Introduction - Part 2

One of my favourite layouts on RMweb is @ian's HO scale "Die Ercallbahn" in the German Railways Forum.  Drawing on childhood memories of the Marklin 3-rail AC system, Ian has brought those memories to life once more, creating the kind of system layout I'm sure many of us dreamt about when growing up.  I find it tells such an absorbing story that the first time I saw a video of the layout in operation, I was surprised when the doors of a small railcar didn't open on arrival at a station!

 

 

The reason I'm referencing this grand opus here is because of the way the system has grown.  It began as a test track with just three points and a small branch line station several years ago.  It didn't just happen.  I spent my formative years pouring over pictures and track plans for American basement fillers, never imagining I wouldn't one day have my own, but I completely overlooked the bit about it taking years of planning, building, and investing to create an empire.

 

I'm reminded of a famous experiment in psychology by a team led by Walter Mischel at Stanford University in California in the 1960s: "The Marshmallow Test."  The test is very simple: a child is invited to wait in a room while the adult supervising them pops out for a few minutes.  On the table in front of the child is a sweet treat - a marshmallow.  The child is told they're welcome to eat the sweet if they want, but, if it is still there when the adult returns, the child will get two marshmallows (not just the one).  This tests the child's capacity to understand (and practice) delayed gratification:

 

 

What's the connection?  The team went on to show that those children better able to demonstrate self-control at a young age, could be shown (statistically) to be more likely to enjoy greater success in later life.  In my case, having put off for years the task of building a model railway, partly due to the distractions of life, and partly due to a sense I'd still get round to it one day, I thought I was being just like one of those children, putting off the good to wait for something better later. 

 

I didn't realise I was making the same mistake again - all the child has to do if they want to receive the better treat is to wait.  But if I want to have a model railway, I can't just wait.  I need to get on and actually build things...(which I am now getting more practice at):

 

 

 

My personal favourite American HO scale basement empire was Bruce Chubb's original Sunset Valley layout, featured in a six part series in Model Railroader magazine in 1979.  Chubb even noted that: "it didn't just spring up overnight.  It evolved little by little, piece by piece, idea by idea." (Model Railroader, March 1979, p81).  Bruce and his wife Janet began making structures and freight car kits while he was on military service with a young family, with nowhere for a layout.  Some scenic modules were completed, and then placed in storage at the home of Janet's parents (MR, May 1979, p87).

 

Returning to The Marshmallow Test, the Team observed some children put a lot of creative energy and effort into not eating the first marshmallow.  They weren't actually just sitting there.  The prize, the goal, required effort.  Bruce and Janet Chubb took their creative energy and invested it in a future layout.  They took their dream and converted into a plan, with a strategy to get there.  I get that now.  As railway modelling wasn't that important to me for many years, my dreams remained dreams.  I enjoyed them as dreams, but my trains sat quietly waiting in their box.

 

As I explained in my previous post, it's time for me to look at it all in a different way...

 

Chapter 2 - Continental Modelling: "But what about now...?"

While I never had a Marklin model railway, Die Ercallbahn also speaks to my childhood dream in another way too.  My own first (unfinished) layout was in British N Gauge, very different in the 1970s to where it is today.  I'm sure I was not alone in casting envious glances at Continental layouts, mainly German, with their steam hauled express trains headed up by models of enormously long prototypes with too many wheels, all bright red and shiny beneath their black boilers, or electric locos gliding almost silently past on their way to imaginary destinations I couldn't pronounce, in lands of great cities, huge forests and romantic castles.

 

Interest in American Model Railroading is a given for me - it's inherited - but Continental Modelling is the stuff of dreams, and after re-entering the world of actual railway modelling through my small H0e layout, I've been drawn back to ideas for a Continental layout several times in the past couple of years.  In my previous blog, I wrote about how I've often keep running into the problem of space constraints, trying to fit too much into into spaces that are too small - grand ideas that didn't survive contact with reality for long.  For example, I tried the Glacier Express of the Furka-Oberalp in H0m, but I wanted this:

 

 

when my space ended up looking like this:

 

 

I tried N-Scale, to run those long express trains.  But they'd still benefit from an exhibition space, not a portable table in a spare bedroom:

 

 

I also found the details and couplings on American stock too small in N-Scale.  It all meant that project idea folded too.

 

Looking back now, the post I wrote a year ago when I closed down that project shows just how disappointed I was.  It was the correct decision, but not a happy one.

 

I'll cover my experiences with TT (1:120) in my next blog post, but after I returned to HO Scale following my N-Scale idea, it wasn't long before the European railways I'm interested in (Austrian / German / Swiss) caught my imagination once again.  I was still inspired by mainline trains, developing grand ideas once again - this time inspired by YouTube videos of prototype mainline operations, and I had a look at some superb HO Scale models.  Could I squeeze in a layout after all?

 

 

Inspiration doesn't make for a bigger house.  And when reality bit once again this past Summer, it looked like my Continental dreams were going back onto the shelf.  I just kept an assortment of unbuilt kits I'd bought and will enjoy making:

 

 

But then I had a small win (£100) on the Premium Bonds, just as I was rethinking my ideas (my previous blog post).

 

How about I apply the learning described in my previous post to my interest in Continental modelling as well?  My Premium Bond winnings went on this - a Fleischmann Train Pack:

 

 

Stepping back in time: this set was sold as Epoche 1 and the loco numbering pre-dates the DRG.  I have everything to learn.  But the sheer childlike excitement I felt when the parcel arrived from Contikits and I unpacked the set has made it all feel worth it. 

 

 

So now, if I take heed of the lessons I'm learning, maybe my own dream can still become a reality. 

 

 

I have my other interests to follow too, but it looks like I can fit a short branch line train into just about 2':

 

 

 

And that's the point of this story.  With a bit of luck (my Premium Bonds win) and some more careful thinking, maybe I can still give my child inside what I used to dream about.  Isn't that one thing a hobby is for?  Thank you for reading, Keith.