THE WHAT, WHY, AND HOW OF A HERITAGE MODEL RAILWAY

Firstly lets look at what a ‘Preserved Railway’ is; Wikipedia defines it as ‘A Heritage or preserved railway, a term used, especially in Great Britain, for a railway which is run as a tourist attraction and operated in concert with area museums (particularly transport museums).

This definition will therefore include re-opened, re-built ex-British Rail lines, ex-industrial lines (factories, mines, quarries, harbours etc), as well as lines that were never there in the first place but a passion for trains led to the laying of track and the running of trains ( a classic example is MANGAPPS RAILWAY Museum, Burnham-on-Crouch,Essex (http://www.mangapps.co.uk) where a farm has been transformed into a passenger carrying railway with steam/diesel locos, 80+ carriages and wagons,and restored stations and signal boxes from all over East Anglia.

My definition of a Heritage Model Railway (henceforth known as ‘HMR’) is a railway model layout, of any gauge, depicting a preserved railway line either real or imaginary.

So,now we are clear what we are talking about let’s look a little closer at how such layouts can be built and operated.

Those preferring the scenic aspect could model a rural branch line (not forgetting a little fictional history) or, by visiting the prototype preserved lines (http://www.heritagerailways.co.uk)  you can obtain a trackplan of their line (we may even have it on this site) 

Those that prefer the shunting/freight/ operational side could perhaps model an industrial rail network (some of the larger, now closed factories left a legacy of a multitude of sidings)

Whatever your choice you always have the same freedom as the prototypes of not being confined to era, region, or livery of your rolling stock. Classic example NENE VALLEY railway (;http://www.nvr.org.uk) where, by slightly moving the edge of the platform back, they are able to operate rolling stock of German, Swedish, Danish, and Italian origin.

Whichever type of preserved line you model, its prototype will have the same need of money to continue. This need opens the doors for modellers as virtually every thing that has been done to raise money can be modelled.

Thomas the Tank Engine ™  days can be great fun on a model railway.  Personally I have downloaded the Thomas faces, printed and cut them out of cardboard and hung them on the smokeboxes of my engines.  A fictitious Thomas story can easily be created and the operational aspect of 3 or 4 engines, coaches and wagons requires a certain amount of skill and planning.

Beer tents, fairgrounds,classic cars, buses, Military vehicles, etc can all find their way onto an HMR.  You will find that the manufacturers do not make all the models necessary for an HMR so it’s a great opportunity to practise your scratchbuilding skills.  I like to model locomotives and wagons awaiting restoration (they do not have to be runners and can be in any state of decay , visit any preserved line and you will see what I mean!).  I only run Tank engines on my layout (because of some of the tight radii) and like to re-paint some of them in LAINTEN colours (carmine and gold lining).  Although I can only run two engines at a time I have a LOT of visiting engines (again just like the prototypes)

So there we have it, many good reasons for creating an HMR.  There will be other articles shortly so please keep coming back to the site

Mike