esngblog

One feature of the ‘Shed’ era that I forgot was an interest in narrow gauge railways.  A few Model Railway News articles were supplemented by a copy of Don Boreham’s seminal ‘Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling’ and a history of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.  Also at that time, Eggerbahn, Minitrains and Peco Crazy Track appears.  I produced a number of models with varying success – including L&B coaches and goods stock in Plastikard – and models of a Glyn Valley tram engine and L&B ‘Lyn’ on early ‘N’ chassis.  And predating these, an ‘O’ gauge Glynn Valley coach in card with thread beading as described by Don Boreham.  This model fitted perfectly on a Hornby Dublo 10′ van chassis removed from its donor vehicle.  Unfortunately, none of these vehicles exist today.

So, off to university in Cambridge, that logically generated a new interest in the Great Eastern Railway, and less logically in EM gauge.  And an uncertainty whether I was interested in 1900, 1950 or 1990 as a period to model.  I still have my rather nice detailed Will’s Finecast kit of a J69 0-6-0 tank, in GER blue as the Liverpool Street pilot.  I haven’t got my scratch built GER 2-2-2 express locomotive.  Not finished (sounds familiar) but it looked the part.  I build one or two ‘O’ gauge GER wagons in plastic, that are still tucked away somewhere.

1976.  After university came work and flats in Kennington and Clapham.  Not much time or space for a railway, but I started to build an EM version of the classic ‘Minories’ layout.  It didn’t get far, though I found an unbuilt EM point kit recently.  Marriage in 1979 and children followed.  I had plans for a small EM shunting layout, based on John Allison’s Selbury Works Sidings, there wasn’t really room in our flat for it.

We spent 1984-5 in Hong Kong, and the modelling muse picked up again, as I took enough modelling materials and etched kits to build a number of ‘O’ gauge pre-group wagons.  Then in 1986 we moved to a house in Redhill, with a lined loft space and room for a 12′ ‘O’ gauge layout, a work bench, and a chance to build a few models and even finish some of them.

All this came to an end in 1993, when it was all put away to move house again (from one end of the road to the other, to gain more space).  The loft was lost to a conversion to a bedroom for my eldest daughter.  But a foot was kept in the door by keeping the landing outside as a workshop area.

And then in 1997, the ESNG approach Earlswood Baptist Church with a request to hire the hall for their meetings.  The church leadership made the fateful suggestion – ‘Jon, you like trains, can you liaise with them?’  I did and that has started 18 years of ‘N’ gauge modelling, and three layouts that were really pretty well finished!  And an interest in the USA railways, specifically Lehigh Valley and interurbans, especially Pacific Electric.

As you can see from the last three posts, I am not one of those people who spend a lifetime building one line or one company.  Too much of a magpie mind I guess.  But as I review my modelling activities and the drawers of models at home, I am trying to ask myself, ‘What do I really enjoy about model railways?’  Writing this series of posts has been one way to think through that question.  I’ll think some more, perhaps as I go on holiday, and write a final post with some thoughts in that direction.

In the mid-sixties, I was in need of the larger back bedroom in our 1930’s 3-bedroom semi, so my father invested in a SHED.  This 9′ x 8′ empire was carefully built by my father, saturated with wood preservative, insulated and lined.  The roofing felt had an added corrugated plastic layer.  This careful construction meant that the shed was still in good condition when my parents moved house over 15 years later.  Power was strung from the kitchen and garage, so one could flick a switch and pre-warm the shed with an electric convector.

Three generations of layout lived in the shed.  The first was another continuous layout, really just another ‘big station opposite small station’ design, much as we had indoors.  The next introduced a junction and a terminus in front of storage loops.  The third was the most satisfying and had most progress.  The continuous run was abandoned in favour of a simple U-shaped terminus to fiddle yard layout.  The terminus was modelled after a number of smallish Southern Railway stations.  Most track was hand-built, with some PCB sleepered Marcway points.  Ballast was in place and some basic scenery as well.  It was never finished, but it was the first ‘real’ railway I had helped build.

Through my teens and university years, my father and I were members of the Beckenham and West Wickham club.  In fact my father remained a member well into his retirement and contributed a number of models to their fine-scale ‘O’ gauge layout at that time.  I’ve posted the picture below before, but it is well worth posting again.  A typical early 70’s exhibition, with the club’s semi-coarse standard ‘O’ gauge line on display.  My father is in the middle back, and my signal box, hiding the working lever frame is middle front.  Lots of lovely Southern ‘O’ gauge (plus a couple of re-motored ‘Big-Big Train’ Hymeks).  A model railway show, so ties had to be worn (except my dad) and smoking was allowed not only in the hall, but also during operations!

The BWWMRC gave me my first introduction to 2mm modelling.  In a room next to the large club library lurked what my father called, ‘The Mechanical Mice’.  2mm fine-scale modelling progressed at a slow pace.  If my memory is correct, we either had a piece of the famed Inversnecky and Drambuie Railway, or a close copy of it.  I recall the station terminus that fitted in a violin case, and the lighthouse scene next to it.  Most of this pioneering model railway can now be seen in York Railway Museum.

For those familiar with the names Willis and Cox in the context of the 2mm Association, I remember these worthy gentlemen working on the layout, together with a small American gentleman, probably called Len Fidkin, who built amazing trestles and buildings.

Then in 1973, it was off to university, and a whole set of new ideas (to say nothing of beer) opened up.  That will be for next time!

A while back, I posted some photos of some of my old kit and scratch built models.  Those posts didn’t include the path that I took to get from there to here.  I was thinking about this in the context of where to go next in the hobby, so it’s good to put it all down.

Like many of my generation, my interest in models started on the floor with Hornby clockwork ‘O’ gauge.  I remember a green 0-4-0 passenger engine and tender and two 4-wheeled carmine and cream BR coaches and a circle of track got me going.  My father understood real railways so a black 0-4-0 tank engine, and some goods stock followed, with some points and extra track.

I quickly developed an early appreciated the benefits of the ‘shelf layout’.  If I laid out a circular layout, I had to put it away at tea time.  If I built a straight shunting layout down one wall, it could stay there for weeks.  No brainer!  Shunting with Hornby clockwork was less than ideal, but I had hours of fun with these models.

Age 1o my father and I started out in OO.  A little 6′ x 4′ layout in the spare bedroom, using 2-rail Hornby Dublo stock but the newly released Peco Streamline track and points.  My first locomotive was O8 diesel shunter.  Still an excellent model, 50 years later.  My father didn’t really understand why I chose this model.  Perhaps it was the influence of Thomas the Tank Engine, and ‘Diesel’ in those stories.  The O8 was followed by a BR standard 2-6-4T (another lovely model that still looks good today).

Next came a larger 7′ x 5′ layout, that was not as satisfying as the smaller oval.  We considered moving the layout into the third bedroom / boxroom – it would have been about 6′ x 6′ – perfect now in ‘N’ but I think my mother may have put her foot down.  The 7′ x 5′ layout was replaced by an L-shaped terminus to fiddle yard layout, although only one leg of the L got built.  I was still able to have a lot of fun, using the three engine shed roads as my fiddle yard.

I added one more Hornby ‘locomotive’ to the roster – the 2-EPB electric unit.  No doubt I made this choice as I saw 2- and 4-EPB’s every day on the local commuter lines.  The trailer car proved very useful, in later days, as a push-pull driving carriage with a small steam locomotive.  This is one model I wish I still had – I recently saw one on Ebay selling for £800.  However, this was a collectors item – my Hornby models were well used, slightly battered, and in the case of some goods wagons, repainted in pre-nationalisation liveries.

A feature of these years was visits to ‘Hobbytime’ in West Wickham.  This was the classic Aladdin’s cave of a model shop, and the further you got back into it the more interesting the kits and bits and pieces got.  My father referred to the owner as ‘dog-face’ (I can, I think, reveal this as all parties are safely deceased) – unfair, but I suspect he’s passed his sense of humour to his son.  However, said gentlemen was a source of generally good advice, and through him we discovered Romford wheels, copper clad live-frog points, Wills kits and other essentials of the hobby at that time.

I’m sorry there are no photographs of these early efforts.  In the 1960’s there were no digital cameras, and money was short enough to think before using and developing film.  But that’s enough for today – next time, we’ll recall the ‘shed’ era…..