E-xtremely good models

Although I enjoy anything that runs on rails, mostly I collect what are called 'toy trains'.  These are really only representations of real trains, they don't in any way pretend to be accurate models.  Sometimes though, I am tempted to dabble in the scale model branch of the hobby, and my latest acquisition is firmly in this category.  As a kid growing up in Melbourne in the 60's, naturally I tried to make my model railway represent what I saw around me, which was Victorian Railways.  There was almost nothing available commercially then for VR modellers, and my attempts to modify American or British rolling stock were crude in the extreme.  There is no way that I could've dreamt that there would eventually be absolutely superb models of VR (or NSW) prototype trains available, at relatively affordable prices.


So the latest box of goodies in the mail is a set of E passenger coaches from Auscision Models. These are absolutely superb!!  I haven't run them yet, or even photographed them, but have had a really good look at them, and I think they're great!!  I rode in the real ones a few times as a kid, heading out into country Victoria, and remember them with great nostalgia.



This is the set that I bought, plus a blue version of the baggage/guards carriage.  They're the early paint scheme, current up to about 1954.  The blue Van is the later period, from about 1954 to 1963, which I remember very clearly.



I hope to build a Victorian Railways themed layout one day at Whistlestop to display the various VR items that I've collected, which now amount to quite a reasonable number.  I have some really interesting ideas for the building already, but there are a few other priorities first! And yes, there will be plaster mountains and trees! (the most common question when talking about toy trains!!)


While I will never be a scale model railroader as such, I really like these models for the nostalgia and sense of history that they bring with them.  Like many people, I wish I'd paid more attention to the scene around me as I grew up, now long gone.  Models like this, and accurate scenic layouts to run them on, can really evoke that era though, and that is what I hope to achieve one day, with this particular section of Whistlestop.


Now for a request to the Aussie manufacturers.  Can you please produce a suburban Tait set- the Red Rattlers that I so fondly remember from my school days!!