When Jenny Kirk posts YouTube videos about making model railways, they’re regularly viewed by a few thousand people. In one clip she shows how to make mini trees from car treatment spray, and in another video on the Hornby website, which 15,000 people have so far watched, she shows how to make a train wagon look as realistic as possible by using a painting technique called “weathering”.
Kirk, who lives in Bolton, is well known in the world of railway modelling and has been developing her skills since her father got her interested in trains as a child. She took part in Channel 4’s The Biggest Littlest Railway in the World, in which she helped create a 71-mile model railway track across the Highlands, from Fort William to Inverness.
Last year she was in the final of Channel 5’s The Great Model Railway Challenge in which she competed against other talented modellers to create breathtakingly accurate, tiny versions of reality.
Models making a comeback
“I find the creativity of making things, and making them exactly how I want, incredibly relaxing,” she tells i. “You’ve got a miniature world where you control everything, which can quite often be quite different to how the real world is.”
Kirk is far from alone in her interest in model trains. Sales at toymaker Hornby, which produces the famous miniature railways of our childhoods, have soared over the past year. The company has seen a 33 per cent rise in sales and returned to profit for the first time in almost 10 years of losses.
More people have got into model-making since the pandemic started. Many adults, suddenly stuck indoors with plenty of time to browse online shops, focused on hobbies they had forgotten about or never found time to take up. Many also felt nostalgic and introduced their offspring to the train sets of their youth.
“There’s a lot of scope for model railways to draw in the whole family,” says Kirk, “rather than just the stereotype of the father trying to interest the son. It’s something that appeals to boys and girls – and also mums, nans, grandpas.”
Dispelling the miniaturist myth
Model train enthusiasts have, however, long had a reputation of being male and, well, a bit odd. But Kirk says this hasn’t been her experience of her fellow miniaturists. “The stereotype of it being a blokey hobby doesn’t bear up under close scrutiny,” she says. “And I think what really brought this home was The Great Railway Model Challenge, where they had lots of women and it broke out from the idea of the Thermos-carrying, anorak-wearing individual and pushed the boundaries.”
Rock singer Rod Stewart, who has probably never worn an anorak, recently revealed in Railway Modeller magazine that he had spent more than two decades making a 125ft by 23ft – and staggeringly good – intricate model of a city influenced by both New York and Chicago. It featured 5ft skyscrapers, bridges, a rush-hour traffic scene, “transition era” facilities for both steam and diesel traction, and a power station.
Musician and broadcaster Jools Holland, another keen modeller, has recreated the Channel Tunnel and 1960s London.
New technical sophistication
It’s not just nostalgia getting people into modelling, though. Hornby, the brand we most associate with wholesome hobbies, has attempted to appeal to a new generation by creating a colossal Harry Potter Hogwarts Express railway, as well as a Paddington Bear train set. While some traditionalists might balk at bringing these huge cultural franchises into the mix, Kirk is all for it. “It fires up kids’ imagination because it breaks out of that mould of being a slave to miniature reality. Instead you can enter the realm of magical fantasy, which is a great way of sustaining kids’ interest.”
Another change from the first days of Hornby is the level of technological sophistication. Now you can control the trains from an app using Bluetooth, and the material for the trains and scenery has “changed beyond all recognition from the days of dyed sawdust and green felt mats,” says Kirk.
For anyone interested in buying their first set, Kirk advises calling a local model shop, many of which have carried on answering the phones and providing mail order service in lockdown.
“They are very knowledgeable people who would be able to honestly advise people on the kind of thing they want, whether it’s going down the all bells-andwhistles digital route, or an oldfashioned steam engine.”
As Christmas approaches and we all continue to spend more time at home, perhaps there will be a new generation of people climbing aboard the model railway hobby.
Model behaviour: The big lockdown trends
It isn’t just model train sets that have proved popular during this year’s lockdowns. Airfix and Scalextric have also seen a surge in interest.
The war surgeon David Nott has spoken of how making Airfix models as a child helped him perfect his steady hand, so it can’t be a bad thing to spend your lockdown doing.
New Airfix models include a recreation of the Northrop F-5E Tiger planes flown in the movie Top Gun, as well as a 1960s-style Volkswagen camper van with the Coca-Cola logo.
Hornby also now makes Scalextric models of Batman and Joker cars, and Del Boy’s Reliant van from Only Fools and Horses.
