Hursley

For those of you who know what I'm talking about... what more do I need to say?!

For those of you who don't, all I can say is that it simply has to be one of if not the most realistic model railways ever built!

I remember buying a copy of Model Railway Journal back in my 'coarse scale' modelling days. Having read many Railway Modeller and Model Railway Constructor magazines and been to several model railway exhibitions I was used to seeing models that looked like models. I remember literally scrutinizing the photos of Martyn Welch's 'Hursley' in disbelief, struggling to believe a model (albeit in 7mm scale) could look so much like the real thing - in fact it took me a while to be convinced it actually was a model I was looking at.

It was those images still burned in my memory that inspired me to get back into railway modelling recently - this time with the express intent of achieving a comparable level of realism. That may seem a tall order, but I like a challenge and to be honest, once you've seen realism on that level it's pretty much impossible to set your sights on anything less.

Of course, I doubt I'll get anywhere near (and remember, I'm working in 4mm scale - almost half the scale of Hursley) but nevertheless that's the standard I'm aiming for.

I just bought a copy of Model Railway Journal issue 40 - it's not the one I remember buying 15 years or so ago, but it does have a 20 page feature article on Hursley acoompanied by a host of stunning black and white photos. I have issue 39 (the one I did buy back then) on order currently.

Well, it's back to fixing buffers to my wagons for now.