Pictures at an (ESNG) exhibition #1

Posted on April 13, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Another year, another exhibition negotiated.  And another moderate success, though I say so myself.  We cleared over 200 through the doors, and received plenty of positive comments from the visitors.  Perhaps the best complement was the length of time people stayed, talking to the exhibitors, shopping, and enjoying our superior coffee (confession – all the real ground coffee came from the Redhill pound-shop).

The day hadn’t started well, with a phone call at 6:10am from Dave Dawes, saying he was sick and couldn’t bring Dawes Creek along to the show (hope you’re better, Dave).  So I arrived at the hall at 7 to shuffle a few exhibits around to fill the space left by Dawes Creek.

This year was definitely a modular layout show.  We had three N-mod displays, our own layout, plus visits from the Berkshire and West Sussex groups of the N-gauge society.

ESNG

We’ll start with our own layout.  We had a general theme of ‘passenger trains of the world’ (plus a few goods), so we saw trains from UK, Germany, Hong Kong and the USA.

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Eric went Japanese this year, with a selection of Paul’s locomotives….

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Union Street was taking delivery of new Underground trains ready for the Olympics.

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I had to think hard where this shot was taken.  But it’s a bucolic moment on Raysden, without a single train in sight.

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Berkshire Group

I was a little worried whether the Berkshire Group layout would fit in a classroom, with room to view on three sides.  However, it went in with room to spare, allowing good views of the modelling on display.

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West Sussex Group

Many thanks to the West Sussex mob, who came along with a 20 foot end to end N-mod display at short notice, when another layout dropped out.

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Although I wondered whether I had too much N-mod on display, the layouts were appreciated by visitors.  There are always things on the move (for enthusiasts of all ages) and there was plenty of good modelling on display.

Next time, I’ll post some pictures of the other layouts on show.

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A cultural interlude

Posted on April 11, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Whilst we are slaving away at the ESNG show today, I present a cultural interlude (be grateful – you get precious little culture on this blog).

Phil sent me this poem.  He didn’t know to whom the verse is attributable, so apologies for not adding the author.

The End of The Line

The line has gone,
They’ve closed it down,
The gleaming rails have turned to brown,
The station’s closed, deserted, bare,
Decay and rubble everywhere.
Boarded windows, broken glass,
Platform garden choked with grass
And weeds (no prizes now).  An air
Of desolation and despair,
No busy, bustling, friendly life
( A single please, But how’s the wife?)
No chocolate in the slot machine
( One doubts if there has ever been )
No 4 – 6 – 2 ‘s, no steam, no smoke.
No slamming doors.  No busy folk
To spill from 1st’s and 3rd’s.  No greetings,
No waved farewells or lover’s meetings.
At night no distant whistle blows,
No red or green from oil lamps glows,
No twinkle from the signal box
To say she’s passed old Albert Fox
At Copse Hill Junction down the line
A minute late but doing fine
No down. No up, No fast, No slow,
The 10 – 15 went years ago.

Reading this took me back to secondary school days (must be getting old to remember this).  I recall English classes in my early years, where we had to learn and recite a poem.  Naturally, I combined my non-existent interest in poetry with a very real interest in railways and also in natural history and bird watching (once an anorak, always an anorak – really I just wanted a list to tick things off on).  So I learnt Adlestrop, by Edward Thomas.

Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop —
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop — only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Reading this is still special for me.  It invokes both train travel and the English countryside in my childhood and perhaps even before that.   That fount of all knowledge Wikipedia tells me that:

This small Gloucestershire village deep in the heart of the Cotswolds is renowned for its surrounding countryside and fine walks. Situated off the main A436 road between Stow-on-the-Wold and “The Greedy Goose” near Salford, Oxfordshire, it is an isolated community, with the village post office near the church being the main source of provisions and communication.

And….

Adlestrop was immortalised by Edward Thomas’s poem “Adlestrop” which was first published in 1917.  The poem describes an uneventful journey that Thomas took on 24 June 1914 on the Oxford to Worcester express; the train made an unscheduled stop at Adlestrop railway station. He did not alight from the train, but describes a moment of calm pause in which he hears “all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire”. The station closed in 1966; however, the village bus shelter contains the station sign and a bench that was originally on the platform. A plaque on the bench quotes Thomas’s poem.

I still can’t fault the poem, even if it is overtly Great Western!  Perhaps I might include the occasional cultural moment in coming posts…..

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What’s at the ESNG show?

Posted on April 8, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

With just three days to go, and with a number of last minute changes to the line-up, here’s what there is to see on Saturday.  Despite the changes, I think it will be a good show!

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Layouts

N-Mod (x3)
From its inception in 1997, ESNG has adopted the N-Mod system whereby individual members are given freedom to design their own modules, generally 4ft by 2ft to their personal liking, subject to an agreed specification for the interconnections to the four track

We have three N-Mod layouts on display today. These are our own modules, and layouts from the West Sussex and from the Berkshire groups of the N Gauge Society. These three layouts show a wide variety of modules, showing just what can be done in this format.

 Bleak Moor – Neil Cocksedge (ESNG member)
Based on the Settle to Carlisle route, the layout shows the railway in the wild and bleak Pennine landscape. A wide variety of trains will pass by, so settle down for a bit of train spotting or just watch the trains go by.

Oakhurst – Ian Sparshott (ESNG Member)
Oakhurst is a terminus station on an a ficticious preserved line. The line is home to a fleet of both steam and heritage diesels, with the mainline connection at Newbridge adding further traffic from incoming railtours.

Earl’s Wood – Jon Bartlett (ESNG Member)
Earl’s Wood is a Lehigh Valley branch in the NE USA. It has a new fiddle yard since it’s last visit to the show. Operation may be sporadic, as Jon will also be doing the Exhibition manager’s job!

Dawes Creek – Dave Dawes
We’re pleased to catch Dawes Creek before retirement. Based on Victoria State Railways, ‘down-under’, the layout catches the undoubted character of Australian railways and scenery.

Kuritu – Ian Milroy
Kuritu is unusual in three ways. It’s Japanese, it’s an inter-urban railway, and it has been designed to be viewed from both sides. A simple design, but it just ‘oozes’ Japan.

Kato Racetrack – Paul Rowlett (ESNG Member)
Paul is an avid collector of high-speed and bullet trains. So we’ve given him some space to show them off! Paul is also populating ‘Eric the Roundhouse’ on our N-mod layout this year, with Japanese locomotives.

Trade

BH Enterprises
BH Enterprises are a manufacturer and supplier of an extensive range of quality brass, whitemetal and plastic N Gauge model railway kits, scenic items and accessories suitable for modern image and steam era layouts.
Internet: www.bhenterprises.freeserve.co.uk
email: bhengauge@googlemail.com
Tel: 01923 672809 (calls after 7.00pm only please)

Invicta Model Rail
We are pleased to welcome Invicta Model Rail, Kent’s newest model railway specialist. Visit their shop beside Sidcup Station, for a personal in-store service. They also offer a world wide mail order service.
Internet: http://www.invictamodelrail.com/
email: invictamodelrail@btconnect.com
Tel: 0208 302 7774

 NscaleCH – John Brightwell
NscaleCH offers a range of new and previously-owned items of Continental outline, especially for the Swiss enthusiast.
Website: www.nscalech.co.uk
email: enquiries@nscalech.co.uk
Telephone: 01732 460387

WINCO
And a welcome too, for WINCO, well known on the exhibition circuit, and who have imported and retailed European model railways since 1988.
Internet: http://www.winco.uk.com/
Tel: 0196 286 9301

JB’s Model World
JB’s Model World specialise in storage boxes for model railway stock. I’m told that you will get their products cheaper than from Ebay!

Neil Grace
Neil is established on Ebay, and is trying his hand at a ‘live’ show, offering a mixture of military and railway models.

Second hand sales
For a pre-loved bargain we have two second hand sales stands – our own club shop, and Ray Hansen’s stand, with all sorts of items for sale.

flyer2015

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Bullet trains for India?

Posted on April 7, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

India’s train system is a remarkable piece of engineering, with some 71,000 physical miles of track, 41,000 miles of network and 7,172 stations – a colossus which carries 23 million passengers each day and 8.4 billion every year.  All at soil-scraping prices which keep its carriages within financial reach of much of the population. It is India’s veins, arteries and capillaries – and many of its vital organs too.  But it can’t exactly be described as ‘fast’.

This is my, completely unfair, image of modern Indian railways…..

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This might indeed be unfair, as this streamlined DMU looks as up-market as anything in the UK.  Pity about the windscreen wiper though.

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However, this could change.  There are reports that India is considering a bullet train system based on the Japanese model.  The Daily Telegraph reported that:

India is gently shuffling towards a radical rail overhaul. A feasibility study (involving Japanese expertise) is underway. And while a series of what Modi has referred to as “Diamond Quadrilateral” lines would take decades to complete, there are plans for a halfway-house “semi-high-speed” service which would be a huge improvement on the status quo. Last July, an experimental version of this compromise covered the 140 miles between New Delhi and Agra at 100mph. And there is tentative chatter about forging such a connection between Kolkata (Calcutta) and Delhi which would see trains manage the 923-mile odyssey in nine hours. The current time for this route, using the existing infrastructure, is closer to 36 hours. On average, Indian trains “move” at around 31mph…..

However, it is enormously antiquated – a very literal legacy of the Raj era in that much of it was laid down while India was under British control. Only 6,000 of those 40,000 miles of network have been built since independence in 1947. The other 85 per cent of the system is rather older.

Such an upgrade would be a gigantic task.  However, I suspect the engineering and indeed the finance is the least of it.  Google around the subject, I found that the Mumbai Mirror reported that…..

India’s first bullet train project planned between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has already been shown the red signal. The project that was planned to start from Bandra-Kurla Complex run parallel to the Western Railway all the way to Ahmedabad will face problems as the MMRDA has refused to part with its land at Bandra-Kurla Complex.”We have indeed written to the railways informing them that we will not be able to part with our land at Bandra Kurla Complex. The railways should look for some other alignment,” MMRDA’s joint project director Dilip Kawathkar said.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad project is on the priority list of the Modi government and has been projected as India’s first bullet train project….

Railway officials said that the project already has a back-up plan, but the issue will be discussed at the highest levels before taking a final decision as this is one of government’s flagship projects.

The UK has had enough strife getting CrossRail, through London off, or rather under, the ground.  The HST2 link to the north probably depends on the result of the coming election.  However, India has refined red tape to an art form even beyond the UK.  I wish them luck with their bullet train!

Still, Paul will be relieved – he’d have to buy a whole load more bullet train models…..

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Jon’s modules – ‘Earl’s Wood’ progress

Posted on April 5, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Progress on Earl’s Wood continues, aided by a week off work.  The photos below show the exit from the layout with scenery and ballast complete (apart from a hoover to pick up any odd debris).  The trees hide the exit well, and even the odd end to the viaduct is not obvious from most viewing angles.

There’s a little wiring to do under the board, and that point motor to fix in place, and then I have to put a fiddle yard together.  At least the layout will get to the show as a static exhibit – though it would be quite possible to use it as it is without storage to just shunt the three sidings.  This may be a good option, as I won’t have much time to operate as well as playing as Exhibition Manager.  I could just retreat and use the layout as my ‘worry beads.’

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ESNG meeting – 2 April 2015

Posted on April 3, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Last meeting before the show!  And a good turnout, with 11 people at the meet.  We obviously all preferred running trains to watching politicians go head-to-head on television – what a no-brainer.  Had the Hon. Treasurer had stayed in to watch the debate?  Then we remembered that he was on holiday in Norfolk, spending the show profits before the event!

A good selection of trains were on display.  I ran my new Farish 4F 0-6-0, and it ran like a watch out of the box.  I understand that it runs on more or less the same chassis as the Jinty tank engine, as the LMS used a standard wheelbase for these two locos.  I had a very nice rake running, with the 4F, three Farish crimson BR suburban coaches and the N Gauge society inspection saloon.

Derek was running a pair of Class 73 electro-diesels heading up some modern ballast wagons.  Perhaps the train needed a couple more wagons, but it was a neat consist.

This clip is just like real trainspotting – four trains pass in quick succession.  All different eras and from three countries, but it’s fun to see them go through.  Pity about Derek’s hand, that appeared to recouple a couple of coaches.  And that train of his has no colour sense – an orange and yellow Colas Rail 57 followed by a train of ‘Barbie’ livery purple and pink coaches.  Even the Great Western would be preferable to this!

Paul was breaking no records for long goods trains tonight, as we only had a small circuit set up.  Even so, this train of oil tankers looked long enough!

Talk turned to the show.  It’s looking OK at this stage, although I have the usual Exhibition Manager fears – will anyone actually turn up?  Final instructions have been issued, the rooms are planned, the exhibition guide is off to be printed.  All we need is a queue of punters at the door – on the 11th!

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Book review – “The ‘Booster Locos’ CC1/CC2/CC3”

Posted on April 1, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Apart from a few trees, my only purchase at Alexandra Palace was the ‘Southern Way Special Edition No 11’, on the early Southern Railway electrics, CC1, CC2 and CC3.  I can recommend this book as an excellent read, and especially interesting was the driver’s comments, and the ‘political’ history.  Bullied built CC1 in 1941, during the war, and if it wasn’t for the hostilities, there would have been more of this class of locos to displace steam on both steam and goods workings.  Perhaps the end of steam would have been a lot earlier than 1968, and we would have missed out on steam’s Indian Summer with Bullied Pacific’s hauling expresses out of Waterloo. These slab-sided locomotives are one of my favourites.  Trips up to Victoria from Petts Wood as a teenager would all too quickly pass Stewart’s Lane depot, just outside Victoria.  And if one was lucky, one of these locos was visible.  They were still being used on the Newhaven boat trains, but I think I only ever saw one out on the mainline.  They even survived to carry BR blue livery and whole yellow ends – and were the REAL Class 70’s – not one of these new fangled engines! The photograph below shows CC2, renumbered 200o2 in British Railway days in very neat plain green livery.  Third rail collector shoes and the pantograph for use in sidings are clearly visible.

EPSON scanner image

“Eastleigh Works geograph-2383942-by-Ben-Brooksbank” by Ben Brooksbank. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eastleigh_Works_geograph-2383942-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg#/media/File:Eastleigh_Works_geograph-2383942-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

The third loco, CC3 / 20003 differed in having a square end to the roof, rather than the more complex curves of the first two locomotives.  Easier to model, despite the complex curves of the roof profile.  This earlier picture shows the marker lights still in place, and no headcode box fitted.

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20003 – Photo Steve Roffey collection

This last photograph, take at South Croydon, shows CC3 in the early BR black livery, hauling a long rake of Bullied coaches in plum and custard (or carmine and cream) livery.  A tempting N gauge model, with the coaches provided by Farish.  Both BH Enterprises and Worsley Works do bodies for the locomotive.  Add it to my endless list of models to be built ‘one day’.

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20003 – photo Mike Morant collection

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London Festival of Railway Modelling 2015

Posted on March 30, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

My usual companions couldn’t make this year’s trip to Alexandra Palace for the London Festival of Railway Modelling, so I was undecided whether to go.  But Derek said that if two of us were going, it was worth him driving, so I agreed to go.  I could doze in a car rather than battle London’s railway system. It was an easy drive up there, despite the sat-nav (me) going to sleep and missing a turning, so we circumnavigated Alexandra Park before getting to the show.  Car parking was very well organised, but no-one told us the you needed a team of Sherpa’s to get from the Paddock car park to the Palace.  At least two aging gentlemen got their cardiovascular exercise for at least the coming week! A good range of layouts was on display, from ‘Z’ to Gauge 3.  Not a lot that stood out, though.  Copenhagen Fields is always worth a view, but little progress seems to have been made recently on the ‘bare’ bits.  I did enjoy ‘Star Lane’.  This is just a layout to watch the trains go by, with a looped-8 layout.  It can be viewed from four sides and the storage sidings lie inside of the visible layout.  Best of all, it is Southern Electric, and based on the Star Lane overpass just up the road from us in Hooley.  I have seen a similar concept for a single track USA layout, and it always seems to work.  There was a nice group of 3mm scale layouts, and one of overseas layouts, included a couple of American ones.  Sometimes it’s so hard to find the layouts amongst all the trade stands. The trade were there in force.  Nothing new on the Bachmann and Dapol stands, but some of the forthcoming Bachmann Farish items, like the Merchant Navy 4-6-2, the SR bogie utility van, and the Southern N class 2-6-0 all look excellent.  The N class and a re-run of the Jinty are booked for a boat from China in June/July, so we’ll look forward to them.  There were the usual interesting selection of specialist traders, with ‘bits and pieces’.  I came away with a book and some trees for Earl’s Wood.  Derek spent rather more…. Overall, a good day out, but as ever with this show, it all seemed not quite as good as I expected.  Perhaps I have seen too many of these layouts before, either in concept or in the flesh?  It’s good to have a few layouts that are ‘different’ in some way.

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Copenhagen Fields (photo Craig Tiley)

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This would make a good model!

Posted on March 28, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

This has great potential as a set piece on a preservation-era layout.  I can imagine a locomotive, broken trailer, police cars in attendance, and the curious Great British Public looking on.  And a good way of using up a non-working (or any GWR) loco.

A 65-tonne steam train caused traffic chaos when the lorry transporting it collapsed under its weight and broke the road.

The 95-year-old locomotive was being carried from the Swanage heritage railway, in Dorset, to a steam gala to be hosted by the West Somerset Railway in Taunton.
The low-loader truck had only gone two miles when it buckled under the weight of the former Great Western Railway tank engine.

For more, see here.

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At least you can’t see the details in ‘N’….

Posted on March 26, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

The Daily Telegraph has come up with this gem of a headline:

“Model railways showed an idealised England until ‘sexy scenes’ came along – Forget housewives in headscarves or children waving from the road, the latest figures from Buffers Model Railway will shock you “

It bemoans how idyllic scenes of rural Britain with bucolic yokels leaning on the farm gate have been replaced by……  SEX:

I’d always considered the world of model railways to be the last surviving example of a rose-tinted Britain that no longer exists. Enthusiasts of this quaint and captivating hobby invariably seem to use 1950 as their cultural template when designing their layouts.

But now you can add nudists (and more) to the layout.

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Of course they’re actually a bit out of date, as the Continental manufacturers have been making such items for a number of years.  And frankly they’re a bit of a waste of time in ‘N’ gauge, as realistic anatomical details are too small to notice!  But the article is also an exercise in missing the point.  It concludes:

So will this be the start of a revolution in model railwaying? Will the idealised world of Betjeman give way to a warts-and-all depiction of modern Britain in all its glory? If so, why stop at sex? There’s so much more you could add if you really want to give your layout that extra touch of verisimilitude.

How about miniature fly-tippers dumping stained mattresses by the side of the track; wind turbines and fracking machines surrounded by tiny protesters; badger cullers and hunt saboteurs? Why not go the whole hog and simply cover your green and pleasant landscape with a vast industrial estate complete with out of town superstore and parking for 3,000 Matchbox cars?

Hang on guys.  Some of the best model railways I have seen don’t have a blade of grass (except perhaps between the tracks) and are covered in grimy industry.  The USA are experts in such things.  Even here in the UK, ‘Minories’ is a far more interesting layout than ‘Ashburton’.

I hope they don’t do a parallel article on ‘violence’.  I am old enough to remember the Triang rocket wagon, that was armed with a nasty spring loaded rocket…..

And while we are being excessively tasteful, I was amused by this news item…

England’s first bio-bus (but nobody will call it that) will hit the streets this month, operating four days a week on Service 2 (yes, really). If the route proves a success, the company will consider introducing more buses. Sewage will be turned into biomethane gas, which powers the vehicle. I believe it can also run on political campaign promises.

Once a designer of sewage works, always a designer of sewage works, I suppose!

 

 

 

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