HUMPHREY ROAD SIDINGS
Why does an old bloke born in NE Scotland and now marooned in East Yorkshire profess an interest in modelling the Southern Railway in the 1950s?
The 1950s are perhaps more easily explained as that decade recalls slow, happy times spent with friends and parents, in particular my dad, who used to take me train-watching on Saturdays at the local station and goods yard at Fraserburgh, my home town. This fostered a lifelong interest in railways and transport in general. The SR interest arises from a liking for the Maunsell green livery, private owner wagons and the general notion that northerners have of bucolic parts of southern England.
Most of our exhibition layouts (we have six - yes, I confess to being a serial layout builder!) are of the ‘overseas persuasion’. However, an idle perusal one day of the Southern stock I had amassed, hinted at the attraction of another British layout. ‘Humphrey Road Sidings’ combines, in an entirely fictitious manner, my liking for the Southern Railway, the 1950s and private owner wagons.
Hang on, reel back a bit - the Southern Railway in the later 1950s? The layout simply assumes that nationalisation
