Why I don't Like the Steam Era
by Phil Cooper
Before I get started I’m going to “plug” some more great platform adverts that we have on sale. They are outstanding and would grace any “era” but especially layouts in the steam era.
OK I’m going to say sorry now because I’m about to annoy a lot of people on Planet Model Railway. I’ve been getting up the courage to say this. Sooooooo here we go. I really don’t like the steam era in the hobby. For me there’s too many milk churns and little old cars. However those platform adverts (above) almost make me rethink this. They’re fantastic.
My dad has, I think, influenced me. He was a driver based in Inverness but he didn’t like steam engines. I remember him cycling home from work covered in soot and various black substances and he wasn’t happy until he had washed it all off. When he changed he was a different man. He was always impeccably dressed - shirt & tie - even for just popping into the snack bar which was managed by mum where he’d drink “railway (very strong) tea”. Being a very well known character in Inverness he would sit there holding court with his friends as mum slaved away in the kitchen.
That’s him second from the right. He’s either whistling or blowing a kiss to the photographer- you decide. Regular readers will remember his nickname was “Slash”. He told me that he got it because he was a very fast driver. But lately I’ve wondered if there was another reason!!!!The photo above was taken at Kyle of Lochalsh. I’m embarrassed to say that I never ever took a train trip to Kyle of Lochalsh – a big mistake as it is regarded as one of the scenic highlights of world railways.
Now, in hindsight, I wish I had followed him onto “the railway”. He loved his job and I loved my railway job (washing coaches) during the school holidays back in 1973. I even washed the Royal Train. Surprisingly there was no security. I made life-long friends who still enjoy a few drams in the Railway Club in Inverness. By the way a well known Scottish duo, The Proclaimers, played there regularly and I bet “I’mGonna Be-500 Miles” was sung at it’s raucous best by a few hundred Highland Railwaymen. I was part of a team washing the coaches, a physically challenging job but I was fighting fit from playing rugby and basketball.
Inverness TMD (where I sweated a lot)
I even got wolf-whistled by some American girls as I walked along the platform watering the Kyle train. Of course I went red. I had another female experience on a train, this time on my way to see a bunch of friends at Edinburgh University. The train stopped at Pitlochry and a horde of schoolgirls (what is the collective name for schoolgirls – a gaggle, a herd, a troupe, a pride)came into my coach where I was sitting in the corner reading my New Musical Express -yes I was into “progressive” music-bands such as Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis although I hated Genesis back then as they were too pretentious with Peter Gabriel onstage dressed as a tractor or a flower of some kind.
Now this is odd because after he left I began to like the former Charterhouse (Public) schoolboys little trio. Even weirder I started to enjoy Gabriel’s solo music. My son took me to one of his concerts a few years ago at Wembley as a birthday present. He comes over as a really nice bloke but some of his music is very dark – I love it. If you’ve got a spare 40 minutes download his album, “So” on iTunes. It’s magnificent.
Peter Gabriel Then and Now
Where was I! Ah yes, schoolgirls. So the horde came onto my coach and back then I was really shy. Anyway, one of them said loudly, “I need a man.” Then there was a slight pause and one of the horde pointed at me and said, “There’s one over there.” I went red. But the girl that needed a man came and sat next to me and put my NME on the table and started kissing me -we called it snogging back then. It didn’t go much further but she did compliment me on my kissing expertise. I was a natural! The remainder of the trip flew by before I got off at Edinburgh Waverley and wished her well. You see how courteous I used to be.
Oh dear I’ve been side-tracked again. Back to my “un-love” of steam but I will say that the locomotive pulling our train on that day was a Class37- there were lots of them in Scotland and I still love them. I check eBay regularly for Inverness-based 37s looking out for the stag antlers logo.
The Big Cheese of the Highland Fleet-Inverness TMD The stag antlers look great.
I admit that I do own a Flying Scotsman with the “chuff chuff” tender and it is a lovely model with great sound-the whistle is great. I also bought a Bachmann Black Five 4-6-0 - look at me with the technical knowledge! I’ve noticed the Bachmann locos for sale on eBay are usually better than Hornby or Lima locos. If pressed for a favourite steam engine my dad would say the Black Five. It does look good on my layout with the Flying Scotsman and all that chuff chuff.
I remember when my first Virgin Pendolino arrived in the post. I carefully unwrapped it. eBay sellers must spend hours carefully and safely packaging their trains. So, I unwrapped it (eventually) and looked at it lovingly. It was beautiful with great lines. I remembered as a wee boy holding model jets up in my hand making whoosh noises as I pretended it was flying and diving with the occasional roll from the safety of my hand. I almost did the very same with the model Pendolino without the dives and the rolls. Luckily my partner was in the room and I decided not to humiliate myself (yet again). I loved the livery. The red Virgin colours looked terrific. Unfortunately Virgin Rail and their livery have departed from the WCML- West Coast Mainline (yet more technical knowledge, I’m on a roll. ) Harrison, my grandson popped in later that day and he loved it too. In fact when he started his nursery school a few days later he chose “Pendolino” as the password to be used by any adult picking him up. She was surprised that a 4 year old knew such a big word saying to his mum and dad at the doors, “he was very good. Uh what’s a Pendolino”. I bet she knows now.
Now there are many locomotives with that Pendolino style so Harrison refers to the GWR Class802 as the “black Pendolino”-it’s actually dark green, Eurostar is the white Pendolino as is the German ICE and the Hitachi Class 395 EMU (the terrific service between Dover and St Pancras) is the blue Pendolino.
He loves seeing them on the layout. The GWR Class802 is frighteningly fast and I’ve considered fitting a sort of protective cushioned wall to stop it shooting off the board but I must say that it holds the track really well - it almost defies science.
We also love the Class 43 HST. We’ve got 6 of them. They look great in formation waiting at the station. We’ve got one that has a Valenta sound chip which sounds like a jet engine.
We’re now building fleets of locos. We have the HST fleet, the 37 Fleet which is part of our “Highland Railway” which consists of 6x37s and 4x47s( they look great as well). We have another (freight) fleet made up of 4 Class 66s and 3 67s including “The Queen’s Messenger”.
More recently we’ve looked at building a fleet of DMUs with, so far, 3 Class 170s and an old Hornby 110 which I refer to as the “Aberdeen train” because it’s the first train I travelled on as a wee sprog-yes it has the “whiskers”. I love the sleek looks of the 170s with their huge windscreens. Unfortunately Scotrail use many Class 156 and 158 DMUs. They’re the ones, which at the driver end, has a doorway so it can fit onto more coaches. Clever but they are horrible things! The poor driver is crammed into a tiny compartment. However they do have one saving grace and that is their Saltire livery where at the end of the coaches they have one half of the St Andrews flag (Saltire) joined together to look like the flag. The Saltire livery looks fantastic on the 170.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a decent photo of a Saltire-liveried Class 170 but here’s a 156 Saltire.
I wish I could afford to buy a fleet of Class 68s. One Facebook person told me that he had 6 of these fantastic machines (I was very envious) which look great whatever the livery. They look fantastic in RailScotland colours and even DRS but the most outstanding is the Transpennine livery which is really bold. That’s the one I got.
Harrison calls it a space ship. I think he’s right.
I should tell you that, once again, I showed my stupidity. When it arrived I was very excited putting it on the track but it kept falling over. I was about to ask about this problem on Facebook but I had a stroke of luck which stopped me looking stupid. I looked underneath and saw it had blocks, I imagine, to protect the wheels and I simply removed them. It worked perfectly and the sound was great. The sound of “him” revving up before “he” moved forward was wonderful.
Accurascale will soon have the Transpennine Class 802 for sale for a very reasonable £225 which isn’t bad considering Hornby are charging £434.49 for their new Azuma. The Azuma comes with a power car, a dummy and 3 coaches. The Accurascale model doesn’t have a dummy but it does have 4 coaches. I had been planning to buy the Hornby Azuma but now I’m going for the Accurascale Transpennne. Accurascale ask for a £25 deposit. I think it will go flying off the shelves. Look at it.
OK before I go here’s another confession which wiil upset a lot of people. Standby, you know how people talk about steam trains as “she”. I do that too. But when I talk about diesels and high speed trains I call them “he”. SORRY!
See you soon (if not too many of you get me sacked).
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The views and opinions expressed within the content are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Trackside Signs or its affiliates.
