No, this not an entry about Doc Brown or the Delorian from Back to the Future.... Sorry to disappoint!
This little 30cm x 7cm piece of Nickel and plastic has been my most treasured possession for the best part of 15 years. As I stare at her as I write this, such a small thing can evoke many a memory.
I actually still remember when I brought her. I was 15 and had been saving my Christmas and birthday money and my allowance for ages. She still pretty much is the only thing I have ever saved up for in my life. Everything else I've ever owned was either given to me, brought outright or via a bank loan or credit card!!!
I can remember finally saving enough money for the purchase price which was around $200. In 1995, that was steep! Dad took me to my favourite hobby shop - the Hobby Place on Lonsdale street in the city, which is still there today, but unfortunately they don't sell trains anymore, only slot cars and Taminya models.
There was only 1 of her left and she was locked away in a glass case so people could look and stare, but not touch. She was in a carefully packaged red box with a perspex front with the famous Hornby logo in the bottom right hand corner. She was tucked away cosy in the box covered in the custom made polystyrene foam underlay. I remember having butterflies from the excitement and staring at her for the entire trip home in the car.
My first layout was still a work in progress at this stage, but I had 2 working tracks. I had saved the outside for her - I always did - It was the longest track so in some way I thought I would get to see her whizz around for longer that way.
She is nearly mesmerising when I see her flying around a track, hypnotic nearly. She was back then, and still is today.
4 weeks ago I set up a temporary track in the garage of my parents place. Unlike my layout back when I was 15/16, she wasn't the first loco I put on the track this time. I think i've come to appreciate her more as i'm older. I wanted to make sure the track worked first, it was clean, no gaps and running perfectly. In fact this time she was the last engine I tried......
If a fairly simple item meant that much to someone I'm guessing most people would leave it in the box, not open it, and put it on a shelf in a lounge room or dining room, that you only go into when it's time for Christmas lunch. I'm different. Model trains are made to run and run with rolling stock attached. Although I love the feeling of building the layout and the sense of accomplishment when it's done, the satisfaction I get from seeing the trains work their way around a track is the reason you build these things! You cannot get that same satisfaction from staring at them behind glass.
As I sit here in front of the computer, she is no more than arms length away on my stereo, and quite dusty! It's weird I guess. I've just finished 2 hours of CAD work and every couple of minutes I find myself looking at her. I don't know why, I can't explain it. I think it's just my sub-concience. I want to see her run on a track, not sitting here, still, staring back at me!!!
She is and will always be one of my most treasured possessions, my Flying Scotsman....
This blog... Well, I've set it up to basically document the design and construction of my HO Scale model railway.
I'm doing this, I guess, first and foremost, so I can look back at my own steps and maybe, if anyone ever reads this, help them through the trials and tribulations of building your own model railway.
Let me start by telling you a little about me and I guess why i'm doing this!
I'm 30 years old, happily married and work as an architect. I love to travel, enjoy most sports, allot of socialising, catching up with friends and eating out. I basically love life! However, it has become apparent to me in the last couple of years that my down time has become limited, and my 'hobbies and extra-curricular' activities........... Well I now tick 'none' on my many profiles that you tend to fill out nowadays on social networking sites, competition entry forms, surveys etc. I figure now is the time I need something to take my mind off work as well as the fast paced life that my wife and I lead.
So, i've decided to rekindle an old love of mine!
My love of model railroading was pretty much hereditary! My father, my uncle and my grandfather have basically been into model railways since they were kids and I have been fiddling with train sets since I was born! My first train set, was given to me by my parents for Christmas, when I was 5. It was a little Hornby circular freight set, comprising of a little 4 wheeled (0-4-0) GWR green steam loco and 4 freight carriages. All of which I still have. The engine however no longer runs, with the little electric motor having burnt out years ago. So now I usually couple her with another steam engine to pull her around.
Throughout my life, I have inherited a number of other sets from my grand father, my father and just recently from the sad departure of my great uncle-in-law (who had an extremely impressive layout himself - Of which I'll include some photos in this blog also). His love of trains surpassed anyone I have ever met. He was a wonderful, knowledgeable man, who I attribute to rekindling my passion of model railroading, after going through my 'ratbag late teens and early twenties.' I'd like to think that this layout i'm about to build has spawned from his and in a way I hope a little tribute to him also.
In total my collection consists of around 20 locomotives and countless rolling stock which vary from passenger to freight and everything in between. My pride and joy out of my whole collection is my Hornby 4-6-2 LNER Flying Scotsman Loco. I have had this loco since I was 15 and saved up for it for 2 years. The Flying Scotsman has long been my favourite loco since I saw it in the flesh in Adelaide when it was on a tour of Australia back in the late 80's. I must have been about 8 or 9! It is such a majestic feat of engineering and as most know held the world steam speed record for a number of years until the Mallard (Another beautiful loco) took the record off the Scotsman in 1935.
With the rest of the layout in boxes after our move of house (Which I'll explain later), my model Scotsman has always taken pride of place in my bedroom, study, living room or dining room and it is truly one of my most treasured possessions. It is a loco which is widely available in the UK, but very difficult to get in Australia.
Since I moved out of home with my now beautiful wife about 4 and a half years ago it has been extremely hard to do anything with my train set.
My parents, my sister and I moved to Melbourne from Adelaide in 1992 and I was 11. We had a large triple storey house in the outer Melbourne suburb of Eltham with a large cellar underneath it. As my parents did not drink or store wine for that matter, the cellar became a workshop/storage area for the family. It also allowed me to build my first permanent layout. It wasn't large only 7ft x 4ft and started with 2 tracks in an oval layout.
It was my first attempt at building a layout and I was 13, I think from memory. It was my first paper mache attempt, my first 12v wiring attempt and basically my first model making attempt. As you can imagine the layout was... Well it was done by a 13 year old. Although looking back on it, I am fairly proud of the achievement as I kept working on it for about 2 years on and off, added a third track, more landscaping, roads, a town, tunnels and bridges. By the time I was 16 it looked pretty impressive.
Although, when we moved house, when I was about 20, the sad reality came that the layout could not survive the move as the house was considerably smaller and with no shed or under house area there was no where to store it and it was eventually smashed up and taken to the tip with the set put away in boxes. At the time, from memory, I was pretty heart broken and I look back now regretting not having taken any photos of it!!!
Anyway 10 years on My parents are still in that same house and my wife and I are in a considerably smaller single fronted 2 bedroom with no shed or backyard. However, we are currently in the process of building a 3 storey townhouse with garage and storage in North Melbourne so, time to get my trains running around on my tracks again!
The proposal is simple - Build a medium to large sized model railroad layout with landscaping, in the double garage of my parent's place, which can be folded up to allow cars to be parked beside it. Then eventually the whole layout can be moved to our new place in North Melbourne for my continued enjoyment!!
In my travels and extensive searches on the net over the last few months, I can't see this has been done anywhere before, so for those of you interested - here we go!!!!!!
Cheers
Matt
