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I have my father to thank for building me a train set when
I was very young and for indulging my ever-growing hobby at birthdays
and Christmas. I have always had a train set as long as I can remember.
Like so many other kids I would add to it, change it or re-build it from
time to time. They were always 'OO' gauge train sets. 'N' gauge had not
really been 'invented' as a commercial reality when I was young and I
would probably have been too ham-fisted to do anything with it in any
case. 'O' gauge in the form of the old Hornby tinplate was definitely on
the wane in the 1960s and it was 'OO' gauge that most parents were
buying for their children at the time. All this kept me happy for years,
either having the train set up in my bedroom and then, following a move
of house, in the cellar.
I started building my first 'serious' end-to-end layout
in the cellar of my parent's house when I was about 15, using Peco track
and making crude scratchbuilt buildings.
A year or so earlier I had joined the school model railway club and helped build
a club layout in our very cramped premises next to the main hall. While
the club layout was in an unfinished state the headmaster asked us to move elsewhere on
the site. We traded a small but well-lit room for a larger space under
the gym with no natural light! It was all good, clean fun, though, and
definitely better than football or cross country running. When we joined the Sixth Form, a few of us
got together to form the '005
Society' (click on 'Other Items' for more information on 005). I
eventually moved on to 16.5mm finescale and with the help and
encouragement of friends, set about aiming for higher standards of
modelling. I started a new layout based on a fictitious GWR branch line
in Herefordshire, but this didn't advance much due to my going to
University and then getting a job with British Rail.
My
railway career started at Taunton in the 1980s In
the university holidays I had started to build loco kits for a local model
shop as a way of earning a bit of spare cash, and this activity took up most of
my available modelling time for several years. In
the 1990s, having got married and moved house a few times, I built my
first exhibition layout 'Engine Wood', followed a few years later by 'Bleakhouse
Road'. One day I would like to build the extension to Bleakhouse Road -
'Burrowbridge' - which will
also be capable of standing alone as an exhibition layout in it's own
right (click on 'New Projects' for more information). More
recently I have started to model in P4, although I intend to stay with
OO Finescale as well. One
of the pleasures of exhibiting is the variety of people you meet and the
chance to exchange ideas and gossip. I also help friends out with their
own layouts from time to time, which can be quite relaxing when you know
that you're not responsible for packing everything away at the end of
the show! My modelling philosophy is to aim to get it all
'looking right' (whatever that really means when you are dealing with a
hobby that involves a fair degree of artistic interpretation) and
putting as much detail into each model or scene as I reasonably can. A
good maxim on exhibition layouts is to say that 'if you cannot see it
from normal viewing distance, why bother putting it in?' Fair enough and
I do sometimes do this, but I generally try to put as much detail in as
possible, because it's not just the exhibition visitor who always stays
at 'normal viewing distance' that I am catering for. Lots of people
crane forward and squint right up close....and so do I! The signalbox on
Bleakhouse Road, for example, has full interior detail, right down to
the open Train Register on a typical high wooden desk, but until I
connected up the lighting in the box recently, no one could look in to
see it (but mainly because I glued the roof on!). I also
like to weather the locos and stock (and the layout itself) to reflect
the condition that the prototype tended to be in in the my models are
set (1959 - 1964......ish). The availability of so many books with
colour photographs from the B.R. steam era on the market nowadays is a
real help in this respect. The techniques for weathering models cannot
be explained better than by Martin Welch in his book 'The Art of
Weathering' (published by Wild Swan), but it is so much easier if you
have a good colour photo or two to work from. Then
there's always the debate between OO, EM and P4.......there has been
much correspondence on this subject in various model railway periodicals
over the years and more recently on the internet. Some people seem to think that manufacturers will suddenly want
to start mass producing EM or even P4 R-T-R models. There has been an
alternative viewpoint expressed to the effect that modellers of the UK
scene should all convert to HO (at the same time as adopting the Euro, no
doubt). This is all very well but I can't get too excited about it, I'm
afraid. I think that OO is here for a long time yet, as the majority of
customers who buy model railways/train sets don't really worry about the
inaccurate scale/gauge ratio. It would be nice to be able to buy R-T-R
EM or P4 models, but I just don't think that Bachmann et al will go
there..... In the past, a number of people asked me why I
hadn't converted to EM or P4. Some were even kind enough to suggest that the
trackwork on Engine Wood or Bleakhouse Road looks EM (one guy, who I
know models in P4, actually thought it was P4!). Well, there are several
reasons, and the mere fact that I am saying all this must mean that I
acknowledge that 16.5mm gauge is not right. I have
always liked the idea of being able to run R-T-R stock on the layouts straight
away if I want to, even though I would not normally exhibit anything
until it has had the weathering and detailing 'treatment'. It is helpful
that Bachmann wheel standards will run through my Finescale pointwork
with no modification (except for the bogie and tender wheels on my
Austerity, which used to clatter over the C&L chairs until I changed
them for Markits RP25 wheels). The new Heljan diesels are the
same and even Hornby have widened their back to backs for their most
recent models (so I
understand) to make them more compatible with finer scale pointwork. To
be perfectly honest, I stayed with OO because: a) the
thought of converting everything was (and remains) too daunting b) I can borrow/loan stock with friends who also do
16.5mm
c) I do think that well built and weathered track in 16.5mm can look
good as long as you don't dwell on the 'head on' view too much. I
have been a member of both the EMGS and the Scalefour Society for
several years,
because they represent the finescale end of the 4mm hobby, which is
where my interests mainly lie. In late 2003 a new Area Group of the
Scalefour Society was formed locally and together with other members
living in the locality, I was invited to come along to an inaugural
meeting in a local pub. I went along and met other like-minded modellers
and had a very good time. I was still completely committed to developing
my OO projects at the time and didn't really think that we would do
anything other than meet in the pub once a month and have a good chat
about our hobby. How wrong I was! By the time we next met in January
2004, plans for a Group test track were being drawn up and one of our
members had found a venue for us to meet once a month. It
was clear that unless I wished to remain an armchair member, I would
have to start building something in P4. This was the impetus I needed
and during 2004 I started building and converting locos and rolling
stock, although I have left the existing OO exhibition stock intact. Being
part of the Scalefour Area Group continues to be a very rewarding experience,
with new friendships being made and useful experience and tips being
shared. We now meet twice a month and are currently building our Mk 2
test track, the first one (still in use for the moment) has suffered
from the inadvertent use of poor quality timber, with the result that
warped boards have caused a number of serious track misalignments that
are simply not worth the bother of putting right. The new test track
will be a large quadruple track affair, with a long running loop on the
inner and outer tracks, various configurations of crossovers to test
different types of loco wheelbases, plus a single circuit of OO track,
to enable us to test our R-T-R purchases! As for my own
P4 modelling I am now building my first P4 layout 'Callow Lane' and
planning the second one ('Travellers Rest'). I think that it all boils down
to personal choice at the end of the day, because there are a lot more
serious and important things going on in the world today and this hobby
should be about bringing a bit of light relief and fun to our lives.
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Serious
stuff this! Helping another fellow railwayman Doug Richards with
his 3mm layout Yatbury at an exhibition.
Photo courtesy Weston Mercury |
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I still work in the railway industry, but find that
doing the models is a good way to unwind after the rigors of the
working day (you'd be surprised how many model railway enthusiasts there
are out there working for 'the big railway!').
Sara, my wife, is also creative - she designs and
makes soft sculpture textile figures. This hobby is really big in North
America and is beginning to take off here n the U.K. One of our favourite holiday
destinations is Prince Edward Island in Canada. We love going there,
even though the last trains ran in 1989! My sharp Gricer's eye can
usually spot the disused railway formations, but Sara is even better at
finding the craft and fabric shops! Cloth and other fabrics are really cheap
in Canada compared to the UK and we usually end up stuffing our
suitcases with the stuff (once we even had to buy a new suitcase over
there to accommodate all the dolls and fabric we had bought - who says
it's just the train nuts who are fanatics?!). Sara has her own website
at http://www.clothdollcreations.co.uk/where you can view her lovely creations for
yourself. Sara is also Secretary of the Parochial Church
Council for our local church at Dean Prior. This is a lovely old church
situated next to the A38 between Marley Head and Buckfastleigh in Devon.
You can find out more at http://www.deanpriorchurch.co.uk
I do have other interests besides railways (oh really?!)
- I have always been fascinated by battleships and the like and am a big
fan of the novels of Patrick O'Brian, who writes about the
wooden Royal Navy of the Napoleonic era.
His descriptions and characters
really bring the stories to life and I really enjoyed the film 'Master
& Commander' when it was released in November 2004.
All this, listening to music, reading, country walks, gardening,
going to Tesco etc. keeps us occupied when we are not working. We
have two cats - Comfrey (large, black & white male, who likes his
biscuits) and Tarragon (small ginger female, who also likes
biscuits). 
I
have to say that I could not possibly have contemplated constructing
this website without the help and support of Sara, to whom I am
very grateful.
Please note that all written and photographic
material on this website is the intellectual property of and copyright Tim
Maddocks 2008, unless otherwise credited.
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