About the collection: Redmond has a total of 516 model trains, most of which are steam trains. His trains run on the `OO' gauge, a scale of 4 mm to the foot. He has model trains from the four private railway companies in the UK that existed before nationalisation in 1948: LMS (London-Midland-Scottish), LNER (London North Eastern Railway), GWR (Great Western Railway), SR (Southern Railway). He also has models from British Rail, as well as models of French, Swiss, German, American and Canadian trains.

He has model engines from every different class, including passenger, shunter, freight, mixed traffic, both main and branch line trains. He has models of most of the famous UK and European trains as well as models of some of the most recently built trains, including an ultra modern Swiss train with an overhead pantograph. A favourite is his model of the Orient Express, which first operated in 1883 from Paris through Strasbourg, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, and Giurgiu. The final leg of the journey was by boat from Varna to Constantinople. The Golden Arrow trains started in 1929 to match the French Fleche d'Or service which had started in 1926 to run between Paris and Calais.

"The significance is that my wife Gill and I took the Orient Express from Victoria Station to Venice in 1986. It was delightful. Last month (October), we took the Eastern and Oriental Express from Bangkok to Singapore.'' Another favourite is his model of a Jubilee Class engine, named Bermuda, which was owned by LMS. This class of engine were named after islands which also included Bahamas, Trinidad, Tobago, and others. The original Bermuda, which was a main line passenger train, was built in the mid 1930s and ran until the early 1960s. Redmond bought the model at an auction at Christie's in the early 1980s for 110.

He also has a model of the GWR-owned City of Truro, which was originally built in 1903. His model was built by hand by a friend in the UK who won an award for the detail on the model. It has real coal, copper-coloured piping, a water gauge, pressure gauge, firebox, control level, and has a driver and a fireman.

The collection also includes the LNER-owned Mallard, which held the world steam record for steam, and his oldest model, made by Triang in 1952, is of a 2-6-2 mixed traffic tank locomotive. It actually puffs smoke as it moves around Redmond's railway track. Triang was eventually bought out by another toy company called Hornby.

Redmond also has the model of the LNER-owned Flying Scotsman, originally built in 1929; the 4-6-4 Royal Hudson, which the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh took across Canada; and the Princess Coronation Class 4-6-2 Queen Mary built at Crewe in 1937. The class was named in honour of the coronation of King George IV in 1936. He also has a model of the Evening Star, which ran between London and Scotland and which, in 1960, was the last steam locomotivebuilt by British Rail.

The collection also includes a turntables with engine sheds, breakdown cranes, a station platform with a canopy, lamposts, telephone poles, signals, goods yard cranes, and water towers where engines would stop for water refills.

Redmond has laid a 60-foot double oval train track and built a landscape with hillsides and tunnels around the perimeter of a separate room in the basement of his Smith's Parish home. He spends as much time as he can spare working with his trains, but adds, "I have a long way to go with the layout. I've tended to get more into the collection side, but it is my intention to finish the layout.'' How it started: Redmond started his own collection in 1971. He developed an interest in model trains as a boy, when his father was collecting O gauge model trains. "A year after my first son was born in 1970, we went to England and took a train to Liverpool from London. I think being around a train again, the heat and the atmosphere, the power these things have ... It fascinated me again. It got me thinking about trains again.'' He is also a member of a railway book club in the UK which puts out new books four times each year and his collection of train books is now almost as large as his collection of model trains. Most of his trains are bought by mail order although he sometimes buys them at auction in England. He buys about 20 new trains each year, and now has a computerised listing of most of his trains. In addition, he is a part owner of several preserved full-size steam locomotives in the UK.

Value: "It's just a total interest in model railways ... a fascination for the realism and the detail that can be produced,'' he says. PHOTO Top left, GWR-owned City of Truro, originally built in 1903; above, LNER-owned Flying Scotsman, orginally built in 1929; below the Rocker, the first passenger train, built in 1829. Left, French Fleche d'Or (Golden Arrow) train, which stated running between Paris and Calais in 1926; below, modern Swiss train.

Left, Coronation class Queen Mary; below from left, LMS-owned Jubilee Class engine called Bermuda, and the French and British Pullman coaches of the Orient Express.

NOVEMBER 1993 RG MAGAZINE