Nigel Stimpson

My interest in railways in general started at a very early age, largely influenced by where my family lived. I was born in Totnes, Devon, and our road ran alongside the Western Region main line to Plymouth. I can vividly remember evening sounds of banking engines whistling to their accompanying locomotives as they slogged up the rising bank towards Rattery in the west. My walk home from primary school usually coincided with the passing of the mid day Penzance to Manchester express which carried a TPO carriage. I would insist to my mother we had to wait and see the mail bag pickup. My first “train set” had to have a TPO so I could replicate the real thing! My grandparents lived in south London, on either side of Hither Green station, and visits between them seemed to always be greeted with the sound of either Bullied Pacific’s speeding to the Kent Coast, or the machine-gun like sound of arriving slam door EMU commuter trains echoing down the subway tunnels from the platforms above.

 

My current activities are shared with my family. My wife and I enjoy as many heritage railway visits and steam trips as we can fit into or busy retirement schedule. Our second date was to photograph Flying Scotsman when it came to the Torbay Steam Railway in the 1970’s, so she can’t say she didn’t know what she was letting herself in for! It’s Pullman Premier dining now though; we even managed the VSOE to Venice for our silver wedding anniversary, so being married to a Trainspotter does have its perks. I’m now striving to get the grandchildren interested, which does ensure I get the sort of birthday and Christmas presents required for their entertainment. One of my daughters-in-law found Hattons website all on her own!

 

My N Gauge experience started over twenty years ago when a work colleague introduced me to the West Sussex Area Group where we now live, and my eldest son and I began constructing and exhibiting our first layout then. I have since honed my modelling skills through the N Gauge Society competitions, culminating in winning the Society Supreme Trophy in 2005 and again in 2007. I model what I remember as a child, as the nostalgic element of railway modelling is what I find most fascinating. Being able to replicate in miniature the precise locomotive and rolling stock formations of the steam / diesel transition era of the 1950’s & 1960’s keeps those treasured memories alive. So you can imagine my delight to see Steve Wright’s article in the Society journal 5/17, and request for “Assistance Wanted” to operate a layout of this precise period.

 

I remember very clearly being taken to an exhibition at Central Hall Westminster by my father in the early 1960’s, when modelling was only done by pipe smoking middle aged gentlemen, with leather elbow patched sports jackets. I asked a question and was totally ignored, and I vowed then that if I was ever in that position I wouldn’t hesitate to speak to any member of the public who showed an interest in my lifelong passion. So please “ask away” when you come to visit "James Street"!

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My normal area of operation at exhibitions are the two inner tracks of the four track main line.

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I have continued to enter models in the NGS Annual Model Making competition, and was lucky enough to win two awards in 2018. I come won the Rolling Stock cup class E with a couple of NGS Loriots and loads, and came runner-up in the Modified loco body class B1 with a detailed Dapol Manor.

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