Hornby Track Plans (which did you most want to built when younger?)

[tbtc]

I know that there's all sorts of fancy software nowadays and free diagrams online etc...

...but my generation grew up with a catalogue of Track Plans from Hornby every few years which (in my case at least) meant each layout got daydreamed about a little, rather than the disposable modern world where things can be quickly forgotten about.

The one I always wanted to build was 18/5 from the fifth edition in the early '80s - a single/double tracked inverted figure of eight with a branchline at each end - elevated sections too - all in an 11' by 6' (with large hole in the middle to operate it from).

The sixth edition a couple of years later had some great looking layouts - and a lovely front cover with a great front cover picture of the throat at Newcastle (back when it was wonderful complicated), but 18/5 remained my favourite plan.

Did anyone else have any ambitions to build one, and did you (either as a child or adult)? Has anyone still got the desire to replicate an interesting diagram from thirty years ago?

(I know there were CJ Freezer/ Peco alternatives out there in 1980s shops, but I was a Hornby kid!)

 

[RedZed]

I don't have track plans book anymore but I seem to remember I was always going to build this one from the mid 70's (never did cos never had the space \ time\ money) and I was still a child back then.

http://www.freetrackplans.com/Hornby-4Q.php

I do have Triang/ Hornby catalogues editions 16/17/18/19/20 which are sealed in dust covers which were my Grandads. IIRC a couple of them have both pre and post decimal prices on them so he must have bought them 1969 onwards.
Some great artwork on the front covers by Terence Cuneo and when you stopped daydreaming about all the the stuff you were going to buy, you could look for the mouse hidden in the picture which was a Cuneo 'trademark that he always put into he railway paintings.

 

[Ianno87]

I used to have the Hornby track plan books and spent endless hours daydreaming over them. Never enough space in my parents house (nor indeed nearly enough money) to even come close to building them myself... ??????

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When large Victorian houses with a number of large rooms were available as family residences, some of the more extensive Hornby layouts could be accommodated with ease.

 

[Ianno87]

When large Victorian houses with a number of large rooms were available as family residences, some of the more extensive Hornby layouts could be accommodated with ease.

My growing up was done in a 1930s-built Semi in Bolton.

I was fortunate enough to be given a 6' x 4' railway on a baseboard one Christmas (1993 I think?). It just about fit in the front room if one side was right up against the wall, and we didn't mind not using one side of the dining room table...

 

[martian boy]

RedZed....I believe that was plan 17 from the mid 1970s (1977/8?) track plan book.

 

[fowler9]

Not quite the same but when I was little I was an alter boy, I used to spend mass doing track plans in my head. None of them ever happened sadly. I wanted to model a modern image terminus station that looked great in my head but would have been unrealistic in real life. I am planning on joining a model railway society in the near future and trying to get involved more.

 

[Cowley]

I know that there's all sorts of fancy software nowadays and free diagrams online etc...

...but my generation grew up with a catalogue of Track Plans from Hornby every few years which (in my case at least) meant each layout got daydreamed about a little, rather than the disposable modern world where things can be quickly forgotten about.

The one I always wanted to build was 18/5 from the fifth edition in the early '80s - a single/double tracked inverted figure of eight with a branchline at each end - elevated sections too - all in an 11' by 6' (with large hole in the middle to operate it from).

The sixth edition a couple of years later had some great looking layouts - and a lovely front cover with a great front cover picture of the throat at Newcastle (back when it was wonderful complicated), but 18/5 remained my favourite plan.

Did anyone else have any ambitions to build one, and did you (either as a child or adult)? Has anyone still got the desire to replicate an interesting diagram from thirty years ago?

(I know there were CJ Freezer/ Peco alternatives out there in 1980s shops, but I was a Hornby kid!)

That’s some track plan isn’t it?
You’d have had to be pretty flush with pocket money for that one .

I must admit I was a bit more into the CJ Freezer/Peco ones, probably due to my dad getting the Railway Modeller each month and also him building a lovely 7mm scale Corris Railway terminus in the loft with exquisitely scratch built station and other buildings with perfect interiors and internal lights etc.

Another influence was ‘Merv’, my best friend Paul’s dad who had a ‘tail chaser’ in his garden shed which had a typical ex GWR country junction station with through roads, a bay platform and a branch line which featured a green Lima DMU (I recently resurrected Mervyns 33 year old DMU for his current railway).
The branch went up an incline and terminated in a little station on top of the fiddle yard, something that I copied on my last railway.
The mainline had Lima Warships and Westerns. I loved it, although he didn’t love me when I was sitting on the freezer (not CJ) and accidentally kicked the off button without noticing one hot summers afternoon...

The things I remember most fondly about Hornby back in the 80s are the adverts they did with a miniaturised Bernard Cribbins. I mean imagine being able to ride around in your own 00 gauge trains!

 

[fowler9]

That’s some track plan isn’t it?
You’d have had to be pretty flush with pocket money for that one .

I must admit I was a bit more into the CJ Freezer/Peco ones, probably due to my dad getting the Railway Modeller each month and also him building a lovely 7mm scale Corris Railway terminus in the loft with exquisitely scratch built station and other buildings with perfect interiors and internal lights etc.

Another influence was ‘Merv’, my best friend Paul’s dad who had a ‘tail chaser’ in his garden shed which had a typical ex GWR country junction station with through roads, a bay platform and a branch line which featured a green Lima DMU (I recently resurrected Mervyns 33 year old DMU for his current railway).
The branch went up an incline and terminated in a little station on top of the fiddle yard, something that I copied on my last railway.
The mainline had Lima Warships and Westerns. I loved it, although he didn’t love me when I was sitting on the freezer (not CJ) and accidentally kicked the off button without noticing one hot summers afternoon...

The things I remember most fondly about Hornby back in the 80s are the adverts they did with a miniaturised Bernard Cribbins. I mean imagine being able to ride around in your own 00 gauge trains!

That sounds fun. You got any photos? Sadly most of my layouts got no further than bare baseboard.

 

[Cowley]

That sounds fun. You got any photos? Sadly most of my layouts got no further than bare baseboard.

I haven’t got any photos of either unfortunately. I’m especially gutted that I didn’t get any of my dads...
I do have some of my most recent one but it looks a bit old hat now and I’ll end up dragging this thread so off topic that we’ll be talking about 442s in a minute .
I’ll pm you some later in the week 9...

 

[fowler9]

I haven’t got any photos of either unfortunately. I’m especially gutted that I didn’t get any of my dads...
I do have some of my most recent one but it looks a bit old hat now and I’ll end up dragging this thread so off topic that we’ll be talking about 442s in a minute .
I’ll pm you some later in the week 9...

Ha ha, speak soon mate. Hope you are well. Speak soon. Love to all your family.

 

[Cowley]

Ha ha, speak soon mate. Hope you are well. Speak soon. Love to all your family.

Thanks man. Same to you and yours.
I’m off today trying to make turn turn the loft into a room at the moment to free up space in the future railway shed. After that I might be able to start looking at those track plans again.
I find doing a bit of railway modelling a very relaxing pastime.