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ABOUT ME
My name is Philip Knife and I now live in Perth, in Western Australia. I retired a few years ago from a full-time ministry in the Anglican Church, serving the communities of Karratha and Dampier in the north west of Western Australia. Now I'm enjoying the fruits of retirement, especially with my beloved hobby of building model railways.
For most of my adult life I have been absorbed by this most wonderful hobby. Now well into my seventh decade, in the past I have modelled the British prototype, although I have lived in Australia for most of my life. I did divert for ten years or so into Swiss metre gauge modelling in HO scale, and I love railroading American style - so much so that I am currently building a new home layout in HO depicting the Southern Pacific in southern California, complete with the SP narrow gauge. But since I moved to Western Australia more than ten years ago, I have discovered the fascination of the local 3'6" gauge prototype. So now I build models of Western Australian prototype in S scale as well. I suppose I'm one of the ranks of finescale modellers, and now prefer to build my models from kits or scratch rather than buy them. My hope is that this web site of mine will serve as a useful resource for other like-minded people.
Thank you for visiting my pages, and don't forget to let me know what you think. If you'd like to know a bit more about me, then read on ...
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K10 on Passenger Train en route for Abbotsbury |
1P with branch passenger train at West
Lydford |
One day I was asked the question, "What have model railways meant for you?" Now that's a question I find hard to answer in just a few words! But if you've ever wondered how some gentle idiot can stick with the same hobby for over fifty years and can sympathise with him, then read on.
In a nutshell, I can truthfully say that my hobby has meant the world for me, and on many occasions has protected me from nervous breakdown, permanent mental illness and perhaps even alcoholism. I have made firm friends for life with many people through model railways, have found a warm welcome from people all over the world, and have never lacked for something to do or something to read. And I'm still married to the same wonderful woman after more than forty-six years! So yes, the hobby of model railways has been the backbone of my existence for a very long time. Perhaps I'd better explain how this came about.
I was first attracted to modelling railways by a school friend in 1950. He had a Hornby O-Gauge clockwork train set, and a father who worked for Victorian Railways as a train controller (my misspent boyhood and youth was in Melbourne). Of course, I caught the bug from him and pestered my parents until they gave me a Hornby O-Gauge Tank Goods Set for my eleventh birthday that year. Through Christmas and birthdays, by the end of the following year I had a sizeable layout that grew on the lounge room floor whenever my mother would let me set it up. And it was in that same year that I first exhibited a layout - my friend and I set up our combined train sets at the local church fete! (See photo below) But my friend - his name was Trevor - convinced me that real trains didn't run in circles, but they ran from point to point according to a timetable. And so began my life-long interest in realistic layout design and operation.
Also, as an impecunious (that means penniless!) schoolboy, my financial resources for railway acquisition and expansion were almost nil. I know that my long-suffering parents used to make sacrifices and lay-by items for me for birthdays etc, but Hornby models were not cheap by the standards of the day. I used to regularly visit those modellers' meccas in Melbourne, the Model Dockyard and Meadmore Models, both sadly long gone, and drool over the beautiful models in their showcases. But in those days, model shops were real model shops, and carried a huge range of scratch-building parts, because that's what nearly every serious modeller did. So, at the age of twelve, I started scratch-building: in O-Gauge in cardboard. I had plenty of inspiration: the books of Edward Beal were in the library, and I read and re-read P R Wickham's A Book of Model Railways a hundred times (and I still have that book!). I drooled over articles on John Ahearn's Madder Valley, P D Hancock's Craig and Mertenford, and especially John Allen's masterpiece Gorre and Daphetid. They were such realistic layouts, and that was the standard I set out to achieve.
Well, my first attempts were certainly not in that sort of league! But I scratch-built rolling stock and locomotives, the latter freelance designs to fit Hornby clockwork mechanisms. A couple of years later I decided that OO Gauge was far more realistic, so the Hornby clockwork went for a song (what would it be worth today?), and I bought a Hornby-Dublo tank loco and a Triang Jinty converted to three-rail. When I left home to join the Navy in 1955, I had built a three-rail OO layout round three walls of my bedroom. Apart from the locos and one coach, the whole thing was built from scratch. All the track was brass - the shop called it "scale rail", but it was really meant for O Gauge! - and I hand-laid the lot, including making the turnouts. It even worked, much to everyone's surprise. Unfortunately, I have very few photographic reminders of those early days, so I can only go on memory. But the whole thing set me on a course which I have followed more or less single-mindedly for the rest of my life. The principles I adopted then for my models and layouts still govern my hobby today. And I was launched onto a hobby which was to be a lifetime interest and enjoyment.
The next phase was in some ways not quite so happy, hobby-wise. Training to be a naval officer was filling up all the spaces in my life, and then they sent me to England! This should have been heaven for an aspiring railway modeller, especially as I was living at Dartmouth in the West Country for a year and a half. But I discovered that the world was bigger than the navy, and it was full of adventure, and pubs and girls ..... I took hardly any photos, hardly noticed any trains, and yet it was 1957/58, and pre-Beeching, and lots of steam trains, and ..... An enormous missed opportunity, I suppose. Yet I met Kathy over there, and we were married at the end of 1960. The next phase was about to begin .....
It was a chance encounter one day, not long after Kathy and I were married. I had come home after an extended trip away in my ship, when I picked up a copy of Railway Modeller from a shop in Sydney. Marvelling at the delights of the so very realistic layout that was featured, the old happy memories came flooding back. I began to plan my super layout! At about this time we moved into a navy married quarter, a two-bedroom flat in Marrickville, in Sydney. It was pretty basic but, after a year or so, I had a layout built that lived in the lounge room. And Kathy has many a tale to tell about this rude awakening she had to the hobby of model railways! I devoured the writings of John Charman and Peter Denny, marvelling at the wonderfully realistic layouts they had built. Mac Pyrke and David Jenkinson also featured at that time, so I was quite convinced about the sort of model railway I wanted to build. I also started to meet some local modellers, and so began some friendships that have lasted a lifetime.
And then in 1966 the navy sent me back to England for a year. My family came too, of course, and we lived in Portsmouth on the south coast. That year we devoured all the railway atmosphere we could. At least the Southern Railway main line was still all steam, although Beeching et al had already decimated the rest of Britain's railways. Even my four year-old daughter was a keen train spotter, and helped me keep a record of the numbers of the locos we saw. That year in England was a real turning point for my hobby. I was able to meet at first hand those people whose writings I had studied and see their layouts for myself. It was there that my Abbotsbury Southern theme was developed, resulting in three layouts being built on that theme. And it really set me on the path of what people now call fine scale modelling.
But then back to Australia, and back to sea again. I never did any modelling when I was away at sea, usually being too busy and not really having the opportunities. But I would often plan things to be done during the next spell ashore. Out of that came my first Abbotsbury layout and, when it was published in Railway Modeller in July 1970 I was just so chuffed! There have been many articles since, but I am still so very proud of my very first effort! And then the navy sent me to America for two years, and we lived in a lovely big house in San Diego. There began my love for American railroading, which still persists, and my membership of the NMRA. I learnt a lot from the Americans, especially on the scenery side of things, and built my second Abbotsbury layout in that two years.
Eventually we ended up in Canberra, and there the third - and probably the best - Abbotsbury Southern layout was built. Again it was in the lounge room - aren't I blessed with a loving and tolerant wife! Mind you, I wouldn't want to claim that the hobby of model railways holds our marriage together, but as something that keeps me occupied and at home I think it has certainly helped. And my wife is not as disinterested in my hobby as she might say. From Canberra we moved to the remote North West of WA for a couple of years and there, while layout-less, I scratch-built a small fleet of locomotives in O Gauge.
That was going to be my new direction,
but I became disenchanted with the larger scale, mostly due to
limitations of space, and so returned to OO modelling. From that
resulted my exercise in the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, the layout I
called Somersetshire Midland. That particular layout, and
its EM rebuild, was the most successful layout I have built as
far as exhibitions and awards are concerned, and it did give me
enormous pleasure in the years that I had it.
It was at about this time that moves were being made to establish an Australasian Region of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA for short). I had joined the NMRA during my couple of years living in America and, when John Saxon asked me to join his team as founding secretary of the Region, I was glad to be part of it. My involvement in NMRA affairs grew, and soon I was deeply enmeshed in the challenges of the Achievement Program. With the encouragement of others, I was able to proceed through this program, eventually being awarded Master Model Railroader. I was the first in Australia, and I hope that my early efforts were an encouragement to others that being an MMR wasn't an exclusive American prerogative. There are now many more of us in this country, which says heaps for the effectiveness of the Australasian Region. And, if I helped encourage others, then I'm very happy. My membership of the NMRA (I am a life member) and the Region continues, although now my present location precludes me attending conventions and functions on a regular basis.
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(Photo by Phil Knife) |
About fifteen years or so ago I began to tire of the same old formula. Having retired from the navy and seeking other avenues of employment, I sold the British layout, disposed of most of the stock, and went hook line and sinker into modelling Swiss metre-gauge. The layout I built evolved through two major rebuilds, becoming the Scaletta Railway on the Sydney exhibition circuit. It, too, gave me a lot of pleasure, and brought me into a whole new group of friends (what a marvellous hobby this is for fellowship!) Now that has gone, and I live in a different part of Australia and am changing my modelling scale once more. But, most importantly, my enthusiasm and enjoyment level is as high as it ever was.
So, if you've read this far in this rambling reminiscence, you may be able to grasp what it is that my hobby of model railways has meant to me for more than fifty years. The important thing is that I am enjoying my hobby as much now as I ever have. In those years I have built many layouts, I have changed my scale, gauge and prototype, have probably spent far too much money on it all, but I have never tired of it. Right now I have projects going that will keep me busy for a number of years. But now I am retired, I have much to look forward to! I have a new layout to build and, with a hobby like model railways, I know that I will have plenty to do, and lots to keep me enthused, until I am no longer able to turn the knob of a controller, or pick up a soldering iron. In the meantime, there is much to be done on the new layout!
Phil Knife
Last Updated 17/9/07
