Last night I had the real privilege of meeting a hero, they, (whoever ‘they’ are), say you should never meet your hero’s for fear of disappointment, but this was a real pleasure.
Buckingham EM gauge
The hero wasn’t a person, but a layout, Peter Denny’s Buckingham. The layout now in the custodianship of Tony Gee is being restored to working order, and from ‘playing trains’ last night its well on its way. Tony has written some of the story in the first edition of FRMR http://albionyard/thirty/ but when you see the challenge that Tony and his team of friends has overcome, it makes it all the more remarkable. Buckingham is unusual in that it portrays a railway, rather than as most UK layouts a station or single location served by fiddleyards or staging areas. This means that when playing trains, a train actually goes somewhere and does something tangible. Now many of the Canadian and US readers will be rolling their eyes at the ceiling at this point and saying Derr! It is though very different in the UK and ‘location’ modelling is very much the standard, Fremo style exhibitions and modular meets not having gained any ground here. I’ve enjoyed myself operating many layouts over the years, but this was noticeably different, and has sparked an idea that has been gestating for quite a while.
For a while I’ve been at that point ‘between projects’ or ‘resting’ as our thespian luvvies would have it. I’ve a wide range of railway modelling interests, but only one life, so its time to focus again. Albion Yard still exists, mothballed. From the layout I have the scenery, buildings, trees, track and stock specific to the Forest of Dean. I’ve a good amount of hard copy analogue research data, and access to unpublished images too. I have similar for some other potential projects too, where in UK tradition I could make a layout of a location.
Enjoy it.
And then what?
Like Albion Yard, likely end up collecting dust while I do, or think of, something else. Last night may have been a milestone in how I model in the future. I like trains to ‘do something’, and Buckingham meets that criteria beautifully. Chris Nevard’s Buckminster Ironstone http://nevardmedia.railex-2014.html whilst only a ‘Y‘ as a track plan had something about it in addition to his beautiful modelling. Loading the wagons meant you ‘did something’ more than just run a train. And there really is something in that.
Wharfedale Road 4mm/OO scale
The project layout above, whilst good to look at and more interesting than an inglenook layout to operate, still acts as a simple in, shunt, out, layout. Which is ok for a while for me, but I want more functionality ( I think …). The DVD layouts appearance can be changed, it has a lighting rig that allows different lighting, and has jigsaw components to swap out. In essence that’s it though.
Analogue Research
The books above are part of my thought process, good old hard copy analogue works. There’s a lot of shite talked about you can get what you need from the internet. There is very little for me, even relatively recent times such as the 60’s where film and cameras were becoming far more common. Its true to say that images over the past few years have become more prevalent, but only in in some subject matters and more recent eras, but for many historical railway projects the internet is still a desert. So, out with the maps and books and signalling diagrams, and I should make the obligatory reference to a mug of tea or glass of wine, it’s an internet railway modellers Godwins Law. The basic concept to see if I can make a modular layout representing Forest of Dean branchlines, with the operating ethos of Buckingham, and retaining the visual impact for me of the Forest area, and capturing the atmosphere which has worked so well with Albion Yard.
I’m fortunate in having a reasonable space that it may be possible to have four locations, including Serridge Junction, Whimsey, Acorn Patch, one of the collieries, maybe based on Eastern United or Princess Royal. Not copies but pastiches, LDE’s (layout design element) encompassing a series of 6ft x 18inch ‘Shelfies‘ to capture the areas portrayed, as eye level modules that can be exhibited separately ‘I-layouts’ as Chris Nevard, called them, or joined together to take an operating ‘railway’ to an exhibition. I’ve got the space, the final frontier is the dedication and motivation.
At the moment I’m on the horse looking at the distant ridge line, the horse is thinking ‘kinell’. I’m thinking, ‘can I cross that frontier?’
Tonight, thirty years ago, as the doors closed at Scaleforum, Paul Karau, Gerry Beale and Bob Barlow arguably instigated one of the biggest changes in the UK’s model railway publishing, with the decision to produce a magazine dedicated to ‘finescale’ modelling, and Model Railway Journal was the result. Cheekily Wild Swan had pre tested the test issue, by putting a couple of articles into their brilliant but irregular ‘British Railway Journal’, it was real come and chase me stuff! My previous post highlighted the arrival this week of FRMR, a new addition to the UK analogue model railway media. Its first face to face meeting with the public was this weekend, thirty years after the gestation of MRJ, and at the same finescale show Scaleforum scaleforum/2014/ , run by the Scalefour Society http://www.scalefour.org/ Its been interesting to take a quick look at the magazines first issues, both printed on high quality paper with an immediate ‘quality’ feel to them, MRJ of the time was printed in Black and White, but the cover made it stand out on the shop counters, simple uncluttered effective design. The photography was excellent and a marked change in style from the contemporary mainstream, look above and you can see a similarity there, old school, and eye catching. The image makes me want to look further, not the text, and as they say a picture speaks a thousand words.
MRJ 0 had an article on one of the well known ‘never leave home layouts’, Aylesbury. The layout was remarkable for a number of features, not least of all the forced perspective adopted, which came to life through the imagery. This was the sort of ideas that the traditional media had largely left untouched, but to me in my early twenties, this was the sort of thing I wanted more of, and that desire to learn and push my modelling limits has been fired up by reading such articles. In the first FRMR Tony Gee tells us the story of his custodianship of Peter Denny’s Buckingham layout. By the time MRJ was launched Buckingham would be considered an old layout, and it does show its age, then again some say, so do I! The thing is though that Buckingham is pretty much entirely scratch built, and whilst not up to todays levels of finesse in detail, it does give an illustration of what can be done with the right mindset, and how much you can achieve. Also unusual from a UK standpoint is that rather than being a model of a station or single location, it does represent a section of line with three stations, and can be operated prototypically.
So where will we be in another thirty years time? (probably pushing up the daisies).
Thirty years ago I was in Canada, seen here at Hamilton Mount Hope airport, frightening Cessna’s. In thirty, my eldest daughter will be nearly as old as I am now.If I’m still modelling and shouting ‘they’re all my own teeth you know!, my current Forest of Dean interest will mean I’m modelling something roughly 80 years in the past, the equivalent of someone today modelling the grouping and immediate post grouping era!
Bob Barlow of http://www.greystarpublications.com/ last week launched a new entry into the UK magazine market, Finescale Railway Modelling Review, http://www.greystarpublications.com/fsr/ the first of which is seen above. This will be a welcome addition to the mag market place, MRJ readers will likely be very interested in this too, as in addition to Bobs well respected Narrow Gauge & Industrial review http://www.greystarpublications.com/ngi/ , this will give more quality reading and importantly quality articles at the finescale end of the market. Interesting that Greystar have chosen ‘Finescale’ as the name/branding. I anticipate some saying ‘but that means nothing to me’, in which case the magazine probably isn’t for you. Generally the market sector may not be able to define what ‘finescale’ is, but like porn, they’ll know it when they see it. Bob tells me it’ll be different to MRJ, and he should know, he was one of the first editorial team on WSP/MRJ that brought a fresh look into this genre with MRJ’s release 200+ issues ago. From my peers I get the impression that this won’t tax Wild Swan overmuch, there appears to be a desire for more of this kind of publication, and I suspect like MORRIL before it, many finescalers will buy both. At the very least WSP will take note and whilst some MRJ’s have been a bit ‘meh’, I feel this will put a bit of sparkle back, where sometimes it has lacked. The content style looks to be of interest too, with promises of a wide range of era’s being covered in a different editorial style to MRJ, but a world away from the perhaps ‘red top’ style where the mainstream contemporary magazines seem to have settled. That to me will be a good thing, the Garratt being a particularly challenging conversion to EM, will make interesting reading in purely the presentation of the subject matter. I understand imagery will be very different from the mainstream, so hopefully no over sharpened, FUJI saturation+ lego pixel pics, and more moody evocative shots, with ‘left field’ imagery. I usually get one or another of the mainstream mags, these past two months not one has had me buying. Have I a vested interested in this magazine? Yes, and no. No financial or editorial interest, but yes in terms of contributing and buying it. A subscription is highly likely to be on the to do list, and sooner rather than later, Bob expressed pleasant surprise that it has already done well with subs being taken up and orders through the web site, thus hopefully validating the thought a good number of us have, that there was space for a new finescale mag, I’m reasonably confident FRMR may fill that niche easily. Greystar have a stand at this weekends Scalefourum.
More on Meejah, the DVD which has occupied a good deal of time for both myself and Paul Lunn for the past year is now out and available from Activity Media. http://www.model-railway-dvd.co.uk/right_track19.php
It’s been weird watching yourself and a best mate on telly, Paul L did a huge amount of work, particularly with the scripting and running sequence for which I’m very grateful indeed. Chris and Wendy at Activity Media put up with us and gave real guidance for us throughout the project. We’ve also taken a different approach in addition to the mainstream reviews process, and it’ll be very interesting to see the results in due course.
WHARFEDALE ROAD
Arguably I did the easy bit, nailing a trainset together.
The arrival of a new ‘analogue’ mag from Greystar also gives a strong indicator that the printed media is not dead yet, but will certainly evolve, as will online media. Two fellow modellers over the past couple of weeks have refreshed their blogging activities, coming away from posting on a forum, and that has been no shock to a good number of people I regularly talk to. The reasons why are also of no great surprise either. One of my oldest modelling mates hasn’t grasped the concept behind blogging, but he currently doesn’t ‘write’. On blogging I also read a wonderfully ill informed piece on a forum this past weekend.
“Shame really – if you are going to make the effort to write a blog at all, it makes sense to me to make it available to the widest possible audience. With a personal blog there is little chance of anyone other than a small, dedicated audience ever being aware of it, never mind remembering to read it.”
The comment really does show the level of ignorance regarding the internet and how it works. Like good modelling a good blog takes effort to generate regardless of subject matter. Its all too easy to just ‘graze’ on a forum, wasting time. It’s taken a couple of years for me to get the blog where I want it, and to carry it forward, that takes effort. Readers have to come to it, rather than just click to the next page and strike it lucky amongst a sea of mediocrity. We are competing with the ‘internet’ in terms of attracting readers, this is part of what makes the effort in producing it, in my opinion, worthwhile. Our blog stats tell the story, they tell us where the views come from, the majority of mine are from search engines and quality blogs such as those on this sites blogroll to the right. Hardly any come from the forums, which maybe means that the readers recognise the ‘blogging community’ as a standalone entity. They know how to use a search engine, and critically they can be bothered to find ‘us’ and read what we are writing about, rather than ‘grazing’ a forum. That’s where the real challenge is, building an audience prepared to come back, or read more than the first page, and, they have to find us!
The two blogs in question are of the same kind of modelling that attracts me and many of my friends, one in 2mm finescale, (that kin word again!), and one in 4mm scale. Both are written engagingly, and illustrated well, as are their peers in the blogroll on the right hand side. Whilst neither hold subject matter specific to my interests I do, and will, continue to read them. They have that ability to make you think, I can do that, or try that. That to me is so much better than reading someone saying ‘I could never do that!’
If you do go to Scaleforum and see Bob and you picked up the news from here, please let him know, I’ll be interested to hear how many of you who have provided over 130,000 hits, couldn’t remember to read my blog …
Today I look out into a cloudless sky, the epitome of a summers day.
One Hundred years ago ‘the war to end all wars’ started, and pretty much everyone who reads this blog will have been touched by those events, even though to many those years may as well be as far away as the ice ages
The picture below was taken originally on Kodachrome 25, in a field next to the Welwyn viaduct. I recall taking it like yesterday. A few days previously my late father had returned from a pilgrimage to the Menin Gate in Ypres, Flanders. There, on one of the plaques is his late uncle, killed on May 13th 2015.
He, like so may others of all nations, never came home.
As remarked upon in my previous post there are a good number of people in the hobby that spend far too much time telling you how something should be done, what can be done and what can’t be done, with little or no experience of trying it themselves. One common favourite is that Peco Code 75 track can’t be made to look good or work with ‘finescale’ OO track.
Firstly this is really an opinion, how good something looks is in the eye of the beholder, taking into allowance the ‘Specsavers’ factor. Secondly to say that Peco can’t be made to work with either SMP or C&L is complete shite. It can. This of course opens up the whole unedifying debate of OO scale track, and, ‘we want OO finescale points because you can’t mix the track types.
Well until someone decides what finescale points are, ‘we’, won’t be getting any. Not forgetting to add that Peco calling Streamline Code 75 ‘Finescale’ is beyond the pale and confuses the market. I’m not sure it does, as every time I’ve opened a box of it I’ve not been faced with a linear aquatic feature, ending up with what looks like a map of Africa across my groin, or a beautifully crafted set of weighing scales, so I’ve never been confused by Peco’s branding. It takes me back to a recent work related meeting where the concept of ‘common sense’ isn’t recognised. So if someone tells you they’ll be on their mobile on the train, we now have to assume that we are looking for someone balancing on their phone whilst train surfing. Can’t wait to see the hazard analysis for that one. 3, 2, 1, you’re back in the room and relaaaaax ….
The Shelfie for the Right Track DVD, and indeed the DVD, are now pretty much complete, with final editing and production runs to take place. It has been one of the toughest layouts to build, working with such a restricted space and wanting to get lots of discussion points highlighted and illustrated on film. I doubt I shall work on a similar small footprint project for quite a while. For me it has opened my eyes to how difficult a really small layout is to make ‘work’ well, without its size being highlighted in numerous highly visible compromises. I’d built Collier Street in N gauge for Peco previously, which had similar physical size constraints but in 2FS or N gauge the proportions work better, it does make me wonder if the modelling fraternity missed a trick with 3mm/ft TT scale. Imagine if it were introduced now with todays motors and technology and RTR finesse, I can imagine it really having an impact in what we model and how.
So the above three pictures show stages of the ‘shelfies’ development. Peco and C&L track laid on Woodland Scenics underlay and glued down with superglue. Very quick but little adjustment time. I like this as it really focusses the mind and ensures you know where you’re heading before you start. The second image shows ballasting, ‘in the traditional way’, after its all been painted with Halfords grey undercoat and a concrete hard standing made for the crane. The concrete is DAS clay torn into strips and then molded around the plain track and pointwork. I used Pizza cutter style wheels to make the flangeways before the clay dried, which were then opened out with scalpels and files as required once dry.
This worked very well and the inspiration came from Chris Nevard who used a similar technique on his Brewhouse Quay layout http://nevardmedia.blogspot . The final image shows the end result, with ‘standard’ scenery techniques used, lighting coming from blue LEDS and kitchin cabinet fluorescent 10W striplights.
It feels good to get this one finished, whilst small it was time consuming and challenging. It was useful in re-teaching me some of the basics, and to not take ‘space’ for granted. So what’s next? Another layout that’s for sure, in the background I’ve been working on a layout based on Dursley in Gloucestershire, many of the buildings and quite a bit of stock are already complete, staying in the 50’s-60’s era. The foot print is roughly 6ft x 2ft, and all of a sudden that seems a decent sized space to work in rather than a constricted space. The image below shows me ‘roughing the layout in full size, buildings aren’t those for the layout, but have similar size and volume, which helps me visualise in 3D and in my head how it’ll look. Having got Wharfedale Road to work in such a small space, East Dursley looks far more manageable and will probably, (un-tested theory section coming up), be quite quick to get built and completed.
Well, as I say, that’s the theory, but as its also been nearly nearly six months since the last interweb Charge of the Light Brigade into the Valley of Finescale OO pointwork, and that’s still not resolved, there’s no guarantee I’ll have East Dursley finished in the time frame of roughly six months I have in mind either. One of them however is I feel more likely to be complete in that time frame than the other. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets …..
It’s been a spectacularly daft couple of weeks in the compact and bijou world of toy trains. My good friend Andy Cooper remarked on this in his own style here http://newheymodelrailway. Andy’s take on this is interesting as he looks at the issue of criticism with an outside view comparing his experiences as an amateur musician, who takes part in competitions. I don’t know how much criticism he gets but as he’s
A/ Northern
and
C/ A musician
He probably, (quite rightly), gets ‘some’. Still, without music critics it’d be quicker to clean the bird cage out, as it’d be easier to tell the droppings from the writing.
So, if the latest outpouring of angst and pent up frustration is to be believed, it appears that an editor is now unable to print a letter that shows some criticism of a model, even if the letter is well written and contains additional/corrective material. It is however fair game to write a letter to the editor criticizing a letter that has been previously published criticizing a letter, resulting in a chain of correspondence that drags like a seal’s ringpiece. The critique of course is particularly valuable if the commentary adds something new, which is where this all get a bit silly.
Now before you read the link to the forum, read the actual letter in the attached image.
So this letter kicked off a whole punctured Party Seven of foam and froth. But what is the back story behind it? Well, if you look at the original layout article, the author, in an extended caption underneath the ‘Key Detail’ image states the Macbrayne bus is a ‘constant’, and the short caption draws attention to the policeman.
So enter the anti hero Jane Moss, with such decadent claims to ‘having connections to the West Highlands in the 80’s with her letter,email which politely pointed out some errors. From there of course it and it all starts to head down a very slippery slope, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/85228-brm-june-2014-issue/ , wetter in fact, than Rod Hulls roof.
It does beg the question of the value of a letters page, for me they work, though I’ve never really liked the ‘Star’ letter billing. This isn’t unique to BRM, other magazines do it too. By all means highlight one particular letter or letters, but for me the star billing doesn’t add any gravitas or particular merit to a submission. One valid question raised is are the submitted ‘corrections’ correct? When I submit something for publication I try and make sure that the text, images and captions are all appropriate to the article in hand. If they aren’t then I make sure that there is a explanatory note, and emphasize that the note must be published or that section not used. Here’s a case in point, in both Railway Modeller and Model Rail a shot of a blue 08 was included. Editorial teams both hobby and newswire, need accurately captioned images, the picture is ‘worth’ far less without a one liner giving basic details, purely for the amount of editorial time it takes to work out what’s going on.
08’s in blue in the Forest? Nah …
I can only find record of one 08 working into Cinderford, and that was a green one. The captions state that this is an imaginary scenario that could have occurred during the 70’s or 80’s. The locomotives that did work into the forest then were 25’s and 37’s and I don’t have an appropriate type to do the shot with. To place this image without explaining its ‘made up’, and ideally why, would be cheating or misinforming the readers.
However if I’m going to take the ‘credit’ in getting published, I also have to accept the fact that if I’ve got something wrong then it’s not unreasonable for someone to point it out. After all they have bought the magazine/book. It’s happened with Albion Yard, I was questioned on my use of stone walls. Stone walls weren’t and aren’t common in the Forest of Dean, and those that are have a markedly different appearance on the top of the wall. Technically mine are wrong. However because someone clearly knows a bit about ‘The Forest’, why shouldn’t they query something that looks out of place to them, especially if the layout/model is being portrayed as ‘accurate’.
So, back to the foam fest. Of particular note, and worthy of Spinal Taps ‘Hello Cleveland’* low spot, is this spectacular entry
3. Who is this expert on all things Scottish railway station colours, busses and police uniforms. Would this person like to put their “head above the parapet” on this forum perhaps and further demonstrate “her” credentials.
4. The letter was signed “Jane Moss by email”. Strange considering the headline title of the two page spread is “Reader’s Letters” and not “Reader’s Emails”, but I digress. An email address in my mind is not a proper geographical address. It all just smacks of slipperiness on the part of “Jane” in my mind but, I suppose, we all on here hide behind electronic nom de plums.
Firstly, have a look at what Jane claims is correct, and lets have a quick look at the cartoon top of page. So why is there a question over the correspondents sex? And by that I’m not wondering:
A/ if she’s getting any
B/ if she’s doing it properly
C/ if ‘head above the parapet’ is a euphemism or predilection not yet found with a cursory google search.
Is it not possible that Jane, could be/have been employed in either the constabulary or public transport sector? Ladies, (though they should really know their place), have been observed wearing police uniforms, (no don’t go there), as well as driving busses. Perhaps our forum detective thinks that a lady in the vicinity of a police car in the period in question has merely mistaken the vehicle for another domestic appliance? They were coloured white after all.
Flat capped Northern Constabulary rozzers
The other possibility is that a relative or friend or partner may have worked with the force, or, using the logic applied by Dockson of Dick Green, that Lady Jane is indeed a wrong’un and has had plenty of time to observe ‘the filth’ through the cell door bars. She might have even been a bus conductor, there! at last we have found a position worthy of her status! merely clipping tickets from important businessmen and workmen. In the film of this saga she will obviously be played by Babs Windsor, shouting, ‘There’s plenty more up top!’ So assuming Babs, sorry Jane, was a clippy at the time on the busses, what do we find?
Please follow these links for more details, or get an adult to show you how the interweb works.
Not only had this lady had the affront to use an emailer machine to send her letter, (just as well it wasn’t a proper letter, the poor editor would have had to open an envelope marked SWALK, you know what gurls are like), but its the fact that she’s actually right. I mean next thing we’ll have one running for political office, instead of kneeling like an intern, or worse, running a football club, or FTSE 100 airline company. Where will it end? they’ll be putting the bloody things on Submarines before you know it, you mark my words!
What this episode does show us is that opinions are like arseholes, we’ve all got one, some however are like Beyoncé’s, better seen than heard.
*Hello Cleveland
From the scene in ‘Spinal Tap’ when the band find themselves in the wrong tunnel …
Another one of the occasional posts showing life from the other side of the door, I’m lucky I get to see this from time to time. This is an Instrument approach into Queenstown EN Zed. I must go there one day.
This week there’s been quite a kerfuffle about Bachmann’s 20% price rise, most noticeably on assorted forums and meejah. Basically rising costs have meant that Bachmann have passed on elements of that rising cost to the end user, the man on the Clapham Omnibus. It would appear that this is going to be the end of the hobby, the thin end of the wedge driving people out of a ‘rich mans’ hobby. One even mentioning that they knew of the coming increases at Warley last year. Well cynical old me, but I doubt that very much. The hobby started out as a rich mans plaything certainly, and the high quality end of the hobby has, and always will be expensive, but that’s no different to any leisure past time. The hobby is cheaper now than it has ever been, in my experience of about 40 years or so. The contemporary Ready to Run models offer outstanding value for money compared to the alternatives, just go and price a Judith Edge Sentinel vs the Hornby one, a DJH 9F vs Hornby/Bachmann, a Comet BR Mk1 against Hornby/Bachmann etc etc. The price of a kit and its components is going to exceed the RTR equivalent in 4mm scale.
The fastest way to reduce costs is to minimise your spending, and yes that’s a bit of a statement of the bleedin obvious but I do feel sometimes it needs saying, ‘tough love’ and all that. My interests cover a wide range of railway prototypes, and even prior to this announcement I had thought that there are things I’m never going to use in my collection. So, get rid of them, sell them. Apparently second hand prices had already started to rise because of this announcement within a day of the news breaking, so sell now!
You could turn this price rise to your advantage modelling wise, and I’ll use Albion Yard as an example. The era I have chosen runs from mid 1950’s through to the 1960’s. In that ten years or so the railways got well and truly stuck into the transition era, one of the reasons its so interesting. The picture above shows some of Albion Yards motive power, (the Standard 2-6-4T is just for photo purposes) and it could be reduced easily. The 03 shunter isn’t really Forest of Dean, same for the 4MT, those can be culled immediately, a more than 20% cut instantly and a saving if not purchased of £140ish, using the Scally price index. The prime reasons for doing this are neither of them ran in the Forest, the same can be done for the Ivatt 2-6-0, though that is a more realistic candidate for operation in the area and that’s another £90 saved. That leaves me five panniers and a 45XX. Two of those panniers are DCC sound, done as test pieces. Remove the sound from them and resell the chips, £140 the pair at a guess, possibly more. I could sell the whole locos of course and make a bigger return. If I do that I’ve now got four locos left. Those four, three panniers and a 45xx still give me a prototypical ‘fleet’ and allow me to ring changes at home, and have a small reliable fleet for an exhibition with some redundancy for failure. I wouldn’t want to go to a show with less than four locos for a one engine in steam branch. It has also refined my era to no later than 1965, so if we look at the header picture the ‘Teddy Bear’ goes despite it being a signature engine for 1965 onwards. I can do the same with the goods stock. I have very few wooden plank mineral wagons anyway, but if I choose 1960 for the sake of it, I can get rid of all but maybe one, as by that time the ubiquitous 16t steel mineral reigned supreme. Any TOPS coded minerals/wagons for the late 60’s era can be disposed as can wagons in the later bauxite or freight grey colours. I’ve not worked out how many of the wagon fleet would go, not many, but there would be a reduction, same with brake vans one each unfitted/fitted BR standard 20T van and two GWR unfitted Toads, still ending up with the right ‘mix’ in variety and use. So, the new products that are in the pipeline? Well a 64xx at £82 will be nice so we’ll have one of those. That brings our fleet to five locos. So selling stuff may actually refine the layout in terms of historical accuracy, conversely if I were starting out being era and location specific to prototype could minimise your spending at the outset.
All the same, but different …
With Albion Yard of course we are looking at a small layout, I also own Bawdsey http://bawdsey.wordpress.com/ and a similar exercise can be done with that by culling a class 24, class 15, and class 08. My coaching stock on Bawdsey could be reduced and purely replaced with the DMU traffic, the freight stock is pretty much the correct mix at the moment. As far as ‘new’ items go the obvious contenders are a 101 DMU, and replace one of the others, more likely the Cravens. If I want to go back in era then a Hornby J15 and the non corridor coach stock will be needed, but if I want to reduce costs and keep prototypical I still can with minimal effort. So is 20% such a deal breaker? I really think it isn’t, I’d prefer it not to be there of course but this is real life, the make believe is for our trainsets. Of course this may be pricing ‘real modellers/enthusiasts’ out of the market, but I’ve never known what price index or salary scale is to be applied to a real modeller or real enthusiast to make any sense of such throwaway comments. I suspect many of us that worked hard enough, overcome difficulties and have been fortunate enough to reach wherever we have in life that allows us to buy luxuries like toytrains, will find such disparaging comments glib and facile. I certainly do. I was surprised to see a comment that one person was allocating £1500 (minimum) for this years new RTR purchases on pre increase prices, so is cutting £300 or thereabouts really going to eat into the big scheme? Careful selection or refining of what you actually need rather than desire shouldn’t damage that project too much, if it does I’d love to know how.
Having used the scally price index its clear that it won’t be long before the ‘box shifters’ are blamed for the demise of the small model shop in this 20% argument. That smaller shops will need to be sharper and offer ‘more’ to their customers is without argument. What is often forgotten is those ‘box shifters’ were small shops at one time, and they have grown, I wonder why? I suspect its because people used them, and Mr Ben the Shopkeeper worked out why and thought, this works, we’ll do a bit more of it.. Others, Beatties/Railmail didn’t. If of course the shifters are such a problem then boycott them and pay the local shop rate, or do that terribly unBritish thing, and go and haggle. Still the price increase will make Rapido’s model seem affordable if our prices are rising by such an (allegedly) unsustainable rate.
Wonder if anyones worked out its not a locomotive yet ….
Albion Yard 
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