Not Walsall

Steve Jones talks about layout ideas and layout inspiration.

As I grew up in England's industrial Midlands, much of my train-watching has centred on the Birmingham/Black Country area, Walsall in particular. This is the real, working railway as opposed to the stylised idyll of the country branchline, viewed through the chocolate and cream tinted spectacles of model railway magazines. The landscape is intensely urban and decaying, the flora limited to canal towpaths and railway embankments, the fauna just a thin smear on the ring-road. You can taste the atmosphere - in fact you'll probably cough it back up.

Some wonderfully atmospheric black and white photos to illustrate. Reminds us of the fact it's now 35 years since the end of steam in Britain, and the early diesel era is as much ancient history as the 'kettle' era.