FACTFILE
NAME: Rolvenden
SCALE/GAUGE: 1:76.2/4mm:1/18.83mm/ P4
SIZE: 27ft × 2ft
ERA/REGION: 1920s/ Kent & East Sussex Railway
LAYOUT TYPE: End to end
Like many of us, in my younger years, I was always trying to plan the ultimate layout. I would doodle trackplans on bits of paper, and they all looked good until I started to factor scale into the drawings. Every time, it turned out far too big for me to squeeze into the space I had available. I had to be more realistic with my ambitions and started to focus my attention more closely on branch lines. Few, however, had the sort of infrastructure and variety I was looking for, and those that did still worked out to be too large. Discovering light railways really got my imagination going. I could finally squeeze a complete station, yard and engine shed together with a motley collection of old and small locomotives into a small space, and still achieve the variety I was looking for.
I made the decision in the early -’70s tohow they looked and operated, and I just knew this was the way I wanted to model railways. Moving to P4 involved building my own track to 18.83mm using ply and rivet sleepers. I also had to build stock using three-point suspension. Though all extra work, using gauges to aid construction, I consider this well worth the effort.
