0:00:21 > 0:00:23For more than a century, some of us have been
0:00:23 > 0:00:27captivated by the miniature world of the model railway.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32A land of tiny, detailed wagons and scaled-down stations.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37It's a world that once gripped the imagination of children.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41I saw the shape of the box and I thought,
0:00:41 > 0:00:43"Ooh, that's a Hornby Dublo train set."
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Model railways were shaped by our love of the steam age.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53It's an incredible visual spectacle.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56The only way you can recreate that is by having a model railway.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05It was a hobby that drew fathers close to sons...
0:01:05 > 0:01:09You don't get changed out of your school or your work clothes,
0:01:09 > 0:01:11you sit down immediately with your dad
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and engage in running some locomotives.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18..and a fascination that lasted a lifetime.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24You may go off it, at times. When you find your wife,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26she may take a bit of your time up,
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and then the first child comes along and guess what you think about?
0:01:30 > 0:01:31"I think I'll build a model railway."
0:01:31 > 0:01:37This isn't the story of eccentrics in duffle coats hiding in lofts.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Railway modelling is bigger than that
0:01:39 > 0:01:43and about much more than just trains.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49The way that industry, economics, technology,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52impacts on our social and cultural life.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56I would argue for a re-claiming of rail enthusiasm as something
0:01:56 > 0:02:00which we should celebrate now instead of just being suspicious of.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07That's spot on, that is.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12The British love of model railways
0:02:12 > 0:02:16is etched into our historical obsession with the real thing.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20Britain invented the railway and it became a source of national pride.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22But more than anything else,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27steaming through British identity is the drama of the locomotive.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Seeing a steam engine go past on the main line at high speed is
0:02:30 > 0:02:33something that leaves a real mark on you.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35It's elemental.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42You saw coming in this huge piece of iron that was on fire,
0:02:42 > 0:02:44smoke belching out.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47I mean, I used to grip my father's hand and think, "What's that?"
0:02:50 > 0:02:55Steam issuing out from underneath, the whole thing is alive.
0:02:57 > 0:02:58You put your hand on it
0:02:58 > 0:03:02and it's quivering like a horse as the water boils.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08The thrashing of the rods as it goes along at 100 miles an hour.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12It's an incredible visual spectacle.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15The only way you can recreate that is by having a model railway.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22Gives you a little taste of that same feeling
0:03:22 > 0:03:27and it triggers off the memories of seeing these beasts flying around.
0:03:40 > 0:03:41For Pete Waterman,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45capturing that railway atmosphere has been a lifelong pursuit.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Leamington's where I started spotting in 1951,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53it's where my mum took me and stood me on the station
0:03:53 > 0:03:57while she went off with my auntie shopping, you know.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Half a crown to go to the buffet to get me a cup of tea
0:04:00 > 0:04:07when I wanted one and I spent from about '51 to '63 at Leamington Spa.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09It's what I did.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Leamington also had other attractions for Pete
0:04:13 > 0:04:15and his fellow modelling club members.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18It was an area where different railway companies all
0:04:18 > 0:04:20converged in one place.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24You've got the LMS on that side,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28you've got the Great Western on this side, you've also got LNWR
0:04:28 > 0:04:31and LNER and Southern trains through the station.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34So, for a modeller, the world's your oyster, you can build anything.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40It's all signalled correctly, and all the signals work.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42There are complicated junctions.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46The problem we found when we built the layout, of course,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50we were overenthusiastic so, as you can see, if anything falls off in the
0:04:50 > 0:04:55middle, we don't remedy that because if it falls off you can't reach it.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00And also on the railway I've got things like this,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03I actually own the real one of these tanks, so, you know,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06a bit of self-indulgence that I'm playing with my own train,
0:05:06 > 0:05:08but I never get time to go and see the real thing
0:05:08 > 0:05:11but I get time to play with the model.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15Everything's hand made.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19There's one and a half hundredweight of ballast
0:05:19 > 0:05:22all put in with a paintbrush.
0:05:22 > 0:05:28It's never-ending, it won't ever be finished, but it keeps us modelling.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Modelling first got going in the Edwardian age
0:05:41 > 0:05:44when a young entrepreneur called Wenman J Bassett-Lowke
0:05:44 > 0:05:48began to produce models that fed on our passion for locomotives.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53He would stoke up a fascination with model railways in Britain
0:05:53 > 0:05:55that has lasted more than 100 years.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Bassett-Lowke's genius was
0:06:08 > 0:06:11to miniaturise the engineering wonder of his day
0:06:11 > 0:06:14at a time when railways were at their peak.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20The Edwardian period before the First World War is arguably
0:06:20 > 0:06:23the golden age of railways in Britain.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30These locomotives are like the jet aircraft of today.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41Passenger services were unparalleled, finely decorated locomotives,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44exquisitely decorated coaches,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47you could get pretty much everywhere in the United Kingdom by train.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52When you combine that with this general attitude towards
0:06:52 > 0:06:55railways as being cutting-edge technology,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59then it's quite easy to understand why some people,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02some members of the public, men mostly, it has to be said,
0:07:02 > 0:07:04become interested in representing
0:07:04 > 0:07:07this kind of cutting-edge technology in miniature form.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Wealthy man of leisure wanted to feel that they had
0:07:12 > 0:07:15a stake in the great railway enterprise.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18What better way than through a scaled-down version?
0:07:18 > 0:07:22Bassett-Lowke introduced them to the new model world.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30He loved modern engineering, he loved structures.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Aircraft, he loved aircraft.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40Bassett-Lowke was a man of his time, he was a Victorian entrepreneur.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46He made his first money by selling black and white
0:07:46 > 0:07:49pictures of a train crash in Northampton.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Bassett-Lowke's father was a boiler maker and engineer
0:07:55 > 0:07:58but Wenman didn't want to follow in his footsteps.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03For him, the future lay in a much smaller world.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07He spotted that people wanted to mimic the real railway.
0:08:07 > 0:08:13He was the first to make... They weren't toys,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17they would be classed as engineering art pieces
0:08:17 > 0:08:21for people who wanted a bit more for their garden.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25So he saw that there were all these posh blokes out there who
0:08:25 > 0:08:29would like a model railway that could afford his locomotives.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33In 1900, there were over 100 railway companies
0:08:33 > 0:08:35competing for the public's attention,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39and steam fans all had their favourite locomotives.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44There was a kaleidoscope of colours and liveries
0:08:44 > 0:08:48and if Bassett-Lowke could offer replicas of choice locomotives,
0:08:48 > 0:08:50the market was his for the taking.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52On a trip to the continent,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55the 22-year-old saw what he needed to do.
0:09:00 > 0:09:06Bassett-Lowke originally imports his trains from Germany, in particular,
0:09:06 > 0:09:11from Nuremberg in Germany, which is the capital of wonderful
0:09:11 > 0:09:16toy makers who make these scaled-down trains,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18wonderful objects.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23He set up the company that really started what
0:09:23 > 0:09:28we now class as model railways. Without a doubt, he set it all up.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31He would take these German toys, make them
0:09:31 > 0:09:34look like realistic versions of British trains,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and sell them as models for adults, earning a mint in the process.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43His first attempt was the Black Prince locomotive,
0:09:43 > 0:09:48which was over two feet long and cost around £500 in today's money,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51which didn't even include any track.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Looking at his catalogues, you will notice he never, ever
0:09:55 > 0:10:00uses the word "toy" trains. It doesn't come into it.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03Model railways, models, model steam engines,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06the whole thing is based on models.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14They were very expensive, they were far too elaborate for children,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18yes, they were grown-up gentlemen's toys, that's what they were.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22The distinction between toy and model
0:10:22 > 0:10:25was an important one to Bassett-Lowke's clients.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27His models were detailed,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31engineered, accurate depictions of real locomotives.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34The scientific man about town couldn't be seen to be
0:10:34 > 0:10:36playing with toys.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41It's about mechanics, it's educational,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45it's about engineering, science, mathematics.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48It's about self-improvement through building things.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56For Bassett-Lowke's customers, it was all about having the money
0:10:56 > 0:10:59to buy the trains and the space to run them.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01For his larger engines, a billiards room,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05estate gardens or perhaps an old tennis court would do the trick.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13But Bassett-Lowke had even bigger ambitions.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15His locomotives weren't all for
0:11:15 > 0:11:17watching go round a track on the floor.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21His miniature ride-on trains were models for millionaires.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25They pushed shrunken-down steam engineering to its limits and ran
0:11:25 > 0:11:29through stately homes or served as tourist attractions at the seaside.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38For his smaller models, power was provided by steam, early electricity
0:11:38 > 0:11:42or even clockwork, a somewhat hit and miss method of propulsion.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48Some of the big engines had enormous clockwork mechanisms.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52There was one that was so powerful this would pull a kid.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57It obviously had distinct disadvantages.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01You wound it up and set it off on your layout
0:12:01 > 0:12:04on this hopeful journey, it was going to arrive
0:12:04 > 0:12:06in Peterborough or somewhere
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and it of course wound up stopping in a tunnel.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14For such a young capitalist, Bassett-Lowke was an enigma.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16He was a fan of the Arts and Crafts movement
0:12:16 > 0:12:18and hung out with George Bernard Shaw.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23He championed workers' rights and commissioned radical modern artwork.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Bassett-Lowke is a fascinating man.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31Politically, he's on the left, he's a Fabian, he's a pacifist,
0:12:31 > 0:12:37his house in Northampton was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41It's the last great Mackintosh house.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46Wenman was a man of progressive ideals, but one who knew his market.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50He was servicing a very particular clientele, the filthy rich.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56I mean, the Bassett-Lowke who's who of the time was very interesting.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58I mean, Churchill, there's Walt Disney,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01all sorts of people like this were clients
0:13:01 > 0:13:05of the Bassett-Lowke showroom. Members of the Royal family...
0:13:06 > 0:13:12So his left aspect seems to be a little bit...
0:13:12 > 0:13:14bit awry there.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18By 1912, business was booming.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20He was opening new shops
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and the rich couldn't get enough of his German-built trains.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Model railways had arrived.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33In 1914, I think it was the imports
0:13:33 > 0:13:35from German toy factories,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40were £1 million at 1914 values.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45It's a huge sum. And, of course, that was cut off with the war.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54When the war ended in 1918, money was tight
0:13:54 > 0:13:58and Bassett-Lowke had lost many of his clients.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01The landscape for his miniature locomotives had changed.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07A lot of the wealthy middle or upper class people who could afford
0:14:07 > 0:14:10these fine early models would have been fighting in the war
0:14:10 > 0:14:13and many of them, unfortunately, would have been killed.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20This was, of course, the time when the largest number of country houses
0:14:20 > 0:14:24went on the market in a five-year period that Britain ever knew.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Lots of people lost a lot of money.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31So the market for...
0:14:31 > 0:14:35The size of the market that people like Lowke
0:14:35 > 0:14:38were serving went down.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42The large trains, which had been so successful before the war,
0:14:42 > 0:14:43had become a liability.
0:14:45 > 0:14:51They were so expensive, they just sat in his showrooms in Holborn
0:14:51 > 0:14:55and in Manchester and Northampton, and they were not selling
0:14:55 > 0:14:58because they were, frankly, too expensive.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03Even worse, no-one wanted to buy products made in Germany any more.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06All German imports carried the trademark label
0:15:06 > 0:15:08German Reich Registered Design.
0:15:08 > 0:15:14The German toys had a trademark, DRGM,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18which was Deutsch Reich Gebrauchsmuster.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24In Britain, the kids used to call that Dirty Rotten German Make.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33With a diminished client base and expensive unsold stock,
0:15:33 > 0:15:34Bassett-Lowke rallied.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Moving production to a new British factory,
0:15:41 > 0:15:46he would have to expand into a wider market beyond the very rich.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54By the 1920s, Bassett-Lowke was having the sort of trains
0:15:54 > 0:15:59that were being made in Germany, were being made here in Britain.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Very proud to put in his catalogue "British-made".
0:16:03 > 0:16:08And he had to go downscale to smaller models,
0:16:08 > 0:16:14which needed less space and which were capable of being
0:16:14 > 0:16:17housed in smaller houses which were being built.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23In the 1920s, as the economy began to pick up again,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Bassett-Lowke's smaller-sized models put him back on track.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28Over the previous 20 years,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32he had popularised the idea of model railways.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34But this was still a very expensive hobby,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36which only the affluent could afford.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45But there was a large potential market that had barely been touched.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Bassett-Lowke considered his products to be models
0:16:48 > 0:16:51for discerning adults rather than children's toys.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55For them to become a Boy's Own favourite took a man that
0:16:55 > 0:16:58became famous for his toy trains.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Frank Hornby.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08A compulsive inventor, in 1901 Hornby had created a design
0:17:08 > 0:17:11that changed the toy industry for ever.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15Called Meccano, it made him very rich.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17It was touch and go to start with,
0:17:17 > 0:17:22but he succeeded and by 1916 he was able to publish a little, handy
0:17:22 > 0:17:25pocket book of how he'd made his first million,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28and a million really was a million in 1916.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33As German toy makers were frozen out after the war, Frank Hornby saw
0:17:33 > 0:17:39an opportunity for a new toy which was entertaining and educational.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43He would mass-produce toy train sets for middle class children.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47During 1920, he launched his first model railway,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51toy railway set and it really was a toy railway, not a model railway.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00One of his by-lines, I think, was "British toys for British boys"
0:18:00 > 0:18:03which was fairly naked and jingoistic.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07Hornby's new trains were a far cry
0:18:07 > 0:18:10from Bassett-Lowke's detailed models.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Hornby designed wonderful, ungainly-looking locomotives with
0:18:17 > 0:18:21tall chimneys, tall cabs, but embodying the nut and bolt principles
0:18:21 > 0:18:24as you can take the whole thing to bits if you wished to.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26And indeed, when you open the lid of the box
0:18:26 > 0:18:30it showed you all the components that you could fit together.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Or lose, depending on how you felt inclined.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37And it was a huge success.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43He by all accounts was a very jolly and jovial father
0:18:43 > 0:18:47and there are stories about their Christmas parties at home where
0:18:47 > 0:18:50everyone would have to rush upstairs to see his latest invention,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52they'd crowd into the bathroom to see
0:18:52 > 0:18:54the submarine that he'd invented.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56His niece told a story of one time she was actually
0:18:56 > 0:18:59thrown into the bath in the excitement.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02The submarine sank, but you know, it was this kind of feeling,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05he was a constant inventor, he was constantly trying out new toys
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and new marketing ploys.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13Hornby was one of the first businessmen to target children
0:19:13 > 0:19:17using sophisticated advertising and branding techniques,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20which he applied to his new train venture.
0:19:20 > 0:19:26His genius for manufacturing and emphasising detail,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30and also for marketing and promoting, really drove the product.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36The Meccano principle, he applied to trains, which was that the quality
0:19:36 > 0:19:40would be second to none, but you would never be completing your kit.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43You could always expand it, it could always be developed.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Here's a railway on which nobody ever rides.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52It's a perfect system yet the trains carry no passengers
0:19:52 > 0:19:54nor the barges goods.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59The railway is the result of really amazing skill and untiring patience
0:19:59 > 0:20:03and it's only these that have made this boy's school dream come true.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10It's this kind of dedication and a love of accuracy
0:20:10 > 0:20:12which is so important to modellers.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17I started it in 1994, so that gives you an indication.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21I suppose it was finished to a reasonable standard in about 2005,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24so about ten years.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Buildings are the thieves of time, especially when they're done
0:20:27 > 0:20:31like this, each stone is carved and painted one at a time, as it were.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33And that does take a long time.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Iain Rice has been making model trains since he was three years old.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47I used to make everything out of toilet rolls
0:20:47 > 0:20:51and you can make a good model train out of toilet roll, yes.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55Slice toilet roll for the wheels, toilet roll for the boiler,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59flatten a toilet roll out to make the cab, yes, that's how I started.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04I suppose making a model is a way of encapsulating an experience.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09So you couldn't bring a real train home, but you get a model.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Making models, I mean, it's a basic creative urge, really.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Make something.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21First thing you've got to do, obviously, is to analyse what
0:21:21 > 0:21:24you're trying to make a model of in terms of its components.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29You've then got to measure and mark out the components.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32You've then got to cut it out.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38You then have to shape materials, so you've got to learn how to form
0:21:38 > 0:21:42curves, form bends and you think, "Well, maybe I need to heat this
0:21:42 > 0:21:46"bit of metal to bend it," so you've got to know how hot to get it.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51So there's lots of fun in trial and error and experiment.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57It's essentially a pointless activity,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00it's not going to get anyone a meal on their table for tomorrow morning
0:22:00 > 0:22:04or save someone's life, but it might save someone's sanity.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Escaping into the model universe wasn't just
0:22:23 > 0:22:26about the trains for Hornby boys of the 1930s.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Hornby publications offered another world of Boy's Own adventure
0:22:32 > 0:22:37with articles on engineering as well as the latest engines.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41From 1922 onwards, they always produced a Hornby book of trains,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44which was brilliant marketing
0:22:44 > 0:22:46because the front cover had
0:22:46 > 0:22:49a very dramatic picture of either
0:22:49 > 0:22:52a Great Western Castle Class engine,
0:22:52 > 0:22:53it always had a locomotive
0:22:53 > 0:22:59or one of the big LMS Royal Scot Classes in its crimson red.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Beautiful looking pictures, the artwork was fabulous.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07You looked at these books and you can imagine any kid thinking,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09"I have got to have some of these things,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13"I would love one of those!" because they just looked delightful.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25The world that you see in Hornby is a particular kind of a world,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27it's a world for boys in short trousers
0:23:27 > 0:23:30whose heads are full of engineering detail, who know
0:23:30 > 0:23:34the names of the locomotives and the great train lines of the world.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Their heads are chock-full of batting averages
0:23:36 > 0:23:39and technical details, and they share this with their fathers,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43their pipe-smoking dads, and it's a real sense of childhood
0:23:43 > 0:23:47as a separate and particular world, but a world that these boys
0:23:47 > 0:23:50will grow from and take all of the values that they've learnt
0:23:50 > 0:23:53about engineering and about science and technology.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58And it had these principles, it was producing the right kind of chap.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Underneath all the brightly coloured advertising was a pricing hierarchy
0:24:05 > 0:24:08that appeals to a middle class sense of one-upmanship.
0:24:10 > 0:24:16If you look at the adverts of the time, that the reversing ones
0:24:16 > 0:24:20are being sold to middle middle-class
0:24:20 > 0:24:26and the unreversing ones are being sold to lower middle-class.
0:24:26 > 0:24:33So, beginning a very subtle marketing campaign aimed at a segmented market.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39But there were other potential costs, such as health dangers.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45When the electrics came in, it wasn't long before you were plugging them
0:24:45 > 0:24:49direct into the mains and these things were horrendously dangerous.
0:24:51 > 0:24:57If you've got a short circuit or the train derailed, consequently,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00you had the full voltage now going through the track.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03And there were cartoons of cats leaping off children's
0:25:03 > 0:25:06model railways and, again, health and safety, I think
0:25:06 > 0:25:08they would have danced a cancan.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Key to Hornby's success was trading on the relationship
0:25:13 > 0:25:15between fathers and sons.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Some of the Hornby adverts from the '30s through to the '50s are
0:25:21 > 0:25:25fascinating representations of fathers and their sons.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30So on the one hand, there's a very formal element to these images.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33Dad is usually in his suit and tie,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37so we imagine the maybe Dad has just come home from work.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39This is reinforced by the representation of the boy,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42who is often shown in a blazer and a tie.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47A little Mini-Me of Dad. He's probably just come home from school.
0:25:48 > 0:25:53What we have here is a marketing for father and son togetherness.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58As soon as you get home, that's how thrilling model railways are.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02You don't get changed out of your school or your work clothes,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04you sit down immediately with your dad
0:26:04 > 0:26:07and engage in running some locomotives.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13For earlier generations where fathers weren't particularly
0:26:13 > 0:26:16encouraged to show an interest in their kids,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21it was something that they could both do together
0:26:21 > 0:26:25and it was something that the dads felt comfortable with,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28because it was engineering and it was technical.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Hornby's toys arrived at a time of turmoil
0:26:36 > 0:26:39and change for the real railways.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43The First World War had taken its toll and by 1923,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47the 100 plus railway companies had been merged into The Big Four.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56The Great Western, London Midland and Scottish, Southern Railway
0:26:56 > 0:26:59and London and North Eastern Railways.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Competition was fierce.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04And now they had cars to worry about, too.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Each company focused on branding to try and lure back
0:27:08 > 0:27:09upper and middle class passengers.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16New and ever more powerful engines were designed,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19colours and liveries were freshly painted,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22the railways had never been so glamorous for modellers.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Because they were competing with each other, were extraordinarily
0:27:27 > 0:27:31good at what we'd now probably call a branding or marketing
0:27:31 > 0:27:33or even public relations.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Those weren't terms that were used at the time
0:27:35 > 0:27:37but the railway companies were painting their engines
0:27:37 > 0:27:39and their rolling stock and their stations
0:27:39 > 0:27:42in distinctive liveries because they wanted to mark out
0:27:42 > 0:27:45their services, their trains, from those of the competition.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52The railway companies commissioned contemporary artists
0:27:52 > 0:27:55to produce iconic posters promoting their destinations
0:27:55 > 0:27:58as fashionable, even exotic.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Great Western is the most popular
0:28:03 > 0:28:07railway by quite a lot. But then,
0:28:07 > 0:28:09it went to the most romantic places for British people
0:28:09 > 0:28:11in the '20s and '30s.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13It went to Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18So therefore they had the best posters, they had great colours,
0:28:18 > 0:28:22that's what we all bought, we all bought the advertising.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24This latest streamline locomotive makes its bow
0:28:24 > 0:28:27as it starts its first test run from London to Newcastle.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Everything about it is still very hush-hush,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33its perfect streamlining seems to radiate power and speed.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35But best of all for railway modellers,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38the train companies were trying to capture the public imagination
0:28:38 > 0:28:41by setting new speed records.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Trains were getting faster and faster.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Mallard on one special occasion did 126 miles per hour, which was all
0:28:57 > 0:29:00very, very important for the railway's publicity machine.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03So it's not surprising that model companies,
0:29:03 > 0:29:09Hornby is a really good example, make models of these famous locomotives
0:29:09 > 0:29:12almost before they're off the real-life production line.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15These are popular models,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18they tie in with the railway's marketing campaigns.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23It was on Mallard, one of the LNER's streamline Pacifics, the driver,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Duddingston, set up a speed record that has never been beaten.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30The engine drivers were the astronauts of their day,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33they were household names, they were interviewed on newsreels,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36in the newspapers, things like that.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39And he recalls with some excitement how her speed mounted from 90 to
0:29:39 > 0:29:43100, 110, 120, 125, and finally,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45126 thrilling miles an hour.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50They were breaking the barriers for speed, you know, at a time
0:29:50 > 0:29:55when the few cars that were around travelled at ten or 15 miles an hour,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58this engine was travelling at more than two miles a minute.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Princess Elizabeth broke a speed record.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06The Hornby version of that train was in the shops within weeks,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09together with an endorsement of the driver,
0:30:09 > 0:30:10"Driver Clark says it's fine."
0:30:10 > 0:30:12And it was that idea of authenticity
0:30:12 > 0:30:17and absolute detail and quality that was central to the whole endeavour.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28As the Hornby brand became a household name,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31the middle class were expanding into the suburbs
0:30:31 > 0:30:35and the Hornby model railway was the toy of choice.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42You see some of the sales literature for some of these houses,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46one of the interesting things is it often features boys and their dads
0:30:46 > 0:30:48and train sets, and this was the promotional material
0:30:48 > 0:30:50for the houses and the housing themselves.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54So it's this idea that this is the kind of lifestyle you can buy into,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57you can become one of the people that can afford
0:30:57 > 0:31:00not just this house, but this kind of toy.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03The trains themselves, of course, these housing estates
0:31:03 > 0:31:06are linked by these commuted lines and these branch lines.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09Dad goes to work on the train, it's only natural that his son
0:31:09 > 0:31:14would want to have a train set that replicates that.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20The company realised there was
0:31:20 > 0:31:22a whole world out there to be modelled,
0:31:22 > 0:31:27and reproduced every conceivable detail of the everyday world.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31The Hornby child would never run out of new things to buy.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34You weren't just buying the rolling stock and the track,
0:31:34 > 0:31:38you had all of the paraphernalia to replicate the real world,
0:31:38 > 0:31:40but to do it in an idealised way,
0:31:40 > 0:31:44to leave the grubbiness of the real world behind and create your
0:31:44 > 0:31:50branch line with the advertising, with the signs on the station,
0:31:50 > 0:31:52with the figures.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Here was the baggage porter, the businessman with his Times,
0:31:56 > 0:31:58the milk churns waiting to be collected.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01You had that wonderful world, everything from the sleepy
0:32:01 > 0:32:06branch line station to the modern Art Deco electric line terminus.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11Hornby provided everything needed to make a detailed railway scene.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13But for many modellers,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16their craft is about being able to show the world as they see it.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22I started to get involved doing buildings.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25I didn't like the plastic buildings
0:32:25 > 0:32:28because they didn't represent what I wanted them to represent.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30I wanted funny things, I wanted strange things,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33I wanted sheds with roofs that had holes in
0:32:33 > 0:32:36and it's a little bit more difficult when you've got a ready-made
0:32:36 > 0:32:38or kit ready to make.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42So I used to build, I still do, build my buildings right from scratch.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52We are deep in rural Brittany in North-West France
0:32:52 > 0:32:54in the early 1960s.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Maggie and her husband Gordon have made an award-winning
0:32:57 > 0:33:00layout of a small French provincial town.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05The layout is based on a small metre gauge railway in Brittany.
0:33:07 > 0:33:12We've called it Pempoul, the name is purely robbed from a small hamlet
0:33:12 > 0:33:16where there was a gite we used to stay in, so it doesn't have
0:33:16 > 0:33:19any sort of bearing on a real railway
0:33:19 > 0:33:21or the real railway in the area.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26But the Reseau Breton, which was quite a sizeable system
0:33:26 > 0:33:30for a metre gauge railway in Brittany,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34offered us the opportunity to do something a little bit different.
0:33:34 > 0:33:35Even at this late state,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39there was still significant freight on the system,
0:33:39 > 0:33:44requiring the use of heavy locos, like Corpet-Louvet Mallet number 41.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46We started work on it.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50We had to look at papers and pictures and maps
0:33:50 > 0:33:54and all sorts of things because we knew not a thing about this railway.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56A lot of the British railways
0:33:56 > 0:33:58we knew a little bit about or could find out about,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02but the French one, internet wasn't bad, but not that good.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05And nothing was being built commercially,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09so we knew it would have to be totally, totally hand-built.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Everything you saw had to be hand-built.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16After 17 years of painstaking work, their vision was complete.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20Making it by hand was the only way to capture
0:34:20 > 0:34:23the essence of French small-town life.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26It's that passion for detail
0:34:26 > 0:34:29that Gordon and Maggie find so attractive.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32You can build a square box as a building,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35put a roof on it, make it look beautiful,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39but somehow you don't feel like anybody could live in it.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41Because there's just something missing,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and very often you can't even put your finger on it.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47And then you change the colour scheme slightly,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50you put a dent in a front door, you break a window - in model form -
0:34:50 > 0:34:55and suddenly it looks like it's been lived in.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58And I think that is what we both try to achieve.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Scratch builders, as they are known, like Gordon and Maggie,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06can choose the scale and size of their models.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11But interwar modellers
0:35:11 > 0:35:15had to get whatever would fit into their houses.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Most trains were small enough for large suburban rooms,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22but still too big for many households.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26To make model railways more popular, they needed to be even smaller.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31The answer would come
0:35:31 > 0:35:35from the original pioneer of model railways himself, Bassett-Lowke.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41All these rich guys had these fabulous toys
0:35:41 > 0:35:43and us oiks wanted our own.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46And I think that's what Bassett-Lowke spotted.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50He spotted that he had to make it at a price and the size
0:35:50 > 0:35:54that would fit the modern two-up-and-two-down at that point.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59The future of model railways, it was your loft and your bath.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03It was a seven, eight foot layout on a board, four mil,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05that's what he spotted.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09The Trix Twin railway
0:36:09 > 0:36:13was half the size of his or Hornby's O Gauge trains.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16By his standards, it was relatively crude,
0:36:16 > 0:36:20but Trix Twin was a sales sensation.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24Bassett Lowke was as in touch with the public as ever.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27Hornby had to go back to the drawing board.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Their answer was the new size Double O Gauge.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35They gave it a name to match - Dublo.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40It was Hornby's secret weapon, available in clockwork or electric.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44Hornby Dublo was probably one of the biggest things
0:36:44 > 0:36:47that happened in the reign of Hornby.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Pictures famously have Dad with his pipe
0:36:52 > 0:36:57looking excitedly on at the panorama of Hornby Dublo trains.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01It went without saying that the grown-ups enjoyed it as well,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04and indeed played with it
0:37:04 > 0:37:07as much as - if not more than - the children.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Dublo was competitively priced
0:37:10 > 0:37:14and more realistic-looking than the Trix.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17Hornby was back to being the nation's favourite.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23But, in 1939, production was put on hold
0:37:23 > 0:37:27as Hornby turned to making munitions for the war effort.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32All those eager boys and eager dads would have to wait until 1947
0:37:32 > 0:37:35for Hornby to go back into toy production.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42The effect of the Second World War railways in Britain
0:37:42 > 0:37:46was even more dramatic than in the First World War.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49In the Second World War, the railways carried
0:37:49 > 0:37:53huge amounts of goods traffic, huge amounts of war materials,
0:37:53 > 0:37:55huge numbers of troops.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57The railways were worn out.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02They were bruised and battered,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05but the public loved the trains more than ever.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08At a time when there was little entertainment,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12children and teenagers discovered the joys of a new hobby.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17There's magic in numbers, train numbers.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20So think thousands of boys in every corner of the country.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23Loco-spotting has become the number one hobby for schoolboys
0:38:23 > 0:38:26in recent years...
0:38:26 > 0:38:29After the Second World War, there was a huge upsurge in interest
0:38:29 > 0:38:33in railways amongst children, and what we'd now call teenagers.
0:38:33 > 0:38:34These were the trainspotters
0:38:34 > 0:38:37that we all know about and sometimes laugh about.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Because this was something that you could do very, very cheaply.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44You could buy yourself one of Ian Allan's ABC spotter books,
0:38:44 > 0:38:48get a pencil, go down to the station, start ticking the numbers off.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52So a very cheap way of enjoying yourself of a Saturday afternoon.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57About 80,000 belong to the Locospotters Club
0:38:57 > 0:38:59and, with the cooperation of British Railways,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02they make trips each year along particularly interesting routes
0:39:02 > 0:39:04in their own specially hired trains.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08The trainspotting craze fuelled a surge of interest
0:39:08 > 0:39:11in model railways amongst the young.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14But those model railways were still only for some children.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18With the possible exception of maybe a building block
0:39:18 > 0:39:21or a teddy bear or a doll, you can't think of a toy
0:39:21 > 0:39:25that is more representative of childhood than a toy train.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29And yet, of course, even when they were produced
0:39:29 > 0:39:32and, indeed, now, they were always toys for a certain child.
0:39:32 > 0:39:38With electric sets, that child was invariably middle class.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43That was the preserve of, you know, one's wealthier acquaintances.
0:39:43 > 0:39:44The mother would invite you in.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47- POSH VOICE: - "Oh, yes, do come in, Peter.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50"Andrew is waiting for you in the living room."
0:39:50 > 0:39:53And you'd go there and they'd be standing smugly by this big board
0:39:53 > 0:39:56with this huge piece of track on it.
0:39:56 > 0:40:02But early in the 1950s, one company, Tri-ang Rovex,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05aimed their trains at working-class wallets.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10Their new inexpensive sets brought the model railway to a mass market.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12It wasn't till the 1950s,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14when Tri-ang Rovex came on the scene,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18that you got these mass-produced plastic trains
0:40:18 > 0:40:23that were affordable for ordinary families.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27And it was a real process of democratisation for model railways.
0:40:30 > 0:40:31They were cheap.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36They were cruder, they certainly were not in the class of Hornby Dublo,
0:40:36 > 0:40:37but it was still a train set
0:40:37 > 0:40:39and it still got as much love out of my house
0:40:39 > 0:40:41as any Hornby Dublo did.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44I mean, in the past, they'd use mostly die-cast
0:40:44 > 0:40:47and tin plate with Hornby et cetera,
0:40:47 > 0:40:52and they found a way of producing models
0:40:52 > 0:40:55using this very cheap plastic at the time
0:40:55 > 0:40:57which warps with age and things,
0:40:57 > 0:40:59but it was a great step forward then
0:40:59 > 0:41:03and it meant they could produce a decent layout
0:41:03 > 0:41:08for a lot less than you would have done with the metal models.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12Now there was something available for everyone
0:41:12 > 0:41:15and model railways entered the golden age
0:41:15 > 0:41:20of Hornby Dublo and Trix Twin, Tri-ang and Bassett-Lowke.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23Every child could have a train set to cherish.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28I saw the shape of the box and I thought, "Ooh,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31"that's a Hornby Dublo train set."
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Bassett-Lowke, tin-plate clockwork set.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37For me, it was a bright red and yellow Tri-ang train set.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Princess Elizabeth locomotive in green, British Railways green,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44and two coaches to put behind it.
0:41:44 > 0:41:45Oh, I was thrilled to pieces.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47I had to take it up to bed with me
0:41:47 > 0:41:49and put it on the table beside the bed.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51I think I would have taken it into the bed.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55I do remember a little red engine, I remember, on top of the table,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58going round and round, and I had hours of fun with it.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01It wasn't quite what you'd think from the picture,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06but it was a start of developing your own railway,
0:42:06 > 0:42:08and you used your imagination
0:42:08 > 0:42:11cos you didn't have much more, really.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16But just as model railways were hitting their peak of popularity,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20there were clouds on the horizon for the real one.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23The railway landscape that modellers cherished,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26their source of inspiration, was under threat.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41British Railways' enormous modernisation scheme
0:42:41 > 0:42:42goes full scheme ahead.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45The aim is to make British Railways the best in the world.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Throughout the programme, the technique is modernity itself.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52In the 1960s, the steam train was to be replaced
0:42:52 > 0:42:56by the brutal and far less romantic diesel engine.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59For the modeller, it was like a death in the family.
0:43:01 > 0:43:08It's at this time that the shift moves from an emphasis
0:43:08 > 0:43:12on mainline running to an emphasis on cosy little branch lines
0:43:12 > 0:43:15set in the West Country,
0:43:15 > 0:43:21with the odd piddling train tumbling along to some line station.
0:43:21 > 0:43:27The emphasis shifts from celebrating the technological sublime
0:43:27 > 0:43:34to mourning the lost world of the steam railway.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39The end of steam affected the baby-boom modellers
0:43:39 > 0:43:42on a deeply personal level.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44Steam was intertwined with their childhood
0:43:44 > 0:43:48and modelling became about nostalgia for a lost age.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56When I was very small, when I was fractious,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58which was a lot of the time, apparently,
0:43:58 > 0:43:59my mother would stick me in a pram,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02take me down to the side of the railway and park me,
0:44:02 > 0:44:04and I'd be happy as a sandboy.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06And I guess that sort of started it,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10and I spent a lot of time sitting at the side of railways.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Cos in those days, when we were growing up in the early '50s,
0:44:13 > 0:44:15greatest free show on earth.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19There was no telly, there was no other entertainments.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22We hadn't discovered them if there were.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25And there were all these wonderful machines tearing past
0:44:25 > 0:44:27at 90 miles an hour - very exciting.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32The excitement of speeding trains might be a common experience,
0:44:32 > 0:44:36but the inspiration to model is of a more personal nature.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42A lot of people, it is nostalgia. It's a very strong drive.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45I mean, I model for myself...
0:44:45 > 0:44:50I model the British Railways I knew in the 1950s, early 1960s,
0:44:50 > 0:44:52when I was growing up in East Anglia.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54And it's interesting, if you look back,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58if you read historical model railway magazines of the '50s,
0:44:58 > 0:45:00everyone was modelling the railways of the '30s,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02because that's when they were growing up.
0:45:02 > 0:45:08So, nostalgia and recreation of probably a very idealised past.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11You know, the '50s now seem quite a romantic
0:45:11 > 0:45:14and rather calm and ordered era.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16But they probably weren't.
0:45:21 > 0:45:28This is a model of a traditional Cornish pan dry china clay works,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32as it would have been at the end of its life in about 1960.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36And I got to know this part of the world about that time.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40For Iain Rice, it's all about depicting the drama
0:45:40 > 0:45:43of a particular moment and a particular time.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48A model railway, especially a small one like this,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51functions rather like stage in a theatre.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56And you've got a proscenium arch, you got an apron,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59and you've got wings at either side,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01which define the scene, they limit the scene.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05And we're using lighting, we're using a backdrop,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07all artefacts of the stage.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10And the actors are the actual trains.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14They come in, they do their piece, hopefully faultlessly,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16and depart again amongst admiring applause.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Whatever the motivation for modelling,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26whether it's the craft involved or just the love of railways,
0:46:26 > 0:46:31it does often seem bound up with the urge to recover something lost.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43Part of why I model is because I'm trying to create, or recreate,
0:46:43 > 0:46:47a sense of a railway that I can remember existing
0:46:47 > 0:46:49half a century ago now.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52What I want to do is to, in a sense,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56create a memory of something that I did experience as a very young boy.
0:47:02 > 0:47:08The point is, when you're a young guy, or a kid particularly,
0:47:08 > 0:47:10when you're stood next to one of these 100-tonne engines,
0:47:10 > 0:47:12they were enormous.
0:47:12 > 0:47:13They were enormous.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15They smelt, you know,
0:47:15 > 0:47:20because you have to put oil in the water to lubricate the parts,
0:47:20 > 0:47:25so you sort of get a baby oil smell from steam engines,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28which is what you do, which reminds you of being a baby
0:47:28 > 0:47:32when your mum puts the oil in the water of the bath.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35So, you've got all those romantic notions.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41Some modellers find that it is a fascination
0:47:41 > 0:47:45with the technical skills needed to create a railway in miniature
0:47:45 > 0:47:46that keeps them hooked.
0:47:48 > 0:47:55We try to recapture a part of the same pride in the job,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59so it's not about going and buying a model from a model shop
0:47:59 > 0:48:01and sticking it on the layout and running it round.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04It's about the same pride, it's about making it
0:48:04 > 0:48:07so you know exactly where every part's come from,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10you put it on the track and then it's got to pull 14 coaches.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13And if it doesn't pull 14 coaches, you've failed.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15It's the same mentality.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19For Pete Waterman, the best era to model
0:48:19 > 0:48:21wasn't the railway in its finest hour.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26In the 1950s, the railways were not glorious, you know.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30The golden years of railways were certainly passed.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33They were dirty, they were run down,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36the system had just gone through the Second World War,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39there was no investment, it was falling apart.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45But for me, it's the opposite. I like the run down-ness of it all.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49I actually like the way that it wasn't pristine,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51that it was infallible,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55that it was hard work, that it was falling apart.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58That's the part... If you look round this layout,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02you'll see that it's the decay that I particularly like.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04But the attraction of railway modelling
0:49:04 > 0:49:08isn't just about the lure of recreating a nostalgic past.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Some people just like to build model railways
0:49:13 > 0:49:14and watch the trains run round.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18For other people, it's all about the construction
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and building the scenery and the track.
0:49:21 > 0:49:26And others, for others again, it's quite an academic process.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34The Crampton patent locomotive, known as the Liverpool.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36It was modelled by Mike Sharman,
0:49:36 > 0:49:40who lives at Cricklade near Swindon in Wiltshire.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42But to say Mike Sharman models railway engines
0:49:42 > 0:49:46is a little like saying Michelangelo dabbled with oil painting.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49I like the historical research side of it
0:49:49 > 0:49:52and it had quite a big bonus from a modelling viewpoint
0:49:52 > 0:49:54that you haven't got a lot of space
0:49:54 > 0:50:00and a short loco with short coaches on a short platform
0:50:00 > 0:50:03looks far more in scale than its modern counterparts
0:50:03 > 0:50:06with three or four bogie coaches in an out-of-scale station -
0:50:06 > 0:50:08it completely ruins the effect.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11You've got this private fiefdom,
0:50:11 > 0:50:15this place where the cricketer is always coming up to bowl.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20It's where passengers are always patiently waiting on platforms.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Sheep never finish grazing in a field.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29It's about creating a miniature world that you have complete control of,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31in a world where people,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34a lot of people often feel that they've lost all control.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Actually, in this space, they're in charge of it,
0:50:38 > 0:50:42and they can influence what happens.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45The London, date - 1848.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48It was built by Tulk & Ley of Whitehaven
0:50:48 > 0:50:50and was the only one ever made.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52That is, until Mike Sharman made one.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55What we're seeing is a representation
0:50:55 > 0:50:57of what, in real life, is actually
0:50:57 > 0:51:00a very, very complicated social as well as a technical,
0:51:00 > 0:51:02or technological system,
0:51:02 > 0:51:07and one can only go so far in reproducing the social in a railway.
0:51:07 > 0:51:12You can't reproduce all the complex social relations
0:51:12 > 0:51:17that go to make real railways such a fascinating system in everyday life.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And modelling itself has its more social side.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27It's not always a hobby conducted by solitary men in sheds.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Model railways don't just consist of locomotives.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34So, let's take a look at a couple of working layouts.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Let's start with one that's been run at a club meeting.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Another reason that thousands of modellers
0:51:39 > 0:51:43carried on modelling into adulthood was the model club.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46It represents a sleepy West Country branch line.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49It was built by members of the Twickenham Model Railway Club.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54There are over 400 model clubs up and down the country,
0:51:54 > 0:51:59which sprang up between the '50s and '70s, offering tea, balsa wood
0:51:59 > 0:52:02and a place to swap tales of railway adventures.
0:52:04 > 0:52:10For most people in the hobby, it's more of a social activity.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13They get together in clubs and at shows, things like that,
0:52:13 > 0:52:18and it's a perfectly normal pastime hobby -
0:52:18 > 0:52:20they just happen to be interested in railways
0:52:20 > 0:52:22instead of bird-watching or old cars
0:52:22 > 0:52:24or anything else you care to mention.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30The model railway club is a fantastic male space
0:52:30 > 0:52:33for masculine conviviality,
0:52:33 > 0:52:35for sharing resources,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39for sharing experiences, and also for pooling skills.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42So, if you are hopeless at modelling,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46you can participate in the model railway scene through a club
0:52:46 > 0:52:48because there's bound to be something you can contribute.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54Most of us are quite uninteresting, we just play trains.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58Not very interesting, really. In truth, you know, that's the truth.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02I mean, most of us, when we get together, we talk trains.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05You know, most people think we're the most boring bunch of buggers
0:53:05 > 0:53:09they've ever sat with, and I have to tell you, I agree with them, we are.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Cos that's all we do, is talk trains.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15You've got to be very careful when you bring partners into this,
0:53:15 > 0:53:20because, you know, it is interesting to us -
0:53:20 > 0:53:23it's not interesting to 95% of the people.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Some men don't need to go to a model club.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32For the lucky few, railway modelling is a shared endeavour at home.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36My greatest compliment is that I'm treated as one of the lads
0:53:36 > 0:53:38and I'm considered to be one of the lads.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43Nobody worries that it's Maggie, a female, it's just Maggie.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48That's my name and I could be either male or female, I sometimes feel.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54I think also that with a woman, people are sometimes,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56not always but sometimes,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59more willing to ask a woman a question than they are a man,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03because if a woman knows the answer then it must be easy.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05And I know that's very stereotypical,
0:54:05 > 0:54:07but it does sometimes happen.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11But as a hobby that crossed the generations,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15model railways started to decline in the '60s and '70s.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Children were becoming more sophisticated
0:54:17 > 0:54:19in their choice of toy.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22Newer, hi-tech products began to take over
0:54:22 > 0:54:27and model railways became the preserve of adults.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29And there's no point at all in being a dad
0:54:29 > 0:54:31if you can't play with an electric train set.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34You get a real sense of manufacturers appealing
0:54:34 > 0:54:37over the heads of their parents to the children themselves,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41with toys that aren't necessarily vehicles for any kind of great moral
0:54:41 > 0:54:47or social value system, but in fact are playthings.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51And that starts to change the whole landscape.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55It's not just Hornby train sets, you see Meccano Erector sets,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59a lot of the industrial and engineering toys start to struggle.
0:55:02 > 0:55:03By the 1980s,
0:55:03 > 0:55:08railways had become about InterCity 125s and anonymous engines.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12For children, it seemed to have no connection to their everyday lives.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26But in 1985, a saviour arrived.
0:55:26 > 0:55:27Gordon, the big engine,
0:55:27 > 0:55:31and Thomas the Tank Engine puffed, buffer to buffer, back home.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34It had been a busy day.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38A whole new generation were introduced to the joy of trains
0:55:38 > 0:55:41via the television series Thomas The Tank Engine,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44based on the prewar books of Anglican vicar,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46the Reverend Wilbert Awdry.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48"Remember, Thomas," called Gordon grandly,
0:55:48 > 0:55:51"united we stand, together we fall."
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Very few people are into model railways
0:55:54 > 0:55:57that are not into the real thing.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Thomas has brought very, very small children into it
0:56:01 > 0:56:03with his sort of lovable looks,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07his little face and all that, where they relate to him.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11And it really also rather proves the fact that the railway engine
0:56:11 > 0:56:14is almost a bit human,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16there's something of an animal about it,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18because you can put a face on, you know,
0:56:18 > 0:56:20you put a face on this thing, it's a personality.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22We have the Fat Director,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25later the Fat Controller, once the railways are nationalised.
0:56:25 > 0:56:26We have the workers.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30There's a lot of interesting sexual politics going on there.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33The carriages are all female and all a little bit flighty.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36The wagons are rude, working-class fellows
0:56:36 > 0:56:38who are always cutting up rough.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42So, I mean, the politics of this railway is fascinating as well.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46The phenomenal success of Thomas the Tank Engine
0:56:46 > 0:56:52is actually drawing in a whole new generation who are, at this moment,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56only five or six, into rail enthusiasm.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59And, again, I think that's something we should encourage
0:56:59 > 0:57:02rather than be sniffy about.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04It could be that in another 20 years,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08those children are looking to model Virgin Pendolinos.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23The new, younger modellers didn't just choose to depict
0:57:23 > 0:57:25the lost steam age of Thomas.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29They wanted to model the railway of their own world -
0:57:29 > 0:57:33of modern diesel or electric trains and run-down urban scenes.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35SIREN WAILS
0:57:38 > 0:57:42Model railways have become much more than a miniature curiosity.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44They tell the story of an obsession,
0:57:44 > 0:57:47breathing life into personal memories
0:57:47 > 0:57:49and lost scenes of everyday Britain.
0:57:50 > 0:57:54With a more youthful crowd continuing to embrace modelling,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58perhaps it's time that the craft of the railway modeller
0:57:58 > 0:58:00is finally given its due.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06Thank God for railway modellers. I really mean that.
0:58:06 > 0:58:07When old gits like me
0:58:07 > 0:58:10are not going to be here to be going on about it,
0:58:10 > 0:58:13about how wonderful it all was in real life, you know,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17they will be able to produce this visual mnemonic of saying,
0:58:17 > 0:58:21"This is how life was in a period of time, in all its details,
0:58:21 > 0:58:25"all its idiosyncrasy, all its great fun",
0:58:25 > 0:58:29and I think power to their elbow and to their modelling fingers.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd