A couple of things that caught my eye this week – between ESNG meetings…..
Brian caught Mayflower as well…..
I wish that I’d been there. One day I’ll get across to the IOW and its wonderful railway….
Network Rail at its best?
Last week the light just held long enough to take a few pictures of B1 class 4-6-0 ‘Mayflower’. There were, of course, the usual warmup act of EMUs whilst waiting for the main attraction.
It was quite noticeable how small this locomotive looked compared to the Flying Scotsman a couple of weeks earlier, and it was working a lot harder to get through the station.
Providing heat, light and emergency back-up was a Class 33. Good to see in itself.
The train paused at Redhill, and I nipped back to the car to drive a little way towards London to see if I could catch the train passing me. I got there just in time to see it, but unfortunately not in time to set up a picture.
But I missed Clan Line again. Brian was there…..
A quiet evening, as a couple of members had to drop out, and I couldn’t find a replacement. I wondered whether to cancel the meeting, but everyone seemed keen, so we went ahead and had a very pleasant evening chatting and running trains.
We soon had a small circuit set up….
Chris ran his Sandite unit again, having close-coupled the units.
I ran my Class 31, with its new lighting board, on a suburban service.
Graham had his usual selection of USA stock. A rather more up to date version of my suburban service!
Superpower from Simon…..
I also give my second-hand Union Mills T9 a run – and it runs perfectly as expected.
No leaves on the track were noted (anyway, Chris’ Sandite unit would have fixed them.)
Till the next time – I’ve a few photos that I’ll post soon, despite my blogging holiday.
A quick PS from Paul…..
My first model railway club meeting in the flesh since March 2020. Very enjoyable, most of my trains ran well apart from my GENBI set which does not appear to like Peco track and a Class 110 DMU which has a loose driveshaft.
I’m surprised anything likes our track!
And Brian….
East Surrey N Gauge – 30th May 2021, met up with just 6 Members today. Although not the first meeting indoors, with the windows and doors open, and all wearing masks, today gave me an opportunity to film some of the N gauge train action. All eras, all countries (even Europe!), had trains represented on the tracks – an interesting collection. Enjoy the film ….
And it time for another ESNG meeting – two in a row, without a lockdown!
Time to reminisce?
Certainly good to see old friends again. Paul, as usual, contributed some interesting Japanese trains. A year away has no doubt created a backlog of new trains to run:
Mr Atfield has spent a year inventing. These orange scrap wagons started life as bits off printer cartridges. I think they ought to be done up as Iron-Bru PO wagons – and the colour does rather clash with the loco…..
And here we have the Redhill Trials. I’m waiting for Derek to model the man with the red flag in front of the Rocket.
And Allan was testing his ICE4 unit. And ignoring it as far as I can see!
Another good afternoon’s fun.
I’m going to take my annual break from blogging next month, though the odd post will appear, especially reporting the club meetings. I found these graphs that sum up a year’s isolation rather well.
I just hope that it won’t be too long before we can put this in the back of a car on the way to an exhibition.
A modelling success this week. A few years ago, my Farish green Class 31 – one of my favourite locos – had a bit of an accident with the PCB board, and only worked in one direction. I tried to get a replacement at the time, but Bachmann didn’t have any in stock. I tried again last week, and a couple of days later a new board arrived, for a very reasonable £22. An hour’s work replaced the board, and the loco is working again. And I have a spare blanking chip for Bachmann boards. A good result.
Put this on your layout and get some interesting comments! My only criticism of the video is that they have obviously been nowhere near Baku – if they had they’d have realised that this is typical of a rather strange city! I visited briefly on a site visit to the Baku-Georgia-Turkey gas and oil pipeline. We drove up-country, to inspect some river crossings, but often BP employees were made to go by train, as the roads were a bit dodgy. What I saw of the trains, it must have been a difficult choice….
Jago Hazzard is always good value. Surbiton, next door to Cheam and a haunt of Tony Handcock. And owner of a rather fine railway station.
Meanwhile, in the east, a Japan bullet train driver has been disciplined for leaving the controls to go to toilet. A conductor, who was not qualified to drive the train, sat in the driver’s seat during his three-minute absence, in breach of the rules. Well, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do, even at 150km/hr.
Back in February, the Guardian reports a more down-to-earth mode of travel. Due to covid restrictions, Russian diplomats leave North Korea on hand-powered rail trolley. Probably better than the usual train!
Finally, not railway connected, but few railway enthusiasts can resist (a) a fry-up, or (b) a cake. Or you can do both at the same time. Colin the Caterpillar gets Scottish chippy treatment.
Not good for the system, but a cut above the average fried Mars Bar!
From the “Micro/Small Model RR Layouts” Facebook page, with permission. Attributed to Al Judy, On30 Railroading.
‘Some very wise words from a long time modeler. It is a very fair assessment of things by someone who has “been there and done that.”‘
I am often asked “how did you learn to do that” in reference to my modeling. I started to model seriously in the early 1970’s. Stripping, painting, lettering and weathering locos and rolling stock. Back then many of the products used today were not available or even thought of commercially so we had to improvise. Trial and error, creativity, repurposing and thinking outside of the box were everyday routines of the day. No internet to guide us or share techniques.
I started scratch building and kitbashing in the mid-80’s. I got my first airbrush for weathering and painting. As I got older and started traveling to train shows and hobby shop I began using more and more commercially produced products such as add on detail parts and specialty paints. But I still use, some of those early homegrown techniques that had proven to consistently produce good results. As my modeling skills developed, I continued to find and try new ways to advance my modeling. Using articles from model railroading magazines, tips from other modelers and so on but still No internet to guide us or share techniques.
It would still be another 20 years until internet sites like YouTube and Facebook would come into the modeling world as a source of information. Today, for many, especially younger modelers these are the go to sources for modeling how-to information. A useful tool but it has removed the hands on learning process which allows the modeler to develop skills and find what works best for them. To often modelers watch videos that profess “their way” to be the “best way” but in many cases this is just not true. It could be what works best for them, could be they are pushing a product for finical gain or could be they just think their opinion is the only opinion.
This is where the blessing of modern technology can also be a downfall for many modelers. Many that have not been exposed to the experience of hands on modeling in order to find their way and develop in the hobby end up abandoning model railroading. Why, you might ask? Well, for many reasons. The first being if the person making the video is advanced enough to be making a video then he more than likely has a skill set way beyond most of the modelers watching his video. Next they may be using materials and tools that are too advanced or too costly for their viewers to obtain. Finally, and this is my biggest pet peeve, some of the on line information being dispensed is just bad advice. Things that just don’t work well in a real world setting or really just don’t work at all. So a newbie modeler follows this advice, spends their money on tools or product, to imitate what they have watched or been told on the videos and when it does not come to fruition they become discouraged with the hobby and leave model railroading all together.
So I guess the point here is if you have all of the skills, materials, tools, money and time required, and you trust the source of the information then I say go for it. But if you want the hobby to be a lifetime of enjoyment, like it is for so many, then step back, take a breath and realistically consider what you have been told. One of the nice things about today’s internet is you can easily get a second or third opinion before making a choice. A choice that may not work, may drain your budget or possibly not even be necessary. Most discouragingly… it may not work at all.
Being a modeler for 50 years and currently the admin of modeling groups with over thirty thousand members I see this on a daily basis: Modelers disgusted with the results they are getting, modelers buying anything and everything under the sun with no direction or purpose in their modeling, modelers that have been told they are doing it wrong or not good enough.This is all misfortunate because everyone has to start somewhere and develop their skill from that starting point. Find what you love about the hobby and work towards a goal instead of hop-scotching all around the hobby. Be patient, much of what you see in posts and videos is the end result of years or decades of modeling experience. Someday you could be one of those people if you just take you time and enjoy the learning process that is model railroading
Not mine, I hasten to add!!!! I thought that I had better email Ian Milroy and tell him what I had done with his original Kuritu. Fortunately he was complementary about the changes, and also sent me some pictures of his new layout….
Have dodged through the Covid crisis here thank you and railway modelling has saved my sanity. Thank goodness for the fifth emergency service, the delivery person. My supposed 8 year shed project seems to have accelerated in the last 12 months and is fairly complete although still plenty of room for detailing. I attach a few hastily taken photos, excuse quality. There are two main routes, a standard gauge sweeping through the foreground and of course an incorrectly gauged narrow gauge but I have tried to keep them far enough apart so it is less noticeable. The Rhb narrow gauge allows for my pet love of street running. Anyway thanks for the kind update and I really hope we can get back to Exhibition visits (myself, as a punter) in the near future and mayhap our paths will cross again. Ian. ps, my friend Robin who built San Maria Gandia with me, is progressing well with a spare bedroom layout set in Norway.
All this lockdown time has generated quite a few new railways!
It was all of five years ago when I watched the Flying Scotsman pass through Redhill. Well, I remembered to revisit that same car park today to wait for the train to pass through. I was there a little early, so could do a little trainspotting.
A GWR Gatwick-Reading train enters Redhill. My last employment was on the top floor of the building on the right. It still looks very empty today, with my ex-colleagues still mainly working at home.
Last time I was here, these two blocks of flats weren’t. And another new building is growing under that tower crane. And I’m sure there were less trees and buddleia in the way last time.
Let’s get all these units out of the way before the main event arrives. We don’t want any Virgin-style embarrassments of boring EMUs blocking the view.
And here’s the Scotsman, coming around the curve from the Reigate line. Heretical statement – BR loco green really suits this – and indeed most other – express locomotives.
The West Coast rake was mainly of Mk1 coaches, plus a couple of Pullman cars.
And the Class 47 on the rear of the train is presumably to heat and light the train, not just to keep an eye on the steam loco?
And Brian caught the train on film further west at Betchworth…..
As the UK escape from lockdown continues, we were delighted to hold the first ESNG meeting for over a year. Only six people allowed to attend, and we kept the windows and doors open, and were largely masked through the evening. But it was great to get things back underway.
We did manage to run a few trains, although not everyone had brought trains along. We just about remembered how to put it all together, and after a thorough track clean, amazingly, it all worked. I brought along my container train and my Blue Spot fish train, and both happily ran around all evening.
Michael brought along a couple of panniers and some stock to run, as well.
And Chris tested his excellent scratch built Sandite unit – including directional lights at both ends. A very nice model of an unusual unit.
And of course, there were the usual suspects! It was good to meet up with Derek, Derek, Michael, Chris and Ian again, and we hope that these meetings, even with a few people each evening, can continue.
We finished fairly early, but it was so good to meet up again and play trains!
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