To get a train set at Christmas was once the highlight of a young lad’s childhood. At a recent visit to Willow Park School in Booterstown, where the Society of Model Railways were holding their Annual Exhibition, I spoke with Mr.Francis Kane of Haddington Road. Francis has a most impressive train set, which he has built up over the past twenty-five years.

He started off with a few pieces of track and he kept adding to it. One interesting point is that he always kept the original boxes which the pieces came in. This always stood to the retention of the value of the various parts that make up a model railway set.

His present layout is very large and it takes up an entire room of his home. It is laid on board and covered with different lines.

For example, in the centre of the layout he has a line which resembles the old trams used in Dublin not so long ago. All the different shops and stores, such as Clerys on O’Connell St. appear. At traffic lights he has miniature oil delivery trucks and motor cars, pedestrians and even miniature bicycles.

He buys all his material in Mark’s Models in Hawkins street, where one can acquire a set and then, if the bug bites, a little can be added every now and then.

In years past it would have been common for parents to give presents to their kids at Christmas time and the fathers themselves would take great pleasure in setting up the train sets.

It highlights, yet again, the way things have changed. Computer playstations seem to be the in-thing and then with, the arrival of Funderland in the R.D.S., kids do not seem to be interested in the more simple and enjoyable things such as a model trainset.

But for anyone who finds life boring it is never to late to start.