Little Bytham Model Railway in 1938: the year Mallard broke the World Speed Record

This video was produced in 2018 and shows an almost complete Little Bytham. This well-known model railway layout by Tony Wright represents the East Coast Mainline of Stoke Bank in the summer of 1958. However, in this video we go back to 1938, the year when Mallard broke the world speed record.
This video was produced by the BRM (British Railway Modelling magazine) team. Find out more about this magazine at www.pocketmags.com/brm

[@michaelgamble296]

In 1940 my father took me to Kings Cross from Welwyn Garden City where we lived. We boarded the train and I was introduced to a gentleman, by my father, who was also travelling to Kings Cross. "Do you like my engine?" he asked me. I replied "It's very dirty!" to which he said "Well, it's war-time and we can't get the cleaners" The gentleman was, of course, Sir Nigel Gresley who was travelling from Doncaster. As a special memento of the occasion he sent me a 'works photo' of 'his engine' using two red 1d. postage stamps. He wrote on it: "With best wishes from Sir Nigel Gresley" The postmark was ENFIELD MIDDX 25 DEC 1940.

[@pressstart1490]

Wow that's unbelievable. How old are you?

[@captaincool3329]

What a fortunate meeting. Do you remember which engine or class it was?

[@nmarks]

Easily the best representation in miniature of what Britain's railways looked like just before WW2. The narration is perfect.

[@rodsmith3911]

What a glorious video! I knew Little Bytham well in the late 1950s until 1963 trainspotting on the 3 arch Bridge in school hols. So realistic that I could be there again whilst watching the video. Lovely piece of nostalgia, so full of memories!

[@paktoysreview8377]

Brilliant layout and a pleasure to see the different trains.

[@sku70]

Without doubt one of the best layouts ever. Superbly operated, with an evocative authenticity second to none. If this was filmed with an 8mm cine camera, anyone would think it was original footage. Magic!

[@williamaddison1637]

Tony, as someone who just caught the end of the steam age on the east coast mainline (Sunderland, Newcastle and County Durham were my spotting grounds) I cannot tell you how much pleasure all of the videos of Little Bytham have given me. Thanks so much. William Addison

[@rondobongodouglas1591]

Having seen Little Bytham in magazines and DVDs many times, I think that this era modelled makes it look its best I love the LNER era and it has been captured very well. A nice layout of your lifetime, just reward for all your years of model building and photography.

[@flippop101]

Thank goodness for KZbin, and that you “let this happen” so that we could witness it. A pleasure to watch. Thank you.

[@spankflaps1365]

Great to see pre-war LNER, very rare to see nowadays. According to Don Hale’s book, when Mallard went through L.B. Station circa 120mph, the sheer amount of noise broke the station windows, and the platform was covered in burning coals. So it was like a mobile volcano, with flames coming out the chimney. Pretty mad stunt to attempt! Probably wouldn’t get away with doing that now, health and safety…

[@raymacfadyen4846]

Aside from a couple of stray shots where the frame rate looked as though it had gone a bit awry, e.g the shots of "Mallard" on her record-breaking run, it has been a pleasure to watch this video Tony, and it has been marvellous to see the layout of Little Bytham grow from a concept in the pages of BRM to the exquisite reality here. Changing the time period was a superb idea and the stock displayed here was wonderful to see. Many thanks to the team for putting this together!

[@HeavensGremlin]

A great smooth-running diorama - and looking all the better for running pre-Nationalisation locos and stock. There is really nothing to celebrate about BR - and everything to be celebrated about the great railways that were destroyed to create the execrable BR. Well done.

[@billykegs8782]

I love this. I watch this before bed. The outside world is miles away. Can we have more?

[@MinerBill]

It's a lovely day, Sparrows chirp around the station. A Skylark can be heard across the field between passing expresses. It's like another day you've spent there, that is until it goes very quiet for a few moments... little do you realise that the signalman has had to clear a path for something special... It's the last train you see that day, you can't believe what you just witnessed, and run home to tell your Dad. To this day, you're the only one who witnessed the fastest steam train in the world.... Love it ❤

[@bangfi1865]

Wonderfull,a sight for sore eyes in this difficult time,my favourite era. Thank you. I liked the old truck on the low loader. Perfect.

[@BastiaanBlinksma]

I like those train compositions very much as on the other videos as well, very interesting and very smooth running

[@kenthepen4857]

Very impressive. Love the trackwork and signalling, absolutely first class.

[@mikecase2604]

Tony excellent as always like train spotting 60 odd years ago 😀

[@Madonsteamrailways]

Having seen Little Bytham many times at model railway exhibitions, I’m certainly pleased to see it again on You Tube.

[@tulyar1043]

Madonsteamrailways I think you mean Stoke Summit as Little Bytham is a home layout, it has never been outside of the building it is in.

[@Madonsteamrailways]

I never realised that this layout had such a complex fiddle yard on the other side!!

[@Tubemanjac]

Thanks very much you all for keeping memories alive of these great designs once railing through the UK. Greetings from the Netherlands.

[@paddycoleman1472]

Lovely layout and models Tony. Thank you for sharing this wonderful video with us.

[@CODHELPUS]

WoW...that is a very special layout, and the realism of the close shots is amazing...brilliant !

[@jalbhagwagar3353]

This layout enters my top 20! It is awesome. Love it. Thank you very much.

[@paultierney8867]

What a fantastic looking layout. Hats off to you all gents.

[@matthew_thefallen]

Aaaah, i wish i would play with a layout like that, it's beautiful! Thank you for sharing these videos, such an inspiration!

[@copley_hill_shed_56c]

Beleive me it’s an absolute joy to run engines on

[@infinitysearcher8858]

Beautiful, completely professional work. Thank you so much. Very informative.

[@mirutanable]

For some strange reason I have Thomas & friends music playing in my head as I watch this..... It just shows how alive this layout is and it just bought me back to when I was younger...

[@markarnold8160]

Not only do I enjoy reading articles and watching videos like this Tony, having briefly met you at the Pickering show some years back and discovered what your layout is, but I've a good mind to move to the Lincolnshire/ Rutland border and live there too!

[@Gus-jb8cm]

Great layout. I like the scenery and narrative fits perfectly with the diorama. Good job 👍.

[@kungfuwitcher7621]

Brilliant layout and a pleasure to see the different trains. Seven years of great work. Well done to you all 👍

[@peterhall4086]

Well done. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[@peters1127]

Thank you for an excellent video, love the size of your staging yard.

[@andrewblake2254]

Really superb layout and an excellently shot video. Best model railway video I have ever seen.

[@thairatcatcher]

Simply stunning. 100% realism.

[@michaelwootton2009]

My favourite layout on KZbin. Keep up the good work... Mick.

[@pim1234]

You have a great voice for things like this !

[@musoseven8218]

Stunning work Tony et al! How things have progressed, wonderful - I loved seeing Mallard, at full chat, with the Dynamometer Car and those wonderful coaches too 😊😊😊👍👍👍

[@azrailfan2717]

Excellent layout 🤠 Especially the working semaphore signals. And also wonderful variety of rolling stock and locomotives are excellent

[@morphman32]

What a super layout, you must be very proud of all the dedicated work you have put in to creating it. We'll done. I hope you make a 'trains eye view' of your layout so that we can get the full expirience of the scenery? So, what's next? Whatever it is, I know that it'll be good 👋.

[@Lennon6412]

Very nice! Love the liveries of this era

[@MrMontrose1967]

Simply a fantastic beautiful layout well done

[@richardthurston92]

LOVELY VIDEO WELL DONE

[@defel1]

Delightful video.

[@michaelgamble296]

Little Bytham, for-sooth! I take it the iron girder bridge is Bridge 43 taking the M.R. over the ECML on its way to Saxby from Bourne? 1938 has other important features for that is the year the LNER made a Survey of the entire M&GN system (which ends, oddly enough, at Little Bytham end-on Junc. with the LMSR). What an excellent, highly detailed layout! Most impressive - as are the slow starts of the Locos.

[@fastteddyb]

Love that - v realistic. Looks just like illustrations in Rev Awdry Railway Stories I remember

[@dansterland1824]

just some thing about a gresley a4 at speed its just magical great video guys

[@Imagineering100]

Lovely grate track work keep it up.

[@thomasm1964]

Excellent example of “railway in landscape”. Hide the ceiling and I could almost believe it is real!

[@johnlunnun9769]

Very enjoyable!

[@ewoodrailway]

Stunning layout

[@adamc1272]

Well I enjoyed that immensely.

[@newcastlerabbit]

Fantastic running session

[@Madonsteamrailways]

Like the sort of trains I watched when I was three!! The best locomotive was the N2 tank locomotive. I saw the last of these on my third birthday in 1960!!

[@Skullandrumit]

Top notch !

[@ianoneillpsychotherapy162]

A true work of art

[@davidcattell7311]

Excellent, Tony & friends. We really enjoyed the video. A stunning layout and a fantastic and very varied selection of locomotives and rolling stock. Just a quick question... As modeller's of a layout of the preserved Severn Valley Railway, we were particularly interested in the LNER K4 mogul seen early in the video. Was this scratchbuilt or a kit?

[@davidsheriff8989]

Like the low level shots....take me back to the 50s on North Wales trips by train

[@Hornhausen]

Very nice model railroad.

[@greatunwashed1856]

Lockdown, bring it on, excellent modelling.

[@jonathanjones35]

Such a beautiful layout. I always look forward to the videos. What are the dimensions of your building for the layout? Thanks for sharing!

[@rockerfromthebackstreets]

excellent

[@andrewmartell6155]

Hello Tony. What a inspiration your Little Bytham layout is. Thoroughly enjoying the content. Keep it up. One quick question. At 19.30 you make reference to the "Fog man's hut" being laid down during summer months. I'm new to steam modelling and not heard if these hut's. What were they used for (obviously during foggy weather) ??

[@medwaymodelrailway7129]

Great video."thumbs up from me".Hope there more

[@michaelgamble296]

At 9:08 the track work over Bridge 43 should be double track - but only one was a running line. I have a 'Scale, 2 Chains to an Inch' Sheet 19' shewing this particular length, from 12 3/4miles to 13 1/4miles (with '0'miles at Saxby). It was single track all the way from Saxby to the Little Bytham Junc. S.B. on M&GN. The 2nd. track (on the South side) ended at a buffer stops approx. 3Chains on the Castle Bytham side of Bridge 43. At Little Bytham S.B. the M&GN was double track until singling after Twenty Station. I have a photo (dated 1891) of the iron overbridge having been made on-site then winched into position over the GNR. It looks very similar to your bridge, but has seven sections + two end sections.

[@timspiers6225]

Tony have you finished your City of London for the Doncaster Special? Would love to see it thundering through Little Bytham.

[@luciano54ful]

Meraviglioso !!!!!

[@johnjephcote7636]

Is this EM or 16.5mm gauge - because you have proprietary track in the fiddle yard? (love the GNR somerault signals!)

[@briansewell7263]

Did Mr King have a licence for those legs!!! I do hope I get to see LB in person one day, looks amazing, got to be one of the best eastern layouts (with Grantham TSLY)

[@hughsmodelrailway2055]

Superb in every way. Bravo 👏👏👏👍👋

[@FrankensteinsMonster-1313]

It's like watching National Geographic instead of elephants and rhinos it's beautiful trains. 😂Great stuff, love from North Carolina 🇺🇸

[@martinpattison4018]

I was going to ask you about the hut laying on it's side, now I have no need. That was a very nice collection of LNER Engines and Rolling stock. I did not recognise the make of the Teak Coaches or are they Kit builds. I think they look very good. Thank you. Martin. (Thailand)

[@jwealleans]

The carriages came from four of the Grantham team and have various sources. Most of mine are brass or Kirk kits, as are those by Graham Nicholas and Graeme King. GK also specialises in cutting and shutting the old Margate Hornby Gresleys into more authentic looking vehicles, some to genuine diagrams and some to plausible ones. Roy Mears, who built the streamline sets, uses Kirk sides and also has his own sides laser cut by York Modelmaking. Roy's carriages are the ones with clean white roofs.

[@djburland]

An excellent scale model, just a shame it was shot in silent mode!

[@michaelmiller641]

Wow!

[@pim1234]

A beautiful lay out, but it is done and what are you gonna do with it now ?

[@novakingood3788]

I don't know if it's my set up or a KZbin issue, but there's a jerkiness as the trains pass that is obviously not actually happening on the layout and it's not restricted to just this video - seems to happen everywhere. Any techies out there willing and able to offer a layman's explanation if possible? It does detract somewhat from the enjoyment.

[@williamweller7428]

William,weller

[@JamesPetts]

I approve of pre-nationalisation.

[@oliking9819]

Im striping my old board later

[@patwilson6392]

U

[@peterkinsey6407]

MALLARD BBOKE THE WORLD SPEED RECORD GOING DOWNHILL.!!!. WOW😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@highdownmartin]

Hardly likely to be able to go faster uphill. Defying gravity old chap

[@peterkinsey6407]

If want to break speed records it done on the level , the Germans tried rail speed record achieved 125 MPH on a level track. NOT 126 ,MPH GOING DOWNHILL. OLD CHAP .😆😆😆😆😆😆

[@highdownmartin]

@@peterkinsey6407I didn’t know there was a rule book for record breaking attempts on rail. Land speed is mean of two runs , one each way. Same with trains? Bullieds on service trains have done 115/120 in Kent. You forgot to laugh at mallards melting middle engine. It’s for publicity against the LMS so they got the record never mind the exact setup. Who cared?

[@peterkinsey6407]

SORRY, BUT I LOVE RAILWAY'S, AND I WANT THE RECORD SET STRAIGHT, WHO CARES I DO.

[@edenreyes4747]

Just wait until PRR T1 5550 break the record of Mallard