The model railway… no, let’s be honest…. the train set gained momentum upon the great move north to Glasgow. Being a boy of my age, diesels had become top of the agenda, as they were on British Railways. My dock shunter, admirable as it may have been, was no longer used on the crack expresses of the day, and had been relegated to …um… dock shunting.

But first there was time for another steam engine, and one that I saved up for with my 6d, and later 9d… and later 1/- pocket money (wish I had pay rises like that these days). Tri-ang Hornby R759 No. 4983 ‘Albert Hall’, my first 4-6-0, appeared, and for a boy from the Western Region, my first proper WR locomotive.

Just like the above..... it was green and an immediate success. Some years later it was my first attempt at a loco repaint.. and I will draw a hasty veil over the brush-painted results.

I had a friend called Pong, obviously not his real name, his parents had more sense, but that’s what everybody called him. Now Pong had an enormous amount of track, Super 4 track to be precise, the track of boys of the sixties, chunky and strong. His colossal amount of track made for a large double oval main line, with a breakaway branch-line that soared over the main line on a set of inclined piers, and looped back around to re-join the main line. I’m sure it had been bought as a set, but I am unsure which set. It was very impressive.

Less impressive was his loco stud, amounting to a black Tri-ang Hornby M7 Tank Locomotive. What was a Glaswegian boy doing with an M7? It wasn't as if he'd ever been to the lush rolling countryside of the LSWR. But that was irrelevant, it was a train. This M7 was fine for the branch line, where it floundered up the gradient with a coach in tow, the main line was crying out for a boy with a big engine policy.

And I was that boy! ‘Albert Hall’, ‘Britannia’, ‘Princess Victoria’ and the Blue Pullman were unleashed and soon set the main line alight, and between us we had cobbled together quite a substantial railway, even if his cleaning lady, Mrs MacSporran, did repeatedly walk into it and destroy it. I never did forgive her for trampling my Airfix HMS Nelson during one of our frequent naval battles.

I never did mention controllers, but soon after my original controller suffered meltdown, the Bath Pram and Toy Shop coughed up an H&M Duette. What a beast that was and is! I still have it today, celebrating 50 years of age and still useable. How many of today’s controllers will be in use in 2066? In fact, how much of today’s anything will be in use in 2066?

A masterpiece of the sixties.

We also developed an interesting sideline, collecting British Rail leaflets. Every now and then we would pass by our sleepy little station on the Milngavie line and raid it for leaflets – Awaydays, Merrymakers, Timetables, Excursions… these became sizeable collections, and I'm sure the station staff wondered why they were disappearing so rapidly. We had so many we used to swap them to gain new ones. I do wish I still had them, they were an interesting window on to the railway of the age. I notice extensive collections of just such leaflets online.

It was this drive for more and more leaflets that fuelled our first expeditions into Glasgow, while Mum innocently assumed I was playing football somewhere.