Early Railways- A Guide for the Modeller

This book will encourage and support the modelling of the earliest period of railway history, from the very beginnings of steam traction at the start of the 19th century, up to about 1880; a period which for British modellers has scarcely been covered in book form. Over these few decades the railways evolved from something which at the start was markedly different, into a scene that any present-day railwayman would recognise. The trains were much shorter and therefore easier to fit into the limited space most of us have available as, correspondingly, were the station layouts, especially at the beginning of the period. Modelled at 7mm to the foot scale a modern steam express would need at least 12 or 13 feet in length and a minimum curve radius of 6 feet, whereas an 1840 express of a loco and a dozen carriages might be no more than about 6 feet long.