Hello from Workington Main

[workington-main]

Hello everyone.  I am what some people would call a "War Baby" and I am proud to have the name of my local railway station as my membership ID.

 

My grandfather used to take me in my pram down to Workington Main railway station on his pension day to collect his railway pension.  I recall being on one of the platforms and sitting up in my pram and watching a train pulling carriages into the station and later departing.  My parents say I must be imaging this but I have faded memories of the event.  I am told I was a very impatient child wanting to see trains at every opportunity.  My comments on that statement leads me to think I have never left my childhood and at the advancing age of 73 in January 2017 I am glad I never grew up.

 

As soon as I could walk I used to get my auntie and uncles to take me to see the trains as well as going with my grandfather when he picked up his pension.  Later he would take me on short train trips and get me footplate rides up and down our MPD which was 12D at the time.  The idiots who worked in the dark offices of BR kept changing the shed code but they came around to my way of thinking and renamed it back as 12D.

 

For as long as I can remenber I have run model trains. Firt they were hand me downs from my mother.  After all what do you expect an engine drivers daughter to play with - dolls? Well she had her share of those and collected them even in her OAP days.  She had her own model railway, OK Hornby clockwork when she was a child and she kept it to hand down to her son or daughter.  I was an only child and didn't have to hand it down to a sibling.  My dad expanded it by buying post war Hornby items and Dinky Toys.  I loved Dinky Army wagons and Tanks and have increased my collection as I grew older.  When I left school I owned about 20 models now I have hundreds and hundreds.

 

Dad saw the Graham Farrish Black 5 when we went on holiday to Blackpool at a toyshop near Waterloo Road station.  That made me want to change down to 00 scale as I thought I could cram more and more tracks into the same space.  I went through the phase of owning a Duchess of Athol set and a Sir Nigel Gresley set.  Dad found a second hand shop in Manchester and he bought me an articulated set to expand the train.

 

From this grew a passion more model railways and when I was still at school we were buying rusty Dublo wagons and we built new bodies for them.  My first material I used was the lids and sides of OXO tins but I discovered Bristol Board and I could scribe planks onto that.  I used a glue backed tape for the strapping.  Mum used it for making picture frames and it was great.

 

Fast forward to the next century and I am still modelling.  I have tried many different scales from N to 7mm scale.  In 1980 ish,  I scratch built an LSWR 0-4-4T in 0 gauge using a Portescap Motor and gearbox.  That was for our model railway club but I never got to see it run as our club disbanded.  I have build British, Manx and American layouts and enjoyed the local ones most.  Call it my comfort zone.

 

Now I am modelling an industrial layout using Peco code 75 track and it centers around St Helens in Merseyside, or in the time I am modelling; Lancashire.

 

In just under a months time I will have been modelling for 69 years and I intend to keep modelling for a long time into the future.   I live my life just the same as I did some 50 years ago, enjoying 1960s music and I am still driving at the age where I have got my 2nd 70s driving licence.  I have driven since I was 14 and legally from 17.  My reaction times has only slowed down by a couple of percent and I am still a great shot with a crossbow.  I have to compensate my aim for wearing glasses and I simply love to explore old railway trackbeds just as I did when I was in my 1920s.

 

I hope to contribute to this RM website and no doubt I shall think of a few questions to ask other users.  I am bound to make a few mistakes so please forgive that any thing but boring old f**t from Workington. 

 

Cheers for now and all the best for Xmas and 2017

 

Tom Jenkins

of Workington

[Devo63]

G'day Tom and welcome to the forum. This is a great place for sharing and learning all kinds of information on our hobby. I've only been in to model railways for about 45 years so there is still a great amount to learn.

 

Dave R.

[jamie92208]

Welcome to the forum Tom from a fellow native of Cumberland (born in Carlisle).  What a marvellous modelling journey you've described.   I look forward to hearing many more tales from the county that the good Lord created first. I still feel that Cumberland is my home even though I've been engaged in missionary work in the broad acres since I was 5.

 

Jamie

[Guest bri.s]

Wellcome to the forum Tom

 

Love the backstory ,I'm similar as in my uncle used to take me (albeit in the early 1980's) on spotting trips and I can remember stuff from being very young and my fascination has stemmed from there

 

I'll look frorwads to seeing and hearing about your modelling and storys

 

Brian

[jcm@gwr]

Hello Tom,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Jeff

[Stevelewis]

Hi  Tom

 

I am  old  like  you  (sorry!)  I have  been involved  with  Model  Railways   as  long  as  I can  remember,  it  was  further driven  by  my first  school  being  20 yards  from  the Manchestter  London   via Crewe etc line  where  we  were  daily  subjected  to slowly  passing  Coronaton, Princess,  scots & Jubs  etc  slowing  with  their  stopping  trains  calling  at Levenshume  North on  running  in  turns, ex  works  from  Crewe.

 

Another  memory  I have  is  the  MMRS  Annual  Christmas  exhibition  at  the  Corn  Exchange,  I can  still  'hear'  the  sound  that greeted us when  we  entered  the  great  domed  hall...the  sounds  of  many  miniature  wheels  clicking  over  many  model rail joints!!  ( and of  course  Bassett Lowke  store  on  Corporation St  nearby      a  Dublo  Castle  class   and  3  PULLMANS  purchased  for  £7.7s.0d)   that's  about  £7.35 in todays  money.......

 

EDIT  trying to remember  which  Castle  it  was  possibly  Cardiff  or  was  that  the  3  rail  version??

 

It was  Light  years  ahead  of  anything  else  in  those  far  off days

[workington-main]

Hi Guys thanks for the kind words.  I have just been sharing my thoughts on pinning doen flexi track and how I hide the track pin heads.  I have a long way to catch up with some of the Guys on RM Web for their posts.

 

Tom