Journey's End 
Nick Wheatley OO9 gauge 4mm scale
‘JOURNEY’S END’ features a narrow gauge railway serving a cemetery. It is entirely fictional, set “somewhere in England”, though inspired by the London Necropolis Railway that ran from Waterloo to Brookwood, Surrey, from 1854 until 1941. The narrow gauge dimension was inspired by the Golden Valley Light Railway in Derbyshire, which runs from the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley towards a natural burial ground. The setting is almost timeless, but can be dated by use of different vehicles anytime from the present back to the 1950s.
A particular, and probably unique, feature of the layout is its ghost train, comprising several ghost figures (made by Aidan Campbell) hauled by a diesel loco with a ghost headboard. There are also several Ffestiniog Railway hearse vans, in different liveries, and a model of the LSWR hearse van, as used on the London Necropolis Railway, is under construction for use on the layout. Other rolling stock, including steam and diesel locos, is mainly by Roco or Liliput, with some kit or scratch-built items, including a double ended railbus.
The basic structure – baseboard, track laying, wiring and controls – was professionally constructed in 2011 by Model Masters of Weston-Super-Mare. It has two tracks, independently operated, one a continuous loop, and several working features by Viessmann, including level crossing lights, a gravedigger (if he’s not too tired) and a man with a scythe (the Grim Reaper). A cemetery lodge and chapel are the main buildings on the layout, with several scratch-built mausoleum structures and platform waiting building also present.
The gravestones and monuments are from a variety of sources, including Hornby, Harburn Hamlet, Dornaplas, Langley, Woodland Scenics, Busch, etc and the angel statues and other figures are mainly by Preiser and Noch. The mausoleums are mostly scratch-built, though two are adapted Hornby Skaledale structures. The vehicles are also from a variety of sources, the hearses and limousines being from Oxford Diecast, and there are some horse drawn hearses and carriages by Preiser.
