Model Behaviour

Eleven years old was too early to be faced with such important life choices. I deliberated. The decision was not an easy one. I could have sought help and advice, but chose to agonise alone. I weighed up the advantages and disadvantages and I came to a decision. I knew what I would do and then I would just have to live with it.

Watch real trains or invest in railway modelling? There was no way I could afford to do both. I guess I could have just clung on, while black-liveried Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth kept on going interminably round the same oval of track, while my transformer unit got warmer and warmer. She had no stations to call at and only two carriages to attend to, no signals to restrain her and no inclines to face. She did not even have a permanent baseboard below her wheels.

To transform her prospects would have meant money spent that I could otherwise direct to the great outdoors. Excitement and exhilaration beckoned at Chester, Crewe and Preston every weekend and school holiday. I chose reality over make-believe.

I like to think that when I carried the lot down to Exchange & Mart in Liscard Crescent, Wallasey, and waved it away for a fiver, that it was because I was intent on calling in on Mr Twinn in Seaview Road on the way home to invest in some foreign stamps, or to buy records at Strothers or books at Bookland. Unfortunately, I think I spent most of it on sweets.

So, it was that I still felt a little sheepish on re-entering the world of model railways, even though it was about 56 years after that particular transgression. I was half-expecting that I might be put on the spot by some die-hard modellers. If I’m so interested in trains, why haven’t I got my own layout?

The Elizabethan Railway Society’s annual exhibition was held over the weekend in Kirkby in Ashfield. On the way in, we passed the site of the local sheds, 16B, which I never got near to in the days of steam.

There were 21 exhibitors, spread over the main hall and 3 nearby rooms. The place was awash with dedication and enthusiasm. The time and money invested in these layouts is extraordinary. The hobby attracts ex-railwaymen and life-long railway addicts, alike, united in a common cause to recreate a slice of the action from times past and, in some cases, in very particular locations. On some stands, landscapes are fossilised, environments are faithfully duplicated and time stands still. Then a train appears out of a tunnel and we see that this place, apparently frozen in time has suddenly come to life again, just as it was then, as near as damn it. I found it quite mesmerising, even though all the locations on show were new to me.

Modellers are not bound by the limitations of former realities, of course. One is free to make up one’s own version of what reality should have been like. You can invent your ideal landscape, decide on a name for it and furnish it with whatever attracts you. There are no limitations to the imagination - only dexterity, feasibility and how adept you are at using the available technology, which itself is now fiendishly clever.  

Robin Sharman’s, N Scale, Fenny Hill is explained on his website at www.facebook.com/fennyhillrailway

His layout is full of intrigue and personal touches that reflect his wider interests. Thought has gone into every last detail of its presentation and there is a reason lurking behind all of the inclusions. If they are not immediately apparent, Robin is only too happy to fill in the gaps. I made sure that my picture included the poster advertising The Who.