BTH
Well-Known Member
Call me sad, but... when I was a boy the only things I wanted that I didn't already have were – in no particular order - a Raleigh Chopper and a train set. I had to settle for a Raleigh Tomahawk in the end and pretend that it had gears - it didn't. The train set, alas, I didn't get until I was about 15 - a mere matter of months before I discovered the demon drink and thus too late.
My old fella made every excuse under the sun as to why I couldn't have a train set - no room, uses up too much electric - and sent me off to watch the real trains on the nearby railway line.
There's something about the railway that gets in your blood - or doesn't. Either way, there's no middle ground.
I was in the pub one Thursday night recently and mentioned a model train I'd seen that day in a shop in town: the LMS "City of Manchester." Two or three people got involved in the conversation; they blurted it all out, how they loved trains but no doubt they'd been too embarrassed to mention, “the love that dare not speak its name,” before, but there you have it.
Most blokes, I’ve found, love trains: real or model ones. Not for nothing did a bunch of railway enthusiasts raise £3 million to build a brand new steam train over almost 20 years: “Tornado” was completed two years ago. Simply stand next to the stationary “Mallard” at the National Railway Museum in York and behold the power and the glory, the design and the craftsmanship if you’re struggling with that concept.
But even I was a bit surprised when my brother rang me earlier to ask me how to set his train set up; he'd found it during the course of his work. Why can't I have a job like that, I wondered. Anyway, he'd stumbled across the Inter City 125 HST set from the '80s: the very same one as my mate John had all those years ago, the bastard!
There was once a Football Class of steam trains although the LNER's "Manchester City" was shortlived and quickly renamed. Hornby have never made a model of that, but naturally enough, they've made a version of the rags' steam train. No doubt it's a steady seller in the Far East…
"In my youth, I played at trains: now all steam is gone" - Peter Hammill
My old fella made every excuse under the sun as to why I couldn't have a train set - no room, uses up too much electric - and sent me off to watch the real trains on the nearby railway line.
There's something about the railway that gets in your blood - or doesn't. Either way, there's no middle ground.
I was in the pub one Thursday night recently and mentioned a model train I'd seen that day in a shop in town: the LMS "City of Manchester." Two or three people got involved in the conversation; they blurted it all out, how they loved trains but no doubt they'd been too embarrassed to mention, “the love that dare not speak its name,” before, but there you have it.
Most blokes, I’ve found, love trains: real or model ones. Not for nothing did a bunch of railway enthusiasts raise £3 million to build a brand new steam train over almost 20 years: “Tornado” was completed two years ago. Simply stand next to the stationary “Mallard” at the National Railway Museum in York and behold the power and the glory, the design and the craftsmanship if you’re struggling with that concept.
But even I was a bit surprised when my brother rang me earlier to ask me how to set his train set up; he'd found it during the course of his work. Why can't I have a job like that, I wondered. Anyway, he'd stumbled across the Inter City 125 HST set from the '80s: the very same one as my mate John had all those years ago, the bastard!
There was once a Football Class of steam trains although the LNER's "Manchester City" was shortlived and quickly renamed. Hornby have never made a model of that, but naturally enough, they've made a version of the rags' steam train. No doubt it's a steady seller in the Far East…
"In my youth, I played at trains: now all steam is gone" - Peter Hammill