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My fascination with the railways probably started back when it was the only way to travel long distances for us, my parents never owned a car. As a young lad brought up in Leicester I spent a lot of time in a friends back garden overlooking the western approach to the LMS station. The track was about 20ft down in a brick walled cutting the top of which was the reverse side of his garden wall, about 4 ft high, we would sit on this wall with feet dangling over the cutting and watch in awe as the smoke and steam billowed up from the passing locos mere feet below us. Todays Health and Safety gaulieters would have had a field day, however we survived.
We were both train spotters of course and the nearest we got to owning a train set was constructing Micro Models from card sheets bought from our local model shop. We would draw the track on cardboard and 'operate' the trains on it, no time to be picky, we had 0-4-0 british shunters working alongside American behemoths.
Occasionally we used to travel to Nuneaton on a platform ticket (how many used to do that I wonder). Eventually I was bought a Hornby Dublo train set, Duchess of Atholl as I remember and later a saddle tank of some description. At the time obtaining points was akin to finding rocking horse manure so my trains just went round and round, when I eventually got to fit points it was like a red letter day.
I'm not sure where everything went but I joined the RAF and remember the regular trips on the Manchester Marylebone express from Aylesbury to Leicester, the LNER station was the opposite side of town from the LMS. Occasionally I would go home and back on a Sunday using a corridorless train which stopped at every station along the way, when necessary you had to jump out use the gents and sometimes just leap into the nearest carriage door before the train departed, I seem to remember that this cost something less than £1 return (forces rate of course). I spent many an hour at Brackley waiting for a connection, why was it always cold and dark and the buffet never open?
Eventually I bought a motor bike then a car and forgot the railways for years, although whenever I saw a model railway I felt quite fascinated by it and would almost invariably pay to see an exhibition layout in operation. I once visited the transport museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, their model layouts are well worth a visit should anyone find themselves in the vicinity. Another layout is at the Bekonscot centre at Beaconsfield Bucks, the scale of the whole village varies enormously but the garden railway is very interesting.
How did I get restarted? I bought the Hornby Virtual Railway 1 followed by VR2 then Microsoft Railway Simulator. Having got my interest titivated with phantasy trains I sort of drifted into my second train set via a casual trip to a local toy fair, I bought a DMU and 1 metre of track to display it on (she who must be obeyed said it was not as nice as her ornaments on the mantlepiece) pending further purchases after a little research I figured that there must be a more modern way of controlling locos and thus discovered DCC and so here I am, where next?
I find Virtual Railway 2 is a useful tool for planning a layout not so much in absolute detail but seeing what works and what is required to run operationally.
I look at some of the layouts shown in the magazines and realize I will never achieve the same standards, besides this is not my sole interest, just have to settle for a reasonable backdrop and some simple scenery and concentrate on operation, I am more interested in locos which run well than look absolutely prototypical (there, I'm picking up the lingo already). Perhaps I would have arrived here sooner if we had sons instead of daughters, my grandsons are only interested in drinking or GameBoy according to age.
Do any of you recall where or how your interest in railways began?
Branchy
We were both train spotters of course and the nearest we got to owning a train set was constructing Micro Models from card sheets bought from our local model shop. We would draw the track on cardboard and 'operate' the trains on it, no time to be picky, we had 0-4-0 british shunters working alongside American behemoths.
Occasionally we used to travel to Nuneaton on a platform ticket (how many used to do that I wonder). Eventually I was bought a Hornby Dublo train set, Duchess of Atholl as I remember and later a saddle tank of some description. At the time obtaining points was akin to finding rocking horse manure so my trains just went round and round, when I eventually got to fit points it was like a red letter day.
I'm not sure where everything went but I joined the RAF and remember the regular trips on the Manchester Marylebone express from Aylesbury to Leicester, the LNER station was the opposite side of town from the LMS. Occasionally I would go home and back on a Sunday using a corridorless train which stopped at every station along the way, when necessary you had to jump out use the gents and sometimes just leap into the nearest carriage door before the train departed, I seem to remember that this cost something less than £1 return (forces rate of course). I spent many an hour at Brackley waiting for a connection, why was it always cold and dark and the buffet never open?
Eventually I bought a motor bike then a car and forgot the railways for years, although whenever I saw a model railway I felt quite fascinated by it and would almost invariably pay to see an exhibition layout in operation. I once visited the transport museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, their model layouts are well worth a visit should anyone find themselves in the vicinity. Another layout is at the Bekonscot centre at Beaconsfield Bucks, the scale of the whole village varies enormously but the garden railway is very interesting.
How did I get restarted? I bought the Hornby Virtual Railway 1 followed by VR2 then Microsoft Railway Simulator. Having got my interest titivated with phantasy trains I sort of drifted into my second train set via a casual trip to a local toy fair, I bought a DMU and 1 metre of track to display it on (she who must be obeyed said it was not as nice as her ornaments on the mantlepiece) pending further purchases after a little research I figured that there must be a more modern way of controlling locos and thus discovered DCC and so here I am, where next?
I find Virtual Railway 2 is a useful tool for planning a layout not so much in absolute detail but seeing what works and what is required to run operationally.
I look at some of the layouts shown in the magazines and realize I will never achieve the same standards, besides this is not my sole interest, just have to settle for a reasonable backdrop and some simple scenery and concentrate on operation, I am more interested in locos which run well than look absolutely prototypical (there, I'm picking up the lingo already). Perhaps I would have arrived here sooner if we had sons instead of daughters, my grandsons are only interested in drinking or GameBoy according to age.
Do any of you recall where or how your interest in railways began?
Branchy
