Esthers Train Set - An Introduction

It all started with James May!  I've two daughters, one of which is very much a 'girly girl', but the other is a bit of a tom-boy.  She's the one with the Lego, Meccano and Scalextric but she had no interest in model railways.  Which was a shame because I did!  In my youth I'd had a couple of model railways that I'd taken to exhibitions (see the photo gallery here) - but in my late teens other stuff came along.  I sold most of the rolling stock and sold the railway to a guy who lived near Winchcombe station on the GWR - I wonder if he still has it?


Anyhow, I'd decided that a model railway would end up being a retirement project (which is at least 20 years away!), but then James May's Toy Stories came along. In one episode he built a 00 Gauge model railway from  Barnstaple to Bideford.  And on the back of this my daughter announced she would like a train set too!


The only plausible place for it was the loft.  And so we started planning.  Unlike my model  railways (which attempted to be as realistic as possible) this was to be a play thing.  Something where you could watch the trains running, something with 'playability'!  We decided on a loop right round the loft and a station with two platforms, a goods yard and an engine shed.  Essington station's name is derived from my daughter's name (Esther).


So we started in the January of 2010 and the results of our efforts can be seen on these pages!

And is my daughter still interested?  Yes...a bit...but at least it's keeping me occupied! :-)