Behind the Backscene
This month, Kevin Derrick is in the hot seat, where he recalls his first ‘Deltics’ and a very sweaty journey across India.
1. What is your earliest railway memory?
Travelling with my mother from King’s Cross to Newcastle, around 1962/63. I kicked up a real fuss, wanting to see the locomotive up front, which was most likely an ‘A1’ class ‘Pacific’. I was four at the time.
2. What is your most memorable train journey?
Delhi to Amritsar behind a mix of WP and WG ‘Pacifics’ in 1991, while filming Steam in the Punjab.
I was travelling alone with a lot of filming kit, it was very hot and the seats were just wooden slats.
3. How did you get into the hobby industry?
I started Railscene Videos in the mid-1980s, just before heading back to live in Australia. I thought this would be popular with my fellow ex-pat Poms, who I already knew via the West Australian branch of the Australian Model Railway Association (AMRA).
4. What did you do beforehand?
Taught gas engineering for British Gas in London, then started again in Australia, digging trenches and laying gas mains, before becoming a manager with a large supermarket chain. I also sold encyclopaedias door-todoor and worked in real estate, alongside making and selling railway videos, books and models in Australia. Then I moved into international financial services, before setting up Strathwood in the UK in 1999.
5. What hobbies do you have?
Classic cars, trams, gardening, football, Sixties and Seventies music. And beer. But not always in that order…
6. Have you ever built a model railway?
Yes, but they never seem to be completed. Like so many others, I’m easily swayed by different prototypes, areas and eras.
7. What model or craft projects are you most proud of?
I built a working steam traction engine from scratch in my final year at school. It would happily hiss and spit, leaving a trail of burning meths in its wake. I still have it.
8. Do you have a favourite railway station?
Probably King’s Cross, coming up from the Underground station to be met by several ‘Deltics’ on the bufferstops. My first one was D9021 Argyll & Sutherland Highlander which had only just pulled in, alongside D9018
Ballymoss.
9. If you could build your dream model, what would it be?
My next project is in ‘N’ gauge, to recreate an EX-GWR station inspired by the ex-signalman and author Adrian Vaughan. It’s loosely based on Uffington and Challow stations in the Vale of the White Horse, set around late 1967/early 1968.
10. Who is your hero?
Easy one in my eyes: Sir Winston Churchill.
11. Where do you find your inspiration?
I was travelling alone with a lot of filming kit, it was very hot and the seats were just wooden slats
Not a clue, just instinct it seems. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong.
12. What motivates you most in your job?
Bringing enjoyment to others. And paying the never-ending bills of course.
13. What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced?
Being divorced several times!
14. What has been the best decision you’ve ever made?
Giving up globe-trotting in financial services to enjoy watching my daughter growing up.
15. If you could change anything about the hobby, what would it be?
The negativity exhibited sometimes between different traders. And some modellers, with their ‘glass half empty’ viewpoint. Thankfully they’re a minority.
16. What was your big ambition as a child?
To be an engine driver, working on ‘Westerns’ based out of Old Oak Common. Sadly, my eyesight was always going to prevent this.
17. If you had a time machine, where would you go?
Most likely back to the 1960s, armed with the wisdom of later years, to enjoy and appreciate all that was still to come.
18. What’s your hidden talent?
If I told you, it wouldn’t be hidden! So I’ll plump for amateur dramatics, though certainly not singing!
19. Do you have any strange quirks that you’re prepared to share?
Nothing as bad as Jack Nicholson in any of his movies, or indeed Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory. In which case I would like to think of myself as Leonard Hoffsteader.
20. What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever had?
When investing in financial services, always leave something in it for the next person, otherwise you may never be able to sell the stocks you own before they fall in value once again.
21. How would you like to be remembered?
Fondly (fat chance of that).