Childhood model railways

[emjaybee]

A great potted history! Thanks for posting.

I like the little 009 bit tucked in the end!

A few years ago the 009 got a new lease of life. Dad said he wished he'd got something to run them on as for 30+ years all it did was occasionally potter back & forth in the timber yard.

So I built him this...





It's progressed somewhat since the last picture. It's fully ballasted & has a complete farm, crossing gates etc..

Oh, and the blighter now has my Double Fairlie on permanent loan!

[grumbeast]

This is a great thread!,
Emjaybee thats a wonderful layout, but I confess my eye was drawn to the wonderful wall of ephemera!

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of my first railway.  My Dad built it for me and it was N gauge, my little bedroom had room for it and my bed only.  Dad built it high enough that we could hang my clothes under it and put everything else under there.  It was a 3'x 3' double track loop,(in a 6'6"x6'6" room!).  My first trainset was a Lima 31 and 2 coaches, unfortunately gone now, I know they were pretty rubbish but I did love that locomotive.

What's just as remarkable was that my Dad built it despite hating trains (something to do with being stuck in a train at Crewe for hours and hours when he was a squaddie!).  It was my mum who got me into them as she used to holiday at an Uncle's who was a signalman at Pencoed crossing on the South Wales mainline and used to stay in his house in a room so close to the track you could almost touch the trains

Graham

[emjaybee]

This is a great thread!,
Emjaybee thats a wonderful layout, but I confess my eye was drawn to the wonderful wall of ephemera!

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of my first railway.  My Dad built it for me and it was N gauge, my little bedroom had room for it and my bed only.  Dad built it high enough that we could hang my clothes under it and put everything else under there.  It was a 3'x 3' double track loop,(in a 6'6"x6'6" room!).  My first trainset was a Lima 31 and 2 coaches, unfortunately gone now, I know they were pretty rubbish but I did love that locomotive.

What's just as remarkable was that my Dad built it despite hating trains (something to do with being stuck in a train at Crewe for hours and hours when he was a squaddie!).  It was my mum who got me into them as she used to holiday at an Uncle's who was a signalman at Pencoed crossing on the South Wales mainline and used to stay in his house in a room so close to the track you could almost touch the trains

Graham

Ah, yes. The ephemera represents decades of family trips, Dad's work dealings etc., etc..

Here's a better view.









The two crests that 'bookend' the collection are genuine decals. Discovered & liberated from the stores at Wolverton Works sometime in the '70s I think. They're mounted on genuine Crimson Lake LMS paint from the same source.

At some point in time I have to break it to the wife that they'll be coming our way. That will NOT be up for discussion.

[Bealman]

All Uber cool.

[JulianO]

I thought emjaybee's posts were great too, and that was an impressive OO Gauge railway.

He, and I am sure many others, will remember that the Tri-ang 0-4-0 of his first train set had a top speed of about a scale 200 mph. We had one, plus a diesel on the same chassis, and used to race them.

[Bealman]

I do have some pics of my childhood layout somewhere, but given my current location I'm not able to look for them. Here, however are a couple of items from that layout from my albums, photo-bombing the B&CE.

Operating helicopter car (note that this model even pre-dates the Battlespace one):



Triang yard crane comes to the rescue of a broken Poole Farish Flying Scotsman:

[Greygreaser]

Tried to make a layout in my early teens ('55ish) using a TTR set and a sheet of hardboard! Looking back this was probably the most complex way of starting in model railways.
The principle of running two locos on three rails was fine but the esthetics were horrid, only 0-4-0 tank locos and those Kato style track pieces but without any finesse. The double pick-up shoes must have been made of the softest steel as they would 'groove' within a few hours of use - perhaps deliberate to stop the rails wearing? Speed control seemed to be nothing or quite quick to avoid stalling and trying to match two locos was nigh impossible.
If you've tried to attach anything to hardboard the you'll know it's the least suitable material for a layout base. Attaching one section of track would invariably loosen a previous section!
Add to this my friend had a superb Hornby 00 set with detailed loco and coaches(possibly the green princess set) which made the TTR stock look very childish!
After that you wouldn't see me near MR stuff until my son wanted to try modelling, choosing Ashburton in 00 gauge about '83. From this I bought a few N items that eventually got used during covid lockdown about 2021.