The greatest train journey on earth

Posted on October 31, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

Excellent article from the Daily Telegraph on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Trans-Siberian is more than just a railway. It’s a journey into the psyche of modern Russia; a triumph of engineering; a movable feast through the largest – and, perhaps, most mysterious – nation on Earth

Crossing seven time zones, between Moscow and Vladivostok, the 5,772-mile train track blazes a trail through some of the bleakest and most beautiful landscapes on Earth.

In an epoch of low-cost air fares, the world’s longest railway continues to exert a hold over travellers; it still tops bucket lists, still pulls in the tourists. It also remains a lifeline for millions of Russians.

Completed in October 1916 – exactly 100 years ago – the Trans-Siberian Railway helped shape the Russia we know today, though its influence can be felt much further afield, not least in Japan, China and Europe.

Winston Churchill famously described Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” – words that still, perhaps, ring true today. A journey aboard the Trans-Siberian won’t necessarily solve that riddle, but it will certainly help make sense of this furtive nation.

Welcome aboard.

I’d love to do this trip, but prices start at £10,295.  That’s a couple of holidays plus a lot of N-gauge stock, even at today’s prices!

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That was the week, that was…..

Posted on October 29, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

Well, it’s been quite some week……

The new budgie has been named ‘Busta’, as he spends his whole time trying to break out of his cage…..

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And sit on the lampshade…..

Chantelle, my youngest, completed her music course at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, having deferred it for over a year due to illness.  All delivered with half an hour to spare at 2:30pm, having picked the dissertation up from the bookbinders.  I think she only had 2 hours sleep last night, and finished an essay in the car to upload at ACM…. Still, she got there, and it should be good enough to get her degree. I am now less stressed!

She did a final set at ACM for her exams, and this was excellent.  Forgive the proud father who has attached the YouTube video (20 minutes), taken on my phone…..

And on the principle – if you want something done, give it to a busy man – I’ve made a lot of progress on my N-club module.  More photos to follow, and it should be seen in the flesh (without the snow scene) at the Stuttgart meet….

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Impact of BREXIT – increasing prices

Posted on October 27, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

I commented a while back:

The immediate result of a weak pound will put the cost of USA, European and Japanese models up.  And of course, where are British models made – China – so we’ll see yet another price hike for Farish and Dapol!

Dapol have just announced price rises.  It’s even reached the BBC:

Model train prices are rising because of pound’s devaluation

The pound’s recent devaluation after June’s Brexit vote has already led to some price rises, and model railways are one business feeling the effects.  Early in October, the leading manufacturer Hornby told retailers that wholesale prices for many of its trains would rise by an average of 10%….

Similarly, the small Welsh model train manufacturer Dapol has warned that the fall in the pound has affected the company “severely” and that the costs of all its imported products have risen between 10% and 20% since 23 June.

“We were hoping that the situation would stabilise and that the pound would regain some of its fallen value,” said Dapol managing director Joel Bright.  “It is now clear that this is not going to be the case and perhaps a weaker pound is here for the longer term. As a consequence, we now need to recoup these increased costs from imported goods.”

Another big model train manufacturer is Bachmann, now owned by a Chinese firm which makes the models in that country, and though it has not revealed its hand it will find it hard to resist the effect of the pound’s devaluation

I liked one of the pictures in the piece: “The way model trains used to be”.  Not that bad, really – you can see what it’s a model of.

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Maybe it’s time to buy those bargains you were wondering about NOW.

 

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Could it be real?

Posted on October 25, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

From the Suffolk Gazette, via N Gauge Forum:

Hornby celebrates Greater Anglia franchise with Rail Replacement Bus Set

Could it be an inspired release by the ailing Hornby company?  Maybe the article’s author’s name gives a clue…..

EXCLUSIVE
By Casey Jones, Railways Correspondent

And the illustration of the box is pure genius.  Perhaps the spelling is a giveaway that this is not quite for real…..

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However, it still has potential.

Model railway giant Hornby has celebrated Greater Anglia’s franchise win with a special Rail Replacement Bus Set.  The limited edition double-decker bus can be placed next to any Greater Anglia station – providing hours of playtime fun as you imagine frustrated travellers cramming on board for a trip to London.

Each set comes with two buses, a hate mob of passengers, harassed staff, a section of broken track – and even a tannoy so the mob can be controlled.

A Hornby insider told the Suffolk Gazette: “Ever since Frank Hornby started the company in 1901 we have sought to produce the most lifelike rail models in the world. Greater Anglia is quite a challenge, however, because it does not have many trains that actually work properly.  We tried recreating antiquated units that broke down all the time, but couldn’t do it. Then our product team came up with the idea of a Rail Replacement Bus Set, given that Greater Anglia seems to use so many of them – especially at weekends.”

Mind you, I’m not sure what they’d include in a Southern Railways themed set….

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Epic railway FAIL

Posted on October 23, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

From the Daily Telegraph.

Noel Gallagher snubbed Trainspotting soundtrack ‘as he thought film was about railway enthusiasts’

Noel Gallagher missed out on featuring on the soundtrack for Trainspotting because he thought the film was about railway enthusiasts, it has emerged.

Director Danny Boyle was said to be desperate for Gallagher and his band Oasis to do a song for the 1996 movie starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle and Ewen Bremner.  The soundtrack of the film became a huge hit and featured fellow Britpop bands Blur and Pulp as well as US music stars Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.

However, the singer-songwriter turned down the chance to feature in the film about Edinburgh heroin addicts as he did not want to be associated with a film he thought was about train spotters…..

Fleming then said: “I met Noel at a thing the other week and he said to me: ‘I would have done something, but honestly I thought it was about train spotters. I didn’t know.’ That’s what he actually said.”

It’s sad when we have stars such as Rod Stuart, Neil Young and Phil Collins well established in the hobby, and Pete Waterman running a company producing superb ‘O’ gauge kits…..  But Oasis are not up to scratch….

Depress yourself and read the whole article.

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ESNG meeting – 19 October 2016

Posted on October 21, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

The treasurer was beside himself this evening – 14 or was it 15 members present and all that money to collect.  Good numbers made for a very pleasant evening, with plenty of trains running, and time to talk to people – including planning for Stuttgart – and just watch the trains go by.

I ran my two Dapol Class 33’s in for a while (one with a yellow warning panel and one without.)  I seem to have a couple of good ones as they both moved very smoothly and quietly out of the box.

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Apart from my running we had a good variety of European and American models on the tracks.

Planning for next year’s exhibition is now going well.  I’ve put together a hopefully final layout for the halls, and have managed to link together the N-mod, N-club and Alpenbahn systems into a cohesive system.  I hope it will all fit…. show1 show2

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Another N-gauge coupler development – this time from Europe

Posted on October 19, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

I  came across this blog , UK based but describing a French fine scale ‘N’ layout.  And it had a very interesting post on ‘N’ gauge couplers.

N-tram are the doyen of European brass models, in N-m and N.  They are often horribly expensive, but the models are exquisite.  The most interesting part of the range is perhaps the N-gauge track and even more interesting, their tram track.  This is laser cut with all the setts between the track.  Their web-site is in German, but easy to understand or translate.

Back to the couplers…..

Essentially, they are a minimal version of the traditional hook and bar type coupling, but done so finely that they are very unobtrusive in this scale. They seem to couple and hold very well, and what’s more, compared with some of the alternatives, they are very easy to assemble.

They consist of moulded bar and an etched hook, which simply has to be engaged with a pin on the shank of the coupling and then inserted into a standard NEM coupling pocket. I did manage to break a couple before I realised that the hook does not clip-engage with the pin and is simply held in place when the coupling is inserted into its housing.

Uncoupling is either by magnet above or ramp beneath.

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They do look much better than the traditional Rapido coupler, and almost as unobtrusive as the DG / B&B coupler, with less work to install them.  Perhaps the only issue may be that they look as if they will work best on larger radius curves.

I may just get a set to see what they are like…..

Read more in the blog, and on the N-Tram site.

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A couple of quotes

Posted on October 17, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

A couple of quotes from the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum that caught my eye…..

“Watch out for rabbit holes”:

One of the reasons model railroading is the World’s Greatest Hobby is that it’s actually a number of different hobbies, all working together toward one grand goal. The only problem is that’s it’s All Too Easy to go too far down the path of one particular aspect of the hobby. Before you know it – you’re down a Rabbit Hole.

The latest rabbit hole pleasant diversion I’ve found myself pursuing is “superdetailing my sound” using ESU’s LokProgrammer. You can read more about it here if you like.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying my time down with the rabbits (though the ones with sharp, pointy teeth are a little annoying…)

It seems important to differentiate between ‘Rabbit Holes’ and ‘Pleasant Diversions’.  Sometimes a little modelling in another scale or of another railway company can built up ones enthusiasm for the main project.  On the other hand, one must avoid the positive diversion….  Or there again, maybe not?  Sometimes a completely new challenge is needed!

Then there are “The Perils of Progress”:

Sometimes rapid progress can be a bad (ish) thing.

Over the last two days, I’ve run out of wood glue, spackle, wire for feeders, and rail joiners!  Oh well looks like a couple of shopping trips are in order.

I’m suffering from the same perils this week, as I get back into modelling.  A couple of parcels have arrived with bits and pieces for a new project (yet to be revealed, but it involves all those containers from TINGS and the SCNF cinema car.)  I’ve also had a couple of emergency visits to the do-it-yourself and hobby shops to buy things that I thought I had in stock (but no doubt will find later.)

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An interesting N-gauge coupler development

Posted on October 15, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

A very interesting development from MicroTrains – the ‘True-Scale’ N-gauge coupler.  The pictures below shows how good these look (photos MTL.)  They also have the advantage over using ‘Z’ gauge couplers in ‘N’ that they have no springs and ‘slinky’ effect.  Information here.

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Perhaps the only catch to them is that they will couple automatically, but need to be uncoupled manually with a ‘pick’ of some kind.  I like to do this anyway, as it allows one to spot wagons wherever one wants, without another visit over the uncoupling magnet.  The dummy air pipes are for show only, and look pretty realistic.  They also have a lot of potential for fitting to UK EMUs, DMUs and coaching sets for fixed rakes.

Supplies seem to be limited at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll be generally available before long.

Long discussion thread for the dedicated here and here.

And see how to fit them with this video….

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A small shunting layout

Posted on October 13, 2016 by snitchthebudgie

Model Railroad Hobbyist has a very nice ‘shunting plank’ in its October edition.  It’s in ‘O’ gauge, but the dimensions are a very reasonable 11’- 6” x 17’–19” with a 6’ removable extension for operation.  Note that this converts to an even more reasonable size in 2mm based scales. It’s also based on a real location:

Though I am not a prototype modeler, I like my layouts to be based on real locations, especially the track design. The track plan of my Cleveland Flats layout is closely based on the real location. To draw the plan, I took an aerial shot from Google Maps and scaled it down to 1:48 to take measurements.

The track plan is simple, but satisfying in that there is plenty of interest in its layout, and is scenically interesting with the two road crossings – and that will also make things interesting operationally, to avoid leaving waggons on the crossing when switching.

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Detailing is neat and lightly weathered – perhaps it could use a little more grime, but that comes back to personal preference – do we model is as it was, or as we’d like to remember it.  All the stock has added detail, or has been scratch-built.  These two photos, culled from the MRH give the impression.

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The author, Kurt Matthey, comments…..

To be honest, I would not mind having a little more space available to build a layout, but I also see the merits of such a small layout. To build and even finish it doesn’t take ages, it can easily be moved and stored, and the costs are manageable. The best thing, though, is that you can have a lot of fun on a small shelf, even with big O scale trains.

It’s an inspirational piece of work, and another small layout plan to consider for the future (along with all the others!)

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