On looking into Old Railway Modellers

[Nearholmer]

A good friend and I have been fortunate enough to be lent bound editions of RM, starting in 1952, so are gradually working through the Fifties and Sixties - currently I'm in 1956, and particularly enjoying "Charford", which is an object lesson how to get a great deal out of a small layout, in a small location (a caravan!).

 

Which were, in your view, The Vintage Years, Editions, or Articles?

 

Kevin

[vitalspark]

Marthwaite by David Jenkinson comes to mind.

 

Dave.

[John_Miles]

A Cornish branch line, Portreath, I think, with K's locos which were state of the art at the time. I was just starting to take an interest in "other things" like teenage boys do but I still wanted a layout like that.

[Dunsignalling]

A good friend and I have been fortunate enough to be lent bound editions of RM, starting in 1952, so are gradually working through the Fifties and Sixties - currently I'm in 1956, and particularly enjoying "Charford", which is an object lesson how to get a great deal out of a small layout, in a small location (a caravan!).

 

Which were, in your view, The Vintage Years, Editions, or Articles?

 

Kevin

The one you mention, plus the various incarnations of Mac Pyrke's Berrow.

 

John

[unravelled]

I always find bound volumes a bit dry. There's something about the advertisments which brings back the experience for me more strongly than just the proper content.

 

Dave

[edcayton]

A Cornish branch line, Portreath, I think, with K's locos which were state of the art at the time. I was just starting to take an interest in "other things" like teenage boys do but I still wanted a layout like that.

 

Do you mean Porthleven? It was in the first issue I bought (July 1965?) and inspired me. Built by Dave Howsam, who was at St Albans a couple of years ago with a Swiss narrow gauge layout.

 

Ed

[Nearholmer]

I agree, Unravelled, and have got a fair few unbound MR&L from 1909-10, which are better than the bound 1911-12 ones I have. Fortunately, the binding of these RMs include the covers, and there are a few ads sprinkled in the text, so the period flavour is still there.

 

How would parents today react to children being encouraged to buy "Gaeity Police Handcuffs", which appear to be fully functional?

 

K

[Southernboy]

Collected when I was a child: Somewhere in my Mother's attic are copies of some railway modelling magazines from 1926. I really must dig them out some day.

 

On the subject of old magazines: It set me thinking about the days before the internet, when we used to have to wait a month between injections of inspiration and instruction from monthly periodicals. If one had a query you wrote a letter, posted it, waited for it to be published in the next edition, and then waited another month to see if anyone had responded.

 

On the one hand I love the internet and how (in the context of railway modelling) we can now receive a variety of expert responses within minutes or hours. On the other hand I do feel instantaneity brings inherent pressures to everyday life.

 

But I guess we can't have the best of both worlds

Edited April 2, 2016 by Southernboy

[cornelius]

Derek Naylor's Aire Valley series in 00n3 (late 60s / early 70s from memory) will always be my favourite.

 

(I'm not that old, but my uncle had a considerable number of back issues so I educated myself during visits!)

[New Haven Neil]

I loved all the layouts of that era - indeed buried on here somewhere is a thread I started about them, which ran to many pages.  Berrow, Portreath, Charford, Marthwaite, are perhaps the famous ones, but many others were of great interest too.

[New Haven Neil]

Found it!

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67526-older-inspirational-layouts/

[Dava]

We Old Railway Modellers have to stick together!

 

Seriously, I had a set of bound RMs from about 55-63 given to me but a couple of years ago felt they had little more than curiosity value and donated them to a preserved line. The School Library subscribed to the Railway Modeller & I read this as a youth in the 1970's, it was quite a bit better with good drawings, layouts & articles.I quite enjoy perusing odd copies of Model Railway News from the 1960s which were good on light railways.

 

The odd G Illiffe Stokes articles with his buildings [also found in the Constructor] were timeless.

 

Dava

[DonB]

My pile of RMs, MRNs, and MRCs start at mid 1950,..  In those days I was very taken by John Ahern's "Madder Valley"  and also P.D.Hancock's "Craig & Mertonford" both with lots of how to do it details, in an age of Make Do and Mend.

 

Southernboy, good luck with the mags in the attic, I helped a friend to clear her Parents house, in the loft was a pile of Amateur Photographers.from 1947- 1950, very damp and covered in dust !/4 inch thick. They fell to bits when lifted up.

Edited April 2, 2016 by DonB

[C.A.T.Ford]

R.M. 1966 Terry gough's articles on building S.R. stock from Triang short clerestories. Do it or there was very little you could afford. My Brighton pull-push set still stuns people on my layout today.

 

CAT

[Vanders]

There was an N gauge system, with multiple stations, branch lines etc. which appeared regularly in RM during the 70's & 80's: it was not "fine scale" by any stretch but it was well modelled and looked like a lot of fun to operate. The only problem is I can't remember what it was called!

[simpsonjock]

There was an N gauge system, with multiple stations, branch lines etc. which appeared regularly in RM during the 70's & 80's: it was not "fine scale" by any stretch but it was well modelled and looked like a lot of fun to operate. The only problem is I can't remember what it was called!

 

 

I think it was the 'Wardleworth Lines', early 70's, built in a vicarage, with electric locos and long trains, and a representation of Woodhead tunnel amongst many other delights - including scale ferries. Great memory!

[Enterprisingwestern]

My Brighton pull-push set still stuns people on my layout today.

 

CAT

Do you hit them with it?

 

Mike.

 

Edit cos I forgets me name.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Enterprisingwestern

[sp1]

I think it was the 'Wardleworth Lines', early 70's, built in a vicarage, with electric locos and long trains, and a representation of Woodhead tunnel amongst many other delights - including scale ferries. Great memory!

I have the magazine which that originally featured in - I think the title was 'The Wardlesworth Lines Committee'.

I have a suspicion that it was in one of the issues that featured one of the original articles on Garsdale Road, but I may be wrong. I will have to hunt through my magazine cupboard!

The builder (and author of the article) of the layout actually posted on RMWeb about it a few (?) months ago - think it was on that classic layouts thread mentioned above.

[New Haven Neil]

Lydney - TT scale, always fascinated me too.

[TonyA]

A Cornish branch line, Portreath, I think, with K's locos which were state of the art at the time. I was just starting to take an interest in "other things" like teenage boys do but I still wanted a layout like that.

 

Portreath was in February 1962. I recently found a copy which brought back the memories.

 

Another favourite was Tetfield in January 1960 which I also have a copy of.

 

Good job Bill is not around to tell me off for admiring GWR models. 

 

Tony

[johnarcher]

Portreath was in February 1962. I recently found a copy which brought back the memories.

 

Another favourite was Tetfield in January 1960 which I also have a copy of.

 

Good job Bill is not around to tell me off for admiring GWR models. 

 

Tony

I remember Portreath too (is my memory failing or did one R Essery have something to do with it?), also Torpoint (John Harrison?), and the Augher Valley. Certainly the bits of Iliffe Stokes too.

[kevinlms]

I think it was the 'Wardleworth Lines', early 70's, built in a vicarage, with electric locos and long trains, and a representation of Woodhead tunnel amongst many other delights - including scale ferries. Great memory!

That was December 1972. It was Railway of the Month. I know this because I just happened to read this issue yesterday!

[Pacific231G]

On 02/04/2016 at 18:32, Nearholmer said:

A good friend and I have been fortunate enough to be lent bound editions of RM, starting in 1952, so are gradually working through the Fifties and Sixties - currently I'm in 1956, and particularly enjoying "Charford", which is an object lesson how to get a great deal out of a small layout, in a small location (a caravan!).

 

Which were, in your view, The Vintage Years, Editions, or Articles?

 

Kevin

There were so many vintage articles in the 1950s and early 1960s; I think probably because so many ideas, particularly to get satisfying layouts that could be operated rather than just run in a manageable size, were being developed for the first time.

 

Trying (but probably failing) not to repeat the thread on older inspirational layouts, though most of them are "Railway of the Month",  I was thinking of the actual articles that I've found most interesting and tend to go back to quite often. It seems to be as much the quality of the writing as the subject that  makes them stand out. These are just a few (The asterix imeans that I have  collected a "dossier" of their articles but these are my favourites)    

• *John Charman's original April 1955 on Charford and the Feb 1956 article on timetable operation of it.
• *Berrow Rebuilt by Mac Pyrke June 1960 and Operating Berrow from October 1963 .
• Birkenhead Joint by H. Eric Fisher also from October 1963
• *Two of P.D. Hancock's  articles on the original Craig & Mertonford- "News from Craig" Feb 1958 and "Putting Bach the Clock" May 1960
• G.R. Hanan's County Donegal  (July 1959)
• Larpool & Easington (March 1967) by J.A. Patmore;  a complete point to point TT industrial layout in two separate 32x8 inch boxes and perhaps the first true "Micro layout"
• "A Shelf Layout in OOn3" by Rev. P.H.Heath, a simple but very effective N.G. Terminus in 6ft x 11ins, Aug 1962
• Holiday Project also by P.H.Heath in July 1965. This is the original  OO "Piano Line" layout where the main line enters within the run round loop making a complete terminus to fiddle yard possible in 5x1ft (It's an idea I've used more than once )
• Castlecombe and Molton Central
• *Sainte Colline-des-Champs by Dennis Allenden, more a setting for his magnificent scratch built Belle Epoque (pre WW1) locos to run than a  a layout but with an engaging back story beautifully told.
• *"Building Leighton Buzzard", Three detailed how-to articles by Peter Denny from 1960 that I think could almost be followed today  to creat a convincing terminus to fiddle yard layout based on a folding main baseboard that housed the original Leighton Buzzard (Linslade) .
• "Minories" Cyril Freezer's original plan of the month from 1957
• Perhaps an odd choice but I do like W. Awdry's description of The Ffarquahar Branch which was layout of the month in December 1959 and a serious folding 6x4 "Maurice Deane Pattern" layout  (a terminus to fiddle yard with the fiddle yard hidden behind the terrminus with a concealed continuous run) that was run to a strict timetable and no the locos did not have faces.
• ADD Augher Valley by David Lloyd (April 1964) I couldn't find this last night but the idea of a long narrow gauge railway straggling through the countryside was absolutely brilliant though I'm still not sure what a "railcar half working" was.

Edited May 2, 2019 by Pacific231G

[Gilbert]

Lydney - TT scale, always fascinated me too.

Yes - absolutely brilliant

[Nearholmer]

231G

 

I was aware of, and even chipped-into, your "classic layouts" thread, and was rather hoping that this thread would elicit something slightly different, but certain layouts clearly "top" everything else.

 

I'm glad you mentioned Larpool & Easington, because it was a very clever layout, and one of the few (the only?) ever to be illustrated by a photo of the constructors wife carrying it. The Ffarquhar Branch is exceedingly clever too, if a tad unwieldy for portability. The Rev Heath's "Piano Line" ought to be mentioned too.

 

Personally, I'm deeply into layout track-plans, and always have been, so watching CJF "get his hand in" through the Fifties is the thing I enjoy most.

 

The thing I enjoy least is the absolutely minute type used on some diagrams. Totally illegible to me, however many pairs of specs I put on. SWMBO had the smart idea of photographing the diagrams on her smart phone! and then using the zoom function to read them. Did people have better eyesight in 1956? Or did everyone own a big magnifying glass?

 

K