My favourite layout.....I have both of Peter's books and they are inspirational.......great to see it in such good hands,it should be considered the model equivalent of a painting by Turner...it is a work of art....it has a totally unique style and atmosphere missing in so many current day layouts....

Great to see a railway with such attention to detail and one that operates. It always puzzles me that so many modellers are *only* interested in watching a train move at speed. Trains are hand shunted together and 'Got Going'. This means no attention at all to modelling the real world and how real trains are made up and 'Got Going'. I model in O gauge and I don't have a layout myself yet but even on test tracks I don't hand shunt or make my loco move in an unrealistic manner. The whole point of a test track is to test your models and *your* ability to model the real thing. In fact I believe a true model should not even be capable of unrealistic movement. I believe that *realistic* accelerations and decelerations, including a *realistic* emergency stop, should be *ALL* that is available to the modeller. If they are heading for a crash then a crash they will have (therefore much more attention will be given to preventing them). That I believe is the true way to run a model railway, so I'm wondering, when you operate against the clock, when you have locomotives that *do* have the ability to start and stop at rates far quicker than the real thing, do you actually cheat, and forget about the realism of movement in order to keep to the timetable? Don't worry, I won't tell 😀

A fabulous layout and the level of scratch building is - well, daunting! But necessity truly is the Mother of Invention and this wonderful man is an inspiration. He has certainly reinforced my tendency to avoid buying things in blister packs & bottles. This looks more like a film set than a model. Even the clothes look brilliant, and that attitude of say using a LDER station because it looked right is brilliant

Amazing.

Any updates on the "Automatic Crispin" ? I have a couple of paragraphs on it in a book featuring the layout. It describes the main electrical, bell and operating sequences. I can let you have this in 'Word' form if it would help......

Wonderful. Great to see this seminal railway has survived. Thank you!

At Royal Air Force North Luffenham 1960 ish a group of us decided to create the line from Oakham to Stamford. We visited Grandborough Junction and had an enjoyable evening watching the layout being operated. The hole in the wall was quite remarkable. We came away with lots of ideas for our own layout, BUT some sneaky thief decided to break into the building where we had our rolling stock and locomotives and stole it all, We were so demoralised that we gave it up. The spirit still lives on though.

Amazing Tony❤Elizabeth@Tauraco00

Hi Tony g I was wondering if you could help rev peter denny was my grandfather I am Stevens denny son Matthew I was wondering if I could get any contact info for Crispen any help would be great and love to see the railway is being put to good use

that is so impressive I genuinely thought that was real at first

Could you publish the code

It is Englands finest Modellrailway, I love it.

Fantastic achievement ! Well done to yourselves and colleagues on the re-creation. I heard that a lot of the wiring was buried behind scenic sections etc. dismantling alone must have been a very tricky job.....Rev. PD explains in a book of mine about how he wanted a hobby with industrial archeology, artistic scope and craft skills involved - well he certainly found that "in-spades !" A great inspiration to other modellers that there is often a simple way to do everything.....

An insperation to us all. As a kid, this layout just blew me away with the detail and the fact it was all scratch built. My view 60 years later is still the same. Thank you for sharing this masterpiece with us.

I remember seeing this wonderful layout featured in a Railway Modeller or Model Railway Constructor many years ago. To me, it is quite wonderful to see that Rev Denny’s vision lives on. And to see that it is in good hands. This has made my day to see this again!

We have much bigger layouts here in the USA but nothing to compare with the beauty and sophistication of this. AND he made everything himself.

It was a delight to stay for B&B in the vicarage with the Denny’s. The highlight was an evening spent operating the layout and having Peter tell me all about it. I was rostered to shunting the yard at Grandborough Junction. His like has never occurred again. A unique layout built by sheer genius.

How absolutely bloody marvellous. Very pleased to have seen it.

What a remarkable layout, thank you for sharing.

This was surprisingly interesting

Thank you for posting as brought back a flood of memories of better days gone by 👍

Fascinating that he built so much himself. Can't really see the fun in simply buying all the bits that most train-hobbyists use. That's just playing with tiny toys. What the Rev. Denny did is a hobby.

I had the privilege of visiting Tony and operating Buckingham for a few hours in mid June whilst on a visit to the UK. Just amazing!

Glad to find this

Wonderful, I remember this layout from Railway Modeller about 1970 when I was 8, such an inspirational layout. How wonderful it survives.

What a wonderful testimony to creative modelling. A great commentary too. Does the author have any future videos planned on the layouts details?

Good morning, what Hornby type7 X... or L... number worm is compatible with the 40 tooth brass or nylon gear? I can't see or find that anywhere. Even Hornby technical Service don't know.

Looks great, very innovative. Are yo able to share your Arduino code and wiring layout for this project please

Hi John yep your correct its a type 7 motor on an adapter plate that fits where an x04/x03 motor goes. My description could have been better.

This looks good. Do you have any of those type 7 conversions available

Very interesting. Would love to see this in more detail

Buckingham Great Central was featured in the Railway Modeller in 1970. So glad it still survives.

that is not a xo3/xo4 motor

Hi Tony. Hope that you got the "Automatic Crispin" back in operation.

It's the Banbury to Verney junction line at Buckingham surely?

So great to see that Buckingham has been saved in an appreciative home. Well done! and thank you to all concerned. A fascinating commentary explains why Buckingham was to far ahead of so many other layouts of the time. My friend's dad took Railway Modeller each month and we looked forward to reading all about the latest developments on the line. Thanks for the insights and for sharing this great video!

I watched this layout grow from his articles in the Railway Modeller through the early 1960s.He did like his scribed Merco smokey brick paper,it`s really missed today.

I am an Italian railway railwaymen and railway model maker and I am 60 years old. I use the HO scale, but have read several books written by British model railway masters including Buckingham Great Central (1972 edition). I believe that even today, in the age of the computer, of digital modeling (I work in analogue with vintage models, 50s-80s of the last century) of layouts such as Buckingham, Edward Beal's West Midland and John Ahern's Madder Valley, can be an example and an inspiration for young model makers. Thank you for being an example, Reverend Peter, and I hope that one day in Heaven I will be able to give you my hand! Excuse me if have a maked mistake, my English is DIY!

I first saw Buckingham around 1964 an article in railway modeller so impressed then and nothing like it finished up its kept me inspired all these years and I'm so grateful that it's been saved by someone who cares about it, thank you

It looks amasing

Thanks for this. I remember many articles about Buckingham in Railway Modeller in the 70’s and 80’s. Finally seeing it in this video really brings it to life after seeing (the mainly) black and white photos of those articles. A real revelation.

Congratulations on the quality preservation. Outstanding, a truly beautiful layout. Thank you.

Could you show some more detail on this, looks very good

This was my favorite layout as a child in the mid1980s , and still is. I became aware of this layout from "The Encyclopedia of Model Railways" , which I still have. I always tried to emulate Buckingham's buildings when I scratchbuilt models for my layout. I would read and re-read the segment on Buckingham in the Encyclopedia and just lust at the pictures.

Great to see them out of the cupboard! Lovely layout, happy to have found it. Love that 37!! Beautiful. Would definitely like to see more of this, consider me subbed! Thanks for sharing. Cheers.

Brilliant! A real piece of railway modelling history- so worth preserving

A work of art indeed !

Thank you - such a beautiful layout. However is it kept clean? - I can see not a speck of dust?

Great video, story and of course, layout

A wonderful layout, well ahead of its time. Glad to see it has a good new home 😊😊 The Rev's work, his speed of loco building? Remarkable! I wish I could build a loco that quickly from a kit, let alone from scratch!