Craig and Mertonford Railway 75th Anniversary

[Malcolm]

From Lord Craig, Craig Castle, Craigshire, Scotland.

Today, 6th July 2024, marks the 75th anniversary of P D Hancock's Craig and Mertonford Light Railway.  Readers of the 009 News and the Railway Modeller will be aware of this as articles have appeared in both magazines.

How 4mm scale has changed over the years.  When PD adopted the 4mm scale / 9mm track gauge combination no one had really done this before and there was extremely limited support from the trade in the post WW2 austerity era and most certainly no r-t-r products available to help him out with everything having to be handmade or adapted to suit.  His book, Narrow Gauge Adventure, first published in 1975,  (2nd Edn. 1980) is a classic and is fairly readily available on the second hand market.  A large number of articles by PD published in the Railway Modeller between 1950 and 1993 can be viewed by subscribers on the RM digital archive.  An index of all PD's articles in the RM and elsewhere is available, please pm me.

Given that the layout was dismantled 37 years ago it is incredible that parts of Craigshire and the Railway are still extant.   Much of what remains of this important historical layout is now in the care of the Edinburgh and Lothians MRC (P D Hancocks old club) and further information can be found on the club website.  https://elmrc.org.uk/the-p-d-hancock-collection

Malcolm MacLeod
Lord Craig's PA