Graeme Gulley is the owner of Graeme’s Trains and Models, having been a collector for over half a century. He spoke to TOM OGG about the timeless appeal of toy train sets
LET’S face it, there aren’t many men who don’t secretly wish they had a model train set in their home.
Oh, some may claim otherwise, but you can all but guarantee that any given male – be he child, teenager or adult – would be overjoyed were he ever to arrive home to discover a Hornby locomotive rocketing around his living room on its miniature tracks.
This would go some way to explaining why, in this day and age of online shopping and struggling high street chains, a small, niche, independent shop like Graeme’s Trains and Models continues to thrive.
Owned and run by dedicated model train enthusiast Graeme Gulley, the specialist St Helier store is a real labour of love for the 78-year-old Islander, who is as passionate about his hobby today as he was when he first began constructing models as a child in the 1950s.
“I’d had the little shop next door for about a year beforehand, which my wife and eldest daughter used to help run,” says Graeme, chatting in-between serving customers at the Parade-based shop.
“Then I moved into here when it became available in April 2009. My eldest daughter turned the next-door shop into a florists, but when she put flowers outside to attract customers, they started charging her rates for having flowers in the Parade. Can you believe it?”
Thankfully, Graeme has had no such problems with Graeme’s Trains and Models. Originally, the father-of-six sold only second-hand items from his own extensive private collection, which he has built up over more than half a century of dedicated collecting. But then a chance encounter with a representative from Hornby Railways – still the most popular producer of model collectibles in the UK – led to him expanding his range.
“He had just been to visit John Testori at Bambola and had noticed my shop and decided to call in,” recalls Graeme. “He said: ‘You’ve got a nice shop here, but the trouble is you’re too close to John’s shop’. Hornby like the stores that sell their products to be a certain distance away from one another, you see. I said to him: ‘This is Jersey – everyone is close to each other over here!’
“Anyway, he spoke to his boss in the UK and they emailed me and suggested I contact AB Gee, which is the number one toy wholesaler in the UK. I’ve been with them ever since.”
Today, Graeme stocks everything from radio-controlled tanks and boats to fire engines and fork-lift trucks.
“The only thing I don’t generally order is cars because I always get people saying ‘oh, it’s the wrong colour’ or ‘it’s the wrong model’,’ he laughs.
Although the business is unlikely to make Graeme a multi-millionaire anytime soon (“It’s not a trade to be in if you’re wanting to make a huge profit”), sales are healthy enough to ensure Graeme’s Trains and Models has remained up and running while his UK counterparts have fallen by the wayside.
“I get a lot of people coming in from the UK and they tell me they can hardly find model shops over there now. They’re all closing down because the internet has taken over.”
For Graeme, the internet is something of a mixed blessing.
“I won’t deny it can be a problem for me. Often, the internet offers free postage, whereas it costs me an arm and a leg to get stuff over to the Island. People can get things over the internet cheaper than I can get them sent over from the wholesaler.”
But of course, buying products online has its own share of pitfalls, not least when purchasing such delicate items as model trains and other miniature collectibles.
“Before I had the shop I used to sell things on the internet,” he says. “Well, someone bought a model train from me and I sent it over to them – and they sent it back! The coupling [the mechanism used to link train carriages together] had come unhooked in the post and they thought it was damaged. So I quickly lost my faith in the internet.”
The internet is also unable to give buyers the sort of personal service that Graeme offers in his shop. As he says, when a customer calls into Graeme’s Trains and Models they are able to feel and examine items before handing over their hard-earned cash, while Graeme is always on hand to provide several decades’ worth of expert help and advice.
“And if someone has a problem with their own models, I can fix them,” he says. “The layouts in the shop are ideal because I can get trains onto the tracks and get ’em running.”
The layouts in question are Graeme’s self-made model railway displays that feature intricately designed over-lapping tracking, multiple trains and dozens of beautifully detailed miniatures.
“It saves me making them in the garden shed or the loft,” he laughs. “The main layout probably cost me about £1,500, but it’s not about the money – it’s the pure pleasure of doing it. A layout is never really finished – you’re always working on it.
“It takes a lot more skill than people realise to put together a quality layout. It requires electrical skills, carpentry, design, and technical drawing is a major aspect. My advice to newcomers is always to find out what size board you’re going to be using for your layout before you buy anything. You need to know what scale you have to play with.
“I get all kinds of ages in the shop,” he continues. “Lots of youngsters come in with their mums or dads to watch the trains. I first got interested at that age so it’s always nice to see how excited they get.”
As any model railway aficionados will surely know, collecting trains can be quite an expensive hobby. However, as the majority of what Graeme sells is taken from his own private collection, his prices are considerably more affordable than most other model railway stockists.
“If you were buying brand new, you’d be looking at around £179.99 just for this single engine,” he says, indicating towards the model train weaving its way around the track beside us.
Thanks to decades of collecting, Graeme has more than a few rarities to catch the eye of enthusiasts, such as a never-been-used model of the Evening Star, which was the last train British Rail ever built, and several surprisingly heavy items by Solido, who Graeme describes as “the French equivalent of Dinky Toys”. In addition, he also owns a diesel train that is powered by a lawnmower engine!
Perhaps the most impressive item in Graeme’s collection, however, is his Tri-Ang railway set, which he bought in the 1960s and which is big enough for children – and even the occasional young-at-heart adult – to sit inside as it wends its way along its large-scale tracks.
“It’s in storage now – it was too big to fit in my loft,” he laughs. “I used to take it around schools and fetes and so on. It takes about three hours to put together, much like a regular model train set, and it’s got an original engine, which was taken from the train that used to run in the People’s Park.”
As with most model railway devotees, Graeme’s enthusiasm for locomotives extends to the real thing.
“Whenever I go to the UK, I always like to ride on trains. A real highlight for me was riding along the Watercress Line on the Franklin D Roosevelt [an authentic steam train in Hampshire]. I’d met the driver beforehand and he’d said to me: ‘I’ll get you on the footplate’ [the crew’s platform in the cab of a locomotive]. I arrived at the station and, sure enough, the train pulled in and there he was. That was a very special experience, although the heat on the footplate was unbelievable.”
Born and raised in St Saviour, Graeme’s parents were caretakers who worked in States buildings during the Occupation. It was as an inquisitive six-year-old that Graeme first developed an interest in model-making.
“I’d build Airfix plastic models in my bedroom – or Kitmaster as they’re called now. When I was about 15, I was working at the cycle shop on Sand Street, and as soon as I’d get my wage packet I’d head down to Red Triangle Stores to buy some model-making kit. It was run by John Farley back then and he really knew his stuff, bless his heart.
“Anyway, eventually John said to me: ‘Look, why don’t you work here? You can look after the railways at the shop.’ So I ended up working there.”
In the 1960s, Graeme trained as an engineering apprentice with Jersey Airlines “but I’d definitely caught the bug from John. I knew I’d love to have my own model railway shop.”
It may have taken a few years, but Graeme’s wish eventually came true and, today, his evident pride in both the shop and his vast model collection is plain to see.
“It keeps me busy in retirement,” he says. “It keeps me mobile and it keeps my brain active. And as long as I can pay the rent and put food on the table, then I’m happy.”
*Graeme’s Trains and Models is located at 10 Parade Arcade in St Helier
