Small Train Coming

Nicky thinks small 28MAR21

s someone who lives and breathes that sooty smoke from old steam trains, it should have been a very difficult lockdown for Nicky Cox.

There’s no Easter Eggstravaganza jaunt down the Wicklow coast, no Santa Express to bring the kids back in time, no Halloween ghost trains along the Cliff Walk.

Still, where there’s a passion, there’s a way, and given that young Cox was set on his path to shovelling coal for the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland by the gift of a train set by granddad Hackett, well, there was something Nicky could do with all this spare time.

Return to his childhood kicks by building a ruddy great model railway that stretched beyond villages, mountains and lakes, all the way to the downstairs bathroom.

Naturally, we had to find out more…

How did the model railway start?
“I was four when I bought home that first train set, The Irish Freight, I immediately started thinking, how much more could it expand? I’ve had three different layout tables over the years. One about 2006, another in 2010, and now, the biggest and bravest has arrived. All this free time has proven to be dangerous – a train set is immortal! You can just keep expanding. And expanding.”

What sparked the interest in trains and railways?
“It started with Thomas the Tank Engine as a kid. As I grew older mum, used to bring me down to Greystones whenever the steam train was in town or sometimes just to see trains passing. Two of Greystones regular visitors feature on the layout – the ammonia train and the ballast trains that used to stop in Greystones on the South Beach siding.

“So, trains have always been on the mind. In my teens, I noticed that the stream trains weren’t stopping in Greystones all that much anymore, and so I decided to try and find out where they were, and who was looking after them. Turned out to be the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI), which is a voluntary society. I wanted to volunteer there and then but had to wait until I turned 18. Pretty much on the day, I signed up, and have loved doing it ever since.

Given that we’ve been in lockdown for 78 years, how comes the train set is only out now?
“With RPSI, college, then a job, and overall no space at the time, I had to put the train set away. But then Covid kicked it, and since I’m the type of person who needs something to do, it was only a matter of time before I got the trains out of storage. Before I knew it, a space had been cleared and a whole new layout plan was being drawn up.”

So, how has that layout plan been working out?
“I started putting it together in October and here we are in March and it’s still not finished! It’s a hobby that you can just keep going with, but it’s starting to take shape now. It’s split into 4 quarters; one side based on an Irish scene, one side based on a British scene, one side German and the last one just a generic scenic landscape of a river. Originally the Irish side was supposed to be a perfect model of Greystones, but I ran out of space. Greystones isn’t as small as you think, and the planning permission is pretty difficult too, unless you’re loaded. So, Greystones is the starting point, and there are small little details that locals would instantly recognise.

“The main thing is, putting this entire world together has kept me sane. At least, I think it has…”

You can find out more about the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland right here.