ESNG PlayDay – 8 March 2015 #1

Posted on March 10, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Our second ‘PlayDay’ of the year went as well as the first one in January.  So some statistics first, then some pictures and videos, and some more in a second post.  9 members and two friends attended and we had a very relaxed afternoon running trains followed by the usual curry.  The morning in Redhill had dawned cloudless, and like Saturday looked like it was going to be a lovely spring day.  I was beginning to feel guilty that I was going to play trains and not go for a healthy walk with my better half.  However by 2pm, it had clouded over and there was some drizzle in the air – for once this was entirely welcome.

So we got a quickly got a larger than usual circuit up an running, with some extra modules.  Dave brought along his dual gauge quarry, Derek ‘Eightfoot’ and his junction board and Allan the speedo board.  Adding two dashboards, we ended up with a 17′ x 9′ circuit – good for letting trains stretch their legs a little.

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The slowest thing recorded by the speedometer board was Miles’ hand…..

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First the club record.  Paul’s Japanese goods train got up to 112 vehicles, including a mid-train helper.  The larger circuit made it easier to keep things on the track and not pulled off across the corners.  Everyone talked about the phenomenal pulling power of the Kato Japanese locos.  However, we replaced the head loco with a Farish ‘O8’ 0-6-0 shunter, and it still moved the lot….

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The fiddle yard wasn’t as full as it could have been, but there were some interesting trains on show.  I finally (after 5 years) gave my Hymek a run…..

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Ian and Alex’s Allan’s Deltic (credit where credit’s due) looks good on the main line and passing through Dave’s quarry (despite the 1:1 scale glasses).

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More next time!

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Shunting scrabble

Posted on March 8, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

I am always impressed by the realistic operation of US model railroads, compared to what we do in the UK (see my recent post on ‘Time’).  I even recently read a Model Railroad Hobbyist article where the layout had padlocks on the point controls, so they had to be unlocked before operation, just like the real thing.

However, this idea culled from the 2mm Association Yahoo group is just light years ahead of anything that realistic….

There is always shunting scrabble (usually played at shows to avoid boredom)

Wagons have a letter tacked on the non public visible side.  Trains of wagons arrive and the goal is to send back completed words with the highest score. Wagons are also arranged so that common wagons have common letters while Z, Q etc are unusual one offs.

With thanks to Alan Cox.

This was also reposted on the esoteric site, ‘Motorised Dandruff’, and it attracted this inciteful comment….

How do you score a triple?  Have two trains collide at a crossing?

 

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ESNG meeting – 5 February 2015

Posted on March 6, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

I think this evening has been coming for some time.  At 7:30 there were only four members present, so we retreated to armchairs and waited for reinforcements.  Even the Cha(i)rman had cried off with a cold, so there was no milk for the tea.

Two more members did roll up eventually, but we had decided not to put a circuit up for the meeting.  Of course, we also had a visitor turn up to see what we did on a club night.  Not a lot in this case, but we had a good chat, debating the contents, or rather lack of contents, of the Bachmann 2020-2021, sorry, 2015-2016 catalogue.  We wondered how anyone could charge £8 to announce that very little was being produced.  Graham, hope you come back for the PlayDay Sunday afternoon!

China factories have been a problem for all model railway companies, USA, UK and Europe (even Japan and Kato have slowed production of international models).  But we thought that our UK manufacturers have lost the drive they had in the past.  Perhaps it’s a desire to make more accurate models, but in the past, Grafar would make a mould of a prototype, and generate as many versions and liveries as possible from it.  Perhaps a few of them would be slightly wrong in detail, but most ‘N’ gauge modellers would be delighted to have something very close to correct in the livery they want.

A good example is the Bachmann-Farish 4-CEP unit.  There are a whole range of liveries that could be reasonably accurately applied, including the Network Southeast ‘toothpaste’ and the ‘Jaffa cake’ liveries.  And a small amount of tooling would make a buffet car for a 4-BEP unit.  Surely most of us with a 4-CEP would go out and buy a 4-BEP?

Come Sunday, I’ll hopefully be running my latest Ebay capture, a nice three car set of Farish BR Suburban coaches in crimson.  ESNG members, see you there!

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If M. C. Escher had photoshop?

Posted on March 4, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Once again, not quite ‘N’ gauge, but I couldn’t resist reposting these photoshop specials.  Mind you, a couple of them look like some scenery I’ve seen on layouts on the exhibition circuit (though the tip for backscenes looks a good one)….

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And if you don’t know who M.C. Escher was (as I didn’t) you will recognise the picture below.  There’ll be a special prize at the AGM for anyone who can do this in plastikard….

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Adventures in time and place #2 – Location, location, location

Posted on March 2, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

A number of recent blogs and articles have had me thinking not only about time, but also about place.  There are two aspects to this – can the location of your model railway be identified before a train arrives – and secondly why model this location anyway.

It seems that we have got much better at location.  When I was modelling as a kid, one was grateful to be able to model a train that was of the correct region and period without too much scratchbuilding.  You would also try and get railway buildings and signals correct, but beyond that, it didn’t seem to matter too much.

There were, of course, plenty of pioneers whose layout gave a consistent picture of location – even without going to the wonderful lengths of the Pendon layouts.  But it seems to me that we have all raised our standards.  We are much more aware of the correct architecture for a region, the road vehicles that would be in period, the local industries, geology and land forms.  In larger scales one might even consider local crops, plants and trees.

All this builds into a recognisable picture of a place, without a train in sight.

And the second question is, ‘why build this model in the first place?’  Reading the modelling magazines, people come up with all sorts of reasons.  Sometimes, an unusual prototype captures the imagination.  A photograph or book inspires a model.  But most often, I guess, one is attracted by the railways you knew in years past.

For my part, my interest in the Southern Railway comes from my ancestors Somerset heritage, and being brought up in the south-east commuter belt.  Railways ought to have lots of EMUs, and run on brick viaducts.  I like non-passenger rolling stock, be it full brake coaches, parcels stock or horse boxes.  Why?  Train journeys in my teenage years were spent looking for old vehicles, and most of these were venerable vans and full brake coaches parked on sidings under the viaducts.

My American interest perhaps was a pragmatic choice, as the models looked and ran so much better than the UK ones of the time.  Why Lehigh Valley?  It seemed (and still seems) a Class 1 railroad of manageable proportions.  I was inspired by a number of photos, and decided that Alco’s were just the best .  But my musical interests in rock and blues gave me trans-Atlantic interests.  Isle of Wight and Irish narrow gauge?  I think I was and still am charmed by both!

I think what I am trying to say is that I need some link with what I build.  Some people seem able to build models for building sake alone.  I think I need more that that, and I need to draw on this inspiration to keep my interest in my hobby.

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What colour(s) is track?

Posted on February 28, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

I’m getting to the stage when I will need to start painting and ballasting the track on my modules.  Looking at the albums I have in my possession, one can see that it’s not a matter of a spray of track colour and a little rust.  For example….

  • New ballast may be grey, old ballast is dirty brown, but the initial colour may vary depending on the geographical location of the line and hence the source of the gravel – especially in the USA.  It’s not like the Southern Railway in the UK, where most of the ballast, I believe, came from Meldon Quarry in the West Country.
  • Sidings, especially little used sidings, may not appear to be ballast, but just have dirt infilled to the top of the sleepers.
  • Rails quickly rust, but it’s a dark brown, not a bright rust colour.
  • Sleepers (ties) on the main line may be ‘wood’ colour.  As they age, they fade, and old sleepers on sidings may be closer to grey than brown.

Having got this basic finish, it will then be further coloured by:

  • A strip of oil between the rails, especially where locos stand for any length of time.
  • Brake dust where fitted trains apply the anchors.
  • Coal around steam locomotive facilities.
  • Sand around any locomotive facilities.
  • Minerals of all sorts of colours in sidings for industries.
  • Grass between the tracks.

I stood on Earlswood station this morning looking at the 4 lines through the station.  This is a bog standard Southern EMU line, with concrete sleepers, but there were all sorts of bits and pieces lying about, from rail, to cable, not to mention the track cabling and the lilac bushes (that were stained a dark brown) trying to survive between the fast and slow lines.  I must take a photo and post it sometime soon.

There have been some interesting pictures, from my usual suspects, recently on track detail.  Chris Mears at Prince Street Terminal posted this lovely picture of track at West Lebanon, New Hampshire, in the Claremont-Concord’s yard.  He says:

The older track is original in the yard while the freshly ballasted is a new siding recently added as a result of increased traffic.

It could equally be a main line and a siding.

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West Lebanon, New Hampshire, in the Claremont-Concord’s yard Photo: Chris Mears

At RMweb, ‘KH1’s blog has an article on realistic track including this picture of track near Harlech Castle, in Wales.

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near Harlech Castle – RMweb

The blog says….

I just love the track work and the details you can spot…. One of my pet hates on layouts is bright orange rails so to anyone who may be responsible I offer these pics of what a realistic colour actually is! The other thing I like is the way that the rust has leached out from the rails onto the ballast. Now this could be exaggerated because of the salt from the coastal location but it is a detail I have rarely seen on a model.

Finally, Mike Cougill on the OST blog talks on the subject, albeit for ‘O’ gauge not ‘N’ gauge.  But there are good thoughts for all scales here…

For decades the standard advice was paint the rails with Floquil Rail Brown, mix in some Grimy Black around turnouts and other special work like crossing diamonds and, splash a little Mud color around both sides of grade crossings. Job done, move on, what’s next?

Not so fast. There’s more to weathering track than three colors.

You can download a free PDF guide on ‘Weathering Track’ here.  Well worth a read, as indeed are the other two free guides he has available.  All are aimed at getting more realism and more fun from a small railroad.

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Tower Bridge under construction

Posted on February 26, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Not quite ‘N’ gauge, but a friend sent me a mail with a series of pictures of London’s iconic Tower Bridge under construction.  They are too good not to pass on.  Perhaps the only railway interest are the tracks for the steam crane being used for construction.  And the mess the site is in – they can’t have heard of ‘Elf and Sadie’.

All pictures belong to David Willoughby / Barcroft Media

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The longest train journey in the UK

Posted on February 24, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

What’s the longest train journey that you can do in the UK?  According to the Daily Telegraph it’s Aberdeen to Penzance in 13 and a half hours.

All you USA and Canada readers will laugh at this.  That’s just down the road to the corner shop when you are talking transcontinental at the speed of a North American passenger train.

This article describes the route and it sounds a lot more interesting than I suspect it really is.  I’ve plotted it on the map below.  I hope they didn’t leave the car in the station car park in Aberdeen.

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‘OO’ Locos – Jon’s old trains #4

Posted on February 22, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Last of my old ‘OO’ stock packed away were a number of Southern Railway locomotives.

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The two tank engines both run on the old Hornby ‘R1’ chassis.  The ex-LSWR  ‘G6’ on the left was my first cast kit (by Wills).  It has had several liveries, and the chassis is just about worn out after running for many real miles.  I was obviously trying to spruce up the body when I packed all these engines away, as the boiler seam had been refilled, and I’d added a shunter’s handrail to the bunker.  I have a nearly finished ‘O’ gauge G6 upstairs, and I’d like to build an ‘N Brass’ 2mm version.

The loco on the right is an ex-LBSCR E5, another Wills kit.  A later model, that still looks quite smart in Southern green.

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An early modelling success was my upgrade of the Triang Southern Railway ‘L1’.  One of Triang’s better models, it has had scale wheels fitted to loco and tender, new handrails and pipework, and a fair effort at a fully lined livery.  It looked the part, but despite the new wheels, could hardly pull the skin off a rice pudding, and tried to do it at 100 mph.

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Another Wills kit, the Southern ‘Q’ goods locomotive.  This was originally in lined green, but I’ve slopped some black over it at some time.  The loco has again been converted to run with ‘Romford’ scale wheels.  This wasn’t quite such a good job as the L1, as I think I bent a coupling rod slightly, and it wasn’t very free running.

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My perennial failure was this Wills LSWR ‘T9’.  It’s had several chassis, new coupling rods, several liveries, and never really ran properly.  All this was in the days before compensation, transferring weight from tender to locomotive through the draw bar and the like.  I might do a little better now (or probably just buy the excellent Hornby model).

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My father had all the same problems with his Wills LSWR ‘M7’, but managed to get it going rather better than I did.  He always was much more patient than his son….

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And after this came a dabble in EM gauge, then on to ‘O’.  This GER tram engine, dating from the early 1970’s, was a pre-formed plastic kit, with some added detail, running on a Lima motor bogie.  It goes like a rocket, quite unlike the original.  The plastic cowcatcher is broken at the far end, and the plastic roof is quite brittle, but it still looks the part.

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ESNG meeting – 18 February 2015

Posted on February 20, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

A genuinely quiet evening.  Only seven members turned up, maybe the school-half term holidays cut numbers a bit?  However, we quickly got a small circuit up and running.  Derek and Allan were both running the new Dapol Maunsell coaches.  A train of 2 coaches, a Southern utility van and an M7 0-4-4 all in Southern Railway livery looked very smart.  I’m still holding out for the Maunsells in BR livery.

Derek Apps changed the chassis in his GWR  0-4-2, as the original one had the wheels at different levels, that didn’t aid smooth running.  It was soon happily running around the circuit, but we rarely saw it, as it was mostly hidden behind Paul’s 73 wagon Japanese goods train.  This ran very well, with few derailments, providing a gap was left between the brake van and the train loco chasing its own tail.  You wouldn’t need a radio link between driver and guard – they could just use hand signals.

I tested my Bachmann ‘Doodlebug’, that is an Ebay purchase.  It runs well, and just needs repainting in Lehigh Valley colours.

We also had a look at a small layout, some stock, and other bits and pieces kindly donated to the club by the family of Michael Partington, an old member sadly no longer with us.  We’ll see what we can sell at the show, proceeds to the Stuttgart travel fund.

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