ROCKET RAILWAYS
Chris Gadsby visits Rocket Railways, which has taken a novel approach to selling – and recycling – second-hand modelling items.
Traditionally, railway modelling is not great when it comes to recycling. Sure, we use bits of discarded card and paper, but think of all the single-use cotton buds for weathering or the paints that go off because you haven’t used the whole pot and then forgot to put the lid on properly. And what about the old buildings that you made again, but better, and the scatter material that you kept for use one day’ but then never did? Well, there’s one model shop that has taken the initiative to change all that, and has grown to become one of the market leaders in second-hand model railway products.
On a cold and wet Friday morning, we visited the Rocket Railways shop in Coalville and met with managing director Jason Thickpenny, who explained why he started the business.
“I saw a gap in the market. I don’t take myself too seriously, and wanted to create a shop that felt a bit more welcoming.
I then discovered there were lots of people like me, who ran whatever they fancied and weren’t bothered about realism and taking it too seriously.”
But what makes Rocket Railways stand out from the crowd? According to Jason, it’s the commitment to recycling and getting the most out of everything that passes through the shop doors.
“It can be quite a wasteful hobby and we wanted to change that, so we founded Rocket Railways Reclaimed last year. The idea is that rather than picking and choosing the products we want to buy from you, that are going to make us the most money from a re-sale, we’ll buy everything you have and then assess whether it’s something we can
sell directly, put into one of our top-selling Mystery Boxes or be given away at one of our recycling days. We believe that everything has a use to somebody, so even the smallest item can be reused.”
As we chat in the ‘Reclaimed Room’, it’s hard for the eyes not to wander to the shelves of models, buildings and scenic materials and let the imagination flow with ideas of how you could use it all in a layout. It’s not just reselling old products though, as Jason and his team are also using old railway items to make entirely new products.
“We have a decent number of old controllers that don’t suit the modern motors in models, but rather than just throwing them into landfill we’re turning them into desk lamps, using the speed controller as a dimmer. We believe everything can have a second home and be reused, no matter the condition. Even something that doesn’t have any commercial value (such as an 80%-used grass mat Jason showed us that was there that day) can be given away on one of our recycling days. Somebody will have a use for it filling a gap in a corner of their layout.”
MYSTERY BOXES
The Mystery Box has quickly become Rocket Railways’ best-selling item, so to see what makes it so popular, we decided to get one. Retailing for £8, the box contains a random assortment of items that can be used on your model railway.
“Even I don’t know what’s in them as I don’t pack the boxes!” Jason tells us as we eagerly await to see what arrives in the post for our mystery box. You can see what we do with our items on the following pages.