Childhood Memories Remain on Track
Like Many Adults I Have FOND childhood Memories of playing with my childhood toys. Both male and females have continued their association with some of their favourite childhood pastimes.
I know that many girls that have grown into adult women still collect dolls. Whilst many men who had a toy train set during their childhood also have continued with their enjoyment of playing with model train sets.
Playing with toys have led to many youngsters going on to full-time careers where they have put into practice much of what they have learnt as youngsters.
Think of how many girls have gone into nursing or how many boys have gone into engineering or building. Some children have gone into Chemistry or perhaps carpentry due to playing around and experimenting with their toys. These occupations may have germinated in the minds of the young as they played.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit the home of a reader of this magazine who, over the years since his retirement from the workforce, has converted a portion of his garden to build a railway layout. My grandson and I once also had a train layout set up in what we called the backroom of our home where we had placed model homes to form a village, together with miniature trees and a roadway with cars and trucks. We had also placed a level crossing on the track. We had some good wholesome fun during the time that we had the trainset set up.
Some model railway enthusiasts have named some of their layouts after real life locations whilst others have made up fanciful names for their layouts. The layout that my wife and I visited recently had a building constructed with the name “Turp & Tyne Distillery” displayed on it. When asking our host about the building he stated that the name came about because of a turpentine tree located at the rear of his layout. I also asked our host on how rain affected the running of the trains on the tracks and whether there was any problem with the tracks rusting. He said that his tracks were made from stainless steel and therefore was not effected by rust what so ever.
Garden railways can add a new dimension and attraction to a garden. Garden layouts and plants can be adapted to a railway layout and can become very interesting. Numerous garden rail societies have been formed around the world. Members often invite others over for social gatherings, as well as rotating club meetings each month providing an enjoyable day out for members and their families to view other layouts.
Those who have built model railway layouts can also have the joy of watching their children or grandchildren enjoy the thrill of the trains navigating around the tracks.
Whilst visiting the reader’s home (I will not name him as he requested that I not show the location of his home to protect his privacy) we were both intrigued with the amount of work he had done to create his layout which included a mountain railway as well as bridges, tunnels and buildings. He had four trains running simultaneously during our visit. The reader is a member of Garden Railway Club of Australia Inc.
(www.gardenrailwayclubaust.org.au) and he told me that Covid-19 has had a drastic effect on membership and that they are now looking for new members to join the club. I noted that a number of members of the club have their layouts displayed on the club website.
If you wish to join the group you can do by downloading the membership application form from the website or writing to the Secretary at PO Box 4405, Winmalee NSW 2777. The club also has a Facebook page. The photographs on the “As We Were” page were all taken during our visit to the reader’s garden.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][us_image image=”69951″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
