Severn & Dean

Posted on November 14, 2014 by bawdsey

You’ll note a new page on the blog, this is to cover the larger layout project, the post below is the first page entry. Today’s been an interesting day having the privilege of watching Chris Nevard http://nevardmedia  take pictures of Bawdsey http://bawdsey  and Wharfedale Road for forthcoming magazine articles. It made a change to dig out Bawdsey and run it for pleasure over the past day or two before the more serious photography of today. It is a nice layout to operate and can be very absorbing, but still doesn’t have that total immersion that I can imagine the likes of operating Buckingham and Yaxbury http://www.s-scale.org.uk  give.

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This page will ( I hope) cover some of the steps as I try to capture the Forest of Dean on a larger scale in terms of layout size, than I have done previously. Some entries may have  appeared on other parts of the blog, this being the ‘project page’, but will all have a common theme, a link to the ‘Severn and Dean’ scheme.

Equipment Portraits No.1

Taking a leaf out of Trevor Marshalls excellent blog  http://themodelrailwayshow. I’ll put up a few pictures of the motive power and stock that’ll run on the Severn and Dean system. I’ve often been asked what I’ve done to items and this seems as good a way as any to show them. This isn’t a ‘look what I’ve got’ post or page, judging by postings on various fora I’ll very much be in the ‘poor relation’ category! The motive power I’ve selected are all taken from images of the Forest of Dean from the mid 1950’s through to close of steam, so the engine will have been seen in the Forest area. Depending on original images the option of early or late crest BR logo is sometimes difficult to determine, and there are one or two ‘it’s my trainset’ locomotives included. Those however do have a logical ‘what if’ possibility.

'Large' Pannier 97xx 9711

‘Large’ Pannier
97xx 9711

So the first one up is British Rail (BR), Western Region (WR), ‘large’ 97xx pannier 9711. The origin is a OO Bachmann model, a simple number change, rear cab doors opened, etched details of lamp brackets, fire irons and bucket. Shawplan laser cut glazing added. Weathering is a mix of high quality artists pastels and Tamiya acrylic military colours airbrushed. Mig pigments are also used for detailing and for washes. The idea being to get an well used ‘in use’ look, without the shocking state stock and locos reached at the end of British Rails steam era.

BR/WR 97xx 9711

BR/WR 97xx 9711

The modifications I do are rarely difficult or time consuming, I’m a believer that a little and often approach can give big leaps forward in any project and some of these modifications appear here https://albionyard.wordpress.com/fifteen-minute-heroes/  Screw couplings and three/instanter link are my preference, as these are the most realistic looking. For practical purposes I use couplings which are slightly over scale, but compared to Kadee or UK tension lock couplings the visual improvement is huge. It does give me operating restrictions though, curve radii is pretty much a minimum of 36 inches, so careful planning of layouts is required. This means that sometimes I can’t do things I’d like, but that comes with the choice and territory of prototype couplings.

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Part one of the project is under way, I’ve been offered and accepted an exhibition slot next year for ‘something’. Better take my own advice and get on with some modelling ….

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Posted in Branch Line, Chris Nevard, DCC, dcc sound, Forest of Dean, Great Western, history, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, life, magazine, media, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, Photography, research, shelfie, Uncategorized, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Destination Anywhere

Posted on November 10, 2014 by bawdsey
Severn & Dean

Severn & Dean

Well, its more destination ‘AnyRail’, than anywhere actually,  https://www.anyrail.com and that’s where some of the schematic plan above has come from. More of that later ..

I’m at one of those stages where you have a number of ideas/projects all running under consideration simultaneously. This is a good and bad thing.

Good because it reminds us we’re alive and if you’re male, can multitask. Or alternatively and more realistically (if male), can think about different things sequentially.

Bad as it arguably lacks focus and can be the catalyst for a period of stagnation and aimless meandering from subject matter to subject matter. You’ll then need to join a forum and start a thread saying, ‘My mojo has gone, what can I do to get it back?’ Fear not you’ll soon have a number of replies saying ‘me too’, so that’ll help, bet you’re glad you asked …

Chris Mears, judging by this post has found himself at a similar cross roads to me and has written an interesting piece on his blog princestreet..what-he-said/  I’ve found myself in a similar place. I have Albion Yard, and Wharfedale Road  ‘available’ for me to play with, and in real terms ‘complete’. Both of them OO/4mm scale, and  my own work.

I have Bawdsey http://bawdsey. too,  EM gauge/4mm scale built by Chris Matthewman, that too is complete, in effect being a ‘classic’ layout in the true sense and built by a real craftsman.Bawdsey 4mm/ EM gauge

Bawdsey 4mm/ EM gauge

I did have ideas of an extension to it, http://bawdsey.the-future-bawdsey-ferry/ but time and other projects have taken priority and realistically it’s not going to happen. The layout is a delight to operate though in its current form. I find myself questioning why break something that’s fixed? So that brings me back to OO/4mm scale, and where I want to go with it. I’ve done single/solo projects in OO/EM and N gauge and helped on others in different scales too, 4mm/OO is, boiling it down to the basics, where I’m at. It makes the most sense to use this scale, I find it comfortable to work with, and can find the challenges within it that are extant in other scales. I’ve also invested time and effort in 4mm/OO stock, so its a good launch point.

This brings us back to the plan at the top. I wrote recently about having operated ‘Buckingham’ and having been taken by the concept of trains ‘going somewhere and doing something’. I have a garage that could be used for a system layout and that’s where I feel I’m headed now. Anyrail has been useful with its Peco Code75 point templates and flexi track components included in the software. I’ve started with the first draft above, to get to know the software and how to get what I want from it, which is not necessarily the best out of it. The locations in the ‘Severn and Dean’ schematic plan above, are copies or pastiches of real Forest of Dean track layouts. The concept being to give the right operational feel to the layout, and to, in part, replicate the challenges of operating the railways in the Forest. It’ll run the perimeter of the garage and be semi portable, formed of individual ‘shelfies’ or I-layouts*, at a height to make them view realistically rather than from an aircrew perspective. A good friend suggested it had something of the Mindheim about it, http://www.lancemindheim (in a good way I hasten to add), and there are similarities right enough. This will be a branchline layout of an linear format, in shelf units, and made, by me. It’s prototype freelancing too, taking real elements and making a ‘mashup’ as the kids would say, of a railway that people would recognize.

The Fleet

The Fleet

Part of the concept is to push my boundaries again. I’ve built layouts by myself to specification, and others with no real plan, Albion Yard for example which turned out as perhaps my best so far. With Albion Yard I’ve got a good selection of motive power, and even for such a system as I’m thinking of only need a couple more locomotives to get a representative mix. These include 57xx panniers with no top feed, these are in progress at the moment, a high tank 45xx, and a couple of the 64/54xx variety which will come in the new year with Bachmann’s imminent release. The choice that I have yet to make is whether to go DCC Sound or stay with traditional DC. The downside of the DCC option is cost. More controllers, and sound ‘inserts’ costing around £100 per loco. For the group above that’s an outlay of around £800, and a further £500 for the known additions to come of two small panniers and a 45xx. That’s a lot of money just on sound de-coders which only add a bit of play value rather than any significant operational advantage. Almost certainly if I pull the trigger on this project, I’ll part fund it by getting rid of other projects which are in stock which will soften the financial blow, but it does mean commitment too, something us modellers with wide fields of interest like myself, will find a bigger challenge than the actual project!

Perhaps its time to take a leaf out of Eugene (Gene) Deimling’s blog and ethos and borrow a strap line from Nike, and ‘Just do it’ http://myp48.wordpress.com-just-do-it/  I’ve already started ‘Doing it’ I think, I can stand in the garage and visualise the space and baseboard shapes in my head, the design has evolved from the header image.  Reading books on how the Severn and Wye and Forest of Dean operated, I’m getting a feeling for how much more stock is required, mostly its freight, mineral wagons in particular. Probably about another 20 – 30 wagons, another £2-300 pounds on discount prices if I buy RTR. The Airfix kit is looking a promising option to cost effectively build up the wagon numbers. I’ll make the descision based on cost vs time available, fortunately they can be built quickly and look almost identical to the RTR counterparts. Passenger stock is pretty much catered for, a couple of Great Western B sets, some BR Mk1 suburbans, and three Autotrailers will cover what I need. For a newer twist I may add a British Rail diesel Railcar as well.

So, what next? The northern end of the line as depicted will change, I know that already, and am thinking of trying to integrate the DVD project layout into the scheme. I’m quite encouraged by the amount of thought this potential ‘railway’ project is taking, it’s quite a different feel to previous projects, it feels like it has more ‘purpose’. We shall see …

*I-Layout Mr Nevards description of one of my eye level presented Shelfie layouts

 

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Posted in DCC, dcc sound, Forest of Dean, Great Western, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, research, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Age shall not weary them.

Posted on November 9, 2014 by bawdsey

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Posted in history, life, menin gate, remembrance, the great war, Uncategorized, world war one, ypres | 2 Comments

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY No.2

Posted on November 5, 2014 by bawdsey
Wharfedale Road

Wharfedale Road (click pic for biggun)

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Posted in blog, blogging, canon, hobbies, Kalmbach, life, media, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, Photography, social media, wordless wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Progress?

Posted on October 24, 2014 by bawdsey

photo (3)

Anyone recognise this? Hold the front page, it’s a kit. That’s right ‘A Kit’. I know, I know, smelling salts all round, breath in using the paper bag, Three, Two, One, and you’re back in the room ..

Not only that, its a bit ‘last year’ too, since this kit was produced in the 80’s Hornby have since produced a very good Ready to Run model of it. The Kit is by Ratio, one of the UK’s oldest existing model railway kit producers. I can remember in my dads ‘to do’ kit pile, (nothings new is it?), there were Ratio Kits. Of the time, 1950’s and early 60’s they were made of wood. Now for the UK that’s an unusual material for kits, as it means they’ve been made from trees. As plastics became easier to obtain and no doubt more cost effective, and accurate, wood, fell by the wayside. With laser cutting however it is seeing a bit of a resurgence particularly in building kits. So why have I got this kit out, if I can buy a working painted one off the shelf?

Well one thing that is often commented on is the lack of supply of new product, and that can be a source of frustration, especially if the item is from that sole source. Since this kit was introduced, as mentioned above, Hornby have made a very good RTR version of the same vehicle. However with this kit you can cut all the corners of the supply chain. It does mean you have to build it of course. Of its time, it was one of the most technically advanced and detailed kits, and to some it was a challenge. I was thinking of this as I opened the box, (yes, guilty, I’m a ‘box opener’), and revisited the model. I bought one of the first releases, working in the trade at the time, and yes it was definitely advanced. Retrospectively that was firmly in relation to what had gone before, and those contemporary to the time. Looking at it now, its just a well thought out detailed model, including etched components. Todays plastic modeller would just think, ‘this is alright’, rather than, ‘kinell! I’ll never get that together!’

So, I’ve got the shell together and the beauty is it all fits, its not effortless, but its in the minimal additional work category. I’ve got a page of 15 minute hero’s on the blog, http://albionyard/fifteen/  and whilst this isn’t one, it is a set of 15 minuters that can be added sequentially, each time frame adding something of value to the build. One frustration with poor kits is wasted thinking time or fiddling with bits that should ‘work’, this kit has obviously been well thought out and designed to avoid those pitfalls. And I’m enjoying the build, I won’t use the word ‘fun’, I’m beginning to get old fart grumpy when I see ‘fun’, ‘its supposed to be fun’, ‘have fun’ ‘join in the fun’, ‘here’s a really annoying clown, have fun’ etc etc. No, I’m just enjoying my time building this kit, and that’s quite enough Disneyesque, glee filled ‘fun’ for me thanks. And one bit of smug satisfaction that comes from this, is the kit is cheaper than the RTR equivalent, and it’ll make something that is as good too if you take some time with it.

So ..

Progress can be measured in a number of ways in our hobby, and we can often see it in the blogging community. Julias 2mm http://modelopolis.blogspot.co.uk/ is to me particularly interesting at the moment. The challenge she is looking at is capturing ‘atmosphere’. Now we’re all likely able to make something according to the book, with varying degrees of success. This captures my imagination as she’s looking to capture something ‘intangible’. Atmosphere is a variable too. In modelling it’s often based on the viewers knowledge, life experiences and perhaps artistic faculties too. A Turner painting isn’t an accurate picture by any means, but it will have something that a clinical line drawing or illustration won’t. It has life, in terms of the artistic expression that’s gone into it, and Julia’s project fascinates me in a similar way. Will it capture something more than just the technical modelling she’s undoubtedly capable of? I do hope so.

On blogging I’d like to encourage any visitors to dip into the blogs shown on the blog roll on the right hand side, particularly if this field is new to you. Some of the blog writers featured I know and socialise with, most of them however, I’ve never met or have done so in a limited capacity for only a few minutes. As a rule though they all do something that’s not box opening, or glee filled fun. They are seriously enjoying their hobby and for me that’s what makes them worth reading. Not only that, but there are some equally good links from their sites to other sites, where there is plenty of hands on work in progress across the range of the hobby.

Progress for me?

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Wharfedale1

WDALE3

Guilty verdict …

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Posted in blog, blogger, blogging, Branch Line, canon, DCC, dcc sound, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, life, media, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, research, social media, Uncategorized, Wales, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on October 22, 2014 by bawdsey

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Posted in canada, hero | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Space, The Final Frontier II …

Posted on October 15, 2014 by bawdsey

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

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

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

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?’

Dunno, stay tuned.

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* Layout Design Element see Tony Koester

 

 

 

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, blogging, Branch Line, British Rail, Chris Nevard, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, Great Western, hero, history, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, library, life, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, Railex, research, Scottish Region, shelfie, Southern Region, Wales, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

THIRTY!

Posted on September 28, 2014 by bawdsey
MRJ 0 & FRMR First editions

MRJ 0 & FRMR
First editions

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.

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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.

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So where will we be in another thirty years time? (probably pushing up the daisies).

thirty
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!

MRJ will be close to issue 500, and FRMR issue? …

What will you be doing?

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Posted in Bachmann, blog, blogger, Exhibition, Great Western, history, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, life, LMS, LNER, magazine, media, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Narrow Gauge, Nevard, OO Gauge, research, review, Scottish Region, social media, Southern Region, Uncategorized, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hold The Front Page! Read All About It!

Posted on September 24, 2014 by bawdsey
Bob Barlow's new baby!

Bob Barlow’s new baby!

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.

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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

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!’

Julia, http://modelopolis.blogspot.co.uk/  and Tom, http://50aworks.wordpress.com/

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 …

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Posted in Bachmann, blog, blogger, blogging, book, Branch Line, British Rail, canon, Chris Nevard, copyright, critic, DCC, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, hobbies, Hornby, humour, iphone, Layout, life, magazine, media, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, Photography, research, review, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

New! 1st Hornby King image online!

Posted on September 8, 2014 by bawdsey

Link to first royalty free image of Hornby King!

Hornby King

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