The Little World

Model railway builders who exhibit their layouts have a pretty big task to do – they have some major haulage and construction to do to set up a display.

Once done, however, they have a distinct advantage over the model builders who make plastic kits; the toy trains move. The model railway maker might be condemned to bouts of rail polishing, finger poking, and bad language, but eventually something chugs around and the populace watches it.

The kit-built scale models may be bigger in size, brighter in colour, and more varied in outline, but nearly all of them just sit there for the whole show. People walk and gawk, but unless their uncle flew a Lancaster that bombed Manchester ( heavy fog…) and they are dying to tell us about it, they rarely engage with the table-holders.

The one exception is when they decide that the green paint you used is the wrong shade. THEN they seek you out in the toilets to tell you…

The scale model truckers that exhibit at the train show or the Model Car Sunday are really the ideal display. Their prototypes are often derived from local types and much of their scenery, roads, and structures are patterned after things that we see every day.

Their models move – in some cases realistically – and at a pace that allows them to be seen. They are big, and not too noisy. There is little danger that they will run amok and break someone’s leg. And they are fun to run…the exhibitors can have a day out as well as provide a show for the punters.

Someone put their thinking cap on and come up with a way to make scale models do something interesting while on display. I’m all ears. And they wiggle…