1 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:23,760 For more than a century, some of us have been 2 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,000 captivated by the miniature world of the model railway. 3 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:32,960 A land of tiny, detailed wagons and scaled-down stations. 4 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,320 It's a world that once gripped the imagination of children. 5 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:41,040 I saw the shape of the box and I thought, 6 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:43,680 "Ooh, that's a Hornby Dublo train set." 7 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,280 Model railways were shaped by our love of the steam age. 8 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:53,760 It's an incredible visual spectacle. 9 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,760 The only way you can recreate that is by having a model railway. 10 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,160 It was a hobby that drew fathers close to sons... 11 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:09,240 You don't get changed out of your school or your work clothes, 12 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:11,800 you sit down immediately with your dad 13 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,560 and engage in running some locomotives. 14 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:18,840 ..and a fascination that lasted a lifetime. 15 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,600 You may go off it, at times. When you find your wife, 16 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:26,600 she may take a bit of your time up, 17 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:30,160 and then the first child comes along and guess what you think about? 18 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:31,840 "I think I'll build a model railway." 19 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:37,040 This isn't the story of eccentrics in duffle coats hiding in lofts. 20 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,800 Railway modelling is bigger than that 21 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,040 and about much more than just trains. 22 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:49,040 The way that industry, economics, technology, 23 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,080 impacts on our social and cultural life. 24 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:56,960 I would argue for a re-claiming of rail enthusiasm as something 25 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,920 which we should celebrate now instead of just being suspicious of. 26 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:07,400 That's spot on, that is. 27 00:02:09,920 --> 00:02:12,280 The British love of model railways 28 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:16,440 is etched into our historical obsession with the real thing. 29 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,640 Britain invented the railway and it became a source of national pride. 30 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:22,600 But more than anything else, 31 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:27,600 steaming through British identity is the drama of the locomotive. 32 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,920 Seeing a steam engine go past on the main line at high speed is 33 00:02:30,920 --> 00:02:33,560 something that leaves a real mark on you. 34 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:35,200 It's elemental. 35 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,920 You saw coming in this huge piece of iron that was on fire, 36 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:44,280 smoke belching out. 37 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,720 I mean, I used to grip my father's hand and think, "What's that?" 38 00:02:50,920 --> 00:02:55,200 Steam issuing out from underneath, the whole thing is alive. 39 00:02:57,520 --> 00:02:58,760 You put your hand on it 40 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,640 and it's quivering like a horse as the water boils. 41 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,480 The thrashing of the rods as it goes along at 100 miles an hour. 42 00:03:09,640 --> 00:03:12,720 It's an incredible visual spectacle. 43 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,840 The only way you can recreate that is by having a model railway. 44 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:22,320 Gives you a little taste of that same feeling 45 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:27,160 and it triggers off the memories of seeing these beasts flying around. 46 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:41,600 For Pete Waterman, 47 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,320 capturing that railway atmosphere has been a lifelong pursuit. 48 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,760 Leamington's where I started spotting in 1951, 49 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,400 it's where my mum took me and stood me on the station 50 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:57,120 while she went off with my auntie shopping, you know. 51 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,080 Half a crown to go to the buffet to get me a cup of tea 52 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:07,000 when I wanted one and I spent from about '51 to '63 at Leamington Spa. 53 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,080 It's what I did. 54 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,360 Leamington also had other attractions for Pete 55 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:15,960 and his fellow modelling club members. 56 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:18,560 It was an area where different railway companies all 57 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:20,320 converged in one place. 58 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,080 You've got the LMS on that side, 59 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:28,200 you've got the Great Western on this side, you've also got LNWR 60 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,080 and LNER and Southern trains through the station. 61 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,680 So, for a modeller, the world's your oyster, you can build anything. 62 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:40,200 It's all signalled correctly, and all the signals work. 63 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,520 There are complicated junctions. 64 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,640 The problem we found when we built the layout, of course, 65 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,640 we were overenthusiastic so, as you can see, if anything falls off in the 66 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:55,400 middle, we don't remedy that because if it falls off you can't reach it. 67 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,080 And also on the railway I've got things like this, 68 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,720 I actually own the real one of these tanks, so, you know, 69 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:06,640 a bit of self-indulgence that I'm playing with my own train, 70 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:08,880 but I never get time to go and see the real thing 71 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,200 but I get time to play with the model. 72 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:15,240 Everything's hand made. 73 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:19,280 There's one and a half hundredweight of ballast 74 00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:22,600 all put in with a paintbrush. 75 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:28,920 It's never-ending, it won't ever be finished, but it keeps us modelling. 76 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:41,000 Modelling first got going in the Edwardian age 77 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,200 when a young entrepreneur called Wenman J Bassett-Lowke 78 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:48,120 began to produce models that fed on our passion for locomotives. 79 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,240 He would stoke up a fascination with model railways in Britain 80 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:55,440 that has lasted more than 100 years. 81 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:08,600 Bassett-Lowke's genius was 82 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:11,720 to miniaturise the engineering wonder of his day 83 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:14,440 at a time when railways were at their peak. 84 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,920 The Edwardian period before the First World War is arguably 85 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,800 the golden age of railways in Britain. 86 00:06:25,280 --> 00:06:30,320 These locomotives are like the jet aircraft of today. 87 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:41,320 Passenger services were unparalleled, finely decorated locomotives, 88 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,320 exquisitely decorated coaches, 89 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:47,680 you could get pretty much everywhere in the United Kingdom by train. 90 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,920 When you combine that with this general attitude towards 91 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:55,640 railways as being cutting-edge technology, 92 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,360 then it's quite easy to understand why some people, 93 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,360 some members of the public, men mostly, it has to be said, 94 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:04,200 become interested in representing 95 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:07,120 this kind of cutting-edge technology in miniature form. 96 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,280 Wealthy man of leisure wanted to feel that they had 97 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,320 a stake in the great railway enterprise. 98 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,720 What better way than through a scaled-down version? 99 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:22,240 Bassett-Lowke introduced them to the new model world. 100 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:30,760 He loved modern engineering, he loved structures. 101 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:32,760 Aircraft, he loved aircraft. 102 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:40,600 Bassett-Lowke was a man of his time, he was a Victorian entrepreneur. 103 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:46,520 He made his first money by selling black and white 104 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,680 pictures of a train crash in Northampton. 105 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,680 Bassett-Lowke's father was a boiler maker and engineer 106 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,960 but Wenman didn't want to follow in his footsteps. 107 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:03,080 For him, the future lay in a much smaller world. 108 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:07,960 He spotted that people wanted to mimic the real railway. 109 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:13,440 He was the first to make... They weren't toys, 110 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:17,320 they would be classed as engineering art pieces 111 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:21,320 for people who wanted a bit more for their garden. 112 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:25,040 So he saw that there were all these posh blokes out there who 113 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,080 would like a model railway that could afford his locomotives. 114 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,200 In 1900, there were over 100 railway companies 115 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:35,760 competing for the public's attention, 116 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,200 and steam fans all had their favourite locomotives. 117 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:44,440 There was a kaleidoscope of colours and liveries 118 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:48,080 and if Bassett-Lowke could offer replicas of choice locomotives, 119 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:50,920 the market was his for the taking. 120 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:52,720 On a trip to the continent, 121 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,480 the 22-year-old saw what he needed to do. 122 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:06,680 Bassett-Lowke originally imports his trains from Germany, in particular, 123 00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:11,880 from Nuremberg in Germany, which is the capital of wonderful 124 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:16,080 toy makers who make these scaled-down trains, 125 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,680 wonderful objects. 126 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:23,360 He set up the company that really started what 127 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:28,080 we now class as model railways. Without a doubt, he set it all up. 128 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,280 He would take these German toys, make them 129 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:34,280 look like realistic versions of British trains, 130 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:38,520 and sell them as models for adults, earning a mint in the process. 131 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,280 His first attempt was the Black Prince locomotive, 132 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:48,400 which was over two feet long and cost around £500 in today's money, 133 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:51,480 which didn't even include any track. 134 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,840 Looking at his catalogues, you will notice he never, ever 135 00:09:55,840 --> 00:10:00,120 uses the word "toy" trains. It doesn't come into it. 136 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,440 Model railways, models, model steam engines, 137 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,760 the whole thing is based on models. 138 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:14,120 They were very expensive, they were far too elaborate for children, 139 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:18,080 yes, they were grown-up gentlemen's toys, that's what they were. 140 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:22,640 The distinction between toy and model 141 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:25,800 was an important one to Bassett-Lowke's clients. 142 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:27,480 His models were detailed, 143 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:31,400 engineered, accurate depictions of real locomotives. 144 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,560 The scientific man about town couldn't be seen to be 145 00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:36,040 playing with toys. 146 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,560 It's about mechanics, it's educational, 147 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:45,520 it's about engineering, science, mathematics. 148 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:48,680 It's about self-improvement through building things. 149 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:56,480 For Bassett-Lowke's customers, it was all about having the money 150 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,160 to buy the trains and the space to run them. 151 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:01,400 For his larger engines, a billiards room, 152 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,520 estate gardens or perhaps an old tennis court would do the trick. 153 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,000 But Bassett-Lowke had even bigger ambitions. 154 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:15,040 His locomotives weren't all for 155 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:17,520 watching go round a track on the floor. 156 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:21,200 His miniature ride-on trains were models for millionaires. 157 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:25,480 They pushed shrunken-down steam engineering to its limits and ran 158 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:29,640 through stately homes or served as tourist attractions at the seaside. 159 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:38,160 For his smaller models, power was provided by steam, early electricity 160 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:42,520 or even clockwork, a somewhat hit and miss method of propulsion. 161 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:48,880 Some of the big engines had enormous clockwork mechanisms. 162 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,560 There was one that was so powerful this would pull a kid. 163 00:11:53,560 --> 00:11:57,720 It obviously had distinct disadvantages. 164 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:01,240 You wound it up and set it off on your layout 165 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:04,520 on this hopeful journey, it was going to arrive 166 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:06,640 in Peterborough or somewhere 167 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:09,880 and it of course wound up stopping in a tunnel. 168 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:14,000 For such a young capitalist, Bassett-Lowke was an enigma. 169 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,240 He was a fan of the Arts and Crafts movement 170 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:18,560 and hung out with George Bernard Shaw. 171 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:23,360 He championed workers' rights and commissioned radical modern artwork. 172 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:26,080 Bassett-Lowke is a fascinating man. 173 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:31,000 Politically, he's on the left, he's a Fabian, he's a pacifist, 174 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:37,160 his house in Northampton was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 175 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:41,080 It's the last great Mackintosh house. 176 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:46,200 Wenman was a man of progressive ideals, but one who knew his market. 177 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:50,680 He was servicing a very particular clientele, the filthy rich. 178 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:56,520 I mean, the Bassett-Lowke who's who of the time was very interesting. 179 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,680 I mean, Churchill, there's Walt Disney, 180 00:12:58,680 --> 00:13:01,640 all sorts of people like this were clients 181 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:05,680 of the Bassett-Lowke showroom. Members of the Royal family... 182 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:12,480 So his left aspect seems to be a little bit... 183 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:14,000 bit awry there. 184 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,680 By 1912, business was booming. 185 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:20,280 He was opening new shops 186 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:23,760 and the rich couldn't get enough of his German-built trains. 187 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:25,800 Model railways had arrived. 188 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:33,040 In 1914, I think it was the imports 189 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:35,960 from German toy factories, 190 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:40,720 were £1 million at 1914 values. 191 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:45,600 It's a huge sum. And, of course, that was cut off with the war. 192 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:54,840 When the war ended in 1918, money was tight 193 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:58,000 and Bassett-Lowke had lost many of his clients. 194 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,400 The landscape for his miniature locomotives had changed. 195 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:07,320 A lot of the wealthy middle or upper class people who could afford 196 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,680 these fine early models would have been fighting in the war 197 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:13,360 and many of them, unfortunately, would have been killed. 198 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:20,920 This was, of course, the time when the largest number of country houses 199 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,680 went on the market in a five-year period that Britain ever knew. 200 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:28,440 Lots of people lost a lot of money. 201 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:31,840 So the market for... 202 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:35,720 The size of the market that people like Lowke 203 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:38,400 were serving went down. 204 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:42,000 The large trains, which had been so successful before the war, 205 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:43,480 had become a liability. 206 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:51,240 They were so expensive, they just sat in his showrooms in Holborn 207 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:55,560 and in Manchester and Northampton, and they were not selling 208 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,040 because they were, frankly, too expensive. 209 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:03,040 Even worse, no-one wanted to buy products made in Germany any more. 210 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,120 All German imports carried the trademark label 211 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,800 German Reich Registered Design. 212 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:14,640 The German toys had a trademark, DRGM, 213 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:18,760 which was Deutsch Reich Gebrauchsmuster. 214 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:24,320 In Britain, the kids used to call that Dirty Rotten German Make. 215 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:33,360 With a diminished client base and expensive unsold stock, 216 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:34,840 Bassett-Lowke rallied. 217 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,960 Moving production to a new British factory, 218 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,160 he would have to expand into a wider market beyond the very rich. 219 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:54,800 By the 1920s, Bassett-Lowke was having the sort of trains 220 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:59,360 that were being made in Germany, were being made here in Britain. 221 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:03,720 Very proud to put in his catalogue "British-made". 222 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,040 And he had to go downscale to smaller models, 223 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:14,200 which needed less space and which were capable of being 224 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:17,920 housed in smaller houses which were being built. 225 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:23,160 In the 1920s, as the economy began to pick up again, 226 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:27,120 Bassett-Lowke's smaller-sized models put him back on track. 227 00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:28,880 Over the previous 20 years, 228 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,120 he had popularised the idea of model railways. 229 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,720 But this was still a very expensive hobby, 230 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:36,840 which only the affluent could afford. 231 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:45,760 But there was a large potential market that had barely been touched. 232 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:48,560 Bassett-Lowke considered his products to be models 233 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,720 for discerning adults rather than children's toys. 234 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,920 For them to become a Boy's Own favourite took a man that 235 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:58,800 became famous for his toy trains. 236 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,120 Frank Hornby. 237 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:08,040 A compulsive inventor, in 1901 Hornby had created a design 238 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:11,320 that changed the toy industry for ever. 239 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:15,560 Called Meccano, it made him very rich. 240 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:17,160 It was touch and go to start with, 241 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:22,280 but he succeeded and by 1916 he was able to publish a little, handy 242 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,200 pocket book of how he'd made his first million, 243 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:28,920 and a million really was a million in 1916. 244 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:33,640 As German toy makers were frozen out after the war, Frank Hornby saw 245 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:39,000 an opportunity for a new toy which was entertaining and educational. 246 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,720 He would mass-produce toy train sets for middle class children. 247 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,400 During 1920, he launched his first model railway, 248 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:51,920 toy railway set and it really was a toy railway, not a model railway. 249 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:00,840 One of his by-lines, I think, was "British toys for British boys" 250 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:03,440 which was fairly naked and jingoistic. 251 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,680 Hornby's new trains were a far cry 252 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,080 from Bassett-Lowke's detailed models. 253 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,560 Hornby designed wonderful, ungainly-looking locomotives with 254 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:21,240 tall chimneys, tall cabs, but embodying the nut and bolt principles 255 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:24,040 as you can take the whole thing to bits if you wished to. 256 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:26,480 And indeed, when you open the lid of the box 257 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,360 it showed you all the components that you could fit together. 258 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:33,280 Or lose, depending on how you felt inclined. 259 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:37,480 And it was a huge success. 260 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:43,920 He by all accounts was a very jolly and jovial father 261 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:47,200 and there are stories about their Christmas parties at home where 262 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,080 everyone would have to rush upstairs to see his latest invention, 263 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,200 they'd crowd into the bathroom to see 264 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:54,240 the submarine that he'd invented. 265 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:56,760 His niece told a story of one time she was actually 266 00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,440 thrown into the bath in the excitement. 267 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:02,520 The submarine sank, but you know, it was this kind of feeling, 268 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:05,400 he was a constant inventor, he was constantly trying out new toys 269 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:07,560 and new marketing ploys. 270 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:13,320 Hornby was one of the first businessmen to target children 271 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:17,400 using sophisticated advertising and branding techniques, 272 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,240 which he applied to his new train venture. 273 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:26,080 His genius for manufacturing and emphasising detail, 274 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:30,560 and also for marketing and promoting, really drove the product. 275 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:36,560 The Meccano principle, he applied to trains, which was that the quality 276 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:40,480 would be second to none, but you would never be completing your kit. 277 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,200 You could always expand it, it could always be developed. 278 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,520 Here's a railway on which nobody ever rides. 279 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:52,560 It's a perfect system yet the trains carry no passengers 280 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:54,560 nor the barges goods. 281 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:59,120 The railway is the result of really amazing skill and untiring patience 282 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:03,000 and it's only these that have made this boy's school dream come true. 283 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,320 It's this kind of dedication and a love of accuracy 284 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:12,880 which is so important to modellers. 285 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,960 I started it in 1994, so that gives you an indication. 286 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:21,760 I suppose it was finished to a reasonable standard in about 2005, 287 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,160 so about ten years. 288 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:27,000 Buildings are the thieves of time, especially when they're done 289 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,560 like this, each stone is carved and painted one at a time, as it were. 290 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:33,440 And that does take a long time. 291 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,960 Iain Rice has been making model trains since he was three years old. 292 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,640 I used to make everything out of toilet rolls 293 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,960 and you can make a good model train out of toilet roll, yes. 294 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:55,720 Slice toilet roll for the wheels, toilet roll for the boiler, 295 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:59,680 flatten a toilet roll out to make the cab, yes, that's how I started. 296 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:04,600 I suppose making a model is a way of encapsulating an experience. 297 00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:09,040 So you couldn't bring a real train home, but you get a model. 298 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,560 Making models, I mean, it's a basic creative urge, really. 299 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,520 Make something. 300 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:21,120 First thing you've got to do, obviously, is to analyse what 301 00:21:21,120 --> 00:21:24,520 you're trying to make a model of in terms of its components. 302 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,480 You've then got to measure and mark out the components. 303 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:32,880 You've then got to cut it out. 304 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:38,680 You then have to shape materials, so you've got to learn how to form 305 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:42,880 curves, form bends and you think, "Well, maybe I need to heat this 306 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:46,600 "bit of metal to bend it," so you've got to know how hot to get it. 307 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:51,680 So there's lots of fun in trial and error and experiment. 308 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,160 It's essentially a pointless activity, 309 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,760 it's not going to get anyone a meal on their table for tomorrow morning 310 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,600 or save someone's life, but it might save someone's sanity. 311 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:23,200 Escaping into the model universe wasn't just 312 00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:26,560 about the trains for Hornby boys of the 1930s. 313 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:32,480 Hornby publications offered another world of Boy's Own adventure 314 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:37,400 with articles on engineering as well as the latest engines. 315 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:41,960 From 1922 onwards, they always produced a Hornby book of trains, 316 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,720 which was brilliant marketing 317 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,760 because the front cover had 318 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,320 a very dramatic picture of either 319 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,000 a Great Western Castle Class engine, 320 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,960 it always had a locomotive 321 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:59,120 or one of the big LMS Royal Scot Classes in its crimson red. 322 00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:02,480 Beautiful looking pictures, the artwork was fabulous. 323 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,280 You looked at these books and you can imagine any kid thinking, 324 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,640 "I have got to have some of these things, 325 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,160 "I would love one of those!" because they just looked delightful. 326 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,280 The world that you see in Hornby is a particular kind of a world, 327 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:27,720 it's a world for boys in short trousers 328 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:30,360 whose heads are full of engineering detail, who know 329 00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:34,000 the names of the locomotives and the great train lines of the world. 330 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,400 Their heads are chock-full of batting averages 331 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:39,800 and technical details, and they share this with their fathers, 332 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:43,640 their pipe-smoking dads, and it's a real sense of childhood 333 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:47,760 as a separate and particular world, but a world that these boys 334 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,960 will grow from and take all of the values that they've learnt 335 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,640 about engineering and about science and technology. 336 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:58,000 And it had these principles, it was producing the right kind of chap. 337 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,360 Underneath all the brightly coloured advertising was a pricing hierarchy 338 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:08,560 that appeals to a middle class sense of one-upmanship. 339 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:16,800 If you look at the adverts of the time, that the reversing ones 340 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,120 are being sold to middle middle-class 341 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:26,280 and the unreversing ones are being sold to lower middle-class. 342 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:33,280 So, beginning a very subtle marketing campaign aimed at a segmented market. 343 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:39,040 But there were other potential costs, such as health dangers. 344 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:45,640 When the electrics came in, it wasn't long before you were plugging them 345 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:49,920 direct into the mains and these things were horrendously dangerous. 346 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:57,040 If you've got a short circuit or the train derailed, consequently, 347 00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,400 you had the full voltage now going through the track. 348 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,880 And there were cartoons of cats leaping off children's 349 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,920 model railways and, again, health and safety, I think 350 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:08,560 they would have danced a cancan. 351 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,920 Key to Hornby's success was trading on the relationship 352 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:15,840 between fathers and sons. 353 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:21,160 Some of the Hornby adverts from the '30s through to the '50s are 354 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:25,720 fascinating representations of fathers and their sons. 355 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:30,680 So on the one hand, there's a very formal element to these images. 356 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,520 Dad is usually in his suit and tie, 357 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:37,040 so we imagine the maybe Dad has just come home from work. 358 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,760 This is reinforced by the representation of the boy, 359 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,600 who is often shown in a blazer and a tie. 360 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:47,120 A little Mini-Me of Dad. He's probably just come home from school. 361 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:53,800 What we have here is a marketing for father and son togetherness. 362 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:58,320 As soon as you get home, that's how thrilling model railways are. 363 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:02,360 You don't get changed out of your school or your work clothes, 364 00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:04,880 you sit down immediately with your dad 365 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,600 and engage in running some locomotives. 366 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,000 For earlier generations where fathers weren't particularly 367 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,160 encouraged to show an interest in their kids, 368 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:21,520 it was something that they could both do together 369 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,000 and it was something that the dads felt comfortable with, 370 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,120 because it was engineering and it was technical. 371 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,520 Hornby's toys arrived at a time of turmoil 372 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,040 and change for the real railways. 373 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:43,160 The First World War had taken its toll and by 1923, 374 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:47,200 the 100 plus railway companies had been merged into The Big Four. 375 00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:56,080 The Great Western, London Midland and Scottish, Southern Railway 376 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,880 and London and North Eastern Railways. 377 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:01,920 Competition was fierce. 378 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:04,840 And now they had cars to worry about, too. 379 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:08,080 Each company focused on branding to try and lure back 380 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:09,880 upper and middle class passengers. 381 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,160 New and ever more powerful engines were designed, 382 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,000 colours and liveries were freshly painted, 383 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:22,680 the railways had never been so glamorous for modellers. 384 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,800 Because they were competing with each other, were extraordinarily 385 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,400 good at what we'd now probably call a branding or marketing 386 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,080 or even public relations. 387 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,280 Those weren't terms that were used at the time 388 00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:37,920 but the railway companies were painting their engines 389 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:39,880 and their rolling stock and their stations 390 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,600 in distinctive liveries because they wanted to mark out 391 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,640 their services, their trains, from those of the competition. 392 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:52,040 The railway companies commissioned contemporary artists 393 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,160 to produce iconic posters promoting their destinations 394 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,520 as fashionable, even exotic. 395 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:03,520 Great Western is the most popular 396 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,200 railway by quite a lot. But then, 397 00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:09,680 it went to the most romantic places for British people 398 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,160 in the '20s and '30s. 399 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,520 It went to Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. 400 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:18,640 So therefore they had the best posters, they had great colours, 401 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,160 that's what we all bought, we all bought the advertising. 402 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,840 This latest streamline locomotive makes its bow 403 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,920 as it starts its first test run from London to Newcastle. 404 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,240 Everything about it is still very hush-hush, 405 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,480 its perfect streamlining seems to radiate power and speed. 406 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:35,760 But best of all for railway modellers, 407 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,800 the train companies were trying to capture the public imagination 408 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,640 by setting new speed records. 409 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,680 Trains were getting faster and faster. 410 00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:57,520 Mallard on one special occasion did 126 miles per hour, which was all 411 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,680 very, very important for the railway's publicity machine. 412 00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:03,080 So it's not surprising that model companies, 413 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:09,440 Hornby is a really good example, make models of these famous locomotives 414 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,760 almost before they're off the real-life production line. 415 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:15,320 These are popular models, 416 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,200 they tie in with the railway's marketing campaigns. 417 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,800 It was on Mallard, one of the LNER's streamline Pacifics, the driver, 418 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:27,200 Duddingston, set up a speed record that has never been beaten. 419 00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:30,920 The engine drivers were the astronauts of their day, 420 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,960 they were household names, they were interviewed on newsreels, 421 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,000 in the newspapers, things like that. 422 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,360 And he recalls with some excitement how her speed mounted from 90 to 423 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:43,800 100, 110, 120, 125, and finally, 424 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:45,960 126 thrilling miles an hour. 425 00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,520 They were breaking the barriers for speed, you know, at a time 426 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:55,160 when the few cars that were around travelled at ten or 15 miles an hour, 427 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,440 this engine was travelling at more than two miles a minute. 428 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,840 Princess Elizabeth broke a speed record. 429 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:06,840 The Hornby version of that train was in the shops within weeks, 430 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,080 together with an endorsement of the driver, 431 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:10,720 "Driver Clark says it's fine." 432 00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:12,960 And it was that idea of authenticity 433 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,360 and absolute detail and quality that was central to the whole endeavour. 434 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,440 As the Hornby brand became a household name, 435 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,040 the middle class were expanding into the suburbs 436 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,120 and the Hornby model railway was the toy of choice. 437 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,760 You see some of the sales literature for some of these houses, 438 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:46,360 one of the interesting things is it often features boys and their dads 439 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,680 and train sets, and this was the promotional material 440 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:50,920 for the houses and the housing themselves. 441 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:54,600 So it's this idea that this is the kind of lifestyle you can buy into, 442 00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,840 you can become one of the people that can afford 443 00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,480 not just this house, but this kind of toy. 444 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,520 The trains themselves, of course, these housing estates 445 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,520 are linked by these commuted lines and these branch lines. 446 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:09,720 Dad goes to work on the train, it's only natural that his son 447 00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:14,080 would want to have a train set that replicates that. 448 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:20,160 The company realised there was 449 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,640 a whole world out there to be modelled, 450 00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:27,120 and reproduced every conceivable detail of the everyday world. 451 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:31,400 The Hornby child would never run out of new things to buy. 452 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:34,920 You weren't just buying the rolling stock and the track, 453 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:38,440 you had all of the paraphernalia to replicate the real world, 454 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,800 but to do it in an idealised way, 455 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,400 to leave the grubbiness of the real world behind and create your 456 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:50,120 branch line with the advertising, with the signs on the station, 457 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:52,680 with the figures. 458 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,360 Here was the baggage porter, the businessman with his Times, 459 00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:58,280 the milk churns waiting to be collected. 460 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,760 You had that wonderful world, everything from the sleepy 461 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:06,800 branch line station to the modern Art Deco electric line terminus. 462 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:11,840 Hornby provided everything needed to make a detailed railway scene. 463 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:13,280 But for many modellers, 464 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,560 their craft is about being able to show the world as they see it. 465 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,320 I started to get involved doing buildings. 466 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,040 I didn't like the plastic buildings 467 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,040 because they didn't represent what I wanted them to represent. 468 00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:30,400 I wanted funny things, I wanted strange things, 469 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,400 I wanted sheds with roofs that had holes in 470 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:36,280 and it's a little bit more difficult when you've got a ready-made 471 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:38,000 or kit ready to make. 472 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,720 So I used to build, I still do, build my buildings right from scratch. 473 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:52,000 We are deep in rural Brittany in North-West France 474 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,120 in the early 1960s. 475 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,360 Maggie and her husband Gordon have made an award-winning 476 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,840 layout of a small French provincial town. 477 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:05,720 The layout is based on a small metre gauge railway in Brittany. 478 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,320 We've called it Pempoul, the name is purely robbed from a small hamlet 479 00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,080 where there was a gite we used to stay in, so it doesn't have 480 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,120 any sort of bearing on a real railway 481 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:21,720 or the real railway in the area. 482 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:26,840 But the Reseau Breton, which was quite a sizeable system 483 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:30,200 for a metre gauge railway in Brittany, 484 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:34,040 offered us the opportunity to do something a little bit different. 485 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:35,800 Even at this late state, 486 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,240 there was still significant freight on the system, 487 00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:44,160 requiring the use of heavy locos, like Corpet-Louvet Mallet number 41. 488 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,840 We started work on it. 489 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:50,400 We had to look at papers and pictures and maps 490 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:54,200 and all sorts of things because we knew not a thing about this railway. 491 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,080 A lot of the British railways 492 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,680 we knew a little bit about or could find out about, 493 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,520 but the French one, internet wasn't bad, but not that good. 494 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,640 And nothing was being built commercially, 495 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,400 so we knew it would have to be totally, totally hand-built. 496 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,040 Everything you saw had to be hand-built. 497 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:16,760 After 17 years of painstaking work, their vision was complete. 498 00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:20,440 Making it by hand was the only way to capture 499 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,840 the essence of French small-town life. 500 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:26,080 It's that passion for detail 501 00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,480 that Gordon and Maggie find so attractive. 502 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:32,640 You can build a square box as a building, 503 00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,840 put a roof on it, make it look beautiful, 504 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,240 but somehow you don't feel like anybody could live in it. 505 00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:41,480 Because there's just something missing, 506 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,240 and very often you can't even put your finger on it. 507 00:34:44,240 --> 00:34:47,160 And then you change the colour scheme slightly, 508 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,680 you put a dent in a front door, you break a window - in model form - 509 00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:55,040 and suddenly it looks like it's been lived in. 510 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,440 And I think that is what we both try to achieve. 511 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,160 Scratch builders, as they are known, like Gordon and Maggie, 512 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,200 can choose the scale and size of their models. 513 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:11,760 But interwar modellers 514 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:15,240 had to get whatever would fit into their houses. 515 00:35:15,240 --> 00:35:18,760 Most trains were small enough for large suburban rooms, 516 00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:22,160 but still too big for many households. 517 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:26,960 To make model railways more popular, they needed to be even smaller. 518 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:31,000 The answer would come 519 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:35,440 from the original pioneer of model railways himself, Bassett-Lowke. 520 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,800 All these rich guys had these fabulous toys 521 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:43,440 and us oiks wanted our own. 522 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:46,480 And I think that's what Bassett-Lowke spotted. 523 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:50,480 He spotted that he had to make it at a price and the size 524 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:54,560 that would fit the modern two-up-and-two-down at that point. 525 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:59,720 The future of model railways, it was your loft and your bath. 526 00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:03,640 It was a seven, eight foot layout on a board, four mil, 527 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:05,480 that's what he spotted. 528 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,000 The Trix Twin railway 529 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,080 was half the size of his or Hornby's O Gauge trains. 530 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,400 By his standards, it was relatively crude, 531 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:20,200 but Trix Twin was a sales sensation. 532 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:24,040 Bassett Lowke was as in touch with the public as ever. 533 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:27,080 Hornby had to go back to the drawing board. 534 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,240 Their answer was the new size Double O Gauge. 535 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:35,720 They gave it a name to match - Dublo. 536 00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:40,680 It was Hornby's secret weapon, available in clockwork or electric. 537 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,640 Hornby Dublo was probably one of the biggest things 538 00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,760 that happened in the reign of Hornby. 539 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,520 Pictures famously have Dad with his pipe 540 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:57,720 looking excitedly on at the panorama of Hornby Dublo trains. 541 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:01,720 It went without saying that the grown-ups enjoyed it as well, 542 00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,680 and indeed played with it 543 00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:07,360 as much as - if not more than - the children. 544 00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:10,800 Dublo was competitively priced 545 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,600 and more realistic-looking than the Trix. 546 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,840 Hornby was back to being the nation's favourite. 547 00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,680 But, in 1939, production was put on hold 548 00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:27,560 as Hornby turned to making munitions for the war effort. 549 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:32,880 All those eager boys and eager dads would have to wait until 1947 550 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,840 for Hornby to go back into toy production. 551 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,880 The effect of the Second World War railways in Britain 552 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,240 was even more dramatic than in the First World War. 553 00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:49,160 In the Second World War, the railways carried 554 00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:53,320 huge amounts of goods traffic, huge amounts of war materials, 555 00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:55,680 huge numbers of troops. 556 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,520 The railways were worn out. 557 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:02,400 They were bruised and battered, 558 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:05,400 but the public loved the trains more than ever. 559 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,320 At a time when there was little entertainment, 560 00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:12,240 children and teenagers discovered the joys of a new hobby. 561 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,640 There's magic in numbers, train numbers. 562 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,600 So think thousands of boys in every corner of the country. 563 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,480 Loco-spotting has become the number one hobby for schoolboys 564 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:26,320 in recent years... 565 00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:29,360 After the Second World War, there was a huge upsurge in interest 566 00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:33,240 in railways amongst children, and what we'd now call teenagers. 567 00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:34,960 These were the trainspotters 568 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,760 that we all know about and sometimes laugh about. 569 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:41,440 Because this was something that you could do very, very cheaply. 570 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,720 You could buy yourself one of Ian Allan's ABC spotter books, 571 00:38:44,720 --> 00:38:48,400 get a pencil, go down to the station, start ticking the numbers off. 572 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,880 So a very cheap way of enjoying yourself of a Saturday afternoon. 573 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,480 About 80,000 belong to the Locospotters Club 574 00:38:57,480 --> 00:38:59,520 and, with the cooperation of British Railways, 575 00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,320 they make trips each year along particularly interesting routes 576 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,440 in their own specially hired trains. 577 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,120 The trainspotting craze fuelled a surge of interest 578 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,320 in model railways amongst the young. 579 00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,760 But those model railways were still only for some children. 580 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:18,440 With the possible exception of maybe a building block 581 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:21,520 or a teddy bear or a doll, you can't think of a toy 582 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:25,560 that is more representative of childhood than a toy train. 583 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,480 And yet, of course, even when they were produced 584 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:32,960 and, indeed, now, they were always toys for a certain child. 585 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:38,000 With electric sets, that child was invariably middle class. 586 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:43,320 That was the preserve of, you know, one's wealthier acquaintances. 587 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:44,840 The mother would invite you in. 588 00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:47,120 POSH VOICE: "Oh, yes, do come in, Peter. 589 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:50,000 "Andrew is waiting for you in the living room." 590 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,440 And you'd go there and they'd be standing smugly by this big board 591 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,840 with this huge piece of track on it. 592 00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:02,160 But early in the 1950s, one company, Tri-ang Rovex, 593 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,360 aimed their trains at working-class wallets. 594 00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:10,080 Their new inexpensive sets brought the model railway to a mass market. 595 00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:12,360 It wasn't till the 1950s, 596 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,680 when Tri-ang Rovex came on the scene, 597 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,880 that you got these mass-produced plastic trains 598 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:23,720 that were affordable for ordinary families. 599 00:40:23,720 --> 00:40:27,960 And it was a real process of democratisation for model railways. 600 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:31,640 They were cheap. 601 00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:36,120 They were cruder, they certainly were not in the class of Hornby Dublo, 602 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:37,960 but it was still a train set 603 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:39,880 and it still got as much love out of my house 604 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:41,840 as any Hornby Dublo did. 605 00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:44,840 I mean, in the past, they'd use mostly die-cast 606 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,960 and tin plate with Hornby et cetera, 607 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:52,440 and they found a way of producing models 608 00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:55,400 using this very cheap plastic at the time 609 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:57,440 which warps with age and things, 610 00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,920 but it was a great step forward then 611 00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:03,960 and it meant they could produce a decent layout 612 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:08,200 for a lot less than you would have done with the metal models. 613 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:12,800 Now there was something available for everyone 614 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:15,400 and model railways entered the golden age 615 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:20,080 of Hornby Dublo and Trix Twin, Tri-ang and Bassett-Lowke. 616 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:23,560 Every child could have a train set to cherish. 617 00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:28,880 I saw the shape of the box and I thought, "Ooh, 618 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,040 "that's a Hornby Dublo train set." 619 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,400 Bassett-Lowke, tin-plate clockwork set. 620 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:37,720 For me, it was a bright red and yellow Tri-ang train set. 621 00:41:37,720 --> 00:41:41,680 Princess Elizabeth locomotive in green, British Railways green, 622 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,000 and two coaches to put behind it. 623 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:45,560 Oh, I was thrilled to pieces. 624 00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,600 I had to take it up to bed with me 625 00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:49,600 and put it on the table beside the bed. 626 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:51,600 I think I would have taken it into the bed. 627 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:55,760 I do remember a little red engine, I remember, on top of the table, 628 00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,120 going round and round, and I had hours of fun with it. 629 00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,280 It wasn't quite what you'd think from the picture, 630 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:06,120 but it was a start of developing your own railway, 631 00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,520 and you used your imagination 632 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,680 cos you didn't have much more, really. 633 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:16,800 But just as model railways were hitting their peak of popularity, 634 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:20,560 there were clouds on the horizon for the real one. 635 00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:23,320 The railway landscape that modellers cherished, 636 00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:26,920 their source of inspiration, was under threat. 637 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,160 British Railways' enormous modernisation scheme 638 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:42,680 goes full scheme ahead. 639 00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:45,120 The aim is to make British Railways the best in the world. 640 00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:48,760 Throughout the programme, the technique is modernity itself. 641 00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:52,440 In the 1960s, the steam train was to be replaced 642 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:56,920 by the brutal and far less romantic diesel engine. 643 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,800 For the modeller, it was like a death in the family. 644 00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:08,280 It's at this time that the shift moves from an emphasis 645 00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:12,880 on mainline running to an emphasis on cosy little branch lines 646 00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:15,000 set in the West Country, 647 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:21,880 with the odd piddling train tumbling along to some line station. 648 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:27,960 The emphasis shifts from celebrating the technological sublime 649 00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:34,920 to mourning the lost world of the steam railway. 650 00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,200 The end of steam affected the baby-boom modellers 651 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,040 on a deeply personal level. 652 00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,560 Steam was intertwined with their childhood 653 00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:48,160 and modelling became about nostalgia for a lost age. 654 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,240 When I was very small, when I was fractious, 655 00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,000 which was a lot of the time, apparently, 656 00:43:58,000 --> 00:43:59,480 my mother would stick me in a pram, 657 00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,160 take me down to the side of the railway and park me, 658 00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,760 and I'd be happy as a sandboy. 659 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:06,600 And I guess that sort of started it, 660 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,400 and I spent a lot of time sitting at the side of railways. 661 00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,920 Cos in those days, when we were growing up in the early '50s, 662 00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:15,760 greatest free show on earth. 663 00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:19,960 There was no telly, there was no other entertainments. 664 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,680 We hadn't discovered them if there were. 665 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,640 And there were all these wonderful machines tearing past 666 00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:27,320 at 90 miles an hour - very exciting. 667 00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:32,680 The excitement of speeding trains might be a common experience, 668 00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:36,320 but the inspiration to model is of a more personal nature. 669 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:42,200 A lot of people, it is nostalgia. It's a very strong drive. 670 00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:45,320 I mean, I model for myself... 671 00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:50,320 I model the British Railways I knew in the 1950s, early 1960s, 672 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,840 when I was growing up in East Anglia. 673 00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:54,560 And it's interesting, if you look back, 674 00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:58,280 if you read historical model railway magazines of the '50s, 675 00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:00,400 everyone was modelling the railways of the '30s, 676 00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:02,360 because that's when they were growing up. 677 00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:08,840 So, nostalgia and recreation of probably a very idealised past. 678 00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:11,760 You know, the '50s now seem quite a romantic 679 00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:14,600 and rather calm and ordered era. 680 00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:16,120 But they probably weren't. 681 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:28,480 This is a model of a traditional Cornish pan dry china clay works, 682 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:32,440 as it would have been at the end of its life in about 1960. 683 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:36,000 And I got to know this part of the world about that time. 684 00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:40,400 For Iain Rice, it's all about depicting the drama 685 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,440 of a particular moment and a particular time. 686 00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:48,240 A model railway, especially a small one like this, 687 00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:51,080 functions rather like stage in a theatre. 688 00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:56,480 And you've got a proscenium arch, you got an apron, 689 00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:59,000 and you've got wings at either side, 690 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,760 which define the scene, they limit the scene. 691 00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:05,280 And we're using lighting, we're using a backdrop, 692 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,160 all artefacts of the stage. 693 00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:10,160 And the actors are the actual trains. 694 00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:14,160 They come in, they do their piece, hopefully faultlessly, 695 00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:16,800 and depart again amongst admiring applause. 696 00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:23,280 Whatever the motivation for modelling, 697 00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:26,720 whether it's the craft involved or just the love of railways, 698 00:46:26,720 --> 00:46:31,560 it does often seem bound up with the urge to recover something lost. 699 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:43,160 Part of why I model is because I'm trying to create, or recreate, 700 00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:47,720 a sense of a railway that I can remember existing 701 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:49,760 half a century ago now. 702 00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:52,320 What I want to do is to, in a sense, 703 00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:56,840 create a memory of something that I did experience as a very young boy. 704 00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:08,160 The point is, when you're a young guy, or a kid particularly, 705 00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:10,800 when you're stood next to one of these 100-tonne engines, 706 00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:12,560 they were enormous. 707 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:13,760 They were enormous. 708 00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:15,720 They smelt, you know, 709 00:47:15,720 --> 00:47:20,680 because you have to put oil in the water to lubricate the parts, 710 00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:25,480 so you sort of get a baby oil smell from steam engines, 711 00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:28,840 which is what you do, which reminds you of being a baby 712 00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:32,360 when your mum puts the oil in the water of the bath. 713 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,680 So, you've got all those romantic notions. 714 00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:41,920 Some modellers find that it is a fascination 715 00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:45,240 with the technical skills needed to create a railway in miniature 716 00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:46,880 that keeps them hooked. 717 00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:55,640 We try to recapture a part of the same pride in the job, 718 00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:59,440 so it's not about going and buying a model from a model shop 719 00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:01,960 and sticking it on the layout and running it round. 720 00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:04,520 It's about the same pride, it's about making it 721 00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:07,440 so you know exactly where every part's come from, 722 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,840 you put it on the track and then it's got to pull 14 coaches. 723 00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:13,440 And if it doesn't pull 14 coaches, you've failed. 724 00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:15,560 It's the same mentality. 725 00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:19,000 For Pete Waterman, the best era to model 726 00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:21,200 wasn't the railway in its finest hour. 727 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:26,640 In the 1950s, the railways were not glorious, you know. 728 00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:30,120 The golden years of railways were certainly passed. 729 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:33,760 They were dirty, they were run down, 730 00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:36,480 the system had just gone through the Second World War, 731 00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:39,480 there was no investment, it was falling apart. 732 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:45,480 But for me, it's the opposite. I like the run down-ness of it all. 733 00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:49,440 I actually like the way that it wasn't pristine, 734 00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:51,520 that it was infallible, 735 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:55,360 that it was hard work, that it was falling apart. 736 00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:58,400 That's the part... If you look round this layout, 737 00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:02,120 you'll see that it's the decay that I particularly like. 738 00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,840 But the attraction of railway modelling 739 00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:08,800 isn't just about the lure of recreating a nostalgic past. 740 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:13,240 Some people just like to build model railways 741 00:49:13,240 --> 00:49:14,880 and watch the trains run round. 742 00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,560 For other people, it's all about the construction 743 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,480 and building the scenery and the track. 744 00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:26,920 And others, for others again, it's quite an academic process. 745 00:49:30,720 --> 00:49:34,920 The Crampton patent locomotive, known as the Liverpool. 746 00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:36,680 It was modelled by Mike Sharman, 747 00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:40,120 who lives at Cricklade near Swindon in Wiltshire. 748 00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,960 But to say Mike Sharman models railway engines 749 00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:46,760 is a little like saying Michelangelo dabbled with oil painting. 750 00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:49,840 I like the historical research side of it 751 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:52,800 and it had quite a big bonus from a modelling viewpoint 752 00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:54,880 that you haven't got a lot of space 753 00:49:54,880 --> 00:50:00,240 and a short loco with short coaches on a short platform 754 00:50:00,240 --> 00:50:03,760 looks far more in scale than its modern counterparts 755 00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,840 with three or four bogie coaches in an out-of-scale station - 756 00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:08,400 it completely ruins the effect. 757 00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:11,080 You've got this private fiefdom, 758 00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:15,360 this place where the cricketer is always coming up to bowl. 759 00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:20,800 It's where passengers are always patiently waiting on platforms. 760 00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:24,000 Sheep never finish grazing in a field. 761 00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:29,360 It's about creating a miniature world that you have complete control of, 762 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:31,600 in a world where people, 763 00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:34,840 a lot of people often feel that they've lost all control. 764 00:50:34,840 --> 00:50:38,800 Actually, in this space, they're in charge of it, 765 00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:42,040 and they can influence what happens. 766 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,520 The London, date - 1848. 767 00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:48,040 It was built by Tulk & Ley of Whitehaven 768 00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:50,280 and was the only one ever made. 769 00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:52,640 That is, until Mike Sharman made one. 770 00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:55,520 What we're seeing is a representation 771 00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:57,200 of what, in real life, is actually 772 00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:00,600 a very, very complicated social as well as a technical, 773 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:02,400 or technological system, 774 00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:07,960 and one can only go so far in reproducing the social in a railway. 775 00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:12,200 You can't reproduce all the complex social relations 776 00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:17,480 that go to make real railways such a fascinating system in everyday life. 777 00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:23,520 And modelling itself has its more social side. 778 00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:27,560 It's not always a hobby conducted by solitary men in sheds. 779 00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:32,400 Model railways don't just consist of locomotives. 780 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:34,920 So, let's take a look at a couple of working layouts. 781 00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:37,640 Let's start with one that's been run at a club meeting. 782 00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:39,920 Another reason that thousands of modellers 783 00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:43,880 carried on modelling into adulthood was the model club. 784 00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,760 It represents a sleepy West Country branch line. 785 00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:49,920 It was built by members of the Twickenham Model Railway Club. 786 00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:54,480 There are over 400 model clubs up and down the country, 787 00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:59,680 which sprang up between the '50s and '70s, offering tea, balsa wood 788 00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:02,440 and a place to swap tales of railway adventures. 789 00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:10,280 For most people in the hobby, it's more of a social activity. 790 00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:13,480 They get together in clubs and at shows, things like that, 791 00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:18,000 and it's a perfectly normal pastime hobby - 792 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,200 they just happen to be interested in railways 793 00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:22,480 instead of bird-watching or old cars 794 00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:24,880 or anything else you care to mention. 795 00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:30,720 The model railway club is a fantastic male space 796 00:52:30,720 --> 00:52:33,400 for masculine conviviality, 797 00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:35,600 for sharing resources, 798 00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:39,400 for sharing experiences, and also for pooling skills. 799 00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:42,040 So, if you are hopeless at modelling, 800 00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:46,160 you can participate in the model railway scene through a club 801 00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:48,960 because there's bound to be something you can contribute. 802 00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:54,560 Most of us are quite uninteresting, we just play trains. 803 00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:58,680 Not very interesting, really. In truth, you know, that's the truth. 804 00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:02,040 I mean, most of us, when we get together, we talk trains. 805 00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:05,200 You know, most people think we're the most boring bunch of buggers 806 00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:09,560 they've ever sat with, and I have to tell you, I agree with them, we are. 807 00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:11,800 Cos that's all we do, is talk trains. 808 00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:15,840 You've got to be very careful when you bring partners into this, 809 00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:20,000 because, you know, it is interesting to us - 810 00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:23,600 it's not interesting to 95% of the people. 811 00:53:24,600 --> 00:53:27,600 Some men don't need to go to a model club. 812 00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:32,000 For the lucky few, railway modelling is a shared endeavour at home. 813 00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:36,360 My greatest compliment is that I'm treated as one of the lads 814 00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:38,840 and I'm considered to be one of the lads. 815 00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:43,200 Nobody worries that it's Maggie, a female, it's just Maggie. 816 00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:48,040 That's my name and I could be either male or female, I sometimes feel. 817 00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:54,920 I think also that with a woman, people are sometimes, 818 00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:56,680 not always but sometimes, 819 00:53:56,680 --> 00:53:59,960 more willing to ask a woman a question than they are a man, 820 00:53:59,960 --> 00:54:03,600 because if a woman knows the answer then it must be easy. 821 00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:05,800 And I know that's very stereotypical, 822 00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:07,520 but it does sometimes happen. 823 00:54:08,720 --> 00:54:11,440 But as a hobby that crossed the generations, 824 00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:15,080 model railways started to decline in the '60s and '70s. 825 00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:17,520 Children were becoming more sophisticated 826 00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:19,280 in their choice of toy. 827 00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:22,720 Newer, hi-tech products began to take over 828 00:54:22,720 --> 00:54:27,480 and model railways became the preserve of adults. 829 00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:29,600 And there's no point at all in being a dad 830 00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:31,680 if you can't play with an electric train set. 831 00:54:31,680 --> 00:54:34,840 You get a real sense of manufacturers appealing 832 00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:37,720 over the heads of their parents to the children themselves, 833 00:54:37,720 --> 00:54:41,560 with toys that aren't necessarily vehicles for any kind of great moral 834 00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:47,000 or social value system, but in fact are playthings. 835 00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:51,680 And that starts to change the whole landscape. 836 00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:55,240 It's not just Hornby train sets, you see Meccano Erector sets, 837 00:54:55,240 --> 00:54:59,360 a lot of the industrial and engineering toys start to struggle. 838 00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:03,920 By the 1980s, 839 00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:08,880 railways had become about InterCity 125s and anonymous engines. 840 00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:12,760 For children, it seemed to have no connection to their everyday lives. 841 00:55:21,640 --> 00:55:26,160 But in 1985, a saviour arrived. 842 00:55:26,160 --> 00:55:27,840 Gordon, the big engine, 843 00:55:27,840 --> 00:55:31,680 and Thomas the Tank Engine puffed, buffer to buffer, back home. 844 00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:34,080 It had been a busy day. 845 00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:38,000 A whole new generation were introduced to the joy of trains 846 00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,280 via the television series Thomas The Tank Engine, 847 00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:44,160 based on the prewar books of Anglican vicar, 848 00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:46,240 the Reverend Wilbert Awdry. 849 00:55:46,240 --> 00:55:48,840 "Remember, Thomas," called Gordon grandly, 850 00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:51,360 "united we stand, together we fall." 851 00:55:51,360 --> 00:55:54,720 Very few people are into model railways 852 00:55:54,720 --> 00:55:57,200 that are not into the real thing. 853 00:55:57,200 --> 00:56:01,200 Thomas has brought very, very small children into it 854 00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:03,480 with his sort of lovable looks, 855 00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:07,280 his little face and all that, where they relate to him. 856 00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:11,960 And it really also rather proves the fact that the railway engine 857 00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:14,400 is almost a bit human, 858 00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:16,600 there's something of an animal about it, 859 00:56:16,600 --> 00:56:18,480 because you can put a face on, you know, 860 00:56:18,480 --> 00:56:20,840 you put a face on this thing, it's a personality. 861 00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:22,400 We have the Fat Director, 862 00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:25,120 later the Fat Controller, once the railways are nationalised. 863 00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:26,440 We have the workers. 864 00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:30,080 There's a lot of interesting sexual politics going on there. 865 00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:33,720 The carriages are all female and all a little bit flighty. 866 00:56:33,720 --> 00:56:36,760 The wagons are rude, working-class fellows 867 00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,440 who are always cutting up rough. 868 00:56:38,440 --> 00:56:42,920 So, I mean, the politics of this railway is fascinating as well. 869 00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:46,640 The phenomenal success of Thomas the Tank Engine 870 00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:52,120 is actually drawing in a whole new generation who are, at this moment, 871 00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:56,360 only five or six, into rail enthusiasm. 872 00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:59,320 And, again, I think that's something we should encourage 873 00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:02,360 rather than be sniffy about. 874 00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:04,720 It could be that in another 20 years, 875 00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:08,480 those children are looking to model Virgin Pendolinos. 876 00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:23,680 The new, younger modellers didn't just choose to depict 877 00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:25,800 the lost steam age of Thomas. 878 00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:29,080 They wanted to model the railway of their own world - 879 00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:33,840 of modern diesel or electric trains and run-down urban scenes. 880 00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:35,520 SIREN WAILS 881 00:57:38,040 --> 00:57:42,520 Model railways have become much more than a miniature curiosity. 882 00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:44,400 They tell the story of an obsession, 883 00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:47,120 breathing life into personal memories 884 00:57:47,120 --> 00:57:49,320 and lost scenes of everyday Britain. 885 00:57:50,760 --> 00:57:54,560 With a more youthful crowd continuing to embrace modelling, 886 00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:58,920 perhaps it's time that the craft of the railway modeller 887 00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:00,560 is finally given its due. 888 00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:06,320 Thank God for railway modellers. I really mean that. 889 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:07,440 When old gits like me 890 00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:10,040 are not going to be here to be going on about it, 891 00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:13,640 about how wonderful it all was in real life, you know, 892 00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,400 they will be able to produce this visual mnemonic of saying, 893 00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:21,400 "This is how life was in a period of time, in all its details, 894 00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:25,280 "all its idiosyncrasy, all its great fun", 895 00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:29,480 and I think power to their elbow and to their modelling fingers. 896 00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:56,600 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd