Hi,
I’m Martin Gibson, a Yorkshireman and I guess you could say that I’m on walkabout…
My lasting memory of school was my Physics Master, Mr Auty, telling us that “Scientists are notoriously bone idle”, that memory and allowing a small group of us to use the school Ham radio on those cold Yorkshire lunchtimes…
The idea stuck though and I’ve always preferred to follow a path that kept me warm and dry and rested!
I drifted for a while, deciding that getting paid beat being at University on a grant (yes, I’m that old), and then realising that qualifications mean better pay.
Eventually, after 7 years of day-release study I got my degree and then went back to University full-time for a year as I’d discovered a second degree in Microcomputer Systems where I also got a really big grant.
From there I became that enigma of modern-life – a Computer Engineer.
That key opened a door to a wonderful life that I can honestly say has never been boring – thank you to all those people that have contributed!
In the background throughout that life was my love of trains – both real and model – and I’ve been very fortunate that my career has meant that I could always indulge my hobby.
When DCC came along it was a natural crossover for me and I have particularly taken pleasure in the challenge that N scale models have presented, particularly when trying to squeeze sound decoders into them.
So, where to begin?
My Mother magik’d me up in 1958 and for 3 years I did nothing of note, apparently.
Then by the time I was 3, my Father kindly built (me?) a model railway which I apparently promptly re-arranged for him, much to his consternation. One might suspect that it was really a layout meant for him…
This established something of a pattern which has continued for the next 60 years.
In an attempt to encourage me to create rather than ‘re-arrange’ I recall a steady stream of kits for rolling stock, buildings, etc – even including a Tri-ang ‘CKD’ loco – a Woodhead route EM2.
Few of those items have survived the test of time, though a nicely finished and weathered Airfix Class B tank wagon (no doubt from my teenage years) has pride of place in my display cabinet as the sole survivor of that era. It’s accompanied by a number of examples of my Father’s much better work – it’s always important to aspire to a better standard.
I had a brief foray into P4 / S4 in the late 70s and learnt that it is possible to put a huge amount of work into achieving nothing. After 5 years I had 5 yards of track, 2 coaches, 6 wagons and no locos… I had tried to make locos but my skills (in spite of Mr Mitchell’s Metalwork classes) had not evolved significantly and no amount of suspension can compensate for the simple inability to make a ‘square’ chassis.
One output from this period was that I learnt to paint and detail rolling stock to the ‘nth’ degree! I learnt many paint and lettering skills.
At this stage low-cost American N Scale started to look really interesting.
The approach in the USA was very different – precision engineering much less important than having fun, real fun.
I found that this suited me!
Early models were Model Power, mainly made in Eastern Europe with plastic chassis and bodies (nearly all diesels). A little research clarified that liveries were many and varied and suddenly I had found the future!
A quick progression to Atlas / Arnold / Rivarossi moved me to a very mixed but entertaining world of coloured trains and relatively good running.
I made a conscious decision to switch to USA N scale and all the P4 / S4 / OO went into boxes for 30 years…
I was obliged to do much research for my new ‘love’ as at that stage my knowledge of USA railroading was mainly limited to the Rivarossi catalogues that my Father would bring home from the Wakefield Model Centre each year. (I look back and it drives home to me how easy information is to obtain in our modern world compared even to the 1970s, let alone before).
Many books later, I was firmly fixed on modelling the US West Coast and my passion favoured the Western and Union Pacific railroads, not least thanks to my parents (thanks Dad) buying me a Rivarossi Big Boy in N scale one Christmas, at this time.
Sadly, at around this stage, my Father passed away. So many things that he would have loved about where things have gone in life and railroads! Thank you and sad you are not here to have shared!
My early N scale modelling was limited but then I discovered a modular layout group operating in Knaresborough in North Yorkshire once a month. These guys had Micro-Trains freight cars and brass locos, then they had new Atlas and Kato locos with finely moulded bodies and cast metal chassis. Wow!
Although I was sorting out my work life and getting a reasonable hobby budget, I couldn’t match what I saw at these meets but I could be part of it and the sessions fired-up my enthusiasm.
At this stage I also met another highly-skilled modeller – Paul Marshall – and had the good fortune to get to know him over a number of years.
Paul had an exceptional skill with an airbrush and infinite patience with Microscale decals so a balance was found where I spent many a day crawling on the floor under his layout with a hot soldering iron and wire cutters while he, in turn, produced some exquisite models for me and, more importantly, helped me understand why his work looked incredible and mine looked mediocre alongside!
As the 1990s drew to a close, I had finally reached a stage where I understood what I enjoyed as a hobby and I was routinely creating ‘good’ examples of unique locos and rolling stock (there will be a gallery of some of these in due course) and getting real pleasure from the hours that this took.
So now I had a small layout based around 2 N scale modules that I would take to Knaresborough each month and a rather rapidly growing fleet, as well.
At this stage I was introduced to DCC. I remember Paul’s scorn about the idea (with some cause, as running quality at that stage was somewhat less reliable than today!). Nonetheless, I liked the idea of real multi-loco consists and being able to run a ‘real’ banker with separate control!
At this stage the Knaresborough group were still DC and, although we had a very long modular layout (20′ [5 module] Yard tracks) we could only run 3-4 locos per track maximum (actually only Kato, nothing else would run more than 2-3 at a time). So a ‘long’ train was limited in power and could often be just too heavy for the locos.
I imagined this all developing but my dream came crashing down due to some personal issues and for nearly 5 years my hobby life became largely dormant as life changed around me.
During this time my world changed in one other major way – I started working as an IT guy in UK passenger transport. I’d sort of exchanged my toy hobby for playing with the ‘real thing’ at 1 inch to 1 foot.
You won’t be surprised that the novelty soon wore off and in 1996, when I finally started to settle things down again, I did return to model railways but, for some reason actually started to model UK prototype in N scale.
In retrospect, this was simply expedient as the USA N scale was all crated up and scattered in 2-3 locations across the UK.
A couple of attempts at small UK layouts were quite frustrating but I did learn that there is no UK N scale ready-to-run model that can’t be made to work with DCC! (Farish 03, 08 & Jinty, Minitrix Dock Tank)
Some more personal turmoil led to a brief foray into European Mountain railroading focussed on Swiss Alpine practice. This led me back to my love of USA West Coast mountain railroads and the circle is complete…
I’ve now settled down to seeing DCC as an area that excites and challenges me, especially with sound and other features being a reality for the N scale modeller.
I’ve also recently returned to ‘painting and decorating’ having successfully found the crate with my USA paints and detail parts. Unfortunately I’ve also found the projects that I mothballed when I closed down the ‘operation’ at the end of the 90s. I have to admit that the number of projects I had going then that I now see as ready-to-run models is scary.
So, that’s me – well a snapshot – and is probably the single longest and most boring page on the site (I hope).
I look forward to where I can go from here.
Model Trains and Tracks 