Railway Modeller London Underground April Fool

[Mike Buttell]

Can anyone remember which month/year this was please. I have an overwhelming desire to read it again!

It’s the one where the writer has supposedly built his underground line under the house floorboards

Many thanks

[Dungrange]

I'd imagine that it was the April issue and I think it was 1983 (or possibly 1984).  That was one of the first issues of Railway Modeller that I bought in my teenage years.  It was many years later before I realised that it was an April Fools joke.  When reading it at the time, I'd just thought that this hobby has some right weirdos!!!!

[Steamport Southport]

I think 1983. Unfortunately there isn't a contents list on ME.

 

http://magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/railway-modeller-magazine-april-1983-issue.html

 

The 1984 issue had Taurus as the April Fool joke. The one where Monty Wells made an imaginery diesel prototype from leftover bits of diesel.

 

http://magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/railway-modeller-magazine-april-1984-issue.html

 

 

 

Found it. Definitely 1983. Going Underground by Colin Parfitt.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Railway-Modeller-Magazine-April-1983-Darenth-West-Highland-Line/281855385824?hash=item419fe3e0e0:g:3VoAAOSwkZhWRH98

 

 

 

Jason

Edited January 28, 2019 by Steamport Southport

[Bonafide]

Yes, it was April 1983.

[Coppercap]

I certainly remember the article, but not the year it appeared, and that genuine shots of District or Metropolitan trains from above in 'cut and cover' sections were carefully 'cut and pasted' onto photos of the house floor to appear as if the trains were running under the floor. 

[BR60103]

You mean it didn't exist????

[Krusty]

Wasn't there also a similar article in the Destructor about 20 years earlier? I distinctly recall a photo showing the wires from the controller disappearing into a gap in the floorboards.

[Mike Buttell]

Many thanks for the info, I’ll get a copy ordered from eBay 

[Andrew Mitchell]

Yes, I can recall this article well, I read the Modeller avidly from 1986 for about a decade and this was one of the back issues I picked up.  I seem to recall there was a "1" on the issue month on that page, and there was a picture of the long-suffering wife, and how the builder had caused their kitchen to collapse when they cut a joist to extend the "layout"!

Vaugely recall the Monty Wells article but never realised it was an April Fool.

 

The other article I suspected to be an April Fool (but not sure if it was even in an April issue) was a Junior Modeller entitled something like "No. 8 unfinished".  Unusually for a JM article rather than being a layout it was a live steam built, the loco had a large metal 8 fixed to it.  It was written in a rather strange "public school" style, such as "it is my own fabrication", thanking "Brownlow and Sir for loan of the Stuart lubricator etc, and the photo of the loco had a cut out of the author wearing a very traditional school uniform, including short trousers.

[dibber25]

On 29/01/2019 at 07:17, Krusty said:

Wasn't there also a similar article in the Destructor about 20 years earlier? I distinctly recall a photo showing the wires from the controller disappearing into a gap in the floorboards.

Yes, there was in Model Railway Constructor early 1960s - a piece of Alan Williams' mischief. I still have the controller that was used in that photograph. The floorboards were at Craven House, Hampton Court, which I think is now luxury apartments. (CJL)

[dagrizz]

On 02/07/2020 at 09:39, Andrew Mitchell said:

The other article I suspected to be an April Fool (but not sure if it was even in an April issue) was a Junior Modeller entitled something like "No. 8 unfinished".  

 

Schubert's eighth Symphony was his unfinished one. Any connection?

[SteveyDee68]

The April Fool magazine  article I remember was the "Lirpa Loof" layout, a narrow gauge garden railway in a continental style if I remember correctly.  That had real stock, buildings etc photographed in such a way as to look like models! I'm certain there were captions such as "the attention to detail is superb" etc!  I'm certain that was a Railway Modeller, definitely back in the all black and white photos era! 

 

Steve S

[Chris M]

It's a shame we don't seem to lark about so much nowadays. The all time best was the SVR repainting City of Truro black.

[steve1]

There was the one in Rail magazine by a certain Mr P Sutton about Class 31s being given silly names like The Magic Roundabout in the late 1980s (or was early 1990s?).

 

Anyone else remember that?

 

steve

[johnb]

Oh yes, that was great fun!  Also the one about locos being given giant bar codes but no numbers. There were whinges about spotters having to buy bar code readers if I recall correctly!

[pete_mcfarlane]

I remember one around the time of privatisation around the exclusive licensing of BR liveries to manufacturers, so only certain manufacturers could produce BR diesel models. I remember one of those bores who hang around model shops without spending any money lecturing the staff in Nottingham's Gee Dee models about it in great detail, seeming oblivious to it being an April fool.

 

The same story also said that one manufacturer was producing a 4mm scale model of LMS 10000 to get around this ban. That was clearly ridiculous in 1990-whenever, but since then we've had two RTR models of 10,000 and 10,001.....

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

Wasn't the MRC ones at Christmas rather than April Fool though? Things like the Destructors Reviews spring to mind.

 

Anyone remember the layout here at the bottom of the page? 

 

 

https://sidetracked2017blog.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/first-blog-post/

 

The Pendonkin and Tuppensoff Railway - A fantasy railway in 4mm scale by David Carter & Colin Bean. A slightly weird layout with things like Dumpling Mines and Dougals from the Magic Roundabout. Loved it when i was a kid.

 

No idea on copyright so linked from someone else's website.

 

 

 

Jason

[PatB]

1 hour ago, Steamport Southport said:

Wasn't the MRC ones at Christmas rather than April Fool though? Things like the Destructors Reviews spring to mind.

 

Anyone remember the layout here at the bottom of the page? 

 

 

https://sidetracked2017blog.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/first-blog-post/

 

The Pendonkin and Tuppensoff Railway - A fantasy railway in 4mm scale by David Carter & Colin Bean. A slightly weird layout with things like Dumpling Mines and Dougals from the Magic Roundabout. Loved it when i was a kid.

 

No idea on copyright so linked from someone else's website.

 

 

 

Jason

I don't remember that one, but the rather similar Snooville that appeared in the Dec 77 RM was very appealing. 

[BR60103]

My favourite was, I think, a video from Model Railroader on the "Digital 5" control system where the 5 Digits were brought down and pushed the trains along.

 

[caradoc]

Was there not an April Fool story in the Railway Magazine, about a plan to electrify Basingstoke/Exeter on the cheap, complete with a picture of a foreign electric loco in BR blue ? It generated a number of 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' complaints !

 

[dibber25]

18 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Wasn't the MRC ones at Christmas rather than April Fool though? Things like the Destructors Reviews spring to mind.

 

Anyone remember the layout here at the bottom of the page? 

 

 

https://sidetracked2017blog.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/first-blog-post/

 

The Pendonkin and Tuppensoff Railway - A fantasy railway in 4mm scale by David Carter & Colin Bean. A slightly weird layout with things like Dumpling Mines and Dougals from the Magic Roundabout. Loved it when i was a kid.

 

No idea on copyright so linked from someone else's website.

 

 

 

Jason

Ah, that's why I couldn't find it in the April MRC. Here's a scan of as much of it as I can fit on my scanner. It was December 1963 and the reason I remember it so well is now obvious. I joined the mag editorial team in September 1963, which is when that issue would have been in preparation. (CJL)

[Oldddudders]

23 hours ago, dagrizz said:

 

Schubert's eighth Symphony was his unfinished one. 

What about his unfinished Kronenbourg?

[rab]

31 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

What about his unfinished Kronenbourg?

You mean the one he wrote in the wrong key,

and it went a bit flat.

[DLT]

6 hours ago, caradoc said:

Was there not an April Fool story in the Railway Magazine, about a plan to electrify Basingstoke/Exeter on the cheap, complete with a picture of a foreign electric loco in BR blue ? It generated a number of 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' complaints !

 

 

Yes, I remember that, I vaguely recollect the loco was one of these, with a massive double-arrow logo

 

[DLT]

Wasn't there one about making trees sway to portray windy weather? 

Branches were loose and attached to a thread that went down through the trunk and had a weight on the end below the baseboard.  You jiggled the weight and the branches "swayed"

 

I think in Modelling Railways Illustrated, there was an article about the European Union starting to look at the model railway hobby, with a view to harmonising standards accross Europe. 

This of course meant that British manufacturers would have to convert all their products to H0.  EM and P4 were to be banned, and modellers would be given two years in which to convert their 00 layouts to H0.

 

Or something like that.