do model from what you grew up with or whats around now
from what i grew up with, 3rd rail electrics from the southern region and br blue from the highlands region traveling to and from my grandads, i also lived next to a paper mill that used to be served by silver bullets but i havent planned how to have a rake of these yet and what use to make of them,
I'm modelling from when I was aged about 8 - 10...
Definately not from whats around now, I don't find constantly changing vinyls and franchises in any way inspirational!
With British outline I prefer site visits to long out of use places and research, then go from there, all heavy industry based...back when Britain actually had heavy industry on a scale worth talking about. When I scratch build something it is usually based on what can be found in the local area (well, within 20 miles of home), but is usually of subjects that fell out of use when my mom was still in a pram.
With the US stuff its stuff I remember from when my dad moved to North Carolina back in the '90s; ageing second gen EMDs and the then new wide cab stuff starting to come on line...I still can't answer why I model the West coast and not the East though :smiley-laughing:
I'm modelling from when I was about 10-12 and was trainspotting at Reading in 1973-75, BR-Blue.
I also have modern stock from whne I was commuting from Reading around 2006-08, but the station and surroundings will be modelled on 1970's.
sadly i was not stomping about when steam was on the go :thumbsdown: so its books,internet and other layouts for inspiration.dunno why i model steam era but diesel just doesn't excite me :-\
As a young kid of 8-10 I used to spot steam. From then until girls came along it was green diesels. When I was travelling back and forth to school it was those (yeuch) electric things - mainly clapped out AM10 units.
I therefore model steam and green/maroon diesel.
Quote from: Rheneas N Gauge on December 13, 2011, 11:59:32 AM
do model from what you grew up with or whats around now
I was born a few years after steam ended which is what I like to model so the short answer is neither! :smiley-laughing:
My earliest memories were on the Met/GC Joint in the 50s. Early morning going to school the London bound trains included a steam for Marylebone and an Electric loco for Baker Street. So I initially had a bias to suburban passenger. Then there was some early 60s loco spotting with Dad at Euston, Kings Cross and Paddington.
however my location tastes have moved from S&D to Cumbria to North Wales and now Scotland (land of my paternal Grandmother). But my era has remained firmy steam with some green diesel.
That said I now have enough early 2000 era Scottish to run Portpatrick Town with that era of stock.
I'll expand on what I said previously... I'm modelling what I remember from when I was about 8 - 10! I may not be prototypically correct in everything I do but what I am trying to model is the spirit of what my period...
My memory is a bit hazey - many books help ! ;D
Am modelling from memories of about 12/13 yrs old when my dad was writing a magazine for french railways and took me with him. I live in Surrey so thought the french trains were so much bigger and more magnificent than (sorry) the trains that I got/get to Fratton to watch Pompey (hello Pompey fans!).
Travelled on 'L'Aquitaine' , the Paris - Bordeaux TEE which I think was the fastest train in the world at the time (about 1981 - my memory not great) and then stayed for 2 days on the spanish border where changing trains and gauges, the dirtiness, lateness and general manana manana attitude of RENFE over SNCF got me hooked.
Still like travelling on SWT but wouldn't recommend it on Sunday 18th in the south Hampshire area. Big dangerous footie match for unaware Xmas shoppers.
Note to Tank - am not a hooligan, just warning others. I'll watch it at home.
Cheers Weave.
Yeah, teens ish, I suppose, Before that I was mad on planes (hundreds of Airfix kits).
Spent most of my teens in Surrey/Hants, Birmingham and Germany, and this is reflected in my fleet.
Definately the past.
Thank goodness for books and the web to fill in those hazy memories. :computersmile: ???
I model the 1920s/1930s, well before I was born, so plenty of research by book and internet.
For me the research is half the fun, there's always something unexpected/new/surprising/delightful that turns up :)
If pushed, I would say that I am modelling what I would have seen in the area where I now stay, if I had been here in my very early years, and if I could remember it! So that is very much influenced by what I see now, but I would find it odd to model what I see today if I walk along to the station.
I am actually though, pondering the fact that I have no motive power at all for the time and location that I would suggest I want to model, and so modellers licence knows no bounds! Which perhaps leads me to another question: I know WHERE I am, but WHEN am I?
I model what i like so alsorts i never thought i'd like diesels but i am comming round to them but not being a rail buff i struggle to know whats what and when so an accurate depiction is beyond me at the moment but one day i'd like to model Teignmouth to Newton Abbot
Dave
Dave
Back in the day... Um, about 1983 ish, I knew that area very well!
Worked in Plymouth on the A38 bypass and then tiverton on the flood defences. Stayed in Exeter, and many happy memories of trundling the main and branch lines on my way to and from the rest of the world!
What era will you model?
I model what was around when growing up - but what with memory of those days being a bit hazy, I rely on my collection of railway oriented books and our local Public Library for much of my source material.
I have for that last 20 years (on and off) been trying to model Weybridge as it was in the late 50s / early 60s - did at one stage have almost all the track laid on a tail-chaser akin to one of CJF's large exhibition plans in his N Gauge Plans Book. Since it's been ripped up and re-laid in various ever reducing guises several times. I have done a couple of visits there armed with camera, notebook and tape - surprised the ticket office staff by asking to buy a platform ticket so I could have the run of the place so to speak, the amount of dust they had to brush off it before issuing to had to be seen to be believed :o. I have to agree with Southernboy that the research is almost as much fun as the modelling.
The trouble is finding Loco's, EMU's and other rolling stock appropriate to the location and era.
:A1Tornado: :Carriage: :Carriage:
Really not sure but i have seen some interesting pictures of Teignmouth during the war lots of sidings in the docks but i like to watch what the 66s are moving when they go through Dawlish so i'd have to think hard about it
Dave
Childhood memories. My first is of, aged about 5, being terrified and at the same time thrilled by an express steam engine rumbling into Bournemouth Central, with its gigantic wheels and ear-piercing steam exhaust and whistle. I had to put my hands over my ears!
Then there was the agonisingly slow chuffing along branch lines on day trips to Corfe Castle and the like - in those days all I wanted was speed! (nowadays the steam train can't go slowly enough for me...) There was a memorable week's holiday on the Isle of Wight with a runabout ticket: I seem to remember we upgraded to first class so we could sit in the wonderful old saloon carriage, with seats round the sides. When we lived (briefly) in Liverpool there was a day trip to the Lake District, which must have been steam-hauled. The trouble is, at the time it never occurred to me that steam trains wouldn't last for ever, so I took no photos and kept no records...
At one time we lived in Clacton, so the trips were on the electric trains with their funny whirring noise, past stations with mysterious names such as Thorpe-Le-Soken.
My last fond memory of British Railways was travelling from Ruabon to Cambridge when I was a student, my tin trunk going Passengers Luggage in Advance - it was actually there waiting for me when I went 'up' ;-} Not that the ride was anything to write home about, at least once the gorgeous scenery at the start of the trip (Chirk Viaduct) had gone and there was just the noisy, bumpy ride in the cross-country diesel railcar...