One of the joys of looking at model railways for me (a non-railway modeller from a railway modelling family) are the landscaping, buildings, figures and scenics.
This includes the Peco backdrops of city, town, seaside, mountain and country.
The urban ones have little joke puns about the shop names or owners, much as model villages often do.
One example below is Tim Burr and son – carpenters or wood shop. Others may be people the Peco artist knew (the same thing was done in the original Airfix railway building range).
Can you spot any other pun names? The pub. The mineral water factory. The chippy.
The details shown are from two scenes from Peco:
Medium SK45 Old Industrial Town – Centre Sheet
Medium SK46 Old Industrial Town – Extensions.
These painted backscenes were done by Peco employee and artist Jack Whealdon in the 1960s and 1970s. He must be one of the most familiar, affordable and frequently purchased landscape painters in the world!
I use these country and city scenes as backdrops for displaying my figures, once painted …
My Salvation Army Life Saving Scouts and Guards (Guides)
… and as the backdrop to my tabletop games.
I like imagining the lives of the characters and the conversations going on between them. Characters chat outside the pub or across the road by the chippy. Washing blows on the line in the backyard. A rickety fence needs a bit of work. Here a woman leans from an upstairs window, maybe to chat to a man cleaning windows – a neighbour or a window cleaner?
This could be any Midlands or Northern Town, a little like Coronation Street on a sheet or two of backing paper.
Looking a little closer though, I noticed a different type of humour. Not shop name puns but a glimpse of a lady undressing with the windows open.
A cheeky touch of seaside postcard humour here , glimpsed by some of the sharper eyed model railway commuters as the train trundles by?
Cheeky Peco!
Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN, 30 August 2022
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