Steven Pilling, who lives on Well Lane, runs a model railway business from home that is almost unique in the world: his model railway layouts come in a suitcase.
He’s been operating Mountain Lake Model Railways since 2008, having seen it grow from a childhood hobby in the 1960s.
A typical Hornby 00 train setting can fill a room. However, when Steven returned to the hobby in the 1980s, he began working with N gauge and then the even smaller Z gauge.
However, it wasn’t until 2008 that he began selling small scenes for model railways on eBay. Having had success with these, he made his first Z gauge layout in a small toolbox. This was a simple oval with scenery and a back scene. This sold fairly quickly, so he developed more complex pieces in small cases which also sold well, leading to his first commission at the end of 2008.
In 2009, he launched Mountain Lake Model Railways as a business. As Steven says: ‘The central concept remains to produce small layouts in cases, which are both protected, easy to store and portable, enabling them to be shipped anywhere in the world, though larger pieces have been produced for customers. My aim is to work with people to bring the model railway scene of their dreams to reality.’
To find out more and see further images of Steven’s creations, visit his website www.mountainlakemodelrailways.com
