Model Railway: Is It British Or Is It American?

You say potato (American pronunciation) and I say potato (British pronunciation)

. You say tomato (American pronunciation) and I say tomato (British pronunciation). The song points to an underlying confusion of two different ways to pronounce words or to use different words for the same meaning. In the world of the model, life like trains, American vocabulary and the British vocabulary merge to confuse the beginning hobbyists. Americans say model railroading while British say model railways.

American hobbyist have electric train sets on which they spend lots of dollars and time. The train sets including track and scenery are called layouts. The hobbyists, called model railroaders, may have layouts big enough to ride. The British equivalent is called railway modellers. The railroaders and railway modellers build and maintain models large enough to ride on, along with miniature layouts and railways to operate. Layouts and railways may be found in circles or ovals and with present day or historic places modeled to scale.

A British example, Pendon Museum, is located in Oxfordshire, UK where the Vale of White Horse in the 1930s is being modelled. One of the older scenic models, the Madder Valley layout, was built in the Pendon from the 1930s until the 1950s and heralded the apex of realistic modelling. John Ahern built the historic model and received accolades from both the Americans in Model Railroader and the British in Model Railway News. Buckinghamshire boasted the oldest model village, Bekonscot, and a model railway dating from the 1930s.

Not to be outdone, the Germans built the world's largest HO scale, Miniatur Wunderland, assembled in Hamburg, Germany. The Americans built the largest live steam layout in Chiloguin, Oregon, U.S. The 25 miles of track is called Train Mountain. If you are wondering who builds these railroad and railways, simple look to where hobbyist meet, the Railroad clubs. The U.K. hosts the oldest society, The Model Railway Club, established in 1910 near Kings Cross, London. The club not only builds railways, but has over 5,000 books and periodicals on trains.

At MIT, The Tech Model Railroad Club pioneered control of track switching using telephone relay. Another large archive is The Historical Model Railway Society at Butterley, near Ripley, Derbyshire. This club specializes in historical matters and shares the collection with members and non-members. Specialty clubs concentrate on scales and gauges that are larger. They most often use track gauges from 3.5 to 7.5 inches. They are usually hand-built and powered by live steam or diesel-hydraulics and carry human passengers to the delight of the visiting children.

Regardless of whether the railroad layout is in America or the model railway is in the U.K. the response is one of awe and excitement.

by: Charlotte Mathes

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