Meeting Report 6th November 2024 – Earl Connolly – “A Train Journey in Miniature”

Tony Taft, our Reviewer/Photographer reports:

Today we had an attendance of 20 with 3 apologies, we had no new members or visitors, I would love to report a new member.

Our speaker today was Earl Connolly and the title of his presentation was “ A Train journey in miniature. 

Earl is a member of the Dawlish Probus club, and even though we have spoken a lot about our numbers dwindling, Earl said they have the same situation in his club. 

Earl started his talk about how children during the fifties and possibly the sixties loved to go train spotting, I was one of them, I would go on the tram to the Lickey hills and with my friends have a joyous time spotting the trains at Barnt Green station, and getting chased around by the station manager, I was very skilled at giving a believable fake name and address. 

At that time you could buy a book for 2/6d of train numbers, and cross off the numbers if you saw one.

 Earl showed us photos of kids some in school uniform wearing their school caps, something you do not see these days, today you would be lucky if you could get the kids away from their phones or computers

The Main part of Earls talk was about trains in miniature, model trains and we were shown a picture of a tin plate model of a very early engine made by a German company called Lowke, this is thought to be the oldest known model train engine dating about 1850. 

Products from Germany were not popular with the British public and were required to display a sticker on them saying made in Germany. 

Lowke got around this problem by manufacturing spares for people to make their own model engines, and these spare parts did not need to be labelled  made in Germany anymore. 

After a time things changed and the label made in Germany became an indication of good quality and collectors sought out these models. 

We moved on to model trains on a slightly larger scale, these are the trains that you see in country parks and can sit on for a thrilling ride around, and when the company Lowke set up in this country it was this type of model train that they started to produce, the photos I have included in this review are not one of them. 

Triang another company set up by three people hence the name Triang, also were well known for their models. 

Earl said that all of the different companies were eventually bought by each other and over time became one company Hornby. 

Earl explained the difference between the different gauges in model trains, and there are far more than you could imagine, I have included a guide in this review just to give you an idea, ranging from the largest with a three rail track, the two outer rails being negative and the centre rail positive, and the smallest TT meaning table top. 

Hornby models based in Margate now only make their prototype models in this country and when it is time to go into production of a new product, all of their injection moulding tools go to China where they are mass produced, I suppose if they were produced in this country they would be so expensive that no one would want to buy them. 

This was a fascinating presentation and when you wrongly think that toy trains are strictly for the kids, Earl showed us all of the well known celebrities who are keen collectors. 

Earl has been to our club before and I look forward to a return visit from him in the not too distant future.