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| That Incongruous
First Model Train Set (T.J.Powell) |
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| Twelve
years ago, I uploaded a layout
video to You Tube, anticipating
some fine and supportive
comments. Instead, I was rather
violently informed by one viewer
that it was really a
train set and not a railway
layout because I did not
ballast the track! (There's a
discussion to be had in the
future). Well, this is
very similar to the box I
excitedly unwrapped on Christmas
Day in 1961 at the age of nine
and five months! By that
defintion above, it was a model
railway layout because
the track rails were set on a
light grey plastic base
simulating ballast between the
sleepers!
Anyway, it
did just not matter to a young
trainspotter, it was brilliant
even though it was obviously
second hand. In those days, the
affluent had Hornby Railways
while
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the
less affluent had Triang
Railways. On the BBC2
documentary, "The Joy of
Sets" several years ago,
Pete Waterman, no less, commented
about his first train set, laid
out on a board balanced on the
family bath, "It may have
not been a Hornby, but there was
no way it was not as loved as
much!" On
Boxing Day, we went to our
grandparents with all our other
relatives in the area. My
Grandfather had dovetailed with
my Dad and bought me some BR
image train set stock: an 0-6-0T
Jinty numbered 47606, a brake van
and telephone cable loaded
conflat.
In the days
when children should be seen but
no heard, I could not wait to get
home with my new acquisitions. I
was totally unaware of the
incongruity of my
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stock list but it must have made for some
interesting running combinations. As
birthdays and Christmases came and went
cash presents transformed into points, a
second oval, station buildings and much
more from "Hobbies" in
Tartleton Street in Liverpool. However at
fourteen, along with some friends at Boy
Scouts, I was seduced into the world of,
dare I say it, Scalextric. My Triang
treasury was packed away into a wardrobe,
sad and forgotten. When I left for
teacher training college, my wardrobe was
acquired by my younger brother who kept
the racing cars and my Triang collection
had been given away!
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