Trackside Nostalgia

After seeing Robs gorgeous depot model, I was reminded of some shots I took years ago of similar kit based buildings - probably Heller brand. My dad built me a layout one christmas for my Matchbox Motorway and put some of the buildings on the diorama. Years later, I bought a joblot of models on Ebay, which included one or two that I had, including the semi with the greenhouses and the Cafe Rose.

I took the individual buildings and paired them with tiny models from the Kinder Egg selection, of continental vehicles such as bubblecars.

One or two were used with Kellogs snap together kits from the sixties too. 

The little Esso Service Station is a wooden kit, rather than the usual plastic.

The figures are smaller than the usual 00/HO size and come from Galoob Micro Machine playsets and are just under a centimetre in height, but sit better with the cars.

The inspiration and nostalgia for these models comes from the old Triang-Hornby Railway catalogues from the sixties, which always had wonderful photographs of lavish layouts of railways and roadways, with huge amounts of detail packed in to a small space.

I always wanted a layout like these, but somehow it never materialised, as I never had enough space to build something of any size. Still its fun to get out a model or two and make a small temporary tableau on the kitchen worktop now and again!