Wakey wakey

Wow, where has a year gone?

First the house has taken priority over modelling since we moved in. I've been babbling on about it here > The Dung Heap Chronicles

I did get rid of the horrible bunker of a garage and replaced it with a nice shed. Its even bigger than I had originally intended. 24' by 12'. Tons of train space.



The usual time constraints have meant it took from November until March before I actually started getting the interior insulated. Its now September and I still haven't finished it off. The walls are done but the roof needs finishing. I'm about 3/4 of the way through putting up the drywalling. (wall board) Once that's done the wiring and lighting is next. I've set myself a goal to actually complete the interior and start moving the existing layout in by the middle of October.

Now there's the first conundrum. What to do with that part finished layout. 18 months stored on end in the loft hasn't been kind to it. I'm not sure if its worth salvaging or if it should be rebuilt on new (sturdier) baseboards. Once I get it set up in the shed I'll be able to determine its viability.

The next spanner in the works, or should I say monkey wrench is I've discovered the allure of North American modelling. Say what??? Its true. After living in Canada and modelling British, I've done a total 180 degree flip and am now starting off in HO scale. I'd always had a bit of Canadian outline and had one day planned on building a small diorama. Now that looks to be growing into a full layout for myself and a pair of modules for the club.



My test track in the now useful office space.

So to sum up the last year....

1: almost finished the train shed

2: took a major left turn in modelling to add CP and BNSF

3: joined the NMRA and a (sort of) local group of North American Modellers

4: started to build a decent selection of locos and stock

5: started playing with sound in locos

6: planning planning and more planning

With some luck and a now settled down routine I should have more to say and to show. Stay tuned.

End of the line

No updates for 2 1/2 months. No modelling going on. Nothing. Time to call it a day I think. With a lot of house renovations, (c'mon, bloody rebuilding most rooms really) modelling is having to take a back seat. So with this I thank my tiny band of dedicated reader(s) and sign off for the time being. Hopefully by this time next year there will be a shed at the bottom of the garden humming with activity. Knowing my luck there'll be a pile of broken concrete where the garage used to stand in the middle of a mud swamp.

So for now, and the next several months. Thank you and adieu.

Spotter Spotting #3 Mephitis mephitis

I seem to be coming across more and more of these types of spotter/modeller these days. The Mephitis mephitis (latin for: noxious vapour) or common skunk, is far too easily recognised by the trail of yellow fog that trails in their wake. You are aware of the mephitis long before they are in visual range.

What is it with so many spotters and poor personal hygiene? Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of people are fairly normal but for some inexplicable reason model railway exhibitions attract a higher proportion of the soap dodging segment of society.

I feel a rant coming on. This is directed towards those that have no clue as to the meaning of personal hygiene. How can any self respecting individual have absolutely no clue on self grooming. For f*ck sake, even monkeys clean themselves better than some of these stench merchants.

1: soap is your friend. Use it, often. Daily in fact.

2: bathing will not make you rust. You are flesh not sheet metal.

3: shampoo is nice too. Your barnet is not meant to be a flea circus or bug hostel.

4: deodorant is not poisonous and won't make you sterile. Lets face it without it you aren't going to be reproducing anyway.

5: clean out that beard. Yes I know there is a family of great breasted sap suckers nesting in there but cut the damn thing off and let them nest outdoors. The birds will be thankful for the relief from your halitosis, and you will be doing your part to support endangered species.

6: toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. Before your breath causes a hazmat alert by triggering the carbon monoxide alarms.

7: wash your clothes, replace them when they are worn out. There is nothing nostalgic in 20 year old beer, soot, curry stained T shirts that have more bacterial growth on them than at Huntington Life Sciences.

Perphaps we can get the Body Shop or Lush to sponsor next year's Warley exhibition. How about, A4 shaped soap, Brunel bubble bath, Gresley shampoo, Deltic deodorant, and mirrlees mints.

Trainspotter Spotting #2 the Guru

The next part in our series of spotting the spotter centres around the guru. This person is the most valuable to modellers. Many have come across the guru but have never realised. These are the quiet types that will only dispense their vast knowledge once primed and lubricated. Gurus come in all shapes and sizes and are not normally easily found. Some digging and prompting is required to unearth the real guru.

I've been fortunate in knowing several of these individuals. One such gent back in the 70's had built an O gauge layout in his basement. Big deal I hear you say. Well this one was worked with complete operational precision. Everything was accurate. This was the first and only time I've ever seen points operated by compressed air and a fully operational hump shunting yard. I Owe this gentleman a great debt of gratitude and if not for him I may have ended up spending my evenings in some dodgy pub instead. I've also been lucky in meeting several other people in the hobby that have pushed me into improving my skills and enjoyment.

My gurus in no particular order.

Peter Bryant: a complete gentleman who was like a father to me and spawned the collector in me. Always a kind word and a cuppa ready. Sadly missed.
Bert Haynes: a kind man who has donated more time to scouting than just about anyone else on the planet. My memories of his white jag and basement layout will always be with me. His O scale model of CP's Stoney Creek bridge is awe inspiring.
Al Love: a modeller extraodinaire. Has driven me to work harder and always improve.
Doug & Jackie Hole: artists is the only word that fits really. Kind and encouraging people with an eye for detail and a modelling skill that leaves me in the dust.

To these people I say a very large thank you.

The dust begins to settle

Well after a protracted house move that would merit its own blog SWMBO and I have finally settled down into our own pile of bricks. Lets just say the next person that mentions 'completion dates', 'contract exchange', 'surveys', 'chains', is going to get throttled with a chain.

At the moment all things railway are poised and awaiting the phoenix that is the layout. Erm, no actually. The baseboards and all my wood is piled up in the concrete bunker that passes as a garage. The rest of everything has been transfered from boxes into nice damp proof plastic tubs. 24 of them to be exact. I managed to get an amazing deal from B&Q a while back and snapped up their entire stock for £2.50 each. I've got no space to set anything up and with all the 'additional unforseen' costs of the move, my dream train shed is on hold for the forseeable future.

In my infinite crap luck, it turns out that the advertised 5' from the back seats to the door in my Freelander actually turns out to be 4' 10" once the stupid junk holder in the back door is taken into account. The result is the baseboards that I oh so carefully measured to fit the 'official' Landrover measurements with 1" to spare are actually 1" too bloody long to fit. Of course I didn't find this out until I actually went to move the blasted things to the new house.

Do I move the existing layout onto shorter baseboards, or just start again? Do I carry on and get a trailer for the LR? What do I do for the next 12 - 18 months until I finally get my shed built? Decisions, decisions. I was hoping to catch up on some other projects but I'm suffering layout withdrawl. Does anyone actually read my drivel?

All Change

Sadly its nearing the time when I will have to dismantle the layout and start packing everything prior to our house move. At the moment it looks like I will be without modelling space for several months. (insert lame model building withdrawl comment here)

In a way this will allow me to get caught up on some other projects that have been languishing. In the case of some of the EMU stock to be run on the layout, they have been sitting part built and sitting for over 6 years. When we moved to the UK it was necessary to create a manifest of everything we shipped for insurance purposes. I whipped up a small database containing every loco, wagon, coach, kit, and bit that was to be brought along. I kept up this inventory and can say that I'm the proud owner of 86 unbuilt kits of varying size and complexity. I also have to my shame 27 part built kits. Surely this can't be normal. Do other modellers have box upon box of half completed wagons, or building kits?
I'm hoping this imposed layout building moratorium will spur me on to getting some of these completed.



Top of my get it finished list are 3 Heljan Class 47s in Cotswold Rail livery. The first has been renamed 'Joe Strummer', the second is 'John Peel'. (in the pic) I'm still waiting for Shawplan to make 'Captain Sensible' nameplates. I started by renumbering 'Joe' over 2 years ago. I finally got round to adding all the buffer beam details and starting on the other 2 locos. Once I get the last nameplate, they will all get a light weathering. These locos won't have any place on the layout but it this was a project I started before settling on the time period. Hopefully they'll find service on the club layout, if they ever get around to building a 'modern image' one. They've been talking about it for years. mmmm, maybe a collection of unbuilt and part-built kits isn't so unusal.

Thar be Giants

This past weekend was a train fanatic's dream for me. First a trip to the Beckenham club's annual exhibition to meet up with some wonderful old friends on Saturday. We then spend the rest of the day at the Bull's Head Pub's second annual Real Ale Festival, and rounded it out with a fast (too fast) last minute visit to the Uckfield exhibition.

However, the icing on the cake had to be Sunday's trip to the Bluebell. It was their Giant's of Steam weekend and they didn't disappoint.

Shameless plug:

http://andrewsrailphotos.fotopic.net/c1395343.html

This was my first time out with the new camera. What a difference a decent Digital SLR makes over my old Canon.