One of the things I enjoy most about Bydemill – my 7mm scale interpretation of an Edwardian era, Great Western Railway branch line terminal – is how it forced me to explore ideas, techniques, and resources that were new to me.
As I’ve noted on this site, many of those have now found application in the parts of my hobby with which I have more experience. For example, building the many photo-etched kits for GWR wagons that fill out my goods trains helped me hone the skills required to build the freight motors that form the core of my S scale version of the Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway.
Bydemill has also given me a much-needed change of focus when I experience setbacks on projects for other interests. Bydemill is closer to “finished” than any other layout I’ve built, and it’s a consistently reliable runner – so when my enthusiasm for the hobby wanes, I can always rely upon my British layout to remind me why I have enjoyed railway modelling for more than five decades.
Knowing that other hobbyists may also benefit from moving out of their comfort zone, I used these thoughts as the basis for a brief feature in the October, 2026 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine. RMC focusses on North American subjects and readers who are not open-minded will probably be annoyed to see a British layout grace its pages – but I also know those people account for just a minority of RMC’s readership.
I hope the article will inspire the rest of consider exploring a scale, gauge, prototype, era, or theme that’s outside their comfort zone – whether via one or two mantlepiece models or, as I have, through a secondary layout.
I kept the article short, but submitted many more photos than space allowed, to provide editor Otto Vondrak with some choice as the laid out the feature. Here are the images that did not make the cut. Thank you, Otto, for continuing to share my work with your readers.
