[Gary]

This morning I had one of those funny shivering sensations that you get when looking through old catalogues. Memories of how it was in those days. A time that will never ever again be recaptured. No DCC and no super detailed models. Locomotives and diesels with single piece bodies.

I then wondered how Model Rail Forum would look had it been around in the late 1960's.

There would be no DCC section.

N gauge had not really got going so no N gauge section either.

News would be very limited as there would only be 1 or 2 new models each year and 1 or 2 reliveries.

Only one big British player in Triang Hornby. No Bachmann.

Lots and lots of kits available so the kit building section would probably be as big as the DCC section is now.

The rumour and gossip would be about the new Triang Hornby Class 9f and that would be it!

Would it or wouldn't it be the first Brit loco to have tender drive? This tender drive had become fashionable in Europe and the Brits were playing catch up.

Traction tyres had not been introduced.

We would all be raving about how good the latest maroon livery of the Triang Hornby Princess was.

And discussion around Wrenn models being that much better given that they are twice the price of Triang Hornby.

So the real questions are....

....if you had your own Tardis which one model railway memory would you like to repeat all over again?

And if you had your own Tardis which one model railway product of today would you take back with you to 1969?

Roll the Dr Who Theme Tune...................ding ding ding du ding ding ding du ding ding ding du ding ding ding du ding ding ding du ding ding ding.......

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE ...if you had your own Tardis which one model railway memory would you like to repeat all over again?

I reckon that would be my first train set, the Hornby HST, which I still have boxed up in my mums garage at home. Probably wouldn't work now due to corrosion. Still won't part with it though.

QUOTE And if you had your own Tardis which one model railway product of today would you take back with you to 1969?

I couldn't just take one thing. It would be trains, controllers and coaches as they are all so much better today. It would be have to be the Fleischmann turntable as my Hornby one was rubbish. Funnily enough they are still selling the same one now.

If I did have a Tardis and could go back in time I would probably go back a bit further to see steam trains in operation. I'm not that old that I have direct memories of seeing them when I was a kid. I believe they last run in 1967 when I was three. As the quality of the models wasn't that brilliant I would rather see the real trains.

Actually, re the the one model railway memory I would like to repeat, there's one I would change. I had a Flying Scotsman which I dismantled to see how it worked and couldn't put back together again, I wouldn't do that this time around. I'd just leave it alone.

 

[bangerblueed]

I'd like to transport Wibdenshaw back to the sixties to show people what they should be aiming at

 

[DRW]

I'd probably go back to the first time I set foot in the Glasgow shop "Argyle Model Dockyard" back in 1979/80. I remember going on the train with my dad, coming out of the Cnetral low level station exit and being disappointed when we went to where the shop was only to find it shut! We then walked down the road a little and were delighted to see it as a huge new shop, vastly bigger than it had been before. Inside it was heaven, with kits and r/c models at the front and a huge railway section at the back, full of Hornby, Wrenn, Lima and Mainline models. I spied a Hornby "Duchess of Abercorn" sitting on a turntable and I was smitten. I was also mesmerised by the Wrenn display in the huge glass case at the back, with NCB Class 08s, Class 8Fs in LNER livery and a whole collection of A4s and Coronations as well as Pullman coaches. If I had my wallet with me I'd buy up as many of the Wrenn models as I could! Funnily, I remember preferring the crimson of the Hornby version, though, which is why I got that instead of one of the Wrenns. Unfortunately there was a problem with the pony truck and I had to get a second version.

If I could take one thing back to 1969 it would probably be a new Hornby A4, just to let people see the benefits of loco drive and the advances in detail. Perhaps that would stop Hornby's move away from loco drive models!

 

[5696Arethusa]

Never mind the time travel I'd like the TARDIS for the fact that it's bigger on the inside than the outside, that would solve a whole host of problems with where to put the layout, which might create more problems, with the ability to materialize anywhere at anytime I might be tempted to switch from 4mm to 12 inches to the foot and have a real Bullied MN. Mmm better go have a sanity pill.
ARETHUSA

 

[dwb]

>I'd like the TARDIS for the fact that it's bigger on the inside than the outside, that would solve a whole host of problems with where to put the layout,
Brilliant

David

 

[Ozzie21]

I'd probably go back to 1965 and rescue my brand new Blue Pullman set with the two extra Kitmaster coaches that I got for my birthday that year. Stupid kid that I was I sold it and the coaches in 1970 to buy a Wren Duchess and now I don't have either. Maybe I should go back and rescue both.

Ozzie21

 

[Gary]

I guess we all have space issues that a Tardis would solve.

And one or two "if only's" have appeared.

My Tardis moment would be to return to Cricklewood, London and go with dad to the local model shop at Willesden Green next to the tube station. With its dark interior and musty smell and cobwebs and varnished hardwood framed glass cabinets. Hobby shops just are not like this anymore. And picking up all that Hornby Dublo stuff going cheap. Less than half the price of Triang Hornby stuff at the time as the shop wanted to clear it out. I probably made around 10 visits picking up coaches, wagons, Dublo 2 rail track, tank locomotives and a few Super 4 track adaptors and wagon adaptors as and when pocket money would allow. The adaptor wagons were cheaper than normal wagons so I had a whole rake of them! Curves were virtually being given away so I probably ended up with the curviest layout in the country! Great fun and a bargain basement way to rapidly expand your layout at the time in the mid 1960's. I still have some of the items purchased up in the loft.

"If only" I had bought a lot more and kept the boxes....

And having bought all the stock in the shop I would then show the shopkeeper a recent 2006 catalogue from a collector auction with prices realised!

Just imagine seeing his reaction! (The 1965 shopkeeper would probably have a Gordon Ramsey moment!)

The only thing is word would soon spread and everybody in 1965 would be snapping up all the Dublo stuff and keeping what they had mint in store in the boxes. There would be so much stuff on the market in 2006 that it would all be worthless!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE I'd probably go back to the first time I set foot in the Glasgow shop "Argyle Model Dockyard" back in 1979/80. I remember going on the train with my dad, coming out of the Cnetral low level station exit and being disappointed when we went to where the shop was only to find it shut! We then walked down the road a little and were delighted to see it as a huge new shop, vastly bigger than it had been before.

I'd forgotten about that shop. It was awesome wasn't it. My first encounter with model railways was when I was a kid in Glasgow. My dads cousin had a huge basement layout. One I saw that, I wanted one. A layout that is not a basement.

 

[Robert]

Don't think I would be railway modelling. I'd grab my camera and go back and photograph all of those locos in glorious digital colour splendour!

So many miles of track, so many locomotives, not enough time for modelling!

 

[5696Arethusa]

Robert you'd have all the time you need that's the idea of a time machine.
I think I would go back and see myself armed with the current catalogues so I could avoid buying some of the things I have and save the need for upgrading certian items in my collection. I'd also tell myself to be a lot more grateful for the 41 squadron I got for Christmas '85, I didn't think much of it at the time because of it's boxy shape and lack of "proper steam loco motion" I still have her and she now has a 5 pole X04 inside. I also have two super detail Spamcans, two MNs and am waiting on Hornby producing Taw Valley in red when the rebuilt light Pacifics come on stream.
Arethusa

 

[alibuchan]

I would go back and buy as many red Peco Jubilees and minitrix locos and teak coaches as i could.

I would also go and see all of the locos that i have not seen. As i have only recently seen things like deltics, peaks, 40's etc in august at barrow hill.

Alistair

 

[Dennis David]

I would have bought every slot car kit and Marklin train I could find and be a rich man now.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Dennis David @ 7 Oct 2006, 14:23) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I would have bought every slot car kit and Marklin train I could find and be a rich man now.

I thought you already were Dennis (TIC) !

regards
Brian

"If I had Bill Gate's money I'd throw mine away".

 

[John Webb]

I'd like to go back for two things:
(1) check my first ever memory (at 18months old!) of being pushed past an 0-6-0 pannier tank at a small halt somewhere in the South Wales valleys;
(2) treat my first ever layout to better preserve the rolling stock - the original 'EverReady' tube-train model.

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (dbclass50 @ 10 Oct 2006, 07:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I thought you already were Dennis (TIC) !

regards
Brian

"If I had Bill Gate's money I'd throw mine away".
I suppose he means richer than he already is.