If you don’t believe in parallel universes then you should have made a visit to the Parks Sports Centre at North Shields to see the model railway exhibition at Railex North East 2012. With forty different layouts, fourteen different demonstrations and twenty three different traders it was some event. The exhibition space took up the whole of the indoor bowling arena which had thoughtfully been covered up by plastic protectors and the room was thronging with everyday ordinary folk though admittedly there was a preponderance of older men. The miniature layouts were incredible in their invention and detail, some based upon real railway related scenes while others were the fabric of invention and others were clearly set up to amuse and entertain. There was a surfeit of Thomas the tank engine in this last class, too much for my liking but who am I to judge?
By entering into the Parks it was as if you had entered a single universe, the specialist field of the model railway enthusiast but on closer inspection it soon became apparent that there was much more complexity than at first met the eye. To start with there were different gauges of track, the distance between the two rails. Everyone knows the OO gauge favoured by the Hornby model railway sets but there were smaller gauges (N, Z, EM, HO) and bigger gauges (ON, GN, O, G). Each size had its own devotees and required a different set of background scenes and rolling stock. That brought its own set of differences. Some modellers preferred to build around steam while others preferred diesel. There was even the odd electric buff as well. Some steam enthusiasts had real steam puffing out of the funnels and other engines emitted realistic noises as they rolled around the tracks. It was all really down to the proclivities of the individual modeller.
As said earlier, there were enthusiasts who liked to focus on reality but, as always there were those who go a step too far and insist on a reality that reflects actually what happened at a specific date and time, even getting the timings of the trains down to perfection. If the engine came through at 13:07 then that is the time that the model is coming through.
Around the layouts there were firms that would sell you rolling stock and specialist builders that would make you scenery and landscapes out of paper, or plastic or wood. There were people who would paint the engines for you and even make them look dirty and weathered to give them that added sense of realism. There were people who made little people to stand on the stations, sit on chairs, lean on shovels and guards that wave flags and blow whistles. There were people who sat at small desks and made trees and bushes from bits of wire and greenery that defied reality and there were people who would provide you with the electrics that you would need to run your trains automatically or to light the signals alongside the track. Finally there were the purveyors of railway memorabilia, station signs, engine name plates, books, photographs, DVDs, peaked hats, whistles, badges and any other item that you could never imagine.
And you thought that railway modelling was just a simple hobby, never realising that there are multiple parallel universes existing side by side, all existing in the same time and space but all with their own devotees, codes and practices. It’s a funny old world.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 