Advice Needed

[Grampy]

Good Day to you all,
Let me introduce myself by saying that I am a recently retired grumpy old man with an interest in most types of model making.
My incentive to join this forum is my 10 year old grandson. He has long been a fan of Thomas the Tank Engine but after his parents took him to York he is now a huge fan of the Mallard. He has been told that he can have a layout in the loft and I have been nominated to provide help, assistance and guidance. I do not want to curb his enthusiasm too much but I am trying to steer him away from a ‘Mallard visits Sodor’ type of layout.
Are there any books available which would serve as an introduction to the LNER, its locomotives and rolling stock?
Any other advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards

Grampy

[manna]

G'day Gents

Hi Grampy, welcome to the forum, If you don't know a lot about railways and the LNER, you've just entered a whole new world, it's a good idea of yours to build a 'normal' railway, they'll soon get fed up with 'Thomas', when they realize there's a lot more to railways than the little blue engine, but he has his use's.

EBay is a good place to start, there are plenty of books, go into the book section then enter LNER, should be a couple of hundred to choose from. again E-Bay can be used for your modelling needs, loco's, wagons ETC.

If you click on the large LNER icon at the top of the page, it will open to different sections, the 'Locomotive' section will open up a list of classes, (the LNER owned I think 6,000 loco's) Mallard is an A4 class.

Another thing to remember is that the LNER was 'Large, so picking an area to model, will have repercussions on what loco ran where, so a small Scottish loco wouldn't be seen in London.
Also, remember Rule No 1, It's my railway, so run it your way.

manna

[DD_Fenrir]

If the book is for you I'd recommend either or all of these:

LNER, by Geoffrey Hughes https://www.amazon.co.uk/LNER-Geoffrey- ... B000RWE1XS
LNER 150: The London and North Eastern - A Century and a Half of Progress, by David St. John Thomas & Patrick Whitehouse
Backtrack Special No.2 - The London & North Eastern Railway, by Blakemore Michael

[Hatfield Shed]

If you want to show him how beautiful it was, there's nothing better than 'The Big Four in Colour 1935 - 50'.

Realistically, at 10 y.o. and the real steam railway long gone, his fancy is likely to alight almost anywhere. He can't do all the naughty things we did at his age, and get shouted at by goods guards, platelayers and various other railway employees...

There's a real problem with the Thomas the Tank product, just so you are prepared. It's expensive, because the sharks who bought the licence want loads for it (Rev Awdry must be spinning in his grave) and it is crap based on cheap and long obsolete mechanism tooling. Your best bet if some 'TTTE' product is required, is to buy the much superior newer product with competent mechanism designs and decorate to suit. There's an ample choice of items with good mechanisms to match everything, except Toby the Tram, just ask.

[nzpaul]

If I was to pick one book to serve as general purpose reading for a would be LNER fan, I'd go with the LNER 150 book. It doesn't contain a lot of information specific to Mallard though, so that may count against it in this case. There was a bookazine (I think that's how they're described) produced by the publishers of Heritage Railway magazine called Mallard 75 that covers a bit of history building up to the speed record and subsequent life of the loco, it has plenty of colour photos and given that the loco has already inspired your grandson, it would probably be well received. Tracking a copy down could be the hard part, I doubt it's still being printed but one of the transport book traders or maybe Amazon could be worth a try.

Cheers
Paul

[cctransuk]

I can sympathise with your position - having been there - but the first task is to retain the interest in railways.

You know - we all know - that railways were no really like the mythical Sodor; (though it is much closer to the real thing than virtually any other children's fictional railway).

If he wants 'Mallard visits Sodor' I would recommend that is exactly what he gets! He will be enthused at this first step and, with suitable immersion in railways as they really were, may well ask you at some point to transform Sodor into something that Sir Nigel Gresley might have recognised.

All in good time - for now it's just the latest toy, and it will have to do battle with a whole galaxy of electronic and digital distractions.

IF it survives, then is the time to get more prototypical.

Regards, and good luck,
John Isherwood.
(Whose No.1 grandson now prefers digital amusements and cycling; and Nos. 2 & 3 grandsons show little interest in railways).