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.

Trainspotter spotting #1 in a series

Most of the model railway enthusiasts / hobbyists I know are nice well adjusted social animals. You know, normal people. 2.4 children, etc etc. Good people that just like trains.

However there seems to be a rather large percentage of nutters in this hobby. Far more than in the general populace. What is it about model railways that attracts the strange and unusual. On that note here is the first part of a spotters guide to identifying the strange and socially inept within the hobby.

#1: The Gnome.

Just about anyone that has ever exhibited or wandered about an exhibition will have encountered a Gnome. They are easily identifiable:

Short
Bearded
Lacking in personal hygiene
Opinionated
Loud
Boorish
Arrogant

These are the types that see only in monochrome. Everything is black or white. If they own something it must be perfect, if not its total crap and must be avoided at all costs. It is a brave soul that dares confront the gnome. The gnome will belittle and insult anyone that doesn't conform to their ideal. If you are into DCC and the gnome owns a ZTC system, your Lenz setup will have scorn poured upon it. If you model 1960's first generation diesels, and the gnome is a technicolor post-privatisation fan, you will be branded a Luddite. If you have a Heljan Class 47 and he likes the Bachmann model, you will be treated like a plague victim. There is no way of winning against the gnome. Your only defence is to ignore it and hope he will expire in the same fashion as Rumpelstiltskin.

The gnome is the self appointed God of all that he opines about. The gnome is also most easily recognised by the fact that he spends so much time pontificating on the one missing rivet in the latest Bachbypol wagon that he hasn't actually managed to do any modelling himself.

These days with the internet, gnomes have managed to spread their negativity around the world. Sadly this has given rise to the ÜberGnome. This new breed of gnome sees themselves as the self acclaimed voice of the hobby and last word on everything and anything do do with model railways.

To see what a typical ÜberGnome is like check out: http://www.electricnose.co.uk

Rather silly, sad, and pathetic isn't it?
My only question is will he ever manage to get beyond modelling the plywood-prairie Central RR? Or will he forever bore us with his modelling exploits of taking a new RTR out of the box and yelling at it?

Going Underground

Way back in 2002 I started what was going to be my magnum opus. Moore Street was to be a South London 4 track main line on viaduct, complete with a fully working tube station. The underground was to be a set of 3 separate boards that would bolt on to the underside of the main layout.
Sadly the main layout never got past the construction of the first couple of baseboards due to far too many house moves. I did however get the tube station partially finished. Since the move to the UK and the shelving of Moore Street due to lack of space, the 3 boards that make up the underground have been sitting, shrinkwrapped and unused. One day I will revive it but for now here is a peek at what had been done.



The tunnel walls are formed of split sections of 4" diameter pvc pipe. The track is hand built using C&L Finescale with brass section for the centre rail supports, and Peco insulators. Lighting is from Miller Engineering. The tiling and other decoration was hand drawn in Photoshop with the addition of maps and adverts. You can't see it in this image but the tube map actually does contain 'Moore Street'. Its on the Northern Line between Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway. The actual artwork was produced in 16mm scale and reduced before printing to give a 4mm scale wall.

Ballast

Its become a running gag with some of us that just about every article in every publication contains a paragraph about how the author put down his track ballast. Even if the article isn't about track or a layout, it will have a paragraph devoted to the fine art of ballasting. Everyone of these says basically the same thing, 'ballast was sprinkled and brushed onto the track, then glued down with a mixture of water, pva, and a drop of washing up liquid." I don't think there is a modeller on the planet that hasn't chanted that mantra in their sleep at some point.

Just to be contrary, my technique is a bit different. Ballast is a mixture of different shades of Woodland Scenics fine. Normally used for N gauge track. Once its in place I mist the track with isopropyl. This has the advantage of 'wetting' the ballast but without the side effect of bubbles that can occur when using washing up liquid. I use diluted carpenter's glue instead of PVA as it removes the tendency of pva to colour the ballast with a greenish tinge. The green tinge is great if you are modelling northern Montana where the ballast is either green or red depending on the quarry it came from, not so good for the UK. I also colour the water that I use with a couple of drops of India Ink before adding the glue. This adds shadows to the ballast while not killing off the colour variations that occur naturally.

The picture shows what it looks like after the glue has dried but before the excess has been hoovered up. mmm, looks like the rails need a touchup.

One step forward?

One of the things about modelling is we tend to get into the habit of doing the same techniques for things. Take scenery for example. My tried and trusted method was to form styrofoam to the required contours, roll on a layer of dry mod-roc and then brush it down with a wet paint brush. I then followed this up with a thin layer of plaster mixed with Woodland Scenics pigment to prevent chips showing through as bright white. Grass has been represented with the once common dyed surgical lint glued fuzzy side down and ripped up to give a fine grassy effect.

This is what the colliery board looked like on June 9 2006. Am I the only one that is this messy during construction?

The same area 2 days later, after being ballasted, styrofoamed, plastered, and treated to a top dressing of surgical lint. For some reason it never satisfied me. I left the scenery for a while and caught up on some other projects.

Then, a couple of months ago I started to experiment with Silflor mats. I've now replaced half the original lint with Silflor mats. As you can see the difference is amazing. The field in the foreground looks far better in my opinion. Time to save my pennies for a few more rolls.

Joe Fugate's scenery clinic is an excellent resource. While its American based most of the techniques and concepts are applicable to the UK.
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=73c541519c3440173bb8ce50aa8de57d&t=2385

Bluebell 125

For those of you that forgot the link to my Bluebell pics.

http://andrewsrailphotos.fotopic.net/c1395828.html

Edit: updated 25/10/07. Had to recreate my fotopic collections. New URL.

Mobile test

Just playing with my mobile

Promises, Promises

To the couple of you that actually read my dribblings, an apology for letting things slip for the past 7 weeks. Work, life, holidays, yadda yadda yadda.

Seriously, things have been manic in my little corner of SE12 lately. The modelling is at a standstill thanks to our lease not being renewed and all of the carnage that moving preparations tend to inflict on one's spare time. Now things have settled to a dull roar and the move has now been pushed back until next spring I make these promises.

1: I promise to update my ramblings on a regular basis.
2: I promise to take some up to date photos of the layout progress. I now have a decent digital.
3: Lastly to Mr. Exhibition Manager, I promise I will have this thing ready for the June Show, Honest.

Here is the state of progress on the layout.

Boards and trackbed complete
track down and test run
wiring complete with point position feedback, complete
Signalling panel (PanelPro) complete and fully working
Scenery on the colliery board, about 50% complete
Ballasting 25%. Complete with diluted PVA and a drop of washing up liquid.

Bored of Boards

Finally catching up with the posts I've written over the past month.

One of the worst parts of building a model railway has to be the baseboards. Bulky heavy nasty things. Woodworking was always my worst subject.

A few years ago I came across the Wandle Valley railway built in S scale by Mike Watts. His boards are brilliant. It consists of a honeycomb of thin ply within a frame which in turn supports a layer of styrofoam SM.

Since I needed multiple levels an open frame was required and the styrofoam wasn't appropriate. The solution was to blend Mike's honeycomb with Barry Norman's ply girder frame construction and use thin ply for the tops. The results can be seen below.

The three boards are each 59" by 29" allowing them to have sides added for protection when being transported while still staying inside a 5' by 2'6" footprint.

Legs are another big pain in the bum. Rather than fiddle about with bits of wood and cross braces, nuts, bolts, lengths of string, etc, etc, etc, I simply picked up a couple of pairs of Stanley folding saw horses.

The beauty of these are they have pre-formed holes in the top. These holes are perfect for mounting a wood spacers of varying thicknesses. This in turn allows me to adjust the height of the layout. With no spacer the board tops are 34" above the floor. By adding a spacer this height can be boosted to 42"

My woodworking still sucks but these are solid, level, and weigh in at less than 5kg each. Once the track and scenery are added the whole layout will still weigh less than 20kg. (not including the legs) All I need to do now is build the rest of it.

Not So Grand Designs

In a previous life I had a job that could be best described as mind numbingly dull. To pass the time and stop what passes for my brain from mutating into a cauliflower I spent many hours doodling layout designs and track plans on bits of scrap paper. None of these ever saw the light of day but it did keep me sane.

Trying to come up with a layout plan that would meet my desires but still fit in a garage, nearly did the opposite.

For this as yet un-named layout the following criteria were specified:

• 15'by 2'6" was the max space available.


• Minimum handling of stock, so no cassettes for storage.


• No space for a sector plate, so the fiddleyard would have to be incorporated into the 15' by 2'6" footprint.


• Adjustable height to make construction easier, but so it could be elevated for exhibitions.


• Lightweight boards and no bloody screws,bolts, or other bits of hardware needed to setup or dismantle.


• Fully DCC operated (as have my past several projects have been) but with a twist. This time the addition of a laptop to allow one operator to work as a signalman. All points and signals to be interlocked.

For the layout itself, its planned as Southern region in the mid 1950's. The track plan shows what is really 2 layouts in one. First there is a semi self contained shunting puzzle which will be a working coal facility. This will allow the layout to have something moving at all times during exhibitions. One of the most common gripes heard when wandering about a show is 'nothing is moving'. The other half of the layout is a conventional terminus based on a slightly twisted Swanage, with an additional siding serving a canal.

These days there are all sorts of books on layout designs and software packages for designing layouts. Being a tight arse I decided to try Right Track from Atlas. Its a free download. After tying my self in knots with its flex-track options, I finally came to grips with it. The image is taken from its 3-d view. Still can't figure out why some of the track is black and some grey. Oh well, it beats doodling on little notepads and beer mats.

Finally back on track

After a month of mucking about with ISP changes, work commitments, and weekends away, its time to get down business.

Exhibition Review - The Chatham Show

From time to time I'm going to put my thoughts and a few pics of the various model railway exhibitions I visit.

For the past several years the Chatham & District Model Railway Club has been organising a June show in one of the buildings in the Chatham Historical Dockyard. This has grown in to one of if not the largest show in Kent. A quick count shows 50 traders, 9 societies, and 29 working layouts.

SWMBO and I arrived mid day and started wandering the aisles. The layout of the traders and exhibits was good with lots of aisle space. Something too many shows lack. I did notice the area used this year was smaller than the 2006 show.

In my mind one of the most interesting layouts was the Dam Railway by Chelmsford Model Railway Club


I wonder if they got tired of hearing "this is the best dam layout I've seen" .

Another excellent layout, and one we've seen before is the 7mm scale 'Rottingdean'. Its layouts like this that tempt me towards the dark side of larger scale modelling.

Overall its a very good show. Well organised, well signposted, and at £6.00 for adults, good value for the money.

As for shopping, I came away with some nameplates and a Churchward LSWR signal box kit. A blow by blow of my first attempt at soldering up a building kit will come in the future.

A couple of pints of Goachers in the Britannia wrapped up a great day out.

Virgin Media = steaming pile of poo

This was supposed to be so easy to do. I mean how hard is it to write something and plop it up onto a blog. No such luck. Coming between me, my modelling time, and getting this blogging stuff off the ground is a big bad useless corporation.

I'm talking of course about Virgin Media. (nee NTL, aka NTHell)

Once upon a time we had NTL for our home cable TV and phone. They didn't offer broadband in our area. When we moved we were able to get it and decided to drop BT and go with a single company. Shortly after that our troubles began.

Here is a short history of our dealings with the pile of poo that is Virgin/NTL

First they send out 2 engineers on 2 different days 2 weeks apart. Was this some sort of throw back to 70s unionism? Is it not possible for the man who unwraps and plugs the cable box into the wall to also unwrap the cable modem and plug it into the wall? Do they have to have different certificates for opening different sized cardboard boxes.

Afer a couple of months of up and down (working not working) service we were told that all the cable would need re-pulling.........................

bla bla bla bla.................

One year later, and its still as flakey as a box of corn based breakfast cereal. We're on the 4th cable box, 3rd modem, had the cable repulled after half a dozen non-starts. There have been 6 booked appointments where they simply didn't show up, but have the gall to repeatedly warn you on the phone of a £10 charge if they are kept waiting.

This past week the broadband has been going off roughly every 2 hours like clockwork. Virgin's stock answer is to stall and book an appointment for an engineer that may or more likely won't show up. If he does, it will be when the bloody thing is working. He will test the signal strength, say its fine, then bugger off for lunch. Not bad work if you can get it.

I know why they rebranded as Virgin, because like most virgins, they just don't give a f**k!

Normal postings to resume.

Here's one I made earlier

This isn't the first model railway I've built. Over the past 25 years or so, I've created and exhibited 8 different layouts. Either by my self or with a small group of others. This was the last one to be shown.






It started life as a small end to end, but eventually grew into a bit of a topsy. There lies mistake number one. If you plan on expanding something that is essentially complete, make sure you plan ahead. In hindsite, I would have taken better notes about what colours I used for the ballast, weathering, grass, etc. In the end I had to separate the new from the old with a set of arches and a bridge so the changes in pallet wouldn't be so noticable.

This project taught me many things. Hopefully I will avoid those screwups this time around.

Who? What? Where? When? Why?

Who would write about being a model railway enthusiast? Well as a brief introduction, I'm quasi-normal, married, in my 40's. An IT consultant that just likes to build things with his hands after spending 50 - 60 hours a week creating virtual things. I've always had an interest in the mechanics and operation of trains. Not to the compulsive extremes of some, but enough to make it my hobby of choice. I've lived and worked in Canada, the US, and the UK. One of the things that has persuaded me to write is the big difference in the way the hobby is seen on both sides of the Atlantic.

What am I writing about? The idea is to chronicle the building of a model railway with the intent on exhibiting it one day. I'm hoping to capture a diary of all the trials and tribulations. Warts and all. Maybe I can convince some that we aren't all lunatics. Maybe it will help someone else from making the same mistakes that I have made, and will continue to make. Maybe, just maybe it will give a few people a good laugh as well.

Where? My garage in SE London.

When? Over the next couple of years as I go from a pile of wood to a 3 dimensional working sculpture. (sounds bloody pretentious)

Why a blog about a trainset? Hell, why a trainset? What is it about grown men 'playing' with trains that brings derision and labels of anorak or geek?

Why on the west side of the Atlantic ocean does 'Model Railroader' on one's CV represent a positive aspect to your personality. Why, in the UK doing the same would get you branded as a sad freak? Why the big difference?

Is it just playing trains, or is it something a bit more? Can a reasonably normal person survive in a hobby that in the UK seems to be infested with Roy Cropper clones?

Before anyone asks, no I don't own a knit cardigan, no I don't have an anorak, no I don't stand on railway platforms with a soggy pork pie and a bottle of Tizer, and no I don't drive an old Ford Anglia.