The Brief Encounter monochrome model railway

The Brief Encounter monochrome model railway is a 11ft x 2ft OO gauge fully portable exhibition layout based on the 1944 David Lean film.

The concept was to recreate a monochrome style evocative of that era so the observer can see the layout as if they're viewing an original black and white photograph.

WATCH: Brief Encounter: A monochrome model railway - Part 1

This is where I created a rod for my own back! What I very quickly realised was, it wasn't just a simple case of painting everything black and white. The reality was very different.

32 shades of grey later (some straight from the pot, some specially mixed to create specific shades) and the full monochrome effect has painstakingly come together.

Another problem I quickly discovered was that grass, foliage and trees are not readily available in black, white... or grey! Neither my local model shop nor any of the trade stands I visit at shows offer any of their scatter and flock in monochrome colours, instead just doing the standard variations on greens, yellows and browns. When I asked, I got the same response: up until now there's been zero demand for grey grass or charcoal-coloured trees. Funny that!

There was no other option then but for me to have to make everything from scratch. I bought sawdust, car sponges and a bag of Hobbs Polydown polyester wadding usually used in mattresses and teddy bear stuffing and pulled the fibre into super fine strands. The Polydown actually makes amazing ground and cliff cover once painted.

All together, a massive bag or sawdust, pack of 12 large sponges and the Polydown cost £17 online. A quick trip to the now no-more Wilko got me a number of sample pots of emulsion in various shades of grey, plus a 99p bucket from a DIY store - and I figured I had enough raw materials to get started on the scenery. In all I managed to get a few hundred pounds of scenics for about £30.

To get the size of the grass and bits of foliage as accurate as possible, I ran some through a food blender. A herb grinder is also perfect. Quick tip though - to save any arguments about why there's fake grass in the pasta sauce - do check with your other half first! Or buy yourself a second hand blender online for about £10 and let your other half keep the Kenwood.

For the static grass, again no one could supply in the colours I needed. Simple solution: I went online again and bought a black and a grey nylon wig for about £6 each and spent 30 mins cutting it into thin strips and then pushing it through a fine sieve. I then had enough , static grass for my needs plus loads I could make at a later date.

For the fencing separating the railway and the tram line, I used old sections of track with the rails removed. Once painted and with the addition of some period posters, I was very happy with the end result. The fence scales perfectly with the surroundings.

Having such an iconic film as my reference meant I had to try and show as many elements from the film as possible, some obvious and some more subtle.

Lean, for instance, insisted that the railway station they used for filming must have a ramp linking platforms via an underground passage, so that the two lead actors never got out of breath running up and down stairs.

If you've seen the film, you'll know that Celia Johnson's character travelled by train to return some books to Boots in Milford. In that period, Boots the Chemist was also a lending library. I was careful to recreate both of above on the layout.

A couple of other interesting facts: Celia Johnson actually had no front teeth after a childhood accident. And Trevor Howard was paid only a tenth of Celia's fee!

Of course the main thing in creating the layout was replicating the famous Carnforth station, located in Lancaster. The film itself is set in the fictional town of Milford, just outside Woking. In war-torn England, however, using lights at night to film around London and the South East was out of the question. By filming at Carnforth, Lean and his crew were able to film at night without drawing the attention of enemy bombers.

If you look closely at the layout you'll see I've paid homage to this with the bus station designation board showing its route from Milton to Carnforth. If this was a real bus journey it would be over 280 miles long!

The cinema is also a key feature of the layout. Hey ho - let's forget about simplicity and build a fully functioning cineman showing Brief Encounter as part of the actual layout! Oh and throw in a RAF airfield to show that it was filmed during the war.

Being solely built to exhibit, weight was and always will be a factor. The layout was designed as a continuous movement 3-track including tramway end to end concept so that at exhibitions there will be always be something moving on the layout to keep visitors entertained.

It was also designed to be split and transported in a Fiesta-size car and have a single operator. I made the decision to keep it DC, especially as DCC would need some major modifications to the tram.

The Brief Encounter track layout

The Brief Encounter - final layout

One aspect of the layout I think is particularly interesting is there is no track controller, and no human input is required in running it apart from the standard 'hand of God' little pushes, every exhibition layout has.

The entire system is run via three DC shuttle controllers from a single plug and I use SS2A from BLOCKsignalling with each one costing about £25. This upgraded module comes with automatic acceleration and an updated wiring system, taking away the need to solder electrical resistors to the tracks, as with their previous module. Four wires and one snip of the rails at each end and locos will run back and forth all day without any human input.

The two baseboards have electrical track power distributed via a simple £7 push-in three prong connector. Many of these can be bought for a lot less online, but a word of caution - some fiddly adapting will be needed to connect the wires. With the UK version from B&Q it's a quick two minute job.

Watch: The DC controller operation and layout wiring

Also for weight saving, apart from the use of polystyrene throughout the structure, I used laser cut buildings from In the Greenwood. Cardboard versions, such as the ones from Metcalfe, would have been slightly lighter but impossible to paint from their factory colour to monochrome. The station and the intergrated platform are from two kits, made for an exact snug fit. Again all laser cut.

The layout has a functioning coach car passenger carriage pulled by a Dapol Class N2, and a Lima Continental 0-4-0 pulling weathered coal wagons running on two separate tracks.

The long passenger train is where we can see the two main characters. Celia is inside the carriage looking out of the window while Trevor stands on the platform. The train was always intended to be a static model, otherwise another 12 ft of fiddle yard space would be needed.

The locomotive is a Class A4, again more likely to be seen on more Northern main lines going past stations such as Carnforth.

I had a static Coronation red A4 (a magazine freebie) which was a OO gauge model minus the motor or turning wheels - again very light. It was relatively easy to paint this using monochrome shades. The four carriages, bought as a job lot for £12 from a local railway show, were in a bit of a sorry state, but again perfect for the job after a repaint. One actually has a bogie missing, but that can't be seen.

A big talking point is the backdrop showing the RAF base, high street and open fields in its entire 11ft length.

There were two problems with this. The first was that the layout is multi-level needing exact scenes for each section. The second issue is that no one uses commercial monochrome back scenes.

Model Railway Signs, who I've used before, and who make the more unusual model railway street art (including the Japanese city neon and posters used on another layout I am building in N gauge), were just about to launch a series of back scenes using some of their existing shop fronts with added 1940's frontages. With the addition of exact template measurements supplied by me, they produced an amazing custom back scene which arrived fully laminated.

For every layout I build, I always opt for lamination for the back scenes which does limit the choice out there. Standard shop-bought paper ones can be harder to put up - getting rid of air pockets is a nightmare! Also, and as my layout won't live its entire life in a windowless garage or hobby room, but will often be in direct sunlight at large exhibition halls, there's a very high risk of fading. Laminating solves all that.

I also bought their 1930's and Welsh 009 signage sheets, which they sent me as monochrome versions for no extra charge.

Finally the cinema. The idea came after visiting the world's largest model railway in Hamburg last year. The use of a small DVD screen and some detailed art deco interior painting, plus a miniature velvet curtain, created the effect I needed.

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