HymekBoy

I settled into life and school life in Kent with relative ease, adjusting my Glasgow accent accordingly upon seeing the utter incomprehension of my contemporaries. The train set was still a ramshackle affair, but it still worked, and still gradually grew, not wildly as funds didn’t permit, but steadily, still not boarded down, just a pile of stuff on the carpet. I had always had a hankering for a Class 37. These to me epitomise the diesel era on British Railways, they were everything a diesel should be. There was something about diesels with bonnets, Deltics, Peaks, 40’s etc. and indeed their Stateside contemporaries, the F7’s, E8’s etc. In due course it arrived, the rather magnificent Tri-ang Hornby R751 Rail Blue D6830 Class 37. Everybody needed a Class 37 in those days, and I’d coveted one ever since I’d seen my friend Adrian’s green one many years before. Even the model produced a guttural growl, which I think in retrospect may have been due to some dodgy gear meshing, but run it did and soon it was taking over the crack expresses of the early 1970’s. I wasn’t too worried about heating the passengers in those days, so any freight locomotive could be used at will. The long-coveted Class 37...with dummy centre wheels on the driving bogie Like the Hymek, the Class 37 was easy to dismantle…unlatch the body side clips, lift off body, slide screwdriver under spring clip on chassis and out it all came. I must have performed this operation 100 times in the interests of keeping to the timetable… and removing carpet fluff. I had also accumulated a Graham Farish OO Gauge Pullman Coach from somewhere, this being a cut above my battered and random coaching stock. I soon fell in with 2 schoolfriends, Mac and Tippy, who had also fostered railways on their bedroom floors, and it wasn’t long before 3 railways were combined into one monster that took up an entire lounge. This wasn’t about the running, we barely managed to make anything run consistently that day, I think the staff were on strike. Striking realism, for the real railway was doing the same. At least the real railway didn’t have to put up with huge dogs knocking over the stock in their enthusiasm to ensure the passengers reached their destination. Tippy was rather unusual, in that he wasn’t a Tri-ang Hornby lad, he was a Trix lad. I had never really come across Trix in the flesh, but it was rather good. To my 12 or 13 year old eyes, his E3001 was a magnificent piece of work, and it ran particularly well for many years. The AC electrics were almost the apex of rail travel in those days, powerful yet quiet and seemingly effortless, and the original electric blue livery was particularly attractive. The much admired E3001 from Trix, well-engineered and heavy for its time Tippy was also a Peco track lad, and between us we had a huge variety of different trackage. Tri-ang Standard, some Series 3, a lot of Super 4, Peco and now the new Triang-Hornby System 6 track had arrived. Thankfully there were adapter tracks to the finer System 6 and Peco track available. Writing this has made me curious to find out whatever happened to Series 5 track. It seems it was never released, but that the new outside radius Super 4 curves were to be the start of the Series 5 track system. So there, I never knew that. Our combined layout, whilst huge and multi-sidinged (new word there, OED), was never an exercise in efficient rail travel, there was simply too much variety in stock, couplings and track systems, some of the track was beginning to show its age, with dirt and loose fishplates being particularly prevalent. It did however, establish a common bond between 3 individuals. A teacher at school happened to hear about this, and mentioned that a local house, Restoration House, next to the school, housed a railway in the cellar, and it was not long before 3 boys went a-knocking. Restoration House was not for the faint of heart, it was big, and inspired Charles Dickens in Great Expectations. No mean house. It was Dickensian, from the moment a very old man opened the door, but downstairs was a vast model railway, in the midst of construction, looping around the pillars and arches of the cellars. I have very dim memories of the occasion, but the carriage sidings alone must have held a hundred coaches, and all with full corridor connections. I also recall quite a continental flavour to much of the stock, Wagon-Lit cars etc. Restoration House, home to a secret model railway. I never did know what became of it. And not a dock shunter in sight.

Nice work!

I was distinctly underwhelmed, when as an 11 year old, I first encountered British Rail Southern Region, sitting in what must have been an EPB or HAP unit at Victoria. These were not the exciting railways I had come to expect after a childhood on the Western and Scottish Regions, and they were a far cry from the ‘Royal Scot’, that had just brought the family all the way from Glasgow to Euston. Not the steam engines, the named train. I found myself staring at a sea of rail blue multiple units. They were by no means pretty. Were they stylish? Well, no. Distinctive? No. For a young railway enthusiast these EMU's did nothing to quicken the pulse, and I have a theory that we might find railway enthusiasm is not as strong in the home counties as elsewhere (per capita) due to the daily lack of inspiration for those in their impressionable years. Only a theory, mind, I’m sure there will be many who disagree. We were heading for Maidstone, Kent, and for some reason we were on the stopper. The journey seemed interminable, but I did manage to see a hundred identical EMUs. I hadn’t ventured into the number-taking fraternity at this point, but it wasn’t far off. In later years I came to appreciate these EMU's more, in a perverse sort of way. In the same way I have a perverse admiration for buses I never had when younger. That EMU’s are engineering excellence is without doubt, they are unpretentious items that transport huge quantities of passengers back and forth ceaselessly. So here’s a question. Does the humble 4-EPB or 4-SUB unit have a claim to be the best train ever to run on British rails? Scoff you might, but how many others have performed intensively for 45-50 years in such huge numbers? They didn’t particularly float my boat in those days, though the Classes 33, 71, 73 and 74 lifted the monotony. And yet nowadays I do have this craving for a Bachmann 2-EPB. And it won't go away! And it was on the Medway valley line, on the customary 2-HAP from Strood to Maidstone Barracks (via Cuxton, Halling, Snodland, New Hythe, Aylesford) that schoolfriends and I first noticed the numbers on the front of these units. Maidstone Barracks, from the Middleton Press Book, one of 3 stations in Maidstone, and one I arrived at for many a year And we first realised that we could travel the entire journey sitting in the luggage rack, but I shall draw a veil over this.

Brilliant horticulture! You'll never have to dead head them either

It's all about the movement of goods and passengers, ie stuff, so we have to use whatever is available to us. I have never seen a crowded model DMU with standing room only. Guess some must exist, but coaches are often underpopulated. Likewise it goes slightly against the grain to put a false bottom in a wagon and sprinkle coal over the top, I'd rather fill it all up - and then sigh when I have to double head 4 wagons. All of which reminds me, I had a self-unloading ore hopper wagon, a Tri-ang orange thing (R111) that ran up a set of inclined piers and the bottom door was then lever-activated over a bridge, causing it to dump its load of pellets on to whatever was below. Another instance of Tri-ang play value, until the pellets got hoovered. Haven't thought about that for years...but it was a good attempt to deliver the goods

Meanwhile, back on the late 1960’s model ra….. train set there had been a few developments. I had steadily accumulated Super 4 track to the extent I could lay out a decent double track oval on the floor, with several sidings, a couple of makeshift stations, one on each side of the oval, buffers, semaphore signals and a signal box. Two trains could be run simultaneously, thanks to the Duette, and despite dad’s warnings, double headers were not unknown. Rolling stock remained very random, but enough to provide passenger and freight options and it had settled down into a fairly presentable train set, though still stored in a cardboard box and set up on the bedroom carpet at will. There had been developments on the locomotive roster too. My first modern diesel had arrived, a Tri-ang Hornby Hymek D7063, in Rail Blue, an instant favourite and one that I disassembled and reassembled countless times once I had worked out the cunning spring clip on the chassis. I have always loved Hymeks, perhaps because they are the first diesels I clearly remember. I had a blue one just like this, though in retrospect green with a small warning panel was the better livery. Entirely out of keeping with this modern railway, but ideal for shunting my bogie bolster or well wagons, or indeed my ‘Freightliner’ container wagon, was the Tri-ang Hornby maroon LMS 3F Jinty No. 7606. Not the most realistic livery I suspect, a very glossy maroon, but this was a good one, complete with flangeless centre wheels and Magnadhesion. I've likes Jinties ever since. A more senior modeller may have had distinct misgivings about running a Blue Hymek on Pullman stock with an LMS tank locomotive on a container train, and I was aware that I was breaking modelling law and my chances of getting to heaven would be minimal, but I had a very comprehensive modeller’s licence, and anyway, I didn’t give a monkeys, it was all about running trains, and running them fast. My chances of getting to heaven took another blow when I turned up for the Sunday School nativity play dressed as a pirate, but Mum should have asked what sort of fancy dress party it was! This randomness of stock has never entirely left me, and is a theme I wish to develop later, when I was a grown-up who should have been far more sensible. So there we have it, aged about ten and living in Scotland, I was running 2 x Princess Pacifics, a Blue Pullman, a Hymek, a Britannia, an LMS Jinty, a DMU, a dock shunter and a Hall. Well, to be frank, half of them were usually being overhauled, but I still made some of them work. Coaching stock remained motley, as did wagons. It may have been a random railway, but I worked those locomotives hard for years. Ill-advisedly, I had also discovered Humbrol enamels through the usual Airfix kits (could be a blog in its own right) and I had started experimenting with liveries. The DMU suddenly appeared with a small yellow warning panel, in a fetching and very glossy shade of mustard. And let’s draw a veil over my attempts to repaint the ‘Albert Hall’. And then, in early 1970, Dad announced we were going to go and live in Kent. The railway was once again on the move.

Oh yes, I had (have) one of these. Very robust, and carried all sorts of vital machinery/Matchbox cars, lego, tanks etc in its day. But a decent body and worth an update

Hmm, I think I quite like 3rd down on the left.

And so we found ourselves on the Blue Train into Glasgow Queen Street, parents relaxing in the knowledge we were playing football not too far away. The focus of our attention was the gathering of British Rail leaflets, which had become a short-lived craze. Mum surreptitiously threw them all out months later, but it was good while it lasted. Rail Blue was now gaining a foothold on the locomotives, the Class 21/29, 26 and 27 locomotives commonplace at Queen Street were down to about 50% green at this time. And why stop at Queen Street? There we were in the centre of Glasgow, aged about 9 years old, what boy could resist a visit to Glasgow Central? And on the way take in the delights of the Clyde Model Dockyard and Argyle Models, the 2 model shops on every local boy’s radar. The Clyde Model Dockyard was founded in 1789, which may have given it the longest history of any such business. Sadly it closed in the early 1970’s. The only other modelmakers with that sort of history would have probably been the shipyards, perhaps Scott's at Greenock (1711-1993) may have given them a run for their money. Builders models of ships are an ancient art. But who knows for sure.... ? There is something very satisfying in simply staring through a well-stocked model shop window and doing a little window shopping. And whether that be in the 1960’s or 2016 I tend to conclude that I want it all. Sadly I had missed the era of the four great Glasgow Termini, Central, St Enoch, Buchanan Street and Queen Street by little more than a whisker. St Enoch and Buchanan Street had gone in 1966, I have always wished I could have visited St Enoch in particular, the station that is, not the patron saint of Glasgow. But instead we had Glasgow Central, a grand station in every respect, both then and now. Back in those days we never had ‘train stations’, we only had ‘railway stations’. I have noticed the term ‘train station’ has crept in, particularly in the last 10 years. I have nothing particularly against the term, but for me they are ‘railway stations’. Central was exciting, a huge station full of locomotive exotica. I particularly liked the distinctive wooden departure boards, so unlike anything I had seen. The West Coast Main Line had not yet been electrified to Glasgow and the big expresses of the day were mainly in the hands of the monstrous English Electric Type 4’s known later as the Class 40’s. And pride of place went to the ‘Royal Scot’, the pre-eminent named train to the South, just as I had pored over in my ‘Locospotters Annual’. That Annual (1964). Still to be found on my laden shelves after 50 years of travel, and one of my early inspirations. Slightly water-damaged when the secret police hotel room I used for storage in Bulgaria was flooded by a burst radiator. Of course there was no TOPS numbering system at the time, but I pause to observe that TOPS was just what we railway enthusiasts needed, a simple way to identify locomotives that didn’t involve manufacturer’s names, transmission equipment, the Type of a locomotive, electrical gear etc. My applause to the inventor of TOPS! Central also hosted Blue Trains, a variety of DMU’s, varied other locomotive classes and a huge selection of British Rail leaflets and timetables. We returned home laden from the 'local station’, smuggling bagfuls of leaflets into our bedrooms.

Good question, and one I've never managed to answer. He moved away to Inverness to live in some sort of castle and that was the last I heard of Pong. Difficult to track having a fairly common name too.

The model railway… no, let’s be honest…. the train set gained momentum upon the great move north to Glasgow. Being a boy of my age, diesels had become top of the agenda, as they were on British Railways. My dock shunter, admirable as it may have been, was no longer used on the crack expresses of the day, and had been relegated to …um… dock shunting. But first there was time for another steam engine, and one that I saved up for with my 6d, and later 9d… and later 1/- pocket money (wish I had pay rises like that these days). Tri-ang Hornby R759 No. 4983 ‘Albert Hall’, my first 4-6-0, appeared, and for a boy from the Western Region, my first proper WR locomotive. Just like the above..... it was green and an immediate success. Some years later it was my first attempt at a loco repaint.. and I will draw a hasty veil over the brush-painted results. I had a friend called Pong, obviously not his real name, his parents had more sense, but that’s what everybody called him. Now Pong had an enormous amount of track, Super 4 track to be precise, the track of boys of the sixties, chunky and strong. His colossal amount of track made for a large double oval main line, with a breakaway branch-line that soared over the main line on a set of inclined piers, and looped back around to re-join the main line. I’m sure it had been bought as a set, but I am unsure which set. It was very impressive. Less impressive was his loco stud, amounting to a black Tri-ang Hornby M7 Tank Locomotive. What was a Glaswegian boy doing with an M7? It wasn't as if he'd ever been to the lush rolling countryside of the LSWR. But that was irrelevant, it was a train. This M7 was fine for the branch line, where it floundered up the gradient with a coach in tow, the main line was crying out for a boy with a big engine policy. And I was that boy! ‘Albert Hall’, ‘Britannia’, ‘Princess Victoria’ and the Blue Pullman were unleashed and soon set the main line alight, and between us we had cobbled together quite a substantial railway, even if his cleaning lady, Mrs MacSporran, did repeatedly walk into it and destroy it. I never did forgive her for trampling my Airfix HMS Nelson during one of our frequent naval battles. I never did mention controllers, but soon after my original controller suffered meltdown, the Bath Pram and Toy Shop coughed up an H&M Duette. What a beast that was and is! I still have it today, celebrating 50 years of age and still useable. How many of today’s controllers will be in use in 2066? In fact, how much of today’s anything will be in use in 2066? A masterpiece of the sixties. We also developed an interesting sideline, collecting British Rail leaflets. Every now and then we would pass by our sleepy little station on the Milngavie line and raid it for leaflets – Awaydays, Merrymakers, Timetables, Excursions… these became sizeable collections, and I'm sure the station staff wondered why they were disappearing so rapidly. We had so many we used to swap them to gain new ones. I do wish I still had them, they were an interesting window on to the railway of the age. I notice extensive collections of just such leaflets online. It was this drive for more and more leaflets that fuelled our first expeditions into Glasgow, while Mum innocently assumed I was playing football somewhere.

Ah yes, my hobby too. Began to know where to look after a while, often around the sleepers/ballast. Some Tri-Ang Hornby catalogues had Cuneo's on the front.

And suddenly the trains were blue, this was getting very confusing. Not as you might imagine because of the transition to Rail Blue, which wasn’t so sudden and had barely kicked off, but because a small boy had moved to Glasgow. It wasn’t long after disembarking from the Cambrian Airways DC-3 at Glasgow Airport (my first ever flight, so exciting that my baby brother threw up over my lunch), that it became apparent this was not Bath. It wasn’t the accent, 7 year olds pick that up in a matter of hours, it wasn’t the architecture, 7 year olds don’t notice that sort of thing, but two things stood out in particular. The first was football, which every boy played all day. And the other was the trains. They were a different colour. At least the Blue Trains were, blue as you might have guessed. Now the Blue Pullman was blue, but it was special. Here every train was blue, at least on the Milngavie line. The Blue Trains of Glasgow had some small fame at the time, and rightly so. They were among the best looking electric multiple units on the rails, particularly in their original blue livery, with no yellow ends, black or sometimes white roofs and wrap-around front windows. These were the essence of modernity for a boy from the Western Region. And the station signs were blue too! My first journey left a lasting impression. Electric sliding doors, quietness, acceleration, comfort and a fabulous view through the cab at either end (in original configuration), this felt like a modern railway. We were whisked into Glasgow on Headcode 65 (if I’m not mistaken) affording a view over the docks on the way, arriving in Queen Street Low Level. Queen Street Upper Level was even more interesting for a small boy in a big city. The locomotives were mostly green, though by now the odd very exotic Rail Blue was creeping in. They were, in the main, later known as Classes 21/29 and were flat-nosed, sad-eyed beasts. Their cousins (Class 22) on the WR hadn’t really registered with me for some reason, but here they were ticking over in the terminus. Additionally there were a few DMU’s, by now at the bottom of the railway enthusiasm food chain for being far too commonplace. And those Swindon Glasgow-Edinburgh (Class 126) units were certainly not ‘lookers’ no matter what Swindon might have thought, unlike the Trans-Pennine units. All very exotic but we couldn’t hang around, Dad had to claim the keys to the house. And I had to unpack my motley train set and run a few expresses. Oh for a Blue Train...

It'll all be worth it for something a bit unique!

Superb and lovely. Regarding the Xmas shopping, I'll have one of those.

Probably there were thousands of us at it, give the choices of the day. And perhaps that is why the hobby is so strong now. Dock Shunters...

Back on the Tri-ang, Midland and Scottish, No. 46205 ‘Princess Victoria’ was still rostered for the crack expresses of the carpet, and indeed the freights too, while No. 46201 ‘Princess Elizabeth’ generally posed on a siding. ‘Princess Victoria’, being a versatile Pacific, also handled all the shunting. All changed, however, with the arrival one birthday or Christmas of R253 Dock Authority No. 3, the red Tri-ang 0-4-0 Diesel Dock Shunter, with its realistic scale 140mph top speed, ideal for shunting the tight curves of the docks. In retrospect this was a magnificent model, aimed squarely at the junior market. It was robust, powerful, almost unbreakable and performed heroically. Any self-respecting dock system would have craved this Shinkansen of the shunting world. Well preserved examples are fetching about £55 these days. I have noticed that average model rolling stock can generally be re-sold at about the price they were purchased at, even decades later, they will hold their value if not significantly interfered with. From sources unknown I also received a decent Mk 1 coach in crimson/cream and a bogie brick wagon, the one with ‘BRICK’ emblazoned on the side. I’m not sure it was prototypical but it certainly augmented the heavy Lego freights teetering around the track. As a slight aside, enthusiasm was fed by occasional trips to Weston-super-Mare, usually by the ‘Cardiff Queen’ or ‘Bristol Queen’ from across the channel, and after the delights of the pier, what better than to visit the prominent premises on the promenade known as the ‘MODEL RAILWAY’. I know nothing of the history or demise of this place, but in the mid-60’s this was a large and very substantial OO gauge scenic model railway, by far the biggest I had ever seen. I remember little of the detail, save that the star attraction was the Blue Pullman. Somewhere I have a postcard of the place, but it would take me a month to find it. A cursory glance at Google doesn't seem to shed any light. Another pastime of mine was known as ‘taking the model apart and putting it together again’. I knew where dad kept the screwdriver, knew how to release the bodywork, unlock the springs, clean the motor, attend to the brushes and more or less put it all back together. Occasionally I would blame the 240v plug in the wall for a late running express. It was about this time that I attended my first Electrocution Lesson. By now Tri-ang and Hornby had entered into wedlock, though I’m not sure it was out of love, more of a forced marriage. For the next seven years (until 1972) they would be known as Tri-ang Hornby, and were the dominant force by far in British railway modelling. It was Christmas of 1966, I believe, when, quite out of character, Granny miraculously produced a Tri-ang Hornby R259S No. 70000 ‘Britannia’, complete with Magnadhesion and Synchrosmoke from her handbag. Both the recipient and the locomotive were chuffed, until the latter ran out of smoke oil. I’m not convinced either Magnadhesion or Synchrosmoke worked very well, the former was probably the more useful. My experience with Synchrosmoke was that it produced a namby-pamby waft of barely visible steam, however anything more substantial and the A&E departments would have been overflowing with burnt boys. The ‘Britannia’ immediately took over the prestige expresses of the day and put in a good shift. And then, early in 1967, Dad casually announced we were going to live in Glasgow.

You sure you have enough stock? Would have liked to have seen this

Looking forward to this, something a bit different.

Looks great to me, an ambitious project but very well handled. I particularly like the 'tidy' photo, nice operating position.

What a great and varied selection of rolling stock!

Very interesting, and some very smart looking stock.

While ‘Princess Victoria’ hurtled along, making the exploits of ‘Mallard’ look decidedly sluggish and fully justifying the ample toilet facilities on the Tri-ang station, the real railway was once again in a period of transition. This was evident from my much-thumbed 'Locospotters Annual 1964' and 'Trains Annual 1965'. They are still within arms reach now... not sure if that's a good thing after 50 years. This was evident from the Infants’ School that I attended, from which could be seen, at a distance, the main line into Bath Spa. The occasional eye was cast in that direction from the rough and tumble of the playground, where everybody seemed to be sporting that red stuff on our knees that was put on cuts and scrapes. Steam was in retreat. Small yellow warning panels were beginning to appear. I rather liked them, they didn’t detract from the looks in the way the later full yellow ends did. I felt that the small yellow panels often added to the looks, and went very well with BR Green. A green Hymek with a small panel looked just right to me, and it was these and green DMUs that I would see with the most frequency from the playground. A yellow end on a Blue Pullman never really worked for me. The forays to grandparents in South Wales were mostly by train, though I do recall going at 90mph on the newly opened M4 with dad, with not a car (or a seatbelt) in sight. DMU’s were the mode of travel for the most part, and it was always preferable to sit directly behind the cab. We stopped and reversed at Temple Meads, visiting exotica such as Patchway and Pilning en route. Neither of these boosted the excitement quite like Severn Tunnel Junction did. What a huge place that was, crammed full of locomotives and wagons of all descriptions. It was a full scale fiddle yard, very long and mostly parallel to the main line, like a classic American yard, and it was here that I first saw 'Falcon'. The locomotive scene in South Wales was very different to that of Bath. Diesel Electrics were more common, in particular what would later be known as Classes 37 and 47. There was far more heavy freight in South Wales and the lack of a dedicated hydraulic freight locomotive had opened the door to these fascinating interlopers. I was always fascinated by the pink tinting on a Class 47’s windscreen, wondering why it glinted in that odd colour. This was obviously due to tinted glass of some sort. No doubt somebody has replicated it on a two tone green 47 but I’ve never seen it modelled. That glass wasn't replaced and now I assume its a thing of the past. I had a grandmother in Cardiff and another in Barry. Barry had everything a small boy could wish for, beaches a-plenty, docks that could be walked around, an airport, a huge funfair and more railway track than you could shake a stick at. It was well past its prime (1913, when it was the world’s biggest coal exporting port, handling 4000 ships), but it still boasted many coal tips on the docks (aka staithes/hoists in other parts of the country), some of which were still used. Barry smelt of coal, and the entire considerable acreage of the docks were covered in it. The coal wagons were shoved up an incline to the tip, usually by a shunter at this time, whereupon the entire wagon was grabbed and upended over a loading chute on to a ship, then dumped back on the track, on the return rail. And a small boy could wander freely across the many railway lines and watch events. One of my other passions is ships, indeed it’s been a career. Paddle Steamers in particular have resonated with me from a series of excursions on the Bristol Channel and the Clyde, and I have dim memories of Barry Pier station, now no longer, with a waiting green 3 car DMU (or 6 cars if busy) to whisk the voyagers back up the line to Cardiff and the Valleys. The phpt shows Barry in 1929, and is well known on the internet. It's from before my time, but much of what can be seen was still there in the 1960's. I have tried counting the P.O wagons, best estimate I can up with is about 2,000. Now that's a train set, model that. And while you're at it, Cadoxton sidings are around the corner

Again lovely photos,, it seems to have been a fashion for the re-railing team to do up their top jacket buttons only.

Sumptuous - love the photo of the broad gauge carriages at Swindon, the quality of some of those old photographs is superb. Some must have spent their entire career commuting in those