On looking into Old Railway Modellers

[Nearholmer]

Yes, Rocker, I read a couple of Molesworth books about fifty years ago (which isn't really "these days", I suppose), but although the style of the drawings stuck in my mind, nothing else did, certainly not Wizzo Saceships, unless subconsciously.

 

Maybe the concept of tyrannical teachers just didn't chime with me as a kid, because my father was a teacher (definitely of the non-tyrannical kind), and the teachers at school were actually very decent, if a tad eccentric in some cases.

 

At one point, we did plot a "violent overthrow of the state", in some detail, and that would have begun with a seizing control of the school, imprisoning all the teachers in the gym-apparatus-store, and a show-trial of Mr Cole (The Head), the unspoken assumption being that he would have to be executed. But, that was more an exercise in planning, than anything motivated by dislike of the teachers. It all fizzled out when the weather got better, and most people wanted to play football instead of foment a revolution, which disappointed me a lot at the time.

 

K

[St Enodoc]

Pleased to say that while Lydney is no more its builder Alan Smith is still busy building 3mm layouts.

Baz

And of course parts of Lydney became New Lydney, an LMRS club layout for a while in the 1970s.

[St Enodoc]

Blunt's was my local shop until they closed around 2000. I cleaned them out of their stock of spare Portescap final drive gears.

It was my local shop too when I was growing up in the 1960s. Every Saturday Dad would take me there while Mum was shopping in the Broadway. Alan and Peter (the "sons" in H A Blunt and Sons) were as I recall always helpful and encouraging to a young lad.

Edited April 6, 2016 by St Enodoc

[dunwurken]

It was c1968 or 1969 when I was a 14 year old that a friend gave me a copy of his dad's 'old' RM; October 1964.  Railway of the Month was Peter Denny's Grandborough Junction.  I can to this day vividly recall my disbelief that a model railway could look so real.  'Jaw dropping' probably wasn't an expression in common use then but that was my response on seeing this wonderful railway station!  I gladly endorse many readers' comments here, especially regarding fifties, sixties and seventies articles and modellers such as Denny, Ahern, Hancock, Jenkinson, Awdrey, Charman, Knife, Harrison, Dyer, Towers, etc.  Also, of course, the work of 'Robbo', Northwood, Essery, CJF and so many other inspirational folk.  Railway of the Month from RM December 1972  was mentioned; yes, another great model.  Plan of the Month from that copy was another favourite of mine - 'Mainly Operational'; a fab layout design and it's whimsical commentary on how it came into being is worthy of Allan Downes (what ever became of him, I wonder?)  All these such a profound influence on me - even Jock Armstrong, Angus MacTavish, Jock's bicycle and the dog (Craig, Dec. '67) still stay in my mind to this very day!       

You will be pleased to learn that Jock Armstrong, Angus MacTavish are now residents within the Edinburgh and Lothians MRC PD Hancock Collection. Despite being swept away in about 1970 to facilitate the building of the third version of Craig much of what you see in that 1967 photograph still exists albeit not all necessarily in the one place.  There are a number of bicycles in the collection but I cannot be certain which one is the bicycle in the photo. The toolshed is now at Dundreich and the yard foreman still slumbers in a box in the ELMRC collection, the building which Jock is sitting outside is in private hands whilst the building behind is also at Dundreich albeit in a modified [by PDH] form.  The coaling stage is in the collection as is the gallows turntable just off the photograph to the left.   Kettledrummle and the C15 are still with us however the whereabouts of the engine shed building and that C class goods are unknown.  Two of the wagons are in the collection and the dog........ah, if only it had been micro-chipped we might have found it by now!

Malcolm

[andyman7]

I felt the magazine started to go downhill when certain aspects of production changes in 1990. I didn't like the new headline font introduced in Jan 90, and definitely didn't like the new body font brought in a few years later. There was also a bit of a trend for spot colour which made some articles very hard to read - there was one early-90s Plan Of The Month (a fictional Norfolk station I think) with the plan printed entirely in yellow ink!

Personally I think RM may have started to go downhill when they stopped featuring photographs of men in cardigans smoking pipes on the front cover

[AngusDe]

I started buying RM with my pocket money in the early 70s/my early teens, I bought many old issues through the next 10 years till I nearly had a complete set by the early 80s. I chatted to CJF on several occasions at Model Rail in Glasgow through that time too.

 

Unfortunately, after I moved away from home, sometime in the mid 80s my dad binned the lot doing a tidy up, I was gutted!

 

I loved all the CJF monthly plans, but the greatest layouts for me were Garsdale Road, Buckingham, and two I can't remember the name off, the big TT layout with the hump shunting yard and one which was a large OO layout with a large terminus serving two circuits, one 1500v electrics and the other diesel and steam with a scenic reverse loop/fiddle yard modelled as a junction with a loco shed and carriage sidings. And the best CJF plan? His one fitting a representation of Euston into the proverbial 16' x 8' garage.

 

I've always felt Peco have missed a trick in not putting together a quality book of all the CJF plans, with decent production values, rather than the cheaply produced booklets.

 

All the magazines have good and bad months, but I buy most of them every month anyway, but the RM is the only one I've subscribed to.

 

Angus

[St Enodoc]

I started buying RM with my pocket money in the early 70s/my early teens, I bought many old issues through the next 10 years till I nearly had a complete set by the early 80s. I chatted to CJF on several occasions at Model Rail in Glasgow through that time too.

 

Unfortunately, after I moved away from home, sometime in the mid 80s my dad binned the lot doing a tidy up, I was gutted!

 

I loved all the CJF monthly plans, but the greatest layouts for me were Garsdale Road, Buckingham, and two I can't remember the name off, the big TT layout with the hump shunting yard and one which was a large OO layout with a large terminus serving two circuits, one 1500v electrics and the other diesel and steam with a scenic reverse loop/fiddle yard modelled as a junction with a loco shed and carriage sidings. And the best CJF plan? His one fitting a representation of Euston into the proverbial 16' x 8' garage.

 

I've always felt Peco have missed a trick in not putting together a quality book of all the CJF plans, with decent production values, rather than the cheaply produced booklets.

 

All the magazines have good and bad months, but I buy most of them every month anyway, but the RM is the only one I've subscribed to.

 

Angus

The TT layout sounds like Lydney, as mentioned earlier in this thread, and the 00 one sounds like Derek Shore's Avondale, Waterfoot and Creston.

[Loconuts]

I started taking the RM in September 1959 and stopped taking it in the early 1970's because I had outgrown it. It was in those days a useful stepping stone for getting into the hobby but as your interest in the hobby grew the information in the RM ceased to have any interest, I progressed onto the MRC and then the MRN. So when those two magazines ceased publication there was a big hole left, this the MRJ filled when it came along.

 

The present publications are all very much the same these days except for the MRJ and that is because the hobby has changed from those early days, your model railway now comes in a box and very few people build now so there are less construction articles in the magazines. Now we have the various forums on the internet plus magazines so a variety for all.

 

I built my first scratch built 7mm scale loco using the words and music from a series of articles published in the MRN by John Harrison and my first items of rolling stock thanks to the excellent articles in the RM by Bob Essery.

 

As to publishing the drawings of CJF, I would think would be a backward step as they had lots of errors and not enough detail to make a model. As I got more into my own research I soon realised the short comings of these drawings.

 

Loconuts 

[Tunn]

Rockershovel and other Molesworth fans. if you can track it down Simon Brett wrote an update with an adult Molesworth, married to Louise, working for Grabber bulk holdings and with two repellent children.  Called "Molesworth rites again" Illustrated by Willie Rushton published by Hutchinson in 1983.  Not as good as the originals (Chiz) but worth a read if you are a fan.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Surly, 'Molesworth Rites Agane'?

 

The four original volumes rather well explored the future career options of the gorila of 3b. Pretty sure someone very like him must have been a senior figure in the West Midland Serious Crime Squad debacle. The two-page illustration of Moleworthian directed detective work (probably in 'whizz for atomms') rather indicates that the authors suspected that some police procedure was less refined than might be expected.

[Tunn]

Surly, 'Molesworth Rites Agane'?

 

The four original volumes rather well explored the future career options of the gorila of 3b. Pretty sure someone very like him must have been a senior figure in the West Midland Serious Crime Squad debacle. The two-page illustration of Moleworthian directed detective work (probably in 'whizz for atomms') rather indicates that the authors suspected that some police procedure was less refined than might be expected.

 

It's frightening how many real Moleworths there might be - to say nothing of Pearsons, Grabbers and Fotherington-Thomases

 

You'd think it would be "agane" but that isn't the published title - umpteen years at St Custard's must have taught him something!

[Pacific231G]

Personally I think RM may have started to go downhill when they stopped featuring photographs of men in cardigans smoking pipes on the front cover

Far less common that I'd remembered. In fact I could only find Ken Payne with his EM Tyling branch, Railway of the Month in April 1957, but he was wearing a tweed jacket.

 

Pipes did appear occasionally in "Personality Parade" but they were far more common in adverts. Trix Twin had their cartoon drawings of two "clubmen" one smoking a pipe in the pub or on a commuter train telling each other how many trains you could run at once while Peco had their "father and son working together" advert that also appeared as the cover photo on several catalogues though it was the son wearing the cardigan.

The adverts from that period are often quite entertaining but one that really intrigued me was the Rollason Rolla-Controla from 1961 that used a motorised star commutator to deliver pulse width modulated DC Power and could control four locos at once. I also rather liked H&M's announcement in June 1961 that "owing to the phenomenal success of the current models, which have been widely accepted throughout the world, the present range will continue unchanged for 1961" 

Edited April 7, 2016 by Pacific231G

[Nearholmer]

The "Rollason Rolla-Controla" I've never heard of, but it sounds utterly marvellous- if you have one available for disposal, let me know!

 

K

[andyman7]

The "Rollason Rolla-Controla" I've never heard of, but it sounds utterly marvellous- if you have one available for disposal, let me know!

 

K

There was a whole thread on the Rolla-controla (possibly in the old forum). The search continues for a surviving example....

[New Haven Neil]

Oh, the RM cartoon - 'Bullhead' was a character??  Little People or something like that.  There was once a very funny Christmas story, poking fun at RTR catenary scale dimensions and the like, 'looks like 3"x2", that'll take some burning out' or words to that effect, and someone being caught weeding around the back of the sidings, a dig at the lack of scenic effect....happy days.

[Pacific231G]

There was a whole thread on the Rolla-controla (possibly in the old forum). The search continues for a surviving example....

I understand that it was among the last devices to do electromechanically what solid state circuits were soon doing electronically. I believe that PWM (puse width modulation) which is what the Rolla-controla provided is used in most if not all feedback controller and also by DCC chips to deliver power to the motor. 

 

Someone said that it had been featured on Tomorrows World which almost guaranteed that it wouldn't be a commercial success.

[BernardTPM]

Oh, the RM cartoon - 'Bullhead' was a character??  Little People or something like that.  There was once a very funny Christmas story, poking fun at RTR catenary scale dimensions and the like, 'looks like 3"x2", that'll take some burning out' or words to that effect, and someone being caught weeding around the back of the sidings, a dig at the lack of scenic effect....happy days.

The three characters were Bullhead, Bissell and Bellcrank: The Little People by Joe. The last was named in a competition run by the RM circa 1968 or '69.

[rockershovel]

I've seen the Simon Brett book and didn't think much of it. Molesworth, like Adrian Mole or Alan B'stard, was a creature of his time and place and without the supporting cast, I don't think the joke works particularly well.

 

I gave copies of The Compleet Molesworth to a niece who attended Durham University, and to No 2 Son when he joined the 6th Form at a local selective school with strong affiliations to the Cathedral. Both found it amusing after the event..

 

Flicking quickly through on kindle, I'm reminded that Molesworth et al, once went on a school trip on Flying Scotsman..

Edited April 8, 2016 by rockershovel

[rockershovel]

I always mentally connect pipes with Velocette riders...

[Nearholmer]

In defence of my uncle, who owns about half a dozen Velos, one of which is his original from c1960, and another his brother's from the same date: he has never smoked in his life.

 

This doesn't invalidate the general point, though.

 

K

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I always mentally connect pipes with Velocette riders...

 Snap! Rode a Velocette to his place of employment, and the pipe was in use all the day long. He was a schoolmaster. Sadly I had left the joint when he reputedly succeeded in burning a hole in his trews, by placing said pipe in his back pocket. Having commanded his class to silence for some infraction they joyfully watched as rear end combustion became evident. He departed that school's employ that very same year.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...  Another, a very large GWR railway with all locos having tender motors driving loco through cardan shafts.  Would also be in the 60s.

 I recall that. Rather too much scenery, very little railway. Pendine, Pigdon, some name like that?

[steve22]

I think you'll find that Allan Downes is alive and well and contributing to RMweb. Try the scenic section.

 

Hi Kevin; thanks for that.  My comment was in jest, a bit of a tease, but thanks for the reply.     

[Devo63]

After reading this thread I have now started pulling out all my old RM's and having a bit of a browse. My collection includes issues bought by my father before I was even thought of up until I stopped buying it regularly at the end of 2004*. The oldest bound years I have start in 1961 but there are a number of years which have disappeared over time. Complete years 1964, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1977 & 1978 are totally missing. I know we had them but there is no trace now - probably lent to someone in the past and never returned. There are thirteen various complete years still awaiting being bound. The bookbinder who did the binding in the 1970's is still in business so I will have to chase him up for a quote.

 

I have eight years of magazines from the 80's and 90's which are missing odd issues. Can anyone recommend a second hand business who deal in old railway magazines? I would like to fill in the gaps and have them bound to match the others. Some of the years which I know we had but have since disappeared are available from online auctions. The biggest thing putting me off is that the postage to Australia for a full year of issues is usually about five times the cost of the magazines themselves. Still, it would be nice to have over forty years of Railway Modeller sitting on my bookshelves.

 

* Since then I have only bought issues which have articles related to my interests.

 

Dave R.

 

 

I just noticed I have finally made my 100th post. Taken me long enough!

Edited April 9, 2016 by Devo63

[dick rowland]

Layouts that I remember from The Railway Modeller in the 1960's:

 

Ken Northwood's 'North Devonshire'

Jim Russells 'Little Western'