Musing Momentous Modelling Moments

[westernviscount]

Hi Folks, 

 

I thought i would create a forum dedicated to our personal top modelling moments. I am thinking that first train-set, that first encounter with the prototype that you simply had to model, the magazine article that got the juices flowing, that layout you struggled to drag yourself away from at an exhibition as a kid...or adult, that chat with a friendly exhibitor who explained or encouraged. 

 

I shall kick off proceedings:

 

My first proper Model train. 

 

My very favourite at the time, the humble, much maligned Pacer. This was a birthday present when i was 6 or 7. I had an oval of track on chipboard i used to place on my bed. Although retired, i cannot part with it. Thanks Mum and Dad. 

 

As for inspirational layouts, 3 stick in my mind. The wonderful "Hayley Mills" which i saw in the railway modeller in the early 90's https://www.lynxmodels.net/hayley-mills.html. Next, "Runswick Leamside" which i recall being called runswick Quay which might have been an earlier guise!, a layout i could barely drag myself away from. Then, a layout i never saw and was i suppose quite diminutive which i saw in the modeller, probably mid-nineties; Newcastle Haymarket. A really inspirational layout for me! Infact, i believe the factory units at the back stuck in my subconscious as i did something similar on my layout!

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_02_2018/post-18572-0-52337000-1519630928.jpg

 

Anyway. Feel free to post your memorable modelling influences. 

 

Cheers. 

 

[JDW]

That's quite a nice picture of it too, I'm guessing its a steam-era layout it's posed on (?) but it does look very reminiscent of some run-down stations in late 1980s/early 90s. 

 

As well as Newcastle Haymarket (which I recall seeing and being disappointed how small it was!) and Runswick Leamside I always remember one which appeared in Railway Modeller any years ago, R&M Quarries, set unsurprisingly in a quarry, with stock in a fictitious R&M green and orange livery. I think that's probably how I ended up buying too many 59s... 

[westernviscount]

10 hours ago, JDW said:

That's quite a nice picture of it too, I'm guessing its a steam-era layout it's posed on (?) but it does look very reminiscent of some run-down stations in late 1980s/early 90s. 

 

As well as Newcastle Haymarket (which I recall seeing and being disappointed how small it was!) and Runswick Leamside I always remember one which appeared in Railway Modeller any years ago, R&M Quarries, set unsurprisingly in a quarry, with stock in a fictitious R&M green and orange livery. I think that's probably how I ended up buying too many 59s... 

 

Yes JDW the pacer is out of era. It is posed on my layout set in 1970 which as you rightly say is meant to look as if steam still runs. That's why i ended up going back in time in my modelling interests as i love the mix of old infrastructure and practices with the "modern" locos. 

 

The R&M layout rings a bell actually.  Tonbridge West yard was another "celebrity" layout i enjoyed reading about as a kid and was happy to see it in the flesh a couple of years ago. 

[298]

Nowt wrong with having a wandering Pacer, this is 142049 having been landed in the wrong Vancouver for delivery to Expo86....

[westernviscount]

Great picture @298! 

[westernviscount]

Another influential moment in terms of modelling was my Dad's repaint of a Hornby class 47 in the late eighties. The notion of being able to transform a model into something personal has stayed with me!! 

 

Sadly i don't have a photograph but he sanded back the moulded paint lines and hand painted it into early intercity livery and added etched nameplates "Galloway Princess". 

 

It still exists somewhere back home. 

 

Cheers for now.

 

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

De Havilland MRS's layout, based at De Havilland's Hatfield site. Their then main layout was on display in a hangar during the first family day I was taken to as a small boy, (Pa having come to the UK as an electronics engineer to work in their design shop). Firstly it was a large mainline layout with long trains, and secondly it worked so well compared to the carpet railway scenario of my own and friend's RTR OO. My parents had to resort to main force to remove me.

 

Their slightly later layout Havil still exists, now installed in the upper room of a Methodist church: somewhat cut down, because aircraft hangars are now in short supply locally, remains a good club layout...

http://www.dhmrs.co.uk/