PD Hancock - Craig and Mertonford - Dundreich

[Malcolm]

P. D. Hancock was an early member of the Edinburgh and Lothians Miniature Railway Club. Recently the club has been presented with a small section from the final incarnation of his Craig and Mertonford layout, Dundreich. Some photographs may seen here:
Edit - June 2020 update connection to photos now in Google archive:
https://get.google.com/albumarchive/112904466287746079405?source=pwa
Additionally I have acquired 6 x OO gauge locos and a small quantity of goods stock and, Lord Craig himself.
The E&LMRC has also been presented with a quantity of books, black and white photos and colour slides including many of the original illustrations for the MRN and RM articles and the book, Narrow Gauge Adventure. As club librarian I am somewhat overwhelmed at the moment but also overjoyed at having such a pleasant task sifting through and cataloguing his collection.
Malcolm

[tedp]

Thanks, Malcolm, for posting the photos of the relics of PDH's original CMR, which I very much enjoyed. It is good to know at least something has been saved.

I had a look through my published photos and found the following:

Some photos of the CMR loco 'Colin' on the C&DR in 1993:

http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2008/img/pdh/colin2.jpg
http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2008/img/pdh/colin6a.jpg

Photos of 'Angus' posed on Rae Bridge when it was being repaired by Ian Turner, in 2005:

http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2008/img/pdh/angus2-mp.jpg
http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2008/img/pdh/angus3-mp.jpg

Photos of 'Moira' and 'Duncan', after being restored by Rod Allcock in 2006:

http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2008/img/pdh/pb094208.jpg
http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2008/img/pdh/pb094204.jpg

Photos of CMR wagon no. 1 which is in regular service on the C&DR with a detachable permanent way load, and the branch carriage which runs on two ex CMR Kemtron bogies:
http://www.009dutch.nl/cdr/main/foto/rollingstock/works/pict2050.jpg
http://www.009dutch.nl/cdr/main/foto/rollingstock/passenger/pict2069.jpg

[johnwilliams009]

Hi Malcolm,

The 009 Society will once again be exhibiting at Modelrail Scotland in February 2013.
Alongside the layout will be the Society Showcase Stand and a demo stand.
Would it be possible to have one or two items of Phil Hancocks work at the exhibition with the 009 Society
It would make an outstanding contribution to the stand.

Stan Williams

[tedp]

Good thinking, Stan! ;)

[Graeme Dunbar]

Great news Stan, and an exellent idea!

I wonder if the RM authorities would permit some high quality scans of extracts from a selection of his articles to be used as background material (and as a background)?

[Malcolm]

Hi Malcolm,

The 009 Society will once again be exhibiting at Modelrail Scotland in February 2013.
Alongside the layout will be the Society Showcase Stand and a demo stand.
Would it be possible to have one or two items of Phil Hancocks work at the exhibition with the 009 Society
It would make an outstanding contribution to the stand.

Stan Williams

Stan
Yes, that ought to be possible.  It will however not be Dundreich which is sitting next to me as I type this.  My problem in getting something ready for next Feb is not just a lack of time but there is now a lack of space as my daughter's hoped for move out of the family nest has been put off until next spring.  >:( Guess in whose room Dundreich, Craig Castle etc were going!!
I am hoping to get to the St Andrews show and we can discuss the matter in more detail then.  If not we can revert to e-mails.
Malcolm

[Malcolm]

The October 2012 issue of 009 News is almost a PD Hancock special with, in addition to the information regarding Dundreich and photos of same, photos of Craig Castle, Rod Allcock's 'Joan' and the 'Woolwoth Hoppers' and a colourful Lord Craig visiting Dwffyr Uchaf Quarries. Nothing for years then all this at once. Whew!
Malcolm

[petersmith1942]

All
lovely topic and lovely photos. Is my mind playing tricks but all I have previously recalled from RM is in monochrome and all these pics just emphasise how good C and M was for its time-and still is. The purely freelance stock all has that really quite possible look
Many thanks to all for the pics
Peter Smith

[Malcolm]

No there were colour photos in the RM in 1979 / 80 / 90 / 93.
Malcolm

[rod335]

Whilst we old-timers have had a lot of private correspondence of late regarding the Craig and Mertonford, it is, perhaps, a little sad that the younger, in this case, under 50, modellers probably have no understanding of the significance of the CMR. They probably see the remains of a well made scenic 009 layout with a bit of standard gauge, quite commonplace nowadays.

The significance of this layout can never be underestimated. This was THE first narrow gauge layout of it's kind. When Phillip Hancock described in the Model Railway News in November 1950 his planned narrow gauge model railway, and his reasons and experiments in making this decision, no one had really done this before. There was no N gauge available to help him out, everything had to be made or adapted. The article itself includes a plan of Craig, almost exactly as it appeared some three years later and PDH admitted that at the time it existed on paper only.

The Craig and Mertonford Railway was like a beacon in those far-off years, at the time we were lucky to get two narrow gauge articles a year in the Railway Modeller, compare that with the current issue alone which has, I think, three articles (thank you Steve Flint) and indeed showed us all what was possible, even if no one else could achieve it! The CMR, to many of us, was a real living breathing railway that just happened to have had a model made of it. To put matters in perspective, at that time there was an energetic correspondence in the Model Railway press as to whether it was worth it or not to build model railways in 2-rail, or should they all still be 3-rail. We have come a very long way but the Craig and Mertonford Railway should still be revered by everyone. If you get a chance to see this relic, do not miss the opportunity.

Rod   

[rod335]

Hello Cornelius

I hope you take my previous comments in the spirit in which they were intended, I have no wish to patronise anyone but do think that something must be done to make those who are unaware of the significance of the CMR, Aire Valley etc. realise the importance of our heritage.

On that point, I presume you are aware that most of the Aire Valley locos. and stock reside in the society's Heritage Collection (along with David Mander's Stronalacher locos. and stock.)

Rod

[Frank]

I think that there is a point here.   I am new to 009 modelling in the sense that I have recently returned to modelling after a few decades in which life and family took up so much of my time that I did no modelling at all.   So I am both new and an old timer.    I'm afraid that without threads like this I would be one of the people who see a layout similar to many others, albeit well conceived, nicely detailed and well done.   I may have been aware of this layout and others like it in the past but now they have slipped from my memory.   Thanks to Rod I now have a better idea of the significance of the layout.

So I suggest that some effort be made to publicise the significance of this in more detail and to a wider audience.

For example, there is the Society Showcase, which I have seen at several shows, but it has absolutely no information on the models.   In current jargon, it lacks intrepretation.  Some display boards with layout photos and the sort of context described so eloquently by Rod would make such a difference.

Frank

[B.Meldon]

I known that there is a lot of stuff in the 009 Society heritage collection that members may not be aware of, there is a selection of Pete Wilson

[Graeme Dunbar]

I'm in two minds about the showcase (if I'm correct in thinking we are talking about the glass cabinet). Information about individual models is very desirable but on the other hand the display of so many models side-by-side, uncluttered by labels and viewable from all angles is fascinating and definitely eye-catching at an exhibition.

At the risk of inventing a lot more work for someone, I'd want it both ways  ;) with an exhibition catalogue, portfolio, Rolodex or whatnot beside the case to flick through for further information. Realistically, it exists in the wealth of information there just for the asking from the exhibitors so perhaps more general signage would help. My memory may deceive me, but I seem to recall a ring binder of information.

What I did enjoy when last I saw the cabinet was spotting the group of "Paul Windles", what people had done to A1 kits and of course seeing the "PD Hancock" on display. The Juggernaughts were impressive too, but not my kind of 009 model. Models in glass cases at exhibitions can sometimes be not all that interesting but the case is a good size and being able to compare so many models in close proximity is interesting.

[tedp]

... As a mere slip of a lad at 35 I count myself lucky that, while visiting my grandfather as a kid I was able to make use of my uncle's collection of Railway Modellers from the late 50s onwards and so read up on the C&M, Aire Valley etc while still at a young age. ...

The funny thing is that my narrow gauge involvement came about in a very similar way, but about 20 years earlier. My father was a keen 00 modeller as it took him back to his travels to Britain in the 1950s. Somehow he got hold of a large number of 1950s and 1960s Railway Modellers and Model Railway Constructors. These resided in a row of box files in his study. At age 16 or 17 I had already read about the Craig & Mertonford, but as you say within the context of contemporary modelling. There were the Aire Valley, various layouts by George Hanan (who remembers the Castle Valley Railway?) and of course the Augher Valley by David Lloyd. And there was a lot of excellent standard gauge modelling going on even in those early days. What set off my narrow gauge modelling was really my mother complaining about the huge fold-down standard gauge tail-chaser blocking my bedroom. So my Dad suggested I change to a narrow gauge shelf layout, using Egger equipment. This coincided with a visit to North Wales in 1967.

What is vastly different in today's modelling is that there is more emphasis on (excellent) scale modelling instead of the fictitious theme approach. What PDH and his contemporaries did was dream up a real railway and build a model of it. I remember reading the early magazine articles avidly, and thinking up my own theme along similar lines. I think the key is the word 'freelance' which today is often frowned upon, but which opens up a whole world beyond the constraints of scale modelling. If PDH and his contemporaries have left a legacy to us, this is it. But PDH through his imaginative writing was the one who appealed to us most of all.

Regarding safeguarding PDH's and other heritage and keeping the knowledge alive, I think it cannot be solved in a forum discussion. I'm sure many measures exist within the Society that can be built upon. One discussion we had on the NGRM forum was how to create a digital library or at least an index of old narrow gauge modelling publications, in view of questions often cropping up. The main obstacle here is copyright, but if we tread carefully I'm sure something can be done.