Modelling the Seventies

Today I was in receipt of the early birthday present I'd bought myself on eBay: twenty four vintage copies of Model Railway Constructor (MRC) magazine.  I am now the proud owner of complete runs for 1971 and 1972.  A scan of the October 71 cover is above.  MRC, although now defunct, was a venerable publication - the main rival to Railway Modeller (which is still published), from the forties through to at least the eighties.  While I love all old magazines, I have a particular affection for old magazines about model railways - they are a reminder of how much the hobby has changed.  The layouts featured in these early seventies issues, for instance, tend to be much less complex than their modern equivalents and far less detailed - their emphasis was on running rather than producing intricately detailed reproductions of reality.  As someone who first became interested in model railways around this time, I naturally have more affinity with these layouts - they are much more what I aspire to create than their modern equivalents.

Back then, there was no DCC, so it was all relatively simple (and cheap) DC electrics.  There was far less available commercially in terms of scenery, buildings etc.  One had to be ingenious to come up with such things.  There were also far fewer ready-to-run models of locomotives and rolling stock available.  By 1971 there was, in effect, only a single manufacturer of British outline 00 gauge model railways left, in the form of Triang-Hornby, (they'd swallowed up Hornby Dublo in 1965).  To be sure, some of the old Hornby Dublo range was still available, now manufactured by Wrenn, but these were very expensive, while British Trix was going through all sorts of difficulties and offered only a very reduced range of models.  Consequently, modellers spent a fair amount of time either building stuff from kits or modifying existing commercial models.  While the models available were far less detailed than anything available today, people were more accepting of this - while they might have lacked detail, most captured the 'essence' of their subjects.  Besides, there was a whole mini-industry of small firms and individuals producing detailing parts back then.

Skimming through these issues, the preponderance of Great Western layouts is striking - God forbid that you should want to model anything else, particularly the Southern.  Of course, this simply reflected the fact that, at the time, the GWR/BR Western Region was the best supported in modelling terms, with more ready-to-run models and kits available.  The Southern was very poorly served at this time.  (Although, to be fair, if you wanted to model the Southern Region toward the end of steam, then, back in the sixties, you had, in ready-to-run form, the Dublo rebuilt West Country, R1 tank engine and BR 4MT tank engine, the Triang unrebuilt Battle of Britain, L1, M7 and BR 3MT tank, plus the Trix BR 5MT - not the most balanced selection  of locos, but the best that would be available to Southern modellers for many years).  Anyway, here are a couple more pages from the October 1971 issue, including a full page photo of the layout featured on the cover and the reviews page highlighting some of the kits available, particularly the MTK Class 47 diesel:

 

 

 

Doubtless, over the coming months I'll be boring you more with further scans from these magazines - I've got twenty four to draw upon, after all.  In the meantime, they are going to provide me with many hours of reading enjoyment, not to mention inspiration for my own modelling.