esngblog

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.

No, this is not a review of the latest episode of ‘Dr Who’.  Rather, there have been some interesting posts recently on how ‘time’ and ‘location’ work when we are building a model railway.  I’m a sucker for these ‘philosophical’ posts.  That’s probably as if I keep it all in the mind, I won’t have to build anything.

First, Chris Mears’ ever reliable ‘Prince Street Terminal’ on ‘Seven minutes and fifty-three seconds’.  He writes…..

The above video was shot on the Claremont-Concord at West Lebanon. The video runs just under eight minutes in length. It has been edited from its original length but is a terrific record of just how long each movement takes and the pace of working a simple yard. Why not use the video itself as a measure of what can be accomplished in that same period of time on the model?

There are some interesting comments, as well.  I’ve reposted the video below, as it’s a good view.

Our American (and Canadian) cousins are much better than us in the UK at timing our shunting / switching.  I think this is a different hobby perspective.  In the UK we are often exhibition orientated, and the idea is to keep things moving and entertain the public.  Nothing wrong with that, and we also see some prototypical shunting on other layouts at a show.  In North America, they seem to be discovering how a simple shunting operation becomes more interesting if you think what actually needs to happen.  For example, there’s the pause to let the ‘man on the ground’ drop off the engine without too far to walk.  And the wait to let him walk back.  There’s the pause before buffering up to stock so you don’t hit them too hard.  There’s the time to couple, to connect brake hoses, to through point switches….. and so on.  It might need a little research to realise what ought to be happening at each stage of our model shunting operation, but this will fill out our operation – and make our small layouts seem a lot bigger.

If you enjoyed this video, try these other posts by Chris,  “Allowing Time” and “It’s like a dance of sorts” (with another good video).

As a PS, progress in the railway room continues.  Several years ago, I bought a carrying case with a number of trays for ‘N’ gauge stock.  I have transferred all my USA stock to this case and found that a draw full of Atlas and Microtrains boxes are compressed into a smallish case.  Only the cabooses (or cabeese) reside elsewhere, in their own box.  I do have some stock left over, that will get sold off.