Life before Murphy Models

[Noel]

[Midland Man]

Before Murphys models only people who were a tab with brass or good with electrics The were the people (and still is) modifying hornby or Bachman engines. One things that amazes me is there is such a market for Diesel engines.The reason I thinks so is that Hal the modeler are -50.

[Noel]

10 hours ago, Midland Man said:

Before Murphys models only people who were a tab with brass or good with electrics The were the people (and still is) modifying hornby or Bachman engines. One things that amazes me is there is such a market for Diesel engines.The reason I thinks so is that Hal the modeler are -50.

Hi MM, I interpreted the above as "Half the modellers are <50?".  This may indeed be true. The fab four appear to be <50 which reflects their passion for post 1974 and all things orange and yellow, bogies and diesels. It's all down to personal  nostalgia memory,  those of us a little older have perhaps been preconditioned to steam era by the trainsets of the 60s and 70s which were all steam, and the regular imported intake of ITV and BBC drama programmes regularly showing steam trains in Britain (ie subliminal nostalgia). Back then Train sets were in only two forms, a steam engine plus two or three passenger carriages, or a steam engine plus 2 axle wagons of the 50s vintage and the essential brake van punctuating the end of every goods train. The first diesel model I ever remember was a Tri-Ang hornby class 37 in BR blue about 1975, even though Hornby Dublo and Rovex had some diesel locos a decade earlier. Eye of the beholder and all that. Our layout is almost entirely diesel now and thats because thats what I remember here in Ireland from the 60s through the 70s since which I had very little cause to travel on rail and missed much of the tippex era. Yellow had not yet been adopted for PW stuff. Having said that in recent years I've collected a few Irish steam locos which in real life I have no memory of ever travelling behind (ie manufactured nostalgia), the only Irish steam train I've ever seen is the opening sequence to the 'quiet man' and the few sequences in the 'Michael Collins' movie. Other than that its just been YouTubes of RPSI steam locos in preservation yards. There is no doubt many Irish modellers may have grown up with an imported romantic nostalgia memory for the glory days of the big four, LMS, GWR, LNER, SRr, due perhaps to BBC, ITV, and period movies and the prevalence of hornby steam era train sets as children. The beauty of the hobby is we can time travel to wherever we want, sometimes a little kit bashing and painting is required, but more than any thing imagination. Murphy Models certainly created the first giant leap for Irish model train enthusiasts, and more recently IRM have taken up the baton from 1974 period onwards and raised the bar even higher with their exquisite detailing and innovations. The future looks bright.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Noel