VEA van, which features the same short wheelbase as 1960s freight stock but still saw use in the 1980s in colourful Railfreight livery. Some VEAs even made it into the sectorisation era (and livery) of the late 1980s to early 1990s.

VEA (East Usk Yard, March 1990)
(c) and courtesy of the Tony Dunkley Collection

VEA (Hornby Model)
(click for larger image)