Mags and Mountains …

Posted on August 17, 2012 by bawdsey

September 2012 Railway Modeller

September 2012 Railway Modeller

To date there’s not been much in this blog section regarding the build of Albion Yard and how its developed over the years. In this Septembers Railway Modeller the layout is featured in a break from the normal style of layout presentation article. The article is an interview where Steve Flint, the editor, and I sat down and talked about the layout and its development. It was all the more interesting to do as Steve hasn’t actually seen the layout first hand, but has seen it appear as a photo set in videos, various magazines including Railway Modeller, Model Railroader and MRJ. On its old fotopic site the layout galleries received over 200,000 views, which always pleasantly surprised me.

It’ll be interesting to hear if the style of article was of interest, feel free to post comments here or email the team at Railway Modeller. There are a couple more pieces in the pipeline about the layout, for a number of magazines. All of them will take a different view or aspect for discussion with new images, as its important for me that each piece if used says something new or different about the layout or any of its features.

One to consider

One book I’ve recently read is Kalmbachs Guide to modelling Mountain Railroad’s. Written by Tony Koester the title doesn’t quite match the book as it isn’t so much a guide, as a well laid out series of chapters as discussion points. If you’re looking for ‘how to make’ a high country or hilly layout this probably isn’t for you. What this book does is sets out the various considerations to make before deciding to build such a layout, comparing and contrasting advantages and disadvantages of the types of layout, scenery, gauge and scale, era, locomotives, rolling stock and operation.

The illustrations are both color and black and white, all well produced in the typical Kalmbach house style. Whilst written primarily for the North American market and layout styles, there is plenty of food for thought for other modellers. Many of the discussion points work equally well changing the prototype for a UK or European theme. Many of us want to build various prototypes and eras, much of the content translates to factors that affect any railway wherever its located, and I found that I was thinking much more about how I chose settings and prototype in the past and those I have in mind for the future. On the basis that it got me mentally reviewing those factors I feel it was good value for money, and book that I’m likely to return to in the future.

http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12462.html

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, Branch Line, brassmasters, British Rail, canon, Chris Nevard, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, Great Western, hobbies, Hornby, Ian Futers, Industrial, Kalmbach, Layout, life, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, OO Gauge, Railex, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, Wales, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Good, The Not So Good, and the Indifferent

Posted on July 29, 2012 by bawdsey
Parkside 7mm Southern Dia 1477 Insulated Van

Its been an interesting couple of weeks, I’m lucky in a way that I get to mess about with different things, across scales and eras, but mostly within my overall interests. You do see interesting variations as well especially looking at the products that are available. Above is an example of ‘The Good’. Its a Parkside kit in 7mm of a Southern Railway Insulated Van. Parkside have really hit a sweet spot of late, the kits that I have built have all been well designed and engineered. They fit, they work, they look right. Theres still some of the older kits in the range that aren’t as good, but what is noticeable is the current trend of consistent improvement with any of their new releases over the past five years or so. A real show of sustainability in improvement and leaving a legacy of good kits in their range.

4mm Road Transport Images tanker / Scale Link Ford

The next items are vehicles for Albion Yard, one is a very simple whitemetal kit, found in the ‘started’ drawer. An evenings work and it’ll be complete. I’ve also got hold of an articulated tanker kit from Road Transport Images. This is a resin and whitemetal kit which I’m making up to be similar to the Bitumen tankers used by Berry Wiggins in the Forest of Dean. This has meant cutting the chassis of the tractor unit to shorten it, which has improved it, but it needs to be shorter still. The chassis has a solid top to it, which I’m not entirely happy with, however I may actually scratch build the core of a chassis and graft components across, which is another big positive to take out of this whole thing going forward.

Dapol OO LMS Home Signal, Scale etch overlaid

The next two show ‘The Not So Good’. Dapols ready to use OO signals are a real ‘six out of ten’. When I say ‘Not So Good’ they are to me frustratingly ‘Not So Good’, though I’m under no illusion that they won’t or shouldn’t sell. There’s potentially a wide diversity in the types of signals that could be produced in N gauge, OO gauge and O gauge. It’s interesting to see the use of ‘gauge’ rather than ‘scale’, if you think of the signals as scale models, then you’ll consider these signals more of a problem than a solution. Using such a description, gauge, rather than scale, (a Perfect Curveism if ever there was one), instantly negates any argument that the signals dimensions are all incorrect.

Dapol OO GWR Home Signal. Scale etch overlaid

Why frustratingly? Now here’s the thing, this is where we are with this, I’m not over bothered if something isn’t quite right, I will leave it, modify it or make my own. As you can see from the simple overlays above the arms are the wrong shape and size. This isn’t just the signal arm, its the location of the spindle, and the lamp position on the post too. Oh and the posts, including the ‘ribbed for pleasure’ Great Western one. So, if you’re thinking like with the Stove R chassis, that this was “a totally routine accident of design” and you can totally fix it with ‘additionality’ of scale etches, unfortunately you can’t. The defining design feature of the OO products are that, no matter which direction you view them, or measure them from, they’re wrong, and critically, look wrong, check your OPC references out. So if you want to fit etched arms then you need to design some the wrong size and shape first. This is a real shame, the N gauge models are much smaller, or, they’re further away, so changing the dimensions and proportions relative to one another to get them correct for OO gauge, shouldn’t have been a problem. Hopefully it’ll be even easier to get right on the forthcoming O gauge signals. When you consider the inclusivity shown when checking the detail variations etc on the Western/Cl22/Beattie Well Tank, these signals as their most recent release leave me indifferent towards their new products. Information to have got them right or certainly much more accurate is readily available, Steve Jones on electricnose was certainly ‘on the money’ on some things and this leaves the market wide open for another manufacturer, or Dapol themselves to improve on these models.

Dapol’s OO ‘scale’ LMS signal

I should emphasise the signals do work as advertised, and as per the instructions, you need a 16Vac source and a pulse switch. The arm movement is smooth and realistic in terms of speed through the movement range, the LED stays lit and is a bit bright to say the least. Whilst current signals are 16V and not supplied with any DCC instructions, there’s still the possibility that we may be overlooking Dapols digital strategy.

IMG_8427

The next logical step being the introduction of Virtual Signals for DCC users …

Posted in 2012, Airfix, Bachmann, book, canon, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, DCC, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Great Western, hobbies, Hornby, humour, Kalmbach, Layout, LMS, LNER, London 2012, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Narrow Gauge, OO Gauge, research, review, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

108 Connections

Posted on July 8, 2012 by bawdsey

This was the result of one of those ‘good ideas’ you have from time to time. For my EM layout Bawdsey http://bawdsey.wordpress.com/, I’ve been building up the motive power and stock to reflect Eastern Region Practice in the late 1950’s through the early 60’s. As such I’d got hold of a Bachmann Derby Lightweight DMU which I’d converted to EM gauge. I’d done this using a Branchlines conversion kit. As I did this I swapped the OO wheels from that unit back into this my 108 unit which had provided the original DMU service on Bawdsey.

Frame with assembled scissors in place

As I’d found a couple of Slaters scissors corridor connection kits in my pile of ‘to do’ stuff I thought I’d use them for the Derby lightweight. (These were items I’d bought in the 80’s for use on a Lima 117 DMU makeover, but never got round to using). A wonderful plan apart from once I’d removed the endplates from the etches, the endplates and scissors as seen above, were too wide to fit between the Derby’s exhausts. So I now had two DMU’s that wouldn’t work for me, the Derby still had too wide a gap between the corridor ends, and the 108 that whilst close coupled still niggled as not being quite right, there being a visible gap between corridor ends.

Test fit of the Bellows

I took the easy way out, I tried fitting the paper concertina bellows into the Slaters unit as a dry run, (see top above), and fitted that to the end of the 108. This showed a massive improvement, so out with the soldering iron and I built them carefully soldering captive washers at the joints to keep the belows active.

Test Fitting of Both Assemblies

My first option was just to make one unit for expediency. It looked ok butted against the original plastic version, but it was clear they were two different types, and types of construction. Even allowing for the new one painted they were still going to look odd. So I bit the bullet and put together a second corridor, and I’m so glad I did. The pic above just shows them as an interference fit hence the different heights on the ends.

Test Running of New Corridors

As I have the unit close coupled I was able to loosely fit the connections, and couple the units. This mad a huge visual difference and immediately I knew I’d made the right choice to do this conversion. Running through a crossover the unit bellows gently compress and expand keepng the coupling under tension, but not tight. Such a small difference makes a really big visual impression.

Halfords Black (as usual) …

Next job involved the regulation application of Halfords black primer to both units before the final fitting. The spray was misted across the bellows units, which has allowed the scissors to still function.

Ready for Service on ‘East Dursley’

Whilst not a fast job, it was at least an evenings modelling to get the corridor units together working and painted, its a job that has been really worthwhile. I didn’t get the Derby done, but I did get my eye back in for soldering small functioning joints, which has spurred me on to complete a functioning lattice post LSWR starter signal, and got me back into making signals, one of which is required for a book project. The final benefit is I’ve ended up with a 108 that will now go straight into ‘stock’ for East Dursley, a project layout I’m working on. (Theres a link on the right hand side here but it’s currently not active.) I also have a Blue Grey variant too so I know that can be done next evening I want to build something ‘complete’, which gives a really satisfying feeling. I now have to get some corridor etches from Masokits, to see if theirs fit any better for the Derby unit, so I’ve not finished with DMU’s just yet!

Posted in 3f, Bachmann, Branch Line, canon, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Great Western, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, LMS, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, Nevard, OO Gauge, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

MSE 4mm Signals (Ready to use)

Posted on July 2, 2012 by bawdsey

Model Signal Engineering
4mm Steel Tube LMS/BR ‘Home’ Signal

In the early 1930’s the LMS was finding good quality timber for signal construction expensive and difficult to source. One of the alternatives chosen was steel tube, this subsequently became very common, lasting into BR days as a standard design and beyond, with some examples still in use today. There have been few ready to use signals available to modellers, those that have been available have tended to be very basic models, arguably toys, or expensive hand built bespoke signals. Model Signal Engineering (MSE) will be known to some readers as providers of scale signal components allowing a modeller to build individual signals, just like the real railway. Using those same scale components MSE has entered the market with ready to use signals. Their range is starting with four prototype signals, two in 4mm scale and two in 7mm scale, so, what do you get for your money?

The first signal released in this new range features an all metal construction working LMS/BR standard 20ft single post home signal in 4mm scale. The initial impressions are very favourable. Using etched components for the ladder stays, ladder, safety loop (ladder bow), signal arm and balance levers, the model captures the delicate structure of this simple signal.

The signal is self supporting, the tube and ladder being fixed to the base giving extra rigidity. The balance lever and signal arm are connected by 0.3mm brass wire which allows a smooth movement from the ‘ON’ to ‘OFF’ positions. The operating wire has a mid-point fixing on the tube behind the diamond plate helping keep the wire taught. There is enough resistance in the wire movement allowing the signal arm to stay at any position, this proving useful for those who wish to use them as static models. The cranks at the base of the tube for connecting cabling are featured, however they are cosmetic being fixed in position. The fixing of an operating mechanism is left to the purchaser to decide, the end of the balance lever being drilled for a 0.3mm actuating wire to the mechanism of choice. MSE can provide advice and electrical or manual solutions to operate and install the signals.

This signal has a Rule 55 exemption diamond plate fitted to the front of the pole. This indicates to a train crew that the trains position at the signal is automatically protected by track circuiting. The diamond is at the correct height of 12ft, for the majority of installations, the painted black band surrounding it also conforming to LMS/BR specifications

Painting follows LMS/BR Midland region practice, and the signal has an acceptable satin finish to it. The arm has clear spectacle plates and these are coloured with red and blue lenses as appropriate. Signal faces are clearly decorated with sharp, clean colour breaks between the red and white, this is repeated on the rear of the signal in white and black. The post is in white with the ladder and its stays in black. The base is a matt middle grey colour with a large enough footprint to help installation and integration into the layout scenery.

So is it value for money? At first glance the price may seem high, but using high quality components, hand built, its a good model for the price of a ready to run coach. The type chosen is a common signal and is suitable for the LMS from the 1930’s through British Rail, and up to the present day. Undoubtedly yes, and with one of Dapols freshly arrived signals on the workbench, they’ll make an interesting comparison.

The initial range is as follows
S4MH1 4mm Scale LMS/BR(M) Tubular Post Home Signal
S4SH1 4mm Scale SR 27ft Lattice Post Home Signal
S7MH1 7mm Scale LMS/BR(M) Tubular Post Home Signal
S7WH1 7mm Scale GWR 20ft Wooden Post Lower Quadrant Home Signal

http://www.wizardmodels.co.uk/FrameSetShop.php?DM=wizabout

Posted in Airfix, Branch Line, British Rail, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, DCC, Eastern Region, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, OO Gauge, review, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Olympic Torch 28th June 2012

Posted on June 28, 2012 by bawdsey

28th JUNE 2012

 

Taking a bit of time out of toy trains this morning I’ve been following people running about carrying sticks of fire.

Ben Gibbons, lights the Olympic Torch for Jason Hazard (023) above the A1 in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire

Ben Gibbons


Ben’s nomination story
Ben is a quiet reserved lad, but inspirational in everyway, I feel he would be a excellent candidate for carrying the Olympic torch through Lincoln in 2012. Tragically Ben`s younger brother had a brain haemorrhage on New Years Day 2008, and sadly passed away on the 4th January. Ben never left his side, reading and talking to him. Ben had not just lost his brother but also his best friend. They supported one another in every aspect of life. Adam was a real sportsman, achieving in many sports and was at Lincoln University studying Sport when tragedy struck. A charity was set up in Adam`s memory to raise money to help local youngsters to reach their potential in sport. This is what Adam wanted to do so Ben was determined to fulfil Adam`s wishes. He knew Adam would have been excited about the Olympics and it was his intention to be there helping somehow. Many events for the charity Ben organises, never complaining. He ran the 10k for him wearing his brother`s photograph on his back. He organises an annual football tournament in Cherry Willingham, which is a huge success with many of Adam`s friends there, and last year cycled from John`O Groats to Lands End with 3 friends. He spends many hours dealing with applications. Ben does not receive anything for doing this and certainly would not want to. While Ben is busy with all this, he holds down a full time job with young children with additional needs and studies at Bishop Grosseteste to become a teacher.

Jason Hazard


Jason’s nomination story
My little brother Jason, displays a unyielding commitment to his community every day! He has been a police constable now for just over two years and his dedication to his work and the community is inspirational! He received a comendation for the successful recovery of a gentleman’s life before he had even passed his probationary period!! There is no job too big or too small for Jason and he often works past his shift to ensure that a thorough job has been done! He even cut his first holiday in 2 years short to come back to work! All of this he juggles with his role within the RAF Auxiliaries, which he dedicates much of his spare time too. On top of all this, the boy regularly participates in runs for charity and has recently completed the three peaks challenege! I believe that this would be a great honour for Jason and I can’t think of anyone that deserves it more!

Posted in 2012, canon, Canon G10, Exhibition, hobbies, humour, library, life, London 2012, Olympic flame, Olympic Torch, Photography, sport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Impressionists ..

Posted on June 15, 2012 by bawdsey

These are the latest vehicles for Albion Yard, two kits that have been sitting around for a while. One thing I regularly do is make a short cut to achieve an improved visual appearance, whilst not getting bogged down with too much detail or work. If it can be seen, I’ll try and improve it within reason, these are two such examples.

Original plastic tie bars

The first a Chivers Southern ballast wagon, seen above and below is a really nice kit, almost shake the box and it falls together. There are two minor things which I feel let it down, one there is no weight supplied with the kit, which I think would be good if provided for beginners in particular. I get round the weight issue using adhesive car wheel balancing weights. It means you get all your wagons close to a standard weight and the attachment is really easy, peel off the backing and you’re done.

The second item (and it’s not just this kit thats affected), is the very overscale tie bars. For a plastic kit I can see that moulding these will be difficult to get a thin strong bar out of a mould. What I’ve done is simply cut them off and replace them with nickel silver strip, and it makes a real improvement very quickly.

The next vehicle is a Southern Ply sided CCT by Parkside. Its one of their older kits and I must admit I was a bit in two minds to build it or move it on. Well I’m very pleased that I decided to keep it, and invest some time improving it.

Impressionist brake gear

One of the challenges of using kits today is making them ‘work’ amongst the better quality ready to run models. This is particularly true of older kits in some of the ranges. The key thing that stood out for me on this van was the chassis looked very bare underneath. When viewing Albion Yard, the viewpoint is almost eyelevel, so missing brake gear does show up, particularly if other vehicles have it. I used Paul Bartletts site (see below) to get an idea of how the brake gear mechanism would appear. I then used scraps of wire and plasticard seen above to make a representation of the equipment. Once painted the basic nature of the detailing disappears, and is less noticeable when the vehicle is on the layout.

Decals by CCT Transfers, Paint by Halfords, Couplings and Pipes to add.

So there’s two short cuts for you to give an impression of much finer detail, than there actually is. The van chassis has the greater visual impact and is well worth doing, as it doesn’t look out of place next to current RTR products. If you’re interested in things ‘Southern’, Graham Muspratt’s blog is well worth a look, the link is at the bottom of the page.

Kit PC47
http://www.parksidedundas.co.uk/acatalog/00_GAUGE_4MM_SECTION.html

RC448 Tunny & RC449 Ling
http://www.slimrails.co.uk/index00gauge.html

Paul Bartlett’s Wagon Images
http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/

Graham Muz’s blog
http://grahammuz.com/2012/06/10/talking-stock-11-a-40-ton-load-of-ballast-sr-dia-1774-hoppers/

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, Branch Line, brassmasters, British Rail, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, decals, Eastern Region, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, OO Gauge, paint, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, waterslide, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bank Holiday Workings

Posted on June 5, 2012 by bawdsey

Re-allocated BR/WR ‘Toad’

This bank holiday gave me a few opportunities to do some extra work for Albion Yard. One of the things I want to do is to establish the layout in the Forest of Dean with some more visual clues. The Toad above is one of those ideas. It was a standard Bachmann release that had been fitted with Shawplans laserglaze kit EEFG-GW(B)20tB. Whilst looking through the transfers I have in stock I found a set of the Modelmasters BR station signage set. I figured that if I cut up several names re-arranging the letters I could make ‘Cinderford’, so that’s I did. Isopropyl alchohol will remove many of Bachmann models’ printed lettering without damaging the paint underneath. The original wording for ‘Stourbridge’ was removed and 45 minutes or so spent cutting and alligning the station names of Romford/Doncaster/Norwich to make ‘Cinderford’. The allignment isn’t brilliant, but in real life there are photos of lettering thats a bit ‘Friday afternoon/Monday morning’, and when its weathered it’ll be less apparent. The rest of the markings I left untouched, and if you’re wondering what R.U. means its ‘Restricted Use’. This theoretically ensures the van doesn’t travel too far from its home yard and works back there in due course. The next van will be re-allocated to Lydney, when I have a spare half hour or so. And now I keep looking at the lamp irons, they’ll probably be next …

Parkside PC84

Parkside 4mm PC84 GWR V12/V14/V16 ‘Mink’

At Railex I picked up a couple of the new GWR Mink van for Parkside. Its a simple kit and to their latest standard, which as you can see puts it comfortably within the quality we have come to expect of contemporary models. Three main variations can be built, the most visible difference being the van ends, the three types illustrated here are all included in the kit. Built from 1907 and lasting to the 60’s there a good coverage of popular eras, with fitted or unfitted options to select.

7788 and Parksides latest 4mm GWR Mink PC84

Having put this together the bug had caught, and on the desk at the moment are several other wagon kits including a ply sided southern CCT with Dave Frank’s LMS cast buffers.

http://www.parksidedundas.co.uk/
http://shawplan.wordpress.com/

Hmmm, lamp irons, yeh!, they’ll make a huge difference, just a couple of minutes each.

But, then I’ll have to do all the other BR brake vans then, nah! not worth it.

But they look so much better and only take a couple of minutes … choices, choices …

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, Branch Line, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, decals, Eastern Region, Forest of Dean, Great Western, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, LMS, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, OO Gauge, paint, review, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Wales, waterslide, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Curse of Albion Yard …

Posted on June 1, 2012 by bawdsey

Railex 2012 Review ‘The Curse of Albion Yard’

The weekend potentially started with very bad news, and nearly ended that way too! Wednesday was a day I was looking forward to finalising a few details and getting the train set fully packed. It was a brilliant plan but circumvented by not being able to find the shed keys. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue and a routine search of the premises ensued, to find … nothing at all. Well I turned the house inside out, doubly frustrated in knowing that I was the last person to have them on Tuesday evening. It’s the old story, only one set of keys, you always mean to get replacements cut, (still haven’t), and never get round to it. Realising that to call David and say ‘I can’t come, I can’t get in the shed’ would be even less well received than ‘The dog ate my homework’, I called a few Locksmiths. If the keys didn’t turn up by Thurday morning it was going to be an M&S expense type of entry and all down to my own efforts. I really didn’t need to be told they’d send a bloke out before giving me a rough idea on how muchthey’d stitch me up for either. I eventually told one of the more persistent sales people that I didn’t need a site survey, I knew where the chuffing shed was, it was only the keys I’d lost. Wednesday evening the keys turned up, they’d had a day at school in the youngest gingham clad mavericks school bag. At our place getting kids to school is in a similar league as cat herding,( http://norvenmunky.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/pretty-vacant/ ) and whilst loudly discussing departure timing, the keys had fallen into her schoolbag from the sideboard.

New hedgerow added Thursday morning

Well Thursday allowed me to change more stuff around on the train set, it’s what I do, sorry, but the change gave a significant improvement to the layouts appearance. It was then get everything packed away and attend to last minute tasks like buying water, and confirming the van was sorted and then off to work. Breaking it down allowed me a bit of time to mess around using the layout as a photo set again and get some interesting images too.  Friday was a leisurely trip down and the set up went well, particularly for a train set that doesn’t leave home. Because I don’t have specific packing cases one actually had to be made to hold the trees, this worked really well and meant that on both trips the trees arrived undamaged. The Railex team were as ever very helpful (third time for me) at both ends and during the show. We were in a sort of bloggers corner where most of the layouts have an online presence and are 4mm scale. http://nevardmedia.blogspot.co.uk/ http://bronhebog.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/layout_canada.html http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12234-diesels-in-the-duchy-aka-st-blazey-dcc-em/

Set up went well and Mr Cheeseplant dropped by and expressed surprise when he saw how high the base boards were. It’s easy telling someone how high something is, but it really falls into place when you see it first hand. I did think I’d get some flack through the show for the height of the boards, but they seemed to be appreciated by those that viewed the layout. Over the course of the weekend five people that I saw actually tape measured the height and valances, there may have been more when I wasn’t ‘front of house’.

Albion Yard at home

We had plenty of positive comments and I’d like to extend my own and my teams (Al, Ian and Pete) thanks for those for exhibitors they make the show very rewarding. Even if you’re one of those who just stood and took the time to look, thank you. Operating from the front was different. It gave us plenty of opportunity to chat with the viewers with very little disruption to the flow of the layout. I met two people whom over the years have inspired me both modelling and otherwise, there’s a saying ‘Don’t meet your heroes’, but both these guys were really pleasant and spent a good amount of time talking about modelling and art.  Next door we had Chris Nevard with  Brewhouse Quay, and we swapped a couple of locos over the weekend with even an S&D 7F finding its way across the Severn http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevardmedia/7281633136/in/photostream/

So to end with a few thank you notes,

Al Ian and Pete for playing for the team, and the help

David Lane and RDMRC for taking a punt on the layout, it being first time out, not having seen it

Craig for the Pannier and Bernie for the decals, Phil for the loan of his Class 22, Chris N.,  and the other operators and traders whom all made it a show to remember for all the right reasons

The visitors for the comments and encouragement, including those that mentioned reading the blog

And the closing sting in the tail in ‘The Curse of Albion Yard’? When I got home (130 miles),  and unloaded the van I felt I should make a mental note,  to paraphrase Mr M. Caine (actor);

’ Next time, make sure the bloody doors are closed’.

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, Branch Line, brassmasters, British Rail, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, decals, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, Great Western, hobbies, Hornby, humour, Ian Futers, Industrial, Kalmbach, Layout, life, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, OO Gauge, Photography, Railex, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, waterslide, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Railex Thank You

Posted on May 28, 2012 by bawdsey

Just a quick line to say thank you to those that dropped by and said hello, and passed comments about the layout to myself and my team over the weekend. Al, Ian, Pete and myself enjoyed the show, the company and the hospitality and geniality of the organisers and public. I’ll add more in the next day or two, todays been a bit of a ‘loud’ one at work, resulting in lots of exciting paperwork to fill in, and nice ladies from the ministry to talk to, so I’m going to go and play trains and relaaaaaax.

Thank you again!

Posted in 3f, Airfix, Bachmann, Branch Line, brassmasters, British Rail, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, decals, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, Great Western, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, OO Gauge, Photography, Railex, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Uncategorized, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Heavyweights creep in …

Posted on May 23, 2012 by bawdsey

In reality, highly unlikely, but I like it. It also takes the layout back to its roots as an occaisional photo set.

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, Branch Line, British Rail, canon, Canon G10, Chris Nevard, Eastern Region, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, Great Western, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, library, life, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, Modelling, OO Gauge, Photography, Railex, research, Scottish Region, Southern Region, Wales, Western Region | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments