Mike Sharman's Mixed Gauge layout

[Chuffer Davies]

I can confirm Mike was in the RAF and an inspirational modeller.  I met him and his wife Hilary through St Brendan's College's (Bristol) annual cadet camp.  My father was a teacher at the school and an officer in the cadets. I believe Mike was a school liaison officer and this led to his annual attendance at the camp.  Although I have had model railways for as long as I can remember it was only when Mike's EM layout was featured on the local television news (Points West) that the penny dropped and I took the first opportunity I could to reacquaint myself to him.  I was 15 at the time so this would have been 1969.  To my absolute delight Mike invited me to help him to exhibit at the next year's York exhibition when the show was still held at the Assembly Rooms.  Mike and Hilary were the nicest couple you could hope to meet, and Mike talked me through all sorts of techniques which was the impetus I needed to start building my own models and was also my introduction to EM.  Mike made significant use of tin cans (yes they were made of tin in the 60's).   His use of K's motors was because they were small enough to fit inside his diminutive models.  I don't know how but he turned the commutators in a lathe and that is why they ran so much better than the off the shelf motor. I tried this once and instantly destroyed the motor. 

The complex control of the layout was achieved through the use of his 'Great Wurlitzer' which was a revolving arm in the control panel with a set of wipers that swept over a series of studs connected to the H&M point motors under the layout.  Having selected a route using several rotary switches a press of a button would trigger one revolution of the Wurlitzer and the points would be set accordingly - absolute magic to a sixteen year old. 

It was soon after this that Mike launched Mike's Models.  I seem to recall that the EM layout was eventually sold to an enthusiast in America along with a significant proportion of the stock.  Mike then moved on to modelling a mixed gauge layout to P4 standards and subsequently he did some 7mm modelling.    

Sadly I've lost contact with Mike and Hilary now but I believe and hope that they are still growing old together somewhere in the south of England.  If you read this Mike or Hilary my very best wishes to you both...  Frank D 

[bgman]

Definitely a true master of his superbly engineered locomotives. I was in total awe when I first saw his Cramptons at a show in Oxford running around a mixed gauge layout like clockwork. It's something that inspired me to try and up my game as a "then" young modeller and both he and his wife were extremely helpful and pleasant which only served to encourage me. It is a happy lasting memory and I only wish they were still on the exhibition circuit.

I believe Mike was also one of the first Broad Gauge Society members promoting the building and exhibiting of such lovely locos and stock.

Definitely one of this hobbies best.

[bgman]

Here's Mike seen at 4.36 explaining and a shot of a Crampton

 

 

Hope it helps ( he certainly looks very young ! Bless )

 

Grahame

Edited January 18, 2017 by bgman

[Killian keane]

That fantastic video of Mikes layout seems to have been taken down from youtube!

[Andy Hayter]

Still there for me. Thank goodness.

 

It would be a shame to lose such gems.

[Pacific231G]

That fantastic video of Mikes layout seems to have been taken down from youtube!

The YouTube link in the OP seems to have gone, it's a BBC programme so that may be due to copyright violation, but It's still there from the Youtube link in bgman's post (#28). However, If you're in the UK,  the Time Shift programmes seem to be repeated fairly often including The Joy of Train sets. The Mike Sharman sequence was actually taken from a much older programme in a series called something like "Small Worlds". Like TimeShift it was also made by BBC Bristol. It also included a long sequence about Peter Denny and the Buckingham Branch and was filmed (on film!) when he was still a parish rector so quite a few years ago now. It's a programme I'd very much like to see again.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Pacific231G

[BlueLightning]

Just thought I'd pop into this thread for those that haven't seen, just read elsewhere on RMWeb that Mike Sharman passed away yesterday

 

 

[Killian keane]

15 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

Just thought I'd pop into this thread for those that haven't seen, just read elsewhere on RMWeb that Mike Sharman passed away yesterday

 

 

I feel if anything could ever make me come back here even briefly its this, its devastating news to have lost such a legend, wherever you are Mike, a flight of Cramptons sing thee to thy rest

[Hroth]

Sad to hear that a giant of the modelling world has passed away.  One of my most cherished issues of Railway Modeller is that of December 1970 which featured his layout as the Railway of the Month under the banner "Modern Image -- mid 19th-century style"! Of the 8 pages, most were covered by photographs and two were whole page photos. Broad gauge, Standard gauge and narrow gauge in one layout, often intertwined, is not to be sniffed at!

 

As a record of Mike's achievements at that time, its an issue worth looking out for*.

 

BTW, the issue also includes the Emett inspired Far Twittering and Oysterperch Railway, a CJ Freezer OO9 Rabbit layout and line-drawings of Pearson's Broad gauge B&E 4-2-4WT and the last 31/81xx GWR Prairies.

 

* However, £4.99 on ebay is a bit steep...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Railway-modeller-December-1970-Contents-page-shown-in-photos/183664110001?hash=item2ac33be9b1:g:KTwAAOSwxAhavUe9

 

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Hroth

[richard i]

Such sad news. An inspiration to so many of us. Myself included. It is only the true greats who touch so many in the hobby, and mike was definitely on of them. 

Richard

[Pacific231G]

This is indeed very sad news and I'm sorry to learn that Mike Sharman's last months were not easy.

I'd love to see the Small World (BBC Bristol) episode from about 1980 that featured Mike along with Peter Denny. I did however find this fairly long video on YouTube about Mikes's mixed BG/SG layout and largely voiced by him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pquYCNKQy70

It's titled Mike Sharman's Victorian Model Railway (1987) - Mixed Gauge Layout

It's captioned as being from from Railscale but that's all I know about its origins and, though it was posted on YouTube last year, I suspect it was made some time ago and looks like a professional production.  

Edited September 16, 2019 by Pacific231G

[Regularity]

13 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

This is indeed very sad news and I'm sorry to learn that Mike Sharman's last months were not easy.

I'd love to see the Small World (BBC Bristol) episode from about 1980 that featured Mike along with Peter Denny. I did however find this fairly long video on YouTube about Mikes's mixed BG/SG layout and largely voiced by him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pquYCNKQy70

It's titled Mike Sharman's Victorian Model Railway (1987) - Mixed Gauge Layout

It's captioned as being from from Railscale but that's all I know about its origins and, though it was posted on YouTube last year, I suspect it was made some time ago and looks like a professional production.  

There were 3 RailScale videos produced. The third had poorer production qualities.

I did own all 3 on VHS many years ago. Generally, they were rather "coffee table" and too specific for general interest, and too lacking in detail for specific interest.

 

MRJ memorably reviewed one of the first two issues, and commented about the lost opportunity in the visit to Pendon feature, which showed trains running rather then delving deep behind the scenes and getting into the nitty gritty. MRJ's review commented on the "crass ending" to the piece, "And the GWR brakevan, codenamed 'Toad', brings up the rear of the train," or something similar. (Speaking from memory.)

[Denbridge]

On 05/09/2016 at 13:10, bertiedog said:

Works in Firefox, Chrome and Microsoft, does it not display the button at all, leaving a blank, or do you just get no response? Just curiosity really......

 

The button only appears after the play is pressed, and only if the mouse hovers over the bottom row....

 

Bit surprised the Mike was so dependant on the K's motors in his loco's at the time, also the models are certainly not silent! When I viewed them they were quieter, but maybe they had a lot more use by the time the video was made. The double ended K's motors were not bad, but although reliable did wear out the bearings, especially with flywheels fitted, making them noisy.

 

He mentions the Albion Loco, with a rotary engine, and stated it lasted 14 years or so, but since then it has been found that it stood unused for many years as they could not sell it.

 

Stephen

There were 2 distinct collections. The original, EM models were sold to someone in North America. Mike went on to replace them with even better models built to P4 standards.