What’s your modelling inspiration?

[Moccasin]

I was chatting with a friend earlier and it got me thinking about what inspires me about modelling and what I’m trying to achieve/recreate. I know everyone is different and thought this might make for an interesting thread and might help to further inspire me and others. Some may be inspired by a memory (theirs or a relative’s), others by a scene in a book or photograph and others just a whole sort of general mishmash of experience and interest.

For me, it was my train spotting trips (we’re all friends here, right?) across the Pennines to Manchester and the wonders of 1980s era Piccadilly electrics on the WCML and cross country expresses. For someone who was brought up on Peaks and 47s on trans-pennine services through Mirfield and Dewsbury, or HSTs and 47s/45s at Wakefield Westgate, the sounds and mental image of a Class 86 or 87 ticking away at the Piccadilly buffer stops remain vivid. I’ve decided that a must-have on my layout will be a terminus station to model the locomotive arriving on a service and then another coupling up at the other end to take the service back out again. It’s an operation that is a left over from steam and has now pretty much disappeared except at heritage railways, now that push-pull is the commonest form of any remaining locomotive haulage.

I did though enjoy seeing the Scottish 47s on push-pull services out of Waverley and, to my mind, the Scotrail livery is one of the best variations of the BR era and was delighted to see, by pure chance, the heritage Scotrail DBSO set being hauled into Carlisle by a Deltic last year. 

I hope all of the above come in/back to the Hornby ranges at some point.

So who’s going to bare their railway soul next?

(I’ve run out of reactions today, so please assume all contributions below are appreciated)

[atom3624]

For me it's been a combination of aspects - inspiration, time, abilities and of course finances ... they all play a part, plus patience.

It's so easy to see somebody else's 'masterpiece', but why not you as well!!

Al.

[What About The Bee]

My inspiration?  The images in those old books.  

The modeling?  I've always liked to make things.  For myself.  For others.  For companies.  Inventing something out of raw materials.  Can I make that?  Yes I can!  

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway?  I was browsing in a used bookstore.  I encountered, simply by chance, an authoritative tome on the LMR by Thomas.  Stellar work, brilliantly researched, loaded with images.  I had to know more!  Well, here we are.

Bee

[StuLarge]

Watching the trains go by all day long on The Gauge 1 MRA layout at IMREX in the early 90's (RM April 1991).

[Kristian-353752]

Maps provide great inspiration to me, these are then followed up by as many photos of the location that I am modelling as I can find. I do enjoy modelling locations that are close(ish) to me. 

[What About The Bee]

+1 on the maps @Kristian-353752

Awesome source

[Rallymatt]

Elder brothers told me what I would ‘like’ and they were largely right 🤣 I connect with what I remember from Co Durham branch lines and then ECML race track at Thirsk and now it’s what I see out an about and how I think it ‘could’ look. So many old rail lines are bike paths, my other interest means I get to explore and that gets the imagination going. Sometimes I find an ‘awkward’ area  a really result in a satisfying solution. I have always enjoyed making, fixing and changing things. The great thing with the hobby for me is you can do as much or as little as you like. It’s surprisingly how observing the small details and incorporating them can really change the look and feel of a scene and they can be really easy things to do, telegraph poles, walls, grass, trees. The actual trains become less important and if coaches aren’t the precise ones that ran in that situation, it doesn’t matter (not that it ever did 🤣) 

[Rallymatt]

Another for Maps 👍 OS maps are a great read ….. 🤓

[StuLarge]

Regarding maps... National Library of Scotland website is fantastic:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.3&lat=51.36558&lon=-0.08873&layers=6&b=1&o=100

[taunmarc88]

My inspiration is the West Somerset Railway as I grew up nearby in the 90s/ Early 2000s. 
Modelling - My primary school headmaster had a model railway installed in the photocopier room. Every week we would go to ‘train club’ and be allowed to run the locos… after hoovering the track of course! I also watched Thomas all the time as a child and those two combined meant I was hooked!

[atom3624]

Origin of interest in railways for me would have been the proximity to a power station.

Younger years I would see Stanier locomotives - I presume they were 8F's, but at 4, 5 years old I wouldn't have known the difference - wheels were hidden.  Later, later teenager years there were the class 25's and 40's hauling those coal wagons in / out of the power station.  Then later again it appeared the same branch was a main route to the container terminal of Liverpool, and I would regularly see 47's storming across 'the bridge' to / from the docks.

Al.

[Moccasin]

5 hours ago, Rallymatt said:

Another for Maps 👍 OS maps are a great read ….. 🤓

I can lose myself in maps for hours. Geography kept me sane during my A-levels - for an engineering degree, it’s usually maths/physics/chemistry. A combination of love for engineering, transport and geography led me into transport planning as a career.

I love https://railmaponline.com and would encourage anyone who enjoys it to buy the guy a coffee through the donation link for his efforts. 

[threelink]

Being taken in 1955 at the age  of two and a half to watch the trains on the Coventry/Nuneaton line at Daimler Halt in Coventry followed by a gift from my grandmother of a small push along 000 train set. She was disappointed that it was not electrified but I thought it marvellous. At seven I received a Triang Jinty, four wagons, a circle of track and a battery controller. I have been hooked on 00 ever since, seeking to recreate in miniature the railway scenes I remember from my youth.

[ntpntpntp]

Hmm... let's see...

As a pre-teen in the 60s, Triang 00 along with all the Airfix railway building kits. In truth this was really Dad's railway despite it being intended for me, but it's when I learnt how to strip and service locos, solder wires etc. 🙂

British N gauge in the mid 70s (my first N set was actually a Bachman American set bought in a little shop in Fiji 🙂 )

European N from the early 80s, inspired by the more colourful models in the catalogues and the generally much better running qualities compared to contemporary British models.  I have an exhibition layout which has continued to evolve over the last 25+ years.  Inspiration from books on the subject and now the internet of course.

I guess really I'm just as much a collector as a modeller, and as a consequence have way more models than I can make use of on the layout at any given time. I also have collections of other gauges from T to G 🙂   

Maybe if Dad had been into model boats or aircraft I'd have gone down one of those hobby paths instead. 
 

[Rana Temporia]

As my Father was obsessed with trains I don’t suppose I had much choice although my sister wasn’t interested and I now have all my brother’s stock. I had a lot of clockwork OO trains from Tri-ang and Playcraft from a very young age, along with an Tri-ang Big Big train and some push along stock with blue track. I started to get electric ones when I was around 8 or 9. 

I don’t have any particular stand of model railways I follow but prefer vintage items such as Tri-ang Transcontinental and the early Playcraft/Jouef stock as it’s what I grew up with. I have stock from all over the UK and Europe in OO and HO. I also have some OO9 stock.

Prototype wise I grew up watching green and early blue diesels in the Bolton area and used to spend a lot of time detailing and re-painting locos from various sources. I also enjoy industrial trains as my family came from Leigh and were miners at least back to the 1700s in the area, a treat when I was very young was to go to the pit and see the tank engines shunting lots of grey 16t coal wagons around. 

I also have a very keen interest in miniature railways, a special treat whenever we went on holiday in Wales was to have a ride on the railway at Prestatyn/Ffrith behind the Fenlow diesels (both still exist), or Southport miniature railway on day trips. Belle View Zoo I can just about remember and I have a very clear recollection of a ride on the Rhyl miniature railway which originally closed in 1969 so I can’t have been more than four. 

I do enjoy the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway as we visit the area a lot.

Apparently I used to be taken to the side of the now gone Bolton and Leigh railway to watch the 8Fs and WDs bringing coal and limestone up Chequerbent bank so that would have been pre the building of the M61, I can’t remember and it was probably an excuse for my late Father to watch them!

I like trains and I enjoy fixing vintage models. It’s probably the best thing for my mental health alongside fell walking and model and prototype trains are very important to me. I suspect that’s enough!

[Rana Temporia]

21 hours ago, Moccasin said:

I can lose myself in maps for hours. Geography kept me sane during my A-levels - for an engineering degree, it’s usually maths/physics/chemistry. A combination of love for engineering, transport and geography led me into transport planning as a career.

I love https://railmaponline.com and would encourage anyone who enjoys it to buy the guy a coffee through the donation link for his efforts. 

+1 for maps, I have enjoyed them from a very young age and there is so much you can learn from them. Luckily part of my job involves understanding and interpreting maps and completing surveys. So much information!

[Rallymatt]

Triang Big Big train was a major moment in my life! Hymek (that had been repainted in two gone green by eldest brother) and the Tank engine, that became Thomas for my nephew years later, it’s now doing service with his two sons 😁

[LesXRN]

I'm from a Railway family, my Great Grandads, Grandads and Dad were all on the footplate, so was I eventually. My uncle was a signalman and my cousin was a Shunter at Longsite.

Whe I was young, back in the mid 50's, we had O gauge live steam running around the garden and in the winter, we laid O gauge track around the house in a big loop from the lounge, through the hall, kitchen, dining room then back to the lounge. Only when my Mum was at work though.

Later, my Dad sold the O gauge and bought OO, then TT when it first appeared, but soon went back to OO. Needless to say, I was hooked.

My Dad also used to take me to work with him during the holidays. By the time I left school in 1966 I had driven a lot of steam loco's at Trafford Park sheds and also some of what then were new diesels, Peaks and type 2's. The ultimate loco I drove up and down the shed was the Flying Scotsman when it was on shed during an Alan Pegler tour.

I'm still a lover of steam, especially LMS/BR Stanier stuff and my next layout will be started very soon. Can't wait.

[96RAF]

I am a dyed in the wool vintage model aircraft boy from day 1, then it was Airfix slot cars, none of the toy Scalex that was about then. Although as a RAF apprentice I used to ride behind all the ECML thorobreds in the early 60's when travelling home on leave, but then they started to introduce those boring diesels like the Deltic prototype.

Then came a family life until I jokingly said one day I never had a train-set as a kid. We were too poor then and only one 'rich' kid in the street could afford a train-set, so all us kids would watch him running it on the kitchen table, but we were only allowed as far as the back door.

Needless to say for my 60th birthday up popped a 'VSOE Boxed Set' and I was hooked. Early days of digital when I converted the MN included in the set. The only Hornby decoder was the awful R8215 and after contacting Hornby about multiple problems they set me up as a beta tester and I have been doing it since. Select, Elite updates, pre-introductory testing of R8245 Sapphire, R8249, TTS, HM6K and HM7K and who knows what else, some of which fell by the wayside, like the Select-a-Link cable, eLink Xpressnet port mod, etc. One good thing is I have the kit to do hardware updates on such as Select and R8247 acc decoders.

In between times I got involved with our ex-RAF apprentice old boys network and was 'conned' into volunteering to write and run a web site for them, as well as co-ordinate the design and manufacture of a stained glass window for St George's church at RAF Halton. Bit of a learning curve to scramble up there.

Aside from that many moons ago I did some development work on a software package called UK Rail Director, written by Train Sim ace Matt Peddlesden, who wanted to see if he could control trains by voice control, long before RM introduced it. In that package you had to draw your own track-plans in code, generate your own databases, make the link files, etc. Another learning curve to climb.

Much later along came TGG written by the brilliant Stingray, and I am proud to be a member of the small group who are allowed to run the package.

An absorbing hobby to say the least.

[LesXRN]

96RAF. Wow! That's some technical stuff you're involved with there, it does answer why you are so knowledgeable about Hornby though. Well done.

Funny about the rich kid in the street, I bet we all had one of those.

P.S. You forgot rule No1. Never volunteer!!!

[Rana Temporia]

2 hours ago, LesXRN said:

96RAF. Wow! That's some technical stuff you're involved with there, it does answer why you are so knowledgeable about Hornby though. Well done.

Funny about the rich kid in the street, I bet we all had one of those.

P.S. You forgot rule No1. Never volunteer!!!

Our ‘rich kid in the street’ used to buy Wrenn locos because he could. I don’t think he actually wanted them. My black Hornby Princess was way faster than any of his and he couldn’t find one anywhere. It was one of the last versions of the old type with see through wheels and a white card cover. I think they were made for a catalogue? I still have it in the original box. 

[atom3624]

I did have one H-D / Wrenn locomotive as a teenager, an 8F I rebuilt - several issues with the motor, but got them resolved giving me a reliable runner ...

Inspiration here was that bridge over the local main road I'd mentioned earlier, servicing the local power station.

Al.

[ModelerXYZ]

My inspiration was a layout I saw at one of my mum's friends houses in New Zealand. I don't remember much about it except that they ran HSTs in Swallow livery. I am now involved with the Swindon and Cricklade railway and so I am inspired by their array of steam and diesel locomotives. And I enjoyed the railway series books as a kid so I have a soft spot for the first 8 engines of sir Topham Hatt's railway. After that the numbers just got rediculus. I now like having lights in my buildings as well. XYZ

[Gordonvale]

On 11/04/2024 at 16:46, LesXRN said:

Funny about the rich kid in the street, I bet we all had one of those.

 

No rich kid in our street, but I was a sick kid, always off school for weeks on end. My Tri-ang oval and Princess Victoria set continually expanded as sympathetic grown ups would call round with a new carriage, truck, track piece etc!

[HornbyinNC]

For me, it's been attempting to recreate the many captivating and alluring scenes, particularly from the Tri-ang and later Hornby catalogues which date back to my formative days of interest in the hobby. The layout, every boy ever dreamed of...

Never tried to 'copy' any of the images directly. In fact, quite the opposite; it's been simply to take the inspiration and capture the best elements of the many wonderful studio layouts and scenes represented through the years. Hence, I am still comfortable running and photographing many of my older models from the 1960's and 1970's on my layout.

Edited April 17 by HornbyinNC
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