What Got You Into Railway Modelling?

[cheshire lines]

My brother and I were given some Hornby Dublo track and rolling stock as presents in the mid 1960s. If I remember correctly I had an A4 Pacific (Silver Link?) and three tinplate Gresley coaches and he had Duchess of Atholl and three maroon coaches. Over the next few years we acquired further locos and rolling stock and a baseboard to set the track on permanently. Locos I can remember included an 8F, N2, Class 20 diesel, all from Hornby and a Wrenn Warship diesel. Rolling stock included one of the Travelling Post Office set, which picked up and dropped off metal mailbags.

Eventually we lost interest in the model railway in our teens and it got sold.

I always maintained an interest in railways, visiting various preserved lines over the years, but didn't take up modelling again until about 12 years ago.
My dad was a member of a local model railway society and acquired lots of locos and rolling stock to run on the club layouts. Unfortunately health problems eventually meant he was unable to continue attending the model railway society nights so he asked me if I wanted any of his locos and rolling stock. After negotiations with the Household Authorities, I was given permission to have a model railway board at one end of our bedroom. Dad had far too many locos to fit on my layout, so I kept some steam locos, mainly classes seen in the North West of England in the 1950s and 60s, plus a few green diesels and a variety of suitable rolling stock. The remainder were sold on a well known online auction site.

So that was the origin of my current layout, Lostock Junction.

[bulleidboy]

I was born into the real world of railways, lived in granddads station house for awhile, so i had a real station and line 5yds away, so models soon followed.

Just for you Brian - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QAuOF5gDNA

[brian1951]

Very fitting BB, sadly i remember Alma too.

[Walkingthedog]

That was good to see. The Billy Cottton Band Show, the Top of the Pops of its day.

[Mountain Goat]

I never knew Wrenn did a warship.

[cheshire lines]

I never knew Wrenn did a warship.

Actually you are quite correct, my memory was having an off day! The warship was made by Trix; I knew it wasn't by Hornby Dublo, but mis-remembered the actual make!
Another loco I had towards the end of my time with the Dublo layout was a Triang Jinty, converted to 3 rail operation by a school friend. He had a really big 3 rail layout in outbuilding at his house. It even went outside into the garden through a hole in the wall.

He also had a full size signal post complete with arm in his front garden. He bought it from BR when they closed the Whitegate branch off the Cheshire Lines route from Chester to Manchester. He then enlisted a group of us to drag it by hand several hundred yards on rollers along ' the trackbed until we reached a point where another friend's dad could get his landrover into an adjacent field and winch it onto a trailer.

[Mountain Goat]

I had a Trix (Actually Liliput) Western for a couple of years. Hardly used, I sold it about a year ago. It had its origional receipt and paperwork with it from 1973.

[Chops]

Marvelous question. Seems like railroading is something in the blood.
I always wanted to be around trains ever since I first saw a Toronto, Hamilton,
and Buffalo dog train working its way through rural Ontario. Long story short,
I always wanted to work on the railroad, but as I came of age, railroads
were in a rather sketchy position following the Penn Central bankruptcy.

None, the less, my first train set came from a Wrenn wind up set in 1966
of which I somehow managed to hold onto the Robertson's Golliwog car, and have
been contemplating the question above ever since. We were living in Shiplake at the time,
having trailed along behind father and his wide ranging career. Living abroad, in the UK
was a startling change for a young lad, but I grew to love the place and its rugged
people. Allow me, if you will, a rerun of a little video asking this question:

https://youtu.be/iZel38A182E

[Mountain Goat]

I like the film. What is the LNER loco that pulls the Pullman coaches? I think it maybe a good idea to have a signal or two where the one line crosses the other and back again. I have tried a real one of those Toad brakevans. It isn't easy to screw on the handwheel to get the brakes to slow the train.