Garden Railway Forum

I like having a back-story, or "unhistory" as the guys responsible for the alternative railway history of Lincolnshire call it. A bit of background gives depth, I think, and reasons why things are the way they are. I found it tremendous fun making up a plausible railway out of nothing, aided only by a wants list and some OS contour maps. How about you?

You might care to take a look at: http://www.mdlr.co.uk/history.html...................

MDLR:52563 wrote:You might care to take a look at: http://www.mdlr.co.uk/history.html...................

I have, thanks, and thorougly enjoyed it. I have been out on photographic surveys of my imagined routes too- a fascinating exercise though done on print film- the pictures lurk unlabelled somewhere but I lost the notes & should probably repeat the exercise with a digicam.

I'm rather taken with your idea of modelling the same railway in different scales. Maybe some urban or industrial scenes on the LRJA that wouldn't work in the garden could be modelled indoors in 009. Hmmm....

I quite agree, I think it does give a real sense of 'place' if the railway has its own story or 'unhistory'. We certainly decided on the MPLR's unhistory as it was being built. Or should I say developed as we never set out to make a railway originally, it was just a line that we ran one rather sad kit-bashed (because we couldn't make the kit properly) IP Engineering Simplex caravan. Check out the history at http://www.mplr.co.uk/history/

Actually I find the history part of the railway websites most interesting!

The problem I've found with the W&LLR history, is that I'm forever updating it as "new" revelations come to light!
(ie I come up with yet another excuse for why something is the way it is!)

Hopefully I'll have The Definitive version ready for publication by "Mad Duck" before the summer hols

My history helps define the railway. It's almost plauseable and a gives a direction to build on. To have a past is to have a context.

I had great fun writing the history of the MVR - in fact, I got a little bit carried away...

http://www.freewebs.com/mvr/routehistory.htm

The trouble is, if you want your history to help make your railway more prototypical, you really need to write the history first. We built the railway first and then wrote the history to provide extremely unlikely explanations for everything that's unprototypical about it! (E.g. a circular route and a 3' gauge Russell!)

But I'm no rivet counter, and as far as I'm concerned the history, like the railway itself, is only a bit of fun.

Also the same here. Line built & then some excuse why added later. Plus also tried to write in why the CVLR has such a diverse loading gauge.....

My attempt can be read here.... http://cvlr.webs.com/


Just found it fun & quite nice to have a reason why & to add a bit of depth about it. Makes me feel like it has history anyway.

Thats easy. Its a private preservation society that once had a rich benefactor and tries to have examples of important rolling stock from across the world.

I have a history... http://mhlr.webs.com/history.htm
Also messed about with Photoshop a bit, so went slightly over the top with mine

mhlr:52625 wrote:I have a history... http://mhlr.webs.com/history.htm
Also messed about with Photoshop a bit, so went slightly over the top with mine  :?  

Not at all. I love it! Those b&w "historic photographs" are superb! I must do something like that for our website when we get the round tuit delivered (or more likely bribe Peachbottom to do it, since she's the resident computer whizz).

TommyDodd:52749 wrote:

mhlr:52625 wrote:I have a history... http://mhlr.webs.com/history.htm
Also messed about with Photoshop a bit, so went slightly over the top with mine  :?  

Not at all. I love it! Those b&w "historic photographs" are superb! I must do something like that for our website when we get the round tuit delivered (or more likely bribe Peachbottom to do it, since she's the resident computer whizz).

I offered to register a domain for you....

Oh, and I voted for ticky box. Ticky boxes need love, too!

first option

Jeez, here we go again... LALALALALALALALALALALALALALA

I'll have a pint of what he's on!

(and I only popped on here to say that my "mystory" is now on my largely out of date but soon to be updated website!! )