PLONK AND PLAY
Mark Nolan explains why your train collection should include a model village.
Bill, Bert and Ben are three model railway enthusiasts divided by a common interest. Bill is a talented model builder. Give him a craft knife, a shoe box, some scraps of plastic and a few weeks uninterrupted in his den and he will present you with a scale model of the Houses of Parliament, while apologising that he didn't have time to fit operating clock faces to Big Ben.
Bert is altogether more pragmatic. He doesn't have any inclination to muck around with paint and glue, yet he has a fully working railway system in his train room. True, most of it has been bought from proprietary manufacturers and simply joined up in situ by Bert. Bill would privately think of Bert as a ‘chequebook modeller', although he would never say so to his face, being an easy going soul and not wishing to cause offense.
Both of them are bemused by Ben. He is neither a modeller, nor an operator. Ben is in fact a new type of hybrid enthusiast; the collector. He loves trains as much as his two mates, but he is driven by a completely different agenda. Toys. Brands. Variations. Values. Ben grew up with used trains, bought cheaply in bulk, out of step with new products. Exchange and Mart. Second hand shops. Swapmeets. Auctions. By the time eBay hit, Ben was a walking price guide and collectables entrepreneur.
And if you asked Ben what the next collecting fad in toy trains was going to be, he might wink conspiratorially, tap his nose and mutter “Skaledale”.
BUILDING COLLECTABILITY
Toy train collecting is full of examples where model buildings have eclipsed the trains they were designed to accessorize. The large scale German tinplate buildings by Bing and Marklin in gauge 1 and O followed closely on the proto engines, rolling stock and track. These are now so expensive, they are beyond bread and butter collecting.
In 1963 the Tri-ang 'Modelland' series, previously known as Tri-ang Real Estate, started to build up a huge range of coloured plastic construction kits of houses, factories, shops and street furniture. Minic Motorways also developed similar models. Meanwhile Hornby-Dublo had gone from pre-War wooden buildings to post war metal buildings, culminating in their own distinctive plastic kits from 1958 onwards.
Dublo never had the extensive range of non-railway items which Tri-ang offered. But all these models were expensive to buy, and easily eclipsed by the trains which fascinated us all, so they did not sell particularly well. It is only with hindsight that these ranges, ancillary to the trains, have become very desirable for collectors. By 1965 the Modelland kits started to disappear from the catalogues. The Hornby Railways plastic snap together buildings with cellophane windows and printed detail which replaced them from the 1970s onwards were not as satisfying. They tend to snap apart easier than they snap together, and will never be collectable unless mint, sealed and unopened.
There was another obscure
range of latex rubber buildings from the 1960s called the Tri-ang Countryside Series. Comprising mostly bucolic subjects like oast houses, hay stacks, farm buildings and thatched cottages, they are popular despite a tendency to be cracked, warped or faded. Ironically, these are the real precursor to the resin model buildings we have today.
ENTER SKALEDALE
Hornby Skaledale launched in 2003 with only six items, including a church, a thatched cottage and a mock Tudor house. So far, so Midsomer Murders; they’d all been done before and the subjects were bordering on corny. But the game changer was that the resin could incorporate a high level of detail. Individual bricks and stone; separate windows, gutters and drain pipes. The textured slate roofs are particularly important in model terms as these are what you tend to see first when viewing a model building.
The range was immediately popular and increased the following year to include new domestic style buildings plus station and trackside buildings. The resin mouldings have a pleasing heft, and they’re not cheap, with prices ranging from £9-70.
An indication of the success of Skaledale is that the Hornby catalogues have become more ‘scenic’ over the last 20 years as the textured resin models take over from the earlier plastic buildings.
HORNBYSHIRE MAP
The Skaledale map appeared alongside the first announcement of the range in the 2003 Hornby catalogue. Not to be confused with Swaledale in the moors of the Cumbria-Yorkshire boundary, the Hornbyshire village naturally centres round Skaledale Station. The line continues under Brocklebank Bridge, while across the River Skale lies the Church of Saint Thomas, named in honour of the tank engine franchise which saved Hornby from bankruptcy in the 1980s. There’s a wood with the memorable name ‘Westwood’, and a farm called Smokey Joe Farm. The Pullman pub is another landmark which gives a nod to Hornby’s long history. Congratulations are due to whoever came up with the name ‘Skaledale’. It’s a cracker!
The map also features as the background to Skaledale packaging, which usually depicts four clear elevations of the model buildings in colour. The model pictures are often set in real landscapes including trees and fences, which heightens the authenticity.
PRODUCTION STRATEGY
Temporary moulds are used as they are cheap to make and have a short life. This ensures that there is no excess stock to dispose of and the range can keep developing. And completely by chance, this is the essence of collectable toys.
Models come sealed in a plastic bag inside an expanded polystyrene block which exactly fits inside the box and is internally shaped to fit each model. Smaller Skaledale items come in carded blister packs.
As ever, certain subjects will appeal to collectors more than others. Models now out of stock, such as the coal and ash plants will attract good prices, if not now, certainly in the future. Don’t underestimate the potential of walls, arches, platforms and other modular items which have proved to be highly sought after in previous iterations. Another subject to watch is the range of shops. Come to think of it, model shops have always had an enduring attraction in any form. Unfortunately for a modern Skaledale High Street, you would need more charity shops and closed down premises.
The Skaledale station and trackside buildings are often based on actual structures, in some cases adapted to suit manufacturing constraints. Some of the station pieces were inspired by Goathland on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Thomas and Friends had their own resin buildings including an engine shed which was ideal for industrial modellers as it was a rustic brick built shed with a tin corrugated roof.
Real modellers may deride Skaledale for being ‘plonk and play’, or encourage you to weather the models yourself to ‘add character’. Even the manufacturer suggests this. While weathering or adding a Banksy to your new structure may make you bond more with it, this will of course catastrophically devalue it as a collectable. If you do this, you might as well throw away the boxes while you’re at it. Or send them to me.
LYDDLE ENDS
Hornby produced scaled down versions of Skaledale for N gauge under the ‘Lyddle End’ banner. Most of the rail models were GWR style buildings made out of red sandstone. Lyddle End was discontinued in 2010.
Bachmann have their own range of resin buildings under the ‘Scenecraft’ name. These are believed to come from the same manufacturer as Skaledale, and they're certainly very compatible.
Oxford Rail is now an associate company of Hornby Hobbies, and they also have an ‘Oxford Structures’ range.
Airfix Buildings are like unpainted Skaledale, mainly ruins and european themed but still in the same scale. The battle damaged models are used for war dioramas.
PEAK COLLECTABILITY
To misquote the Immortal Bard; some toys are made collectable, some achieve collectability, and some have collectability thrust upon ‘em. According to Ben, Skaledale will reach peak collectability at 9am on 1st June 2023, which gives you plenty of time to get a collection going. It would be ironic if Hornby’s main contribution to 21st century collectable trains turned out to be, not the operating locos and rolling stock over which they’ve laboured so hard, but the resin buildings that provide their backdrop.