I just completed Christian Wolmar's excellent book "Fire & Steam" and my boyhood fascination with steam trains came rushing back.
I grew up in Glasgow's Mount Florida area in the fifties, at the waning end of the "golden" age of steam. I still have fond memories of travelling into Central Station to view the big engines that travelled the Glasgow/London route from platform 1 or 2. My grandest memory however, was when as a lad of 12 or 13 when my mates and I discovered an abandoned train works shed. It may have been Polmadie, but I honestly can't remember. The place was open but deserted and there where many engine components lying about, bogies, boilers and other running gear. There was even an almost complete engine hoisted up high. I'll never forget the sight of these abandoned behemoths decaying in the hot (by Glasgow summer standards) sun filtered through the broken skylights.
I emigrated to Canada in 1970 and trains where the last thing from my mind; work, and a growing family occupied my time (as well as a few other pastimes) but "Fire & Steam" has brought it all back. The kids have grown up and flown the coup and dad is itching to get back to it, so here I am...
I have no idea what is on the market, I see the traditional Hornby, but there are several names I'm not familiar with. I picked up a few magazines, 'Railway Modeller' and 'Model Rail', to name two but I still feel like a complete outsider. I'm not even sure if there is a decent store in my area (Ottawa is the closest city to me) or even what to look for. My main wish is for highly detailed models of British steam engines in 00 gauge, however larger scales may be of interest if they offer a higher level of detail and functioning components. I'm not adverse to kit building as I was an avid modeller as a kid. I'm also interested in collecting detailed schematics and technical (engineering) drawings of the real thing!
So there we have it! I hope I've not bored you and look forward to meeting many of you on this forum. But for now, I have a lot of reading and researching to do. I think I'll start with catalogues!
I grew up in Glasgow's Mount Florida area in the fifties, at the waning end of the "golden" age of steam. I still have fond memories of travelling into Central Station to view the big engines that travelled the Glasgow/London route from platform 1 or 2. My grandest memory however, was when as a lad of 12 or 13 when my mates and I discovered an abandoned train works shed. It may have been Polmadie, but I honestly can't remember. The place was open but deserted and there where many engine components lying about, bogies, boilers and other running gear. There was even an almost complete engine hoisted up high. I'll never forget the sight of these abandoned behemoths decaying in the hot (by Glasgow summer standards) sun filtered through the broken skylights.
I emigrated to Canada in 1970 and trains where the last thing from my mind; work, and a growing family occupied my time (as well as a few other pastimes) but "Fire & Steam" has brought it all back. The kids have grown up and flown the coup and dad is itching to get back to it, so here I am...
I have no idea what is on the market, I see the traditional Hornby, but there are several names I'm not familiar with. I picked up a few magazines, 'Railway Modeller' and 'Model Rail', to name two but I still feel like a complete outsider. I'm not even sure if there is a decent store in my area (Ottawa is the closest city to me) or even what to look for. My main wish is for highly detailed models of British steam engines in 00 gauge, however larger scales may be of interest if they offer a higher level of detail and functioning components. I'm not adverse to kit building as I was an avid modeller as a kid. I'm also interested in collecting detailed schematics and technical (engineering) drawings of the real thing!
So there we have it! I hope I've not bored you and look forward to meeting many of you on this forum. But for now, I have a lot of reading and researching to do. I think I'll start with catalogues!