Now I am not travelling

A model railway evoking our trips to Switzerland

I have been to various parts of Switzerland several times over the last few years and decided that it was time to build a model which would include some aspects of Switzerland which had become familiar to us. It would have spiral tunnels, tracks that traversed the same valley two or three times, Kkiosk shops at the stations, Co-op supermarkets, log trains, postal containers ... and so on. I chose the Graubunden canton and the Rhaetian Railway because it had the spectacular engineering works I wanted because it is an adhesion railway, managing entirely without cog mechanisms to climb the hills.

The layout is currently in the early stages of construction, with just one station nearing completion - much more advanced than if I had not been stuck at home! The video below gives you the story so far, and more will follow on my new model railway blog, innsdorf.com.

When I am not travelling

The attraction of model railways

I have had a model railway of sorts for as long as I can remember, and in adult life, indeed from about the age of six (!), they have been about much more than the trains. I have always tried to make them about journeys and to reflect the joy of travel, my enjoyment of which goes back to toddlerhood when my parents took me to my mother's family in Margate for a week each summer. I expect that like every toddler I did not enjoy every aspect and would have made my parents aware of that, but my memories are all good: it was exciting, both the destination and the journey. I think that is why I am still hugely fond of train travel today, as well as the grown-up belief in railways as (at least potentially, and often actually) a civilised, environmentally-friendly way to travel.

A few years ago, with a hankering for the era of glamorous train travel and a liking for art deco and modernist architecture, I built a moderne fantasy model railway layout with streamlined and Pullman trains and deco and moderne buildings. The video below is a summary of several years' development. I  hope you enjoy it.