Hornby, The Collector: A Lovely Vintage (more fun with tinplate trains)

I really need to get a grip on the work I do for Hornby, as, whilst their projects are only 4 times a year, they tend to become absolute monsters. This month is no exception. Having fallen in love again with clockwork tinplate trains, and wanting something a bit bigger than the little circular layout I built a few years ago, I embraced the bigger space available in the new house, and thought I'd go large.

Some scrap desktops from work and a bit of testing (alright, play) on the living room floor showed a larger layout was sort-of do-able. It was mostly a copy of a trackplan from an old model railway book of appropriate vintage, but even so, there were bits I had to omit, and worse still, the curves would still need to be super-tight. My Edwardian ancestors might have been happy to fill the front parlour with trains, but I wasn't going to be able to! 

(Actually, my Edwardian Ancestors weren't of the class to have access to large train sets, and would I suspect be turning in their graves if they saw what their distant relative, me, was doing rather than earning a hard crust farming or sallying-forth for King and Country, but heyho).

So, using the scrap desktops from work... yeah that was a poor idea. The exposed chipboard edging needed framing-in to stop it crumbling. Then hinges needed fitting so this mammoth board could fold up for storage. And it weighed a TON. I'd have given myself a hernia just trying to carry it out of the workshop.

A rebuild with ply followed, the original desktops being upcycled for smaller-scale projects. Another issue reared its head here; the layout was so large it couldn't actually be unfolded properly in the workshop with its low ceiling. This meant the layout needed to be left either in this state, or the hinges unscrewed and the boards separated, lest nobody be able to access the washing machine.

Cork placemats for the ballast.

Track laying; rather more brutal and industrial in tinplate.

Properly gauge-testing this time. The original plan had been to have a tunnel here, but it didn't quite work with the height available, so a cutting and removable bridge would have to suffice. 

Normally I'd use packing foam for the landscaping, but with such a monster of a layout to cover, I ended up using spray foam (of which we had some in stock). The carved-off bits were saved for re-use in later projects.

Papier-mache and painting followed.

There wasn't room (or time) for much in the way of detail work, beyond some bits of fencing and some bushes.

I was quite happy with the removable bridge though.

The layout folded up...

...and unfolded. Easily the biggest layout build I've ever done.

So... here it is. And do you know what? I'm really, really unhappy with it.

It might be in the style of the sort of layouts built a century ago, but I find myself really disliking it. Too many rough bits, too many bland areas. Too much that looks (and is) unfinished.

There are odd areas; I like the vaguely moorland atmosphere of the far end...

...and I'm quite happy with the level crossing and bridge.

The station is a bit too bland though, just huge expanses of nothing.

I think the issue is that there's simply too much of it. And at the same time, the trackplan is a bit chaotic. There's too much of having to throw points and lean over it to avoid derailments.

The layout in print. Or rather, not print, as the Collectors Club has effectively gone over to digital-only, because The Future.

So what now? I really liked the mini tinplate layout, but it was too operationally bland. This one, whilst more operational, is just too much of a monster. I think a third and final layout for my collection might be in order, somewhere between the two, size-wise. I suspect chopping this one down will be the solution, But that's a project for next year I think. Maybe I'll learn my lesson for the next Hornby project, but probably not!

 

Garden Railway Saturday; Engineers Personnel Wagon

As our 16mm garden line inches towards completion, it made sense for the first complete train to be formed of an engineering one. Having built a few vans and opens, we needed somewhere for the engineers themselves to sit. After thinking about a covered, small carriage, I remembered I had this one in a batch of stuff bought at Llangollen. 

The rest of the train so far consists of vehicles from P.S Models, so it makes a nice change to use something from Wood Valley.

The kit went together very nicely; no filing or sanding needed. I ended up building it in sub-assemblies to aid painting.

It was quite enjoyable painting such a historically-styled vehicle in a slightly brutal, industrial colour scheme.

Masking for wasp-stripes.

Some detailing; boot-marks on the running boards. Probably should have added some sort of backing to stop the chaps swinging their feet back into the running gear.

On the photoplank.

The main thing it indicated we're short on, suitable engineer figures. Something for Future Ben to look into.

And in the mag this month.

Triang Thursday; A Retro Test Track

Time for a bit of fun with Triang Met-Camms! In fact, time for the first of what's going to (hopefully) be a regular monthly series, focussing on Triang Trains, which I've been getting into collecting lately.

 I've a soft-spot for the real Met-Camms, helped by frequent trips on the KWVR's class 101 (I know the Triang model isn't a 101, technically, rather it's based -however loosely- on the earlier Lightweights but near-enough)

The 101 in its current condition, BR blue with centre headcode.

This is one of my favourite models in my collection. It was my first Non-Thomas model in the 80's (though, of course, became Daisy when 6 year old me had the train set out). This belonged to my Dad and his brothers when they were kids in the 60's.

In Christmas 2025 I bought myself this. I'd already bought one for my Dad (being as I'd effectively nicked his original one!), and after I'd bought it for him and wrapped it up, I thought what the hell, who doesn't like a train set for Christmas?

Of course, whilst setting up an oval of track on the dining room table hits the nostalgia buttons, it's not a great long-term solution. On top of which, with a growing collection of Triang that could do with running-in, and the need to write-up a piece for the Hornby Collectors Club, I thought it was time to raid the scrap-wood pile and build myself a test track with the contents of the set, and a bit of shopping...

The unit itself has had a bit of a wash and scrub-up by the Seller, including the mechanical gubbins, and runs rather sweetly.

I had this board leftover from an earlier project; it's a desktop reclaimed from the scrap pile at work, with added framework (the exposed edges of the desk were rough chipboard). Of course it means it's pretty astonishingly heavy, but hey, battle-ship quality.

Scenery-wise it needed to be simple; this was going to be stored against a wall in the workshop, so whilst there could be a bit of landscaping, it couldn't project much higher than platform level.

Out with the papier-mache! One benefit to things coming with too much packaging material I suppose.

A mix of hand-painting and spraying followed.

One dodge I was experimenting with; rather than scatter, I thought I'd try textured spray-paint, then colour again over the top of it. Unfortunately, Spring was so miserable and wet, that the day I picked to paint on meant spraying took ages, and didn't set properly.

So it was out with the flock and things after all. No static grass here, this was going to be properly retro.

Ballast was a problem. I didn't have any to hand, but DID have some reptile-gravel used for an upcoming BRM project. I was a bit too light in tone though, so I ended up washing the board over with watered-down grey poster paint.

The finished layout- well I say finished. That big space in the middle might benefit a bit of work, and a building a little more contemporary to the rest of the structures (it's a Hornby/Pola shop, contemporary with the later DMU's but stands out a bit compared to the other buildings. Maybe some proper Triang Minic buildings might look good in there).

The DMU from the set looks quite at home, whizzing around the layout...

Whilst I couldn't build the scenery up too high, I could dig-down, so there's a river, bridged with the concrete sidewalls from the elevated track set.

Level crossing and keepers hut.  The gates, and all the buildings, are removable for storage.

The venerable tunnel, with scatter stuck onto it to try and blend it in a bit. Well, as much as a totally arbitrary tunnel can be, plonked on the board. It's a different one to the one from the rough planning stage, which was my childhood-era one (I couldn't bring myself to modify my old one!)

The station is, like most of these, missing its chimney. One for the long-term jobs list. Signal box and water tower completed the station side of things.

One of my BR-blue examples...

...and a later-issue set, though 3-cars is about the limit with this small layout. It's proving to be a useful test-track for my growing Triang collection (for example the likes of"Polly" and "Nellie" look right at home on short goods trains). Of course, it's a bit limiting, but it's given me a taste for this. A bigger layout, but in the same retro style, beckons...