When I look at a painting, the last thing I want to see is an exact re-location of real life: I want something of the artist to show through, and to be able to try to understand what the artist is showing me. I am happy to accept that this is a painting. I don’t expect it not to be. When I look at a good photograph, I know that what I am shown is dependent on the viewpoint (literally) of the photographer and the lenses used, and that is part of the appreciation. I don’t attend live music expecting to hear what was recorded in the studio, and I know that the play is an artifice.

When I look at an individual model, I personally look for a fairly authentic replication of the real thing, to within a certain (hopefully specified) tolerance of real dimensions, with believable colour rendition and clean workmanship. When I look at a layout, however, precise replication of the real place can be problematic, and sometimes frankly boring, so I look more for the interpretation of the scene, the composition of the model, and the consistency of the craft used: items like track clearances stand out to me, but I can cope with (say) 1:8 turnouts in place of 1:10, as they often look sharper in real life due to seeing track from just a few feet above ground level.

My models use electricity to run them, not steam. I have to manually couple and couple them, and I don’t tighten the shackles on screw-links. I could use auto couplers, but the real thing didn’t – even knuckle couplers need lining up manually – except on some multiple unit stock, which I don’t model.I can’t do anything about the periodicity of loose couplings swinging, as that is down to their length and has nothing to do with mass, and so on.

In short, it’s a model. I know that. I don’t mind that. I just want it to be vaguely recognisable as something prototypical and which reflects the effort that went into its creation to make it as un “toy-like” as possible.

And yes, when I see train set track nailed to a piece of plywood, which has been painted grey to represent ballast, playing host to unmodified ready to run trains, rushing past plastic train set buildings and through dyed sawdust fields, I generally take the view that not much effort went into creating it, and pass by before I start to feel insulted.