Early Railways A Modellers Guide will encourage and support the modelling of the earliest period of railway history, from the very beginnings of steam traction at the start of the nineteenth century, up to about 1880; a period which for British modellers has scarcely been covered in book form. Over these few decades the railways evolved from something, which at the start was markedly different, into a scene that any present-day railwayman would recognise.

It is a time with much to commend it from a modellers point of view. The trains were much shorter and therefore easier to fit into the limited space most of us have available as, correspondingly, were the station layouts, especially at the beginning of the period. Instead of at least 12 or 13 feet for a modern steam express, and a minimum curve radius of 6 feet, an 1840 express of a loco and a dozen carriages might be no more than about 6 feet long and, behind the scenes at least, can take curves of no more than 2 or 3 feet radius, as well as being able to instantly catch the eye of the viewer.