Friday 8 November 2019

Inspiring Reads - P D Hancock


 Many of us are taken by the imagineering in the world of wargaming. Books like Charge are favourites for many of us. Names like Brigadier Peter Young inspire us still. Today l want to highlight a giant from the world of model railways- P D Hancock. He created an imaginary railway the Craig &  Mertonford  Railway in his bedroom. I love his attention to detail as witnessed to by the back story he wrote including a map and history. I love the layout plans as seen below. The life’s work of a creative individual who still inspires today.


7 comments:

  1. Tradgardmastare,

    I've always found model railway magazines to be a great source of ideas ... and this example is a classic! A great backstory which looks and sounds feasible, and which provides a believable raison d'être for the railway.

    My particular 'love' are narrow gauge port/harbour layouts that have lots going on in them as well as some great ship models. I suspect that if the opportunity ever arose, I'd create my own model railway.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Hi Alan,
    PD Hancock's 'Craig & Mertonford' was certainly a great and charming creation. I've always admired Philips work and ideas. Cheers. KEV.

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  3. Looks a marvellous O.S. type book , one of my regrets is not having a model train set up , but it would be another rabbit hole to disappear down .

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  4. One of the inspirational railway modellers of the 1950s onwards. It's good to know that parts of the Craig and Mertonford still exist up in Edingburgh. I hadn't heard of the soldier collection though.

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  5. Thanks for all the comments, still thinking about when and whether or not?

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