Inspirations 4: Charford.

About 20 years ago a friend turned out all his old RMs. I devoured them. This was a not quite complete collection going back to the 1950s and although much of the material didn't hold up to modern reading, there was much in the way of classic layouts tucked in the pages. The next couple of inspirations are from the 1960s batch.

The late John Charman built Charford over half a century without wavering, starting with a tiny terminus built in a caravan and culminating in an MRJ article in 1998 (100). What is the most inspiring part of this escapade is the commitment to the style, period and scale/gauge - late 40s Southern in OO - the Biltezzi factory building is there in the original articles and still there in the re-built layout in MRJ; a style of modelling that the exhibition circuit has ruined. Charman stands in the shade of the Reverend, which is a bit of a shame as Charford has just as much style and long-term development as BGC, it's just that Charman used just enough off the shelf equipment to make it look achievable. I may well return to this at another date.