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 ….
My good friend Mr Cooper of ‘The North’ has written eloquently http://newheymodelrailway. regarding how the standard of the reporting of recent shows exhibitions has slipped of late. Some of course may agree with him, but one thing is clear, nothing stays still and perhaps this is the natural evolution of the hobby in the digital age. So if Andy’s right the thing exhibitions need is toy trains, cake, tea, and pictures. I’m sure as a widely experienced exhibition goer and organiser he’s already taken those key things on board, so that’s all good. There are a good number of shows throughout the year, some say, too many. The point is it’s a crowded market place out there, so what will bring the punters through the door and what does the new exhibition manager need to attract customers over the threshold? These aren’t so much problems, as solutions waiting to happen.
This is how I envisage the future exhibition managers tool box will look. Firstly quality toy trains to get the hard core enthusiast through the door. Once through the door however the interest needs to be kept at a state of cappuccino like froth near euphoria, and adequate sustenance readily to hand. Tea, or coffee, (372 varieties for the southern softies) should be readily to hand. It should be either hot, for UK patronage, or cold with ice in it to entice the colonial cousins through the door. Luke warm simply won’t do. Cakes, (north of Watford Gap clientele ) or pastries (refined northern home counties and south, excepting Luton) as illustrated. Ingredients such as free range eggs shall be ‘de riguer’, unfortunately that’s French and will probably be given a ruddy good ignoring. Local variations of course will apply, so northerner exhibition fare will include gravy for their cake, as they seem to put it on just about everything else. Lets face it someone will bloody moan that there was no gravy for their cake if its not available, so restaurateur styley, just head them off at the pass.
So wrap your model in 2mm sheets of filo pastry, (wrong choice of model, should have used a BR1C, then I could have done the tender morsel joke), ensuring that the entire model is covered before basting it with a covering of choice using a ‘OO’ brush. We won’t bother advising if you use acrylic, enamel or laser to glaze it before popping it into a warm oven for 16.5 to 18.2 minutes.
When removed from the oven let it rest and relax. This will be difficult for most exhibitionistas to do, the temptation to tear open the pastry, and take pictures of exactly the same filling that everyone else has bought will be hard to resist.
One thing we have yet to see in these various reports are exhibition selfies. Its surely only a matter of time before someone posts a picture of what looks like a bloke hiding behind a burst sofa, with a model railway in the background. Interestingly Nokia’s survey of 4,000 Brits earlier this year found that a whopping 36% of posted selfies on social networks. A risky 7% of Brits even take pictures of themselves in bed. Figures for selfies taken at train shows haven’t yet been remotely considered released. One thought is to take a picture a day and see your life in a whole new way. If however, that daily picture regularly consists of yourself sitting in front of your computer skip to this page now, http://fifteen-minute-heroes , its in your best interest…
So, hints and tips then. When taking a selfie it’s smart to be aware of what’s going on behind you – and make the most of it. Though it’s best to keep the focus on you (me, me, me,) at least half of the beauty of a selfie is that it shows you’re somewhere:
A/ Interesting
B/ Amazing
C/ In a train show.
The social media side of the hobby is open for exploitation, the logical repository for these selfies is MySpace, as that has the least amount of users and therefore the potential to grow the fastest. So get out there, selfies is where its at, no more frustrated layout owners being blinded by the camera flash going off in their eyes, they’re not going to mind if you take a pic of yourself with them as a background. Neither will your fellow exhibition visitors mind, they’ll happily make way for you amongst the three deep crowd around Gresley Beat as you stand, back against the barrier, with your arm full length, gurning into your smartphone reaching for instant martyrdom fame and fortune.
So don’t forget, next show you’re at, take selfies, cos ‘we want pictures’ …
I’ve often said it but time is the most valuable commodity we modellers have. It matters not if you ‘buy’ time, either literally by paying someone to do something for you, or making the best use of your own time to carry an element of the hobby further. Its also not a crime to pay for people to make things for you, literally, or on mates rates swapping tasks and abilities. A brilliant example where paying for products/help is in some of the makeovers I do on RTR equipment. Many of the modifications I do can be done ‘long hand’ flush glazing for example.
A great little model just crying out for a bit of personality and ‘fine focus’, well here it is with a bit of weathering, new windows and a subtle repaint of the removed original lettering. What’s that got to do with time? Well the glazing modification takes just about an hour, including the internal repaint of the cab, where the time was saved is in not hand cutting new windows. Yes there was a cost for the windows, of under a tenner. For the time saved and the appearance benefit, that money well worth spending as well as the fact that the components fit, that’s what we want and need from todays products. It’s not just these and similar products that help, it is a mental attitude to ‘do something’ part of the ethos behind my 2012 fifteen minute heroes. It doesn’t need to be a big thing you do, this year I’ve built a small ‘shelfie’ layout, (fits on a shelf, made by me) and that’s been great fun and produced another photo set, much like Albion Yard has been. The photography has been rekindled for me, the images here are all from an iphone5s, I had a chat recently regarding editorial photography with some requests for me to provide some images for consideration. Without making things to photograph I would have been behind the curve to provide pictures. What I have done is dust off the DSLR, borrowed a GoPro, used the Iphone and the Canon G10. I’ve also been offered gallery space to sell images. Time to make time to get snapping!
So its a bank holiday, got nothing on?, then make something, I dare ya! Remember if you’re part of the hobby, then that’s making and playing trains. If you find your railway modelling is sitting looking at the interweb and shouting and typing angrily on forums and theres little time to do any modelling, then your hobby is actually shouting at computers, not railway modelling.
Hero’s in toy trains? Well here’s two of them. A GoPro hero, and a Bachmann 08. GoPro cameras are well known for their build quality, functionality, compact size, robustness, and last but not least image quality. The second hero here as anyone who has a good one will know, is the Bachmann 08. What better locomotive to use for controllability for filming? The tankers are Peco wonderful wagons with sprung buffers the open (in the absence of any depleted uranium, is carrying modelstrip, which has similar mass qualities. Thus the filum train will traverse the yard with smooth steady progression capturing, well, that’d be telling …
Well that’s a wrap as telly and filum experts would say. Paul Lunn and I have just finished two days filming with Chris Walsh of Activity Media. The two days were quite intense with changes from layout to layout, Albion Yard , Bawdsey and Wharfedale Road featuring as well as some of Paul Lunns highly effective and inspiring full size card mock ups.
This is one of them that has really captured my imagination, especially with Hornby’s Sentinel shunter and perhaps presflo’s and covhops on the mix too. It’s got that ‘Something about Mary’ feel to it that makes me want to give it a try. As Albion Yard is up for another day or so I have access to a new camera we may just try something different, the fog pictures taken by Chris Nevard worked so well, and the potential to push a few boundaries and foamers buttons, by doing something different is so, so, tempting. Watch this space!
Albion Yard 
You must be logged in to post a comment.