Layouts or articles in magazines that have inspired you.

[Kris]

Netherstowy sticks in my mind, as do a couple of others who's names slip by but the images are still clear.  

[Hippo]

Pilot Road by Mason, and Grove Street Yard by Jenny Emily.

Both featured in model rail years ago, and yet after all this time I still go back and re-read the articles.

 

Owen

['CHARD]

I invariably chuck dead tree media away, but there were some layouts in Railway Modeller that really define my formative years - I wonder if anyone remembers them:

 

• One was Swanage - there was a Hornby Hymek and a Bullied Pacific on there, and it featured twice, the second time being closure of the line and tracklifting!

• The second was based on the electrified WCML and featured hordes of 81s and 85s, this was before many diesels were available RTR either, and the 47s, 40s, 24s and 25s were presumably MTK in origin.

• The third was based in South Wales and there was a kit-built Falcon in blue, unglazed, which despite its comparative crudeness, really fired me up.

[davefrk]

For me it was in the 80s and 'Highdyke' by the Retford mob. It also turned me onto EM as a better standard than what was around at the time. I never actually saw the railway but I still have the magazine article.

A year or two later I was at an EMGS dinner and the chairman Bob Blood asked what had inspired me to go EM, he laughed when I said Highdyke and pointed to the three guys facing us at  the table - Roy Jackson, Geoff Kent and John Philips - the builders of Highdyke, yes I know you couldn't have made it up and we've been friends ever since.

 

Dave Franks.

[Rugd1022]

Layouts:

 

North Shields by Chris Pendleton, Tregarrick / Orford / Butley Mills etc by Iain Rice, Lochside by Ian Futers, Borchester Market by Frank Dyer - with a whole issue of Model Railways dedicated to it. Allied Marine, by Allan Sibley and Brian Dornam, at that time Industrial modelling was very rarely covered.

 

Other articles: Monty Wells' series on detailing diesels in Railway Modeller in the 80s. Number 1 Shop, in the early days of MRJ. "Wagon Page" featuring Ken Werrett's drawings in the Modeller.

 

I can remember vividly buying that issue of Model Railways with full coverage of Borchester Market in 1980, reading it as I walked home from the newsagent and stepping off the pavement into the path of a Transit van which nearly wiped me out! 

 

Chiltern Green was mentioned a few posts ago... the April '80 RM cover springs immediately to mind, this was a layout which I found truly inspiring and still do more than three decades later. Every time I work trains through the real location my mind goes back to that copy of RM and the beautifully executed model.

[kevinlms]

 

I invariably chuck dead tree media away, but there were some layouts in Railway Modeller that really define my formative years - I wonder if anyone remembers them:

 

• One was Swanage - there was a Hornby Hymek and a Bullied Pacific on there, and it featured twice, the second time being closure of the line and tracklifting!

• The second was based on the electrified WCML and featured hordes of 81s and 85s, this was before many diesels were available RTR either, and the 47s, 40s, 24s and 25s were presumably MTK in origin.

• The third was based in South Wales and there was a kit-built Falcon in blue, unglazed, which despite its comparative crudeness, really fired me up.

 

Was that Birmingham New St, with the station being in a shed & large circuits outside? There was a model of power station cooling towers, scaled to 1/100, thus making the towers 'only' 6ft tall instead of to 4mm.

[Tim V]

Torpoint, John Harrison, July 1966 Toddler.

 

Not only an inspiring layout, but the concept of the article, not much script but long photo captions, inspired my writing of articles in the press.

[sdw7300]

My return to model railways can be blamed squarely on Oulton Road TMD. I took my son to the local model railway show and was really surprised that model railways weren't just steam era roundy roundys. The level of detailing on Oulton Road blew me away. Once home I Googled the layout and then stumbled upon RMWeb.... 

[Engineer_London]

My inspirations didn't come from layouts or articles about them, although I remember very well the RM 'Denny Special' of June 1961 and early Borchester articles around the same time.

 

My magazine inspirations opened my eyes to tramways, model and prototype.  Specifically:

 

London United 1906 Type T Palace cars, MRN May 1962, article by R. E. Tustin

The Glenview Tramway, MRN, around 1960, article by R. Elliott

The series of articles on tramways and road transport generally in MRC in the late 1960s

 

A magazine article was also responsible for reinforcing an interest I've had from my youngest days - the Metropolitan:

 

The Met in 1/2" scale, MRC, early 1960s, article by J. C. Y. Baker

This featured an outstanding model of Metropolitan single motor coach 46, an unique three-dimensional impression of what the prototype must have been like to see, and ride in.

 

 

 

[definate maybe]

I think for me the two I always go back to are Reighton and Kyle of Tongue by Steve Flint. Whenever Im planning my layout and keep thinking I can add more and more I always go back and read the RM articles about these two for a bit of rational thinking and to understand that something simple done well can work just as easily and still look stunning.

 

Another one for me is Georgemas Junction by George Woodcock. It has an amazing ability of looking realistic whilst running unrealistic length trains. I think it takes a special kind of layout to pull off running 4 wagons instead of 20 and still being believable. It must be down to the quality of modelling that brings everything together. Its something I also found with Warren Lane at Ally Pally.

 

Honourable mentions to Nether Stowey, Hursley, Tonbridge West Yard and the many Ian Futers models I have seen in the mags over the years. They are all very varied in style but have a certain hold over me.

[griffgriff]

Inkerman Street and all its associated articles in the MRJ. Everything was inspirational and I don't even model in the senior scale.

 

Griff

[Horsetan]

Anything produced and written by the late Guy Williams. He made engine building look easy, accessible and state-of-the-art, with very little of the teasing that finescale magazines are prone to nowadays.

 

Next year, he'll have been dead for ten years. Where did the time go?

[Paragon]

Neptune Yard (inglenook) OO in MR I think...

Still got a well thumbed copy upstairs ; something that I keep looking back at as an inspiration in a small space!

[Robatron86]

Gas Lane (?), April 1997 Railway Modeller. That's what got me started at the tender age of 11. That and Copenhagen Fields in the Grafar catalogue the same year. I even had a Grafar Magnum layout! Bought second hand for around £100 (christmas and birthday combined).

 

Other layout include:

 

Lynton 16mm scale as featured on the Peco shows you how tape volume 3.

An N gauge LNER/LMS in the garage. Circa 1998 RM.

George Street Stabling Point.

Cramdin Yard.

Brooklyn 3am

59th and Rust

 

And many more in between.

Edited July 6, 2016 by Robatron86

[bazjones1711]

Lochside by Ian futers was something of a revelation to me when published in railway modeller many years ago, detailed and weathered locos a real inspirational layout , also Len vass with his articles on scratchbuilt wagons with 4mm drawings, something that the modelling press don't do today , built many a wagon from his articles , magazines today need more of the scratchbuilding articles like there were years ago !

[Kelly]

A couple of years ago there was a layout idea in an issue of Model Rail that inspired a plan for Lillie Bridge LT depot (steam shed) based at the end of steam. Its slowly been bubbling away, acquiring items etc, but not managed to finalise the track plan yet or think about boards, initially it was envisioned as a diorama (with ability to be expanded and operated).

 

Another set of articles in Rail Express Modeller and another in a Model Rail I think it was inspired an interest in DRS/BNFL flask transport and a plan was formulated roughly for a small flask terminal, again it'll happen eventually and probably be like the Lillie Bridge project, initally a diorama.

[MickRalph]

One of the first Toddlers I read contained an article by John Charman on Charford and that inspired an enduring love of the ex-LSWR lines.  However, I shifted my interest back from the Southern to the LSWR period. 

 

A later article on timetables for Charford, together with articles on the layout and stock working on Portreath, gave me an interest in proper operation of lay outs, such that after retirement I have qualified as a signalman at the Bluebell Railway.  Looking at an index of Toddler articles, I must have been only 8 at the time of the original article, as it appeared in April 1955(!), so perhaps it was the later on in December 1959 (I am in holiday and don't have access to my store of old RMs).  John Charman wrote many other inspiring articles on building Charford (originally built in a caravan!) as listed in this RMWeb post.

 

Mick t

[Griffin Road]

Mine can be narrowed right down to one layout - New Bryford - by that driving instructor with the yellow paint under his finger nails .

 

It showed what could be built in a relatively manageable space at home . The big club layouts ,mentioned previously, were very impressive but not realistic to build at home .

 

Cheers Mick .

 

Rgs

 

Mike b

[60021 Pen-y-Ghent]

For me the layout I always go back to is Steve Flint's Kyle of Tongue. As for modelling there was an article in RM in the early 80s by a guy from Swindon (sorry, can't recall your name if you're reading this) about converting a Lima 33 to a 26. Both bring back memories of when I occasionally worked in Glasgow and spent some time in the evenings in Queen Street station listening to the sound of all those Sulzers idling away and dreaming of far off places!

[Legend]

Hanbury and Oaktown circa 1982 Railway Modeller. A nice layout using proprietary models , buildings where operation was described in detail. Loved the layout, tried to copy it in various of my own layouts and although in my current one the track plan is completely different it still has it's inspiration from that article. Trains leave one terminus, do several rounds of oval and then appear at second terminus per timetable. Also liked Perth from an early Model Rail. Actually there are similarities, in that article also dealt with operations

[Guest eddie reffin]

A number of layouts have inspired me.

 

Bolden jct,

Blair Atholl

New Bryford

And more recently, Horseley Fields

 

Magazines leave me a bit cold nowadays but the odd article does appear from time to time that appeals

[kevinlms]

For me the layout I always go back to is Steve Flint's Kyle of Tongue. As for modelling there was an article in RM in the early 80s by a guy from Swindon (sorry, can't recall your name if you're reading this) about converting a Lima 33 to a 26. Both bring back memories of when I occasionally worked in Glasgow and spent some time in the evenings in Queen Street station listening to the sound of all those Sulzers idling away and dreaming of far off places!

Don't know if Neil Rushby is/was from Swindon, but he wrote such an article in September 1993 RM.

[Huw Griffiths]

A couple of years ago there was a layout idea in an issue of Model Rail that inspired a plan for Lillie Bridge LT depot ...

 

I'm not sure that everyone would recognise that area of London now - and some developer's plans would give most people even less chance.

 

Just for information, a lot of people who don't know the area would probably be familiar with 2 large buildings which used to stand in the area - inside the triangle junction - and over the Underground line (and probably some of the depot).

 

I am, of course, talking about the Earls Court exhibition centre complex - the demolition of which was the subject of a lot of protest - not that any of this made any difference, of course.

 

 

Magazines leave me a bit cold nowadays but the odd article does appear from time to time that appeals

 

A number of magazines have a similar effect on me, these days - far too many reviews of pretty, expensive, RTR models (which often seem to be little more than "tarted up" versions of existing RTR, at prices a lot of us can't afford) - far too few elevation drawings - far too few "how to build an interesting model, using repurposed bits from cheap, readily available stuff" articles.

 

Well, I'm an engineer - and I worked many years in a university, helping to train the next generation of engineers and trying to encourage them to experiment and learn. I doubt if my viewpoint would come as a surprise to anyone who knows me.

 

 

I wonder if there might be some merit in a further thread - about the sort of stuff we'd like to see in future model railway magazines. I don't think it would be too difficult for most people to guess the sort of things I'd be saying in such a thread.

 

As for what sort of layout articles I'd like to see - some "switching" microlayouts could be interesting, especially if they include tricks to maximise the amount of action that could be packed into a small space - especially if the articles include layout plans and detailed information on how they were built (with emphasis on wiring and board construction - and how to build any "technical" bits, like traversers).

 

 

Huw.

[newbryford]

Track plans by C J Freezer in the Railway Modeller were my first real inspiration. Along with stuff like the Craig and Mertonford Railway. I also read and re-read articles by Edward Beal, including his books.

 

I readily bought the track plan books in the 1970s and every now and then still go back to them for reference and inspiration, although my favourite plan never appeared in them - the one from the "Modern Image" issue in the mid-60s. If I ever have a dedicated railway room of decent size (about 30' x 20') for a permanent layout, then that would be the plan.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

p.s. Mike and Eddie - thanks for the mention - New Bryford will next be in public view at the BRM show at Peterborough in October.

[DaveF]

In no particular order:

 

Tyling,  Craig and Mertonford , Borchester, Charford, Sundown and Sprawling, Crewchester,  Norman Eagles Sherwood,  Buckingham,  Garsdale Road,  anything else by David Jenkinson, to name but a few.

 

Some of those are for overall excellence, others for scenery, others for timetable operation and appropriate locos and stock.

 

The articles on freight train operation on the Loddiswell, Modbury and Salcombe in Model Railway News.

 

Does anyone remember the aerial photos and track plans in Railway Modeller in the 60s?

 

Some of CJFreezer's track plans - I still have some of his earlier booklets.

 

Loco, rolling stock and building drawings,  The prototype track plans which featured in MRN and RM including Tetbury (which Dad and I built around 1957).

 

I could easily make the list a lot longer.

 

David

Edited to add an apostrophe.

D.

Edited July 7, 2016 by DaveF