A desire to create a layout that was different and a passion for steam photography in China led PAUL STAPLETON to create Beijiao – a wonderful recreation of the final years of main line steam in China when ‘QJ’ 2-10-2s were still a daily sight. Photography, Trevor Jones.
The question I get asked the most is why I built a Chinese ‘HO’ gauge exhibition layout. Well, firstly, I have no interest in having a home layout. All of the layouts I have built over the years have been for exhibition use only. Which then leads on to: “Why Chinese?”
Since my mid-20s I have always wanted to build ‘different’ layouts, because I got the Great Western Railway branch line bug out of my system when I was a teenager. I always knew I was never going to be a great modeller and I soon realised that if I built standard British layouts, there would always be dozens of better versions out there for exhibition managers to choose from and if I wanted exhibition invitations, I needed to model unusual subjects.
Above: A pair of ‘QJ’ 2-10-2s fill the air with smoke as they draw away with an oil train on the China Rail main line and pass a trio of SY 2-8-2s on the colliery railway.
My first venture into the unknown was in the early 1980s when I built an America…
