On looking into Old Railway Modellers

[Nearholmer]

Whoaw!

 

Loads of memories come flooding back.

 

I'd forgotten it was shown at Greenwich in 1983 as well. IIRC I was helping the late and hugely lamented Laurier Maunder with one of his layouts, probably "Weald Barrow", at that show. In 1984 I had a table in a draughty hallway downstairs, where I think I was doing 15" gauge on 32mm gauge track, building Heywood wagons from wood and mounting board, using Coopercraft wheels and modified axle-boxes.

 

Many thanks, Kevin

Edited April 4, 2016 by Nearholmer

[Talltim]

A series of articles that have always stuck in my mind were Paul Towers' (I think) narrow gauge ones. I especially liked the one where he built three small locos including 'half-a-shay'

[Horsetan]

Having only started reading RM in mid-1984, the articles I enjoyed most were:

 

- the two-part (and very exhaustive) report on how one modeller turned the old Hornby "Black Five" into something that actually looked like a Black Five, by mixing in various Mainline parts (January & February 1985, I think).

 

- Hayden Reed's ingenious cut, shut and hybrid LNER models, turning the fairly awful old Triang A3 into, e.g Thompson's "Great Northern" rebuild, or a P2 P1.

 

- an "N" gauge modern-image terminus layout which had upgraded Cockrobin colour light signals, and which fully described the movements and operation of the daily service in and out of the station.

 

- Monty Wells' various diesel improvement exercises.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Horsetan

[Andy Kirkham]

 

Another favorite was Borchester (around 1964), NOT F Dyers, but a western region based one, with a wonderful small gasworks made from an Airfix loco shed and Bilteezi factory - which I duly copied !!

 

I'm so glad someone else remembers this. It's many years since I saw the article but I seem to remember that although it mainly utilised R-T-R stock and kit buildings, there was a true-to-life feel about it that I seldom saw equalled.

 

Unlike Frank Dyer's Borchester (as far as I am aware), this one was meant to represent Archers-Land, as it incorporated a branch to Ambridge

Edited April 4, 2016 by Andy Kirkham

[Nearholmer]

I think the one you are after is in here https://archive.org/details/RailwayModellerAugust1963

 

Enjoy the nostalgia-fest.

 

K

[Andy Kirkham]

I think the one you are after is in here https://archive.org/details/RailwayModellerAugust1963

 

Enjoy the nostalgia-fest.

 

K

Thank you so much. 

 

I think it shows up very well after all these years. I always liked the way those 1930s houses wound up the hill. 

 

I'm not old enough to have read this when it first came out, by the way, I think I picked up a copy second-hand.

[edcayton]

I had already butchered my Princess into a "Turbomotive", painted red, but struggled to justify this on a 1960 ER terminus. I was delighted to see an article on how to convert the poor Princess into a Black Five which surprisingly was not available RTR back then. I do believe that I still have the mutant somewhere!

 

I enjoyed the April Fools. I think the London Underground one with the guy digging up the floorboards was the first, it certainly fooled me for a very long time.

 

I loved Blunts. I spent much of my spare time in the WGC branch as a schoolboy and, much later, I used to nip down to Mill Hill as a teacher.

 

Ed

 

There was a magic to some of the authors' names in the RM. W Hardin Osborne and Robbo Ormiston-Chant spring to mind.

[Horsetan]

....I loved Blunts. I spent much of my spare time in the WGC branch as a schoolboy and, much later, I used to nip down to Mill Hill as a teacher....

 

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

[APOLLO]

I think the one you are after is in here https://archive.org/details/RailwayModellerAugust1963

 

Enjoy the nostalgia-fest.

 

K

 

Thanks for that link. I have that mag somewhere !! - now very tatty & dog eared. I still like that gasworks, the terraced & airfix houses and the single line curving into the tunnel !!.

 

Brit15

[Nearholmer]

It is a cracking layout. The guy certainly had an eye for composing a picture.

 

Some of the "secret" seems to be the depth of the scene, but I can't see mention of an access "pop hole" in the middle - maybe the school playground?

 

K

[Legend]

Mallaig which I think was March 1973. Was the first Railway Modeller I ever bought but I was entranced by the long end to end N Gauge layout.

 

I never saw the Wardleworth Lines when it was Railway of the Month but I remember seeing the article on how to build the car ferry in April 74 edition. The layout also featured in the New England Library publication History of Model and Miniature Railways . I never saw a track plan but I think it had three terminal stations and several through stations . As a wee boy I used to imagine the track plans and doodle the possibilities for hours . Also in April 74 was Dent a great S&C layout. A revelation to me as the author had three of that,4 of this type of loco when I could only aspire to own one of a type.

 

I think March 1982 was Hanbury. I know the son of the owner posts on here because I've written about it before . A roundy roundy but operated to a timetable with two terminal stations . It was inspirational because of the operational side. But also a nice layout which I did think I could possibly achieve myself as it used Hornby Dublo trains, Superquick buildings and Hornby overall roof. Not quite achieved it, but got my own version.

 

I wonder if the people who penned these articles realise they are responsible for a lifetime of enthusiasm. A good legacy I'd suggest

Edited April 4, 2016 by Legend

[polybear]

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

Now why doesn't that come across as a surprise?

[Horsetan]

Now why doesn't that come across as a surprise?

Still have one left over. Next time I come across yet another Portescap that's missing a gear....

[Talltim]

Having only started reading RM in mid-1984,

I think I've only read up to about 1986, when my dad stopped buying it in favour of MRJ. I did read every single one of his back issues of RM back to the fifties when I was in my early teens, scarily those mid eighties issues are as old now as the fifties issues were then!

[dunwurken]

Mallaig which I think was March 1973. Was the first Railway Modeller I ever bought but I was entranced by the long end to end N Gauge layout.

 

P D Hancock greatly admired that layout and it gets a brief mention in his book 'Narrow Gauge Adventure'.  There are a few photographs of it taken by him but they are, unusually for him, too dark to reproduce, due no doubt to the poor lighting in the church hall in which it was displayed.  I saw the layout myself and it was certainly impressive but the long single line sections and the resultant difficulties in keeping something moving were uneasy bedfellows.

 

My article nominations would be 'Why Not a Narrow Gauge Layout?' in the Oct/Nov 1950 RM and 'Narrow Gauge in 4mm Scale' in the Nov 1950 MRN by PD Hancock.  Too young to appreciate them at the time but they put 4mm narrow gauge modelling and freelancing on the map.

 

Malcolm

[Horsetan]

I think I've only read up to about 1986, when my dad stopped buying it in favour of MRJ....

Oddly enough, I stopped regularly reading RM in about 1990/1 because of....MRJ! I did think, however, that RM had gone into a decline from which it has never really recovered.

[johnarcher]

I think I've only read up to about 1986, when my dad stopped buying it in favour of MRJ. I did read every single one of his back issues of RM back to the fifties when I was in my early teens, scarily those mid eighties issues are as old now as the fifties issues were then!

I suspect I must be at least your father's age then, though I stopped RM (apart from occasional buys for particular articles later - like the Chester MRC Dingle - that's a good one) when I stopped youthful modelling in mid-teens c 1966. When I came back to modelling in my '30's it was to MRJ, and, before that, to 'Model Railways'. (If you want non-layout articles then some of Iain Rice's in the latter magazine c.1980 are well-remembered, especially the loco construction ones).

Still, I would like to look at some of the really old RM ones again, but I no longer have the magazines. Maybe someone who has could tell me in what issue John Harrison's Torpoint appeared, I might try to find a copy.

Edited April 4, 2016 by johnarcher

[Nearholmer]

The arrival of MRJ was a "touch and go" moment here to.

 

At the time, I was into EM, and had aspirations to fine-ness of scale. I initially gave up RM, and enjoyed MRJ for several years instead, but, after a while, the joie de vivre seemed to seep out of MRJ (was there a change of editor?), and it became rather tedious reading. I borrow a copy nowadays, and, although the work on display is stunningly good, as a magazine I find it a bit too dull and worthy. All those rivets!

 

I returned to RM, even though it barely ever covers 16mm/ft, and pretends that 0 coarse-scale doesn't exist, which means it doesn't directly address what I'm into now. But, its a bit like The Shipping Forecast, The Archers, or red telephone boxes; I have no real use for any of them, but their continued existence is somehow reassuring.

 

K

[Talltim]

I suspect I must be at least your father's age then, though I stopped RM (apart from occasional buys for particular articles later - like the Chester MRC Dingle - that's a good one) when I stopped youthful modelling in mid-teens c 1966. When I came back to modelling in my '30's it was to MRJ, and, before that, to 'Model Railways'. (If you want non-layout articles then some of Iain Rice's in the latter magazine c.1980 are well-remembered, especially the loco construction ones).

Still, I would like to look at some of the really old RM ones again, but I no longer have the magazines. Maybe someone who has could tell me in what issue John Harrison's Torpoint appeared, I might try to find a copy.

You can ask him, he's CorneliusLundie on RMWeb. I also read through his back catalogue of Model Rail and the Constructor which were less comprehensive, like you say Rice in MR was very inspirational and also, the the articles on modern (at the time) wagons by Radcliffe (I think, certainly a member of Paul Bartlett's wagon gang) in MRC. Back then I wanted to model the air braked fleet well and you couldn't just open a box.

Luckily my dad still has them all and I borrow a bound volume every so often.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Talltim

[Horsetan]

....But, its a bit like ... The Archers, ... I have no real use for any of them, but their continued existence is somehow reassuring.

The Archers has moved onto domestic abuse and, as of yesterday, attempted murder. Reassuring.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Horsetan

[Pacific231G]

 

Another favorite was Borchester (around 1964), NOT F Dyers, but a western region based one, with a wonderful small gasworks made from an Airfix loco shed and Bilteezi factory - which I duly copied !!

 

Borchester was Railway of the Month in August 1963.  I'm not sure why but I always preferred the earlier but very similar "Stephenton", Railway of the Month in April 1959. Both layouts were based on the same Cyril Freezer plan; (24L in Plans for Larger Layouts first published in the April 1956 Modeller). For me, Stephenton seemed to give a more convincing impression of a smoky indusrial town perhaps in the Midlands. 

 

Stephenton was the same size as the plan (a 14x6 saucepan shape) ) and followed it almost exactly though both added a second platform to the station with an extra crossover. Apart from the branch extension, not yet completed when the article was written, the main part of Borchester was 12x 5 so perhaps everything was that much tighter. Though only four years apart Stephenton used Pecoway track and kit built points to BRMSB standards while Borchester used Streamline which I think then only had two foot radius points against the three foot radius of Pecoway. Both layouts made the factory into a gasworks.

 

For what is really a single track terminus to return loop with an outer continuous run, the plan gives the impression of a busy mainline and is visually very interesting so is probably one of Cyril Freezer's minor classics. 

[Nearholmer]

Horsetan

 

Re: The Archers. You are right. I heard a bit of it for the first time in about six months, on Sunday (long, tedious drive). Usually, I turn it off after five minutes, because it is stultifying; this time I turned it off because I didn't fancy sharing the drive with a psychopath and his victims.

 

(Given that we are at Borchester, this might actually, almost, be on topic!)

 

Kevin

[br2975]

The LMS Society series of articles published in the RM during the mid-1960s, which were 'provoked' by CJF were, to me, the first articles with plenty of prototype research and good modelling;  including wagons, coaches, locos.

.

Those articles set a benchmark for later jottings.

.

Brian R

[APOLLO]

Borchester was Railway of the Month in August 1963.  I'm not sure why but I always preferred the earlier but very similar "Stephenton", Railway of the Month in April 1959. Both layouts were based on the same Cyril Freezer plan; (24L in Plans for Larger Layouts first published in the April 1956 Modeller). For me, Stephenton seemed to give a more convincing impression of a smoky indusrial town perhaps in the Midlands. 

 

Stephenton was the same size as the plan (a 14x6 saucepan shape) ) and followed it almost exactly though both added a second platform to the station with an extra crossover. Apart from the branch extension, not yet completed when the article was written, the main part of Borchester was 12x 5 so perhaps everything was that much tighter. Though only four years apart Stephenton used Pecoway track and kit built points to BRMSB standards while Borchester used Streamline which I think then only had two foot radius points against the three foot radius of Pecoway. Both layouts made the factory into a gasworks.

 

For what is really a single track terminus to return loop with an outer continuous run, the plan gives the impression of a busy mainline and is visually very interesting so is probably one of Cyril Freezer's minor classics. 

 

Thanks for the info. I've just ordered a copy off Ebay for a fiver. 

 

Brit15

[Dunsignalling]

Oddly enough, I stopped regularly reading RM in about 1990/1 because of....MRJ! I did think, however, that RM had gone into a decline from which it has never really recovered.

I still get both on a regular basis and I really think the RM has got its spark back since Mr Flint took over as editor.

 

I do conduct the customary thumb-through of each issue first to make sure it includes at least one item of direct interest but I reckon I only miss a couple a year.

 

Much of what appears in MRJ exceeds what I am ever likely to achieve (or even attempt) but a bit of aspirational reading never hurts even if one only adopts or adapts the odd aspect of something covered. It is also a good source of information on products emanating from cottage industry suppliers which the mainstream titles often miss. I started getting it about No.50 and have since acquired all the earlier issues.

 

By contrast, my purchases of "the rest"  have greatly reduced over the past few years. I still get BRM occasionally but the others, hardly ever.

 

John

Edited April 5, 2016 by Dunsignalling