Ideas Above (About?) Your Station

More Modelling Nostalgia

As a wee lad, fbb had  Hornby "O" gauge tinplate railway with locomotive, two carriages and three trucks. It needed setting up on the floor and interest soon waned. Sadly a station as shown above was not part of the parental gift. The old man cannot remember what happened to it, but by aged 12-ish the lure of a "OO" layout began to taunt the young chap.

But any layout with its salt really needs a station where the trains will stop and collect their imaginary passengers. For the young lad there was, intially, a choice. If you had loadsa pocket money (or generous assorted relatives!) you could buy Hornby Dublo.

The buildings were in a modern Art Deco style and made of metal. They oozed luxury and opulence and, if your chum had the full set, you were scythingly jealous.

Or you could buy slightly downmarket plastic from Tri-ang.

A bookstall in green plastic slid into the black hole in the right hand building. It often disappeared into the great shadowy mists where lurk felt tip pens, drawing pins, important keys and small change.

For their time (and we are talking 55 years ago, at least) they were remarkably good models. Over the years the merged Tri-ang Hornby company produced some more modern appurtenances, small ...

... and large.

In those far-off halcyon days of pocket money purchases, an Airfix kit at 2/- (10p) came to many an aspiring hobbyist's (and fbb's) rescue.

Nowadays the fashion is for (much) more expensive "big boys" toys in the form of "resin" cast buildings ready painted. This is a typical offering from Hornby.

Or, of course, if you are really skilfull, you can "scratch-build" your own. Here is a part of a superb GWR station at the Pendon Model Museum.

You have to be a dyed-in-the-wool accuracy fanatic to aspire to such detail and to be capable of building it. fbb isn't!

But imagine fbb's nostalgic delight when, on the shelves of his local model shop, he spotted an R62 ...

... but an R62 without its laughably inappropriate chimney stack.

Part of the aforementioned station set, this was billed as a "platform waiting room". The design incuded a rudimentary "Gents" with the assumption (from two small windows round the back) that the "Ladies" was accessed from the comfort of a small waiting room with a roaring coal fire in the grate.

Those really were the days.

At £2.50, this second-hand R62 was a bargain - Ebay offers can be as high at £9! But terracotta coloured brick-less plastic was a bit naff, so fbb set to and started an "upgrade".

First repair a window spar, add a more realistic chimney pot and create a representation of a door through to the theoretical Gents loo.

Then cut a hole in the bottom to allow for fitting "glass" and, at a later stage, lighting ...

... and we are ready for painting.

Whitewashed stucco and blue "woodwork" finish the job; but the chimney pot has fallen off. Perhaps an electric room heater is installed? The toilet windows now have frosted glass ...

... which, no doubt, will bring a little extra comfort to those in need of evacuation. And, before the purists shriek in horror, the floor of the Gents entrance will be painted to match the platform!

£2.50 and a dollop of paint brings a 55 year old cheapo model up to an acceptable standard; acceptable by fbb at least.

You have to wonder whether the designers of that early Tri-ang station range would ever have imagined that their "toys" would be still in use 55 years (or more) later. It is a credit to their design that they are.

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They Think It's All Over ...

Matthew writes: "Then all the disciples left him and ran away." 

Yes it was all over as far as everyone was concerned. By sunset on the Friday ("Good" Friday) the corpse had been wrapped in a cloth and placed in Joseph of Arimatha's tomb.

When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea arrived; his name was Joseph, and he also was a disciple of Jesus. He went into the presence of Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate gave orders for the body to be given to Joseph. So Joseph took it, wrapped it in a new linen sheet, and placed it in his own tomb, which he had just recently dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

There was urgency in this as the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday after which no work (even burying!) could be done.

The next day, which was a Sabbath, the chief priests and the Pharisees met with Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that while that liar was still alive he said, ‘I will be raised to life three days later.’ Give orders, then, for his tomb to be carefully guarded until the third day, so that his disciples will not be able to go and steal the body, and then tell the people that he was raised from death.

It is Now!

Only a few women remained to deal formally with the burial and that would have to wait until Sunday morning, after the Sabbath.

So that's it then. The "Son of God" is dead; his followers have deserted him and the promised revolution has not happened.

On the Saturday you would have to say that Christianity was finished before it ever started.

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 Next bus museum blog : Sunday 5th April