Old ideas stoked by new models…

The arrival of the Rapido 009 models alongside the latest commission layout build have reignited a long dormant flame for narrow gauge modelling in my heart…This undated sketch recalls a simpler time in my modelling where East Works was still a pipe dream and something small and Welsh felt like the next step beyond the clay heath of Purbeck. It wasn’t built. I was distracted and then returned to clay. Then along came the Bachmann Quarry Hunslet and I walked away from the scale… Not from narrow gauge though - for my passion and connection to this simpler and more human scale railway continued with frequent visits over the years to lines across the Wales as well as of course the Mecca that is Statfold Barn.The flush of Ffestiniog models did engage a dalliance in the new fangled ready to run and I almost built a Boston Lodge halt cameo on the heels of the Boston Lodge commission… however that too perished under my perceived expectation of the wider and ‘new’ 009 community.The flame…