Over thirty years since Model Railway Constructor passed

[Allegheny1600]

Thank you so much for reminding me of this anniversary. Having been immersed, recently, in the 20th anniversary issue of Model Rail, I had completely overlooked the 30th anniversary of the last MRC. I feel dreadful that I'd overlooked it. It was heart-breaking at the time. I remember that final issue very well. I was given less than a month's notice of the closure and I already had the June issue well under way. I had to scrap what I'd done and start again in order to round off as many serialised articles as possible. MRC had been the first model railway magazine I had bought. I was sold it by a vendor working the queue to get into the the Model Railway Club's Easter exhibition at Central Hall, Westminster. I guess it was Easter 1961. I became an avid reader and, when I left school in 1963 it co-incided with an advert in the magazine seeking a Junior Editorial Assistant. I applied for the job at Craven House, Hampton Court, and was interviewed by Geoffrey Kichenside and Ian Allan. During the interview a pair of Bushey Park stags had a noisy locking of horns right outside the window. 

After the subsequent move to Shepperton, one of my jobs was to build the dioramas for the cover photos. The ideas came from our chief designer, Colin Gifford, who also took the pictures. I still have several of them and am currently reprising one for possible future use.

There's a lot more I could say. Indeed, I've filled evening talks and slides shows on the subject but there's one final point. When, in 1996, I was asked by my boss at what was then EMAP, to come up with ideas for a model railway magazine, I incorporated many of the ideas I'd wanted to pursue in MRC, but never had the resources to do. MRC had entered a spiral of decline and was relentlessly mis-managed and starved of resources over many years. In the end, it closed with a circulation that several of today's magazines thrive on. But it closed mainly because the company wanted me to manage all their magazine titles as a glorified progress chaser. I did that for five years before EMAP threw me a lifeline and invited me to edit Steam World. If the closure of MRC was the low point in my career, being given a 96-page blank magazine and asked what railway modellers would like to see in it, was one of the high points. The result was Model Rail, in many ways the reborn MRC. 

CHRIS LEIGH

(Junior editorial assistant, Model Railway Constructor, 1963-68. Assistant Editor, Railway World/Model Railway Constructor 1977-83. Editor, Model Railway Constructor 1983-87, Editor, Model Rail 1997-2008. Consultant Editor, Model Rail, 2008-present)

Thank you, Chris!

I was worried that I may have offended you in some way by you not having posted here, previously!

Indeed, my initial post was a hard thing to do but I thought, 'just do it' and be damned.

It's really good to see your take on what must have been a very difficult time for you, hopefully, the intervening years have taken the sting out of it and I congratulate you for your effortless contributions to this hobby subsequently.

I wonder what went through the minds of management at Ian Allen to make them rip up two great success stories and whether they have any regrets?

Cheers,

John.

[dibber25]

Just  referring to  my  earlier  post  re  the  1986  Constructor  annual,  I have  often  wondered  how  many  annuals  were  actually  published,  was  the  '86 one  the  last  one? Perhaps  Chris could  answer this>?

 

I must  admit  I cannot  ever recall seeing  any on  sale except  for  the '86 one,  and  that  was  a  complete  fluke  as  we   were on  Holiday  at  Devon Cliffs  Holiday  park,  and I think it  was  Exmouth  WH Smiths we  wandered  into  and  I  found  the  book on  the  shelves,  at  first  I thought  the cover  pick  was  a 00 RTR loco at  a glance, but  was   very surprised  at  closer  examination to find  it  was my  0 gauge loco,  identifiable  by  the  unfinished  lining  and  the  unfinished  nameplate!  ( see post 11)

 

The annuals were published as 'stocking fillers' intended for Christmas sales. Accordingly, they were dated for the year following Christmas, thus the last one was dated 1987 and published in the latter part of 1986, several months before the decision was taken to cease publication of the magazine. I recall 'The WingCo' - our publishing director, Alan Hollingsworth (ex-RAF - hence the nickname) used to refer to a decision to cease publication of a title as "Cutting its throat". Not a nice man but then I wasn't ex-military so I always got short shrift.

It was a daunting task, being faced with 128 pages to fill, so I used to 'cheat' by using articles that were too long to include in the monthly magazine. I notice Paul & Co's air-braked coal hopper wagon feature, with drawings, occupied 17 pages. The budget was always tight, so I had to put in a lot of my own material as well and I frequently used articles that I could illustrate from my own resources, without having to pay for them. 

The cover picture has a story, too. Supposedly 'somewhere in the Highlands' it was actually a Canadian diorama which Keith Willows, Don Layzell, Bob Borchardt and I built for the Glenfiddich Whisky distilleries. They wanted to mark their connection with the Centenary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (IIRC a member of the owning Grant family had driven the last spike on the trans-continental line). They had enlisted a company to build them a model for the distillery exhibition centre and that company sub-contracted it to us after they saw Egham club's Fraser Canyon at the Easter show. The scenery remains the best that I've ever done, and there were more pictures inside the annual in a feature about how to model 'white water'. The centre-piece was a timber trestle with a tumbling stream underneath. Keith made the trees (as he did for the club layout) and could turn one out every two minutes! I took the picture outdoors in natural light, which I still reckon is the best way to photograph a diorama. (CJL)

[Butler Henderson]

Just  referring to  my  earlier  post  re  the  1986  Constructor  annual,  I have  often  wondered  how  many  annuals  were  actually  published,  was  the  '86 one  the  last  one?

There was a 1987 one

 

 

Contents:

 

Friends of the Trackbed (Garden Railways)5 pages

Crichel Down (Layout Photo Feature) 3 pages

MR Signalbox (Churchward Models kit (photos only) and prototypes) 2 pages

The Growth of a Hobby (Authors story of hobby involvement) 11 pages

BR Air Braked Wagons 17 pages

Canadian Station from Humbrol Beginnings 5 pages (no prizes for guessing the author)

Tisdunn (Layout Photo Feature) 5 pages

How to make white water 4 pages

Scenic Suggestion - Model Lifeboat 3 pages

Overcombe recalled (Layout Photo Feature) 4 pages

Kit or Scratch-built? (LNER A3)7 pages

Heathfield (Layout article) 2 pages

Anatomy of Photo (Hornby Dublo A4 and coaches) 2 pages

Novel method of wring a reverse loop 1 page

LNER Bogie sides in 2mm scale 2 pages

Forgotten Diesel-Hydraulics (Classes 14 and 22) 13 pages

The MR in the Wye Valley (Photos) 5 pages

Ballabeg (Layout Photo Feature) 2 pages

9F with a difference (largely re Bristol Models chassis)11 pages

East Gloucestershire Railway Stations 12 pages

Somerset Midlandshire (Layout Photo Feature) 2 pages

Prototype and Model - CP Sand Tower 2/3rd page

Troublehouse 1 1/3rd pages

Competition 5 pages

[hmrspaul]

Just  referring to  my  earlier  post  re  the  1986  Constructor  annual,  I have  often  wondered  how  many  annuals  were  actually  published,  was  the  '86 one  the  last  one? Perhaps  Chris could  answer this>?

 

I must  admit  I cannot  ever recall seeing  any on  sale except  for  the '86 one,  and  that  was  a  complete  fluke  as  we   were on  Holiday  at  Devon Cliffs  Holiday  park,  and I think it  was  Exmouth  WH Smiths we  wandered  into  and  I  found  the  book on  the  shelves,  at  first  I thought  the cover  pick  was  a 00 RTR loco at  a glance, but  was   very surprised  at  closer  examination to find  it  was my  0 gauge loco,  identifiable  by  the  unfinished  lining  and  the  unfinished  nameplate!  ( see post 11)

 

 

The last one was 1987. This was our article Monk-Steel, David., Bartlett, Paul W. & Mann, Trevor, (1986) BR Airbraked Coal Hopper wagons. Model Railway Constructor Annual 1987 pp 20 - 36 edited by Leigh, Chris.

Drawings -        MGR hopper diag. 1/156 (143);

MGR top cape diag. 1/156 (144);

MGR diag. HDO0lA (411);

HEA diag. HEO0lA (146).

 

An entire book was developed, by David, from this article. Monk-Steel, David (2011) Merry-go-round on the rails. HMRS publishing, Butterley Station, Derbys. 196 pages ISBN 978-0-902835-30-6.

 

Paul

 

PS I fairly recently picked up copies of all 5 albums we have articles in from the HMRS shop in Swanwick Junction for next to nothing!

Edited October 7, 2017 by hmrspaul

[David C]

Fascinating reading the comments of members and particularly those of Chris Leigh. Like John Flann, I too wrote a number of articles for the MRC, (as well as for other magazines. I keep all of the mags which featured any of my deathless prose (and some of it was pretty deathless, I must admit!) and dig them out every now and then. It is noticeable that the quality of the material in the later issues declined in the last few years or so (drawings apart), but I do remember being very taken with Chris Leigh's front covers. The MRC's photography was often better than its competitors: I looked through some MRCs from the 60s in the Model Railway Club's library recently and was very impressed by shots of Frank Dyer's Borchester and the Epsom club's Ruxley branch (amongst others) which were so realistic they could have been 1:1 scale. Admittedly, the modelling helped, but whoever took them knew what they were doing!

 

David C

[dibber25]

Fascinating reading the comments of members and particularly those of Chris Leigh. Like John Flann, I too wrote a number of articles for the MRC, (as well as for other magazines. I keep all of the mags which featured any of my deathless prose (and some of it was pretty deathless, I must admit!) and dig them out every now and then. It is noticeable that the quality of the material in the later issues declined in the last few years or so (drawings apart), but I do remember being very taken with Chris Leigh's front covers. The MRC's photography was often better than its competitors: I looked through some MRCs from the 60s in the Model Railway Club's library recently and was very impressed by shots of Frank Dyer's Borchester and the Epsom club's Ruxley branch (amongst others) which were so realistic they could have been 1:1 scale. Admittedly, the modelling helped, but whoever took them knew what they were doing!

 

David C

 

I've no idea who took layout pictures in those days. I think it must have been pictures supplied by the layout owner. I seem to recall receiving shots taken by professional photographers from time to time, but these were guys who took weddings and portraits. They hadn't got the first clue about photographing model railways and couldn't handle the depth-of-field issues. From about 1964 Colin Gifford took the cover shots and processed the pictures, too. 'Steve Stratten' took over the photography when he became Editor. Brian Monaghan did most of the layout photography - his day job was photographing for a catalogue - Littlewoods, I think. In my time as Editor, I took the photos and processed the film. My darkroom skills were zero (I'd only ever had about 10minutes instruction from Colin Gifford) and the equipment I had was very basic. When I used the company's equipment, the 'negative holder' was two pieces of broken glass. No Health & Safety at Work in those days! (CJL)

[Aminthule]

Hi

 

this is perhaps a forlorn request.........I am trying to track down the issue of the Model Railway Constructor that apparently included a sketch by ‘Four-Five-Three’ showing coal wagon No. 18 belonging to ADAMS & SON SOUTHSEA (Seven plank, 10-tons with side doors only). Does this ring a bell with anyone? Can anyone suggest how I might track this drawing down?

 

Thanks

 

Andrew

[chris45lsw]

Hi

 

this is perhaps a forlorn request.........I am trying to track down the issue of the Model Railway Constructor that apparently included a sketch by ‘Four-Five-Three’ showing coal wagon No. 18 belonging to ADAMS & SON SOUTHSEA (Seven plank, 10-tons with side doors only). Does this ring a bell with anyone? Can anyone suggest how I might track this drawing down?

 

Thanks

 

Andrew

Hi Andrew

 

MRC November 1958 page 274.  I can't scan at the moment but if no one else can help you I'd be happy to 'snail mail' you a hard copy.

 

Chris KT (chriskthomas@waitrose.com)

[steve22]

Like other posts here, MRC was the first railway modelling magazine I ever purchased, back in February 1969.  I was fourteen at the time and it was one week's pocket money back then.  I still have some MRCs from that era and some even earlier that I've bought second hand.  In the 1980s I was working at Beatties, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and I would sometimes wander up the road to Fenwick's during my lunch break and browse a magazine or two.  I clearly remember picking up the MRC and reading that it was the last edition.  Now, I'm sentimental about many things, but the thought remains with me to this day that I should have purchased that last copy; and I would certainly have kept it.  Instead, I left it on the shelf and it felt like I'd walked away from a good friend.  Thanks to Chris Leigh and all the others who contributed to MRC over the years; your work remains very much appreciated.   

 

Steve.   

[Martync]

The first model railway magazine I ever bought was a back number of MRC which I got from a small exhibition we visited when on holiday in the Lake District in the early 70s.  It was - I think - from 1964 if memory serves, as I don't have it anymore.  It had a very nice little layout featured in TT; "Pendean to St Day".  It really marked the start of my transition from train sets to model railways.  I must confess I was not a regular purchaser of MRC, but tended to buy it when an article took my fancy, but it was always well put together, and I think it was the first to feature colour photo's - I may be wrong on that point though...….

I still have a few back numbers with treasured articles.

 

Martyn

[Mel_H]

On 07/10/2017 at 12:50, dibber25 said:

 

The annuals were published as 'stocking fillers' intended for Christmas sales. Accordingly, they were dated for the year following Christmas, thus the last one was dated 1987 and published in the latter part of 1986, several months before the decision was taken to cease publication of the magazine. I recall 'The WingCo' - our publishing director, Alan Hollingsworth (ex-RAF - hence the nickname) used to refer to a decision to cease publication of a title as "Cutting its throat". Not a nice man but then I wasn't ex-military so I always got short shrift.

It was a daunting task, being faced with 128 pages to fill, so I used to 'cheat' by using articles that were too long to include in the monthly magazine. I notice Paul & Co's air-braked coal hopper wagon feature, with drawings, occupied 17 pages. The budget was always tight, so I had to put in a lot of my own material as well and I frequently used articles that I could illustrate from my own resources, without having to pay for them. 

The cover picture has a story, too. Supposedly 'somewhere in the Highlands' it was actually a Canadian diorama which Keith Willows, Don Layzell, Bob Borchardt and I built for the Glenfiddich Whisky distilleries. They wanted to mark their connection with the Centenary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (IIRC a member of the owning Grant family had driven the last spike on the trans-continental line). They had enlisted a company to build them a model for the distillery exhibition centre and that company sub-contracted it to us after they saw Egham club's Fraser Canyon at the Easter show. The scenery remains the best that I've ever done, and there were more pictures inside the annual in a feature about how to model 'white water'. The centre-piece was a timber trestle with a tumbling stream underneath. Keith made the trees (as he did for the club layout) and could turn one out every two minutes! I took the picture outdoors in natural light, which I still reckon is the best way to photograph a diorama. (CJL)

I don't know about 'stocking fillers', but for me the MRC Annual and Railway World Annual were the top two items on my list (my parents didn't have much money at all, and there were three of us). Like so many other posts in this thread, I must have been around 12 or so when I chanced on a copy of MRC (in those days I was building Airfix aircraft kits) and ordered it from my newsagent. It was the only mag I could afford, but my Sunday paper-round (£1.20 I think) helped pay for it. After SWS left and CJL took over I continued to enjoy it (apart from the North American content which I didn't understand at the time) especially with his interest in DMUs - but it also covered pre-grouping, another interest of mine. I never did get on with the 'Modeller', it just wasn't for me, and in fact, still don't. I always found MRC inspirational, and that was the aim of Model Rail when it started.

[Godfrey Glyn]

MRC wasn't the first model railway magazine I bought, having spent my teenage years in south Somerset, Peco and the Railway Modeller (then based in Harbour Road Seaton) was my first introduction to the hobby. However I soon started buying MRC and during several house moves they were the ones I saved, largely for the ideas and the regular supply of prototype drawings. Thanks Chris, I owe you a lot and I suspect many other modellers here do too.

 

all the best

 

Godfrey

[Richard Jones]

Sorry my drawings finished off this fine magazine. ...

[hmrspaul]

1 hour ago, Richard Jones said:

Sorry my drawings finished off this fine magazine. ...

I disagree, it was us whittering on about every ballast wagon BR had built up to that time that saw it off  . As I said years ago and still no one has done a PLAICE. I haven't been forgiven for expecting Julie to help measure one loaded with fine sand in a very windy Wellingborough marshalling yard. 

 

Paul

[5050]

Missed this thread at the start but I will also add that MRC is sorely missed by me.  It was the first magazine I bought regularly in the late 50's and the first to feature one of my layouts (Ceriog Vally Line, built with fellow members of Wakefield RMS - Steve Stratton was an honorary member) and my first P4 layout, Preesgwyn.  Brian Monaghan took the CV photos in his usual 'aerial' style although some of them are relatively close up.  It was also on the cover of one of the MRC Annuals - complete with a foreground containing my coal merchant Ivor Bygunne.  Always raises a chuckle when I see one on sale on a 'pre-owned' stand at an exhibition.

Edited August 6, 2021 by 5050

[Halvarras]

I also missed this thread (only joined RMweb 2 years ago) - I was an occasional MRC purchaser but as soon as I saw the ingenious Caradon Junction on the front cover, which was right up my street, I knew that one was coming home. It was only upon getting it there and reading Chris Leigh's sad editorial that I realised I'd just bought the last-ever issue. I was shocked, it didn't seem possible that something that seemed to have been around forever could end so suddenly. I felt  for Chris, it's the last thing any editor would want to do. I still have that issue in the loft, partly for that inspirational lots-in-a-small-space layout and partly for its historical significance.

[HSB]

I've also just discovered this thread! I actually still have a copy of the last issue somewhere! The first model railway magazine I discovered was the Railway Modeller back in the early Sixties while staying with relatives in Yorkshire. It wasn't until a classmate at school told me about our local model shop Torbay Model Railway Supplies that I discovered MRC and Model Railway News. For several years after that I bought both MRC and RM every month.

 

[Ramblin Rich]

I'll join the last copy club - kept in my bookcase along with a few anniversary copies of Modeller and Model Rail

[dibber25]

On 14/03/2019 at 11:35, Godfrey Glyn said:

MRC wasn't the first model railway magazine I bought, having spent my teenage years in south Somerset, Peco and the Railway Modeller (then based in Harbour Road Seaton) was my first introduction to the hobby. However I soon started buying MRC and during several house moves they were the ones I saved, largely for the ideas and the regular supply of prototype drawings. Thanks Chris, I owe you a lot and I suspect many other modellers here do too.

 

all the best

 

Godfrey

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. A lot has happened since the end of MRC - the original 1963 team are all still around but its sad that Steve Stratten passed away some years ago - he was 90-something, though. The 1963 team - David Percival, Alan Williams and Colin Gifford, and me, last got together way back when Colin's postage stamps were launched but I've corresponded with David since then in connection with Steam World. My Black Dog Halt layout, which I was building in the final issues of MRC is now, in truncated form, in Chippenham Museum, I believe. I tend to think of Model Rail as a continuation of MRC as I was able to do with MR many of the things I couldn't do with MRC. Times do move on, though, and sadly things like scale drawings are no longer practical in a monthly mag. In the meantime I've just built a OO9 circuit so I can test an L&B loco and complete a model of Bratton Fleming station. Who ever thought we'd see ready-to-run L&B locos and kits for L&B buildings? (CJL)

[Haddocksrock]

Like others I am late to this thread.

The first railway modelling magazines I brought as an impoverished schoolboy where Railway Modeller and MRC in, I think, September 1966. They changed my outlook completely. From a 6'x4' Hornby Dublo trainset I transformed it into a, I think it was, Maurice Dean style fiddle yard to terminus layout with a link into the fiddle yard to make a continuous run if needed. It was still run by incongruous A4, Castle, 8F etc LOL. Fortunately the Bluebell Railway had just opened so the premise of a preserved railway was available, thank goodness.

I always thought the MRC was a step up from the Modeller as a 'serious' journal rather like the MRJ today.

I remember that for about the first year I had it a number of pages were always printed on a sort of garish coloured card paper!

 

[Icknieldrobin]

I recall when I was in my teens my father would always buy the Model Railway Constructer sometimes The Railway Modeller and occasionally The Model railway News. The MRC was always first choice and the 'stand out' in my opinion and it was a sad day when publication came to a halt.

 

This may sound spooky but this morning I was looking through all my railway wagon books for drawings and photographs of BR Pallett shock wagons for a possible future project. I found a no of pics and then moved on to a  large binder where I've kept articles which 'might be of future use'.

 

Here I came across an article in the the Data file series [August 1983] covering the BR 20 ton Standard Coke Hopper Wagons, which were produced in three different body types. Here were photo's and background notes from David Larkin and excellent drawings by Trevor Mann. Seeing such detail was hugely encouraging to me to lift my game back in my teens, so I thank them for their 'investment' in me!!  The series was, I guess , the forerunner, to the standard text 'An Illustrated History of B R Wagons Volume 1' which for me as a wagon nut is a brilliant reference book.

 

I hope no one is upset if I take this opportunity to push my research perhaps a little further and pose two pleas for help as the string does seem appropriate.

 

1. Does anyone have a list of the MRC Datafile articles or a note of where I might get copies of all find the articles.
2. Does anyone have or can point me in the direction of, 4mm scale drawings for any of the BR 12t Pallet vans excluding Diagram 1/211 [the subject of the Parkside Pallet wagon]. I've got access to the outline drawings on the Barrowmore site.

Thanks in advance and well done to  allegheny1600 for reminding us of events from 30 years ago!!

 

Doug.

[micknich2003]

 I first bought the "Constructor" in 1960, I remember the "Centre Spread" was an ex NERly Class O, or G5 tank engine. I then bought every issuie until the end. As the years passed by I was able to pick up many back numbers from about 1950 onwards. With the passage of time and thanks to "Tinternet" and E Bay, I now have a complete run from day one to finish. Way back in I think 1967, MRC published my first ever article, converting a Triang Type 3 Diesel to EM Gauge. To my mind, possibly the best series of articles published were those penned by Frank Roche from the late '30's to early '50's on loco' building.

[stewartingram]

Just noticed in another topic on here, that it is also 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. A coincidence, or hidden agenda perhaps? 

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, dibber25 said:

sadly things like scale drawings are no longer practical in a monthly mag

Really?

[kevinlms]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Really?

No one's told the Railway Modeller. When will they get the message? Late to the party as usual!