John Ryan's Express

The story behind one of the UK's largest O gauge model railway layouts.

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John Ryan's model railway at Over Peover, Cheshire is a story on continual development. He first became interested in model railways at the age of five when his father took him to see A4s, A2s and A1s hurtling through Doncaster railway station on the East Coast Main Line. At Christmas 1955, he acquired his first train set a Hornby-Dublo three-rail `Duchess of Montrose'. Other train sets were acquired and layouts constructed - all OO gauge - until the fascination for O gauge took control. This was in the early 1980s and when, a little later, success and finances became available all his OO gauge locomotives and rolling stock were sold or swapped for O gauge models and he began constructing one of the largest layouts of its type in the country.
The switch to O gauge coincided with his teaming up with Norman Solomon, an expert track-builder, who has been involved in the various stages of John's present enormous layout. Other people have supplied stations, goods sheds, coal
hoppers, viaducts etc.
John runs models of the locomotives he saw whilst a youngster in Doncaster during the 1950s and many are illustrated here. He also has a keen interest in the LNER locomotives built at Doncaster so that the layout can be operated in two periods - 1930s and 1950s.
Carriages and wagons also fall into these two periods. Some of John's most impressive carriages include the `Silver Jubilee', `Coronation' and Pullman sets.
Text within the book follows the development of model railways in Britain, Doncaster Plant Works' association with locomotive, carriage and wagon building, John's various railway layouts as well as touching upon his business interests.
Photographs in the book show in fine detail and from different angles all aspects of the layout to such an extent that the viewer almost believes they are part of a real railway.