Dreaming.. (again)

I’ve just finished my message pad at work, went to throw away the card back and had to stop myself. I figured it’s just about the right size to make a tunnel mouth insert. Then i look down at the pad itself and the doodle on there i started this morning of the dilapidated N gauge layout in the loft. I was up there yesterday putting some bits away, took a look around and thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, i could tackle this next. I did plan to build a nice little N gauge exhibition layout, and i’d still like too, but what with Hartland Junction just gathering dust in the shed i think it’s more than unlikely i’ll ever exhibit that again. It’s just too much effort, i think it’s the 48’ long incarnation that’s left. Too big for me, even if the sense of nostalgia and honour it would bring me to exhibit one last time is still there. So why not trash it? salvage what i can and rebuild the loft layout. I’m sitting here redesigning the whole thing again already, the double track main line remains, but as the gradients were always too steep, build a middle level, loop it round the loft 3 times instead of 2, i like the idea of the middle level being on a bridge and covering the bottom level. Little Vignettes in my mind, maybe extend the branch to the middle level and to a nice little country station, and even as i type i realise theres no need for the desk up there anymore so i COULD extend it onto that and do something there, but that seems a little too adventurous. I did think at first though, run the branch to the lower level, then back over the bottom track to this new station, but if i just run it to the middle level, then i can possibly squeeze another double track just on the bottom level.. who knows.

Anyway, this post wasn’t even supposed to be about this, it was supposed to be wrapping up my summer activities, oh well.

Back to the doodle, and see what my over active imagination can come up with this afternoon.

It definitely beats working.

Picture this..

..a day in December...

Or August actually, and not really a day more a couple of hours in the evening. Spurred on by 2 visits to the decent layout at Butterley and another depressing visit to the shit ones at Swanwick whilst at Indietracks. Not to mention coming back with a 'Western' body, 3 southern Maunsell coaches and 5 box vans, work is continuing out in the train room. Not too much last night, but i’m so far happy with what i’ve done.

Theres definitely room for improvement though, the ballast i picked up the other week is far too dark so will need a layer of lighter grey over the top to keep it uniform, but the top station is now built and painted and waiting for the finer detailing – a white strip along the edge and i’d like to try and take inspiration from Swanwick itself with some nicely located flower pots and a decent station name (still to be decided, it won’t be Bideford though) I’m very happy with the way the bay road looks (ballast excepted) and will carry on painting the sides of the rails with the rust colour, however tedious it may be.

Next thing to do is finish the ballasting of the loco and work on the detail there, then put the signal box in place and work around that. Lastly for the top station, having finished last night with gluing the wall all the way along behind the back track is sort the road out in front of the long terrace. Hopefully once all thats done, it should look very presentable. The finer detailing can wait, as it’s down to the carriage sidings after that to get them laid in as best possible.

What else, of course, pictures! I took some and will load them to the Flickr set here to get more of a story of whats going on, whoop!

A work in progress.

Right then, Its that time of year again, when two worlds collide. I’m sure i must be in the minority of people who looks forward to Indietracks as much to see the comforting sight of sidings full of diesels and a ride on the DMU as well as the music. This year feels slightly (very) different and it’s with a sense of trepidation that i’ll be heading off on Friday morning.

Anyway, thats not what this is about right now. Over the last couple of weeks things have been moving on at a pace approaching steady down in Gravesend. Summertime isn’t usually the season for railway modelling, theres other distractions, the weather, beer gardens, festivals, The World Cup, life really, but i’ve enjoyed having it as a distraction this year and throwing myself if not headlong, then carefully back in. I stood having a look at the monster i’d somehow created for myself the other day and started to really think about what i needed to do and what i wanted to achieve, then i realised that best way to do it would be with a proper plan. A plan to start with the basics and get it at least looking respectable and finished enough to run and then move onto the details after that. They do say a model railway is never finished.. So, this is a brief update on what i’ve done in the last few weeks in case i forget -

· ‘Bideford’, as it was known as, successfully rebuilt and stripped ready for finishing.
· All ‘Bideford’ - trackwork now laid and 90% ballasted.
· Top loco laid, tested and isolating sections wired in.
· Top loco trackwork embedded and waiting for detailing.
· Roadway along front of top section cleared and waiting to
be redone.
· ‘Hartland Junction’ footbridges reduced and rebuilt to only cover
tracks they need to.
· Fiddle yard cleared and ready to be finished.
· Decision made to not cover down gradient and move terrace housing on top of new ‘floor’
· Gradient covered behind the cinema to allow that to be built back once terrace also half built to cover new roof.
· Bay road at ‘Bideford’ relayed with isolating section and rails/buffer stop started to be detailed to check how easy it is!

Quite a lot gone on then, it still doesn’t look like it, but by concentrating more on this section than moving all over the place it looks like things will gradually slip into an acceptable and presentable layout. Cant wait to get it back into a postiition when it doesn’t just look like a tip out there, the motivation for that is a good incentive.

More to come post Indietracks

Back on track!

Cor, 9 months on.. i could have had a baby by now, well, not me personally, i don’t have the bits..

I wasnt sure if i’d ever update this again, the trainroom is a mess, i struggle to get in there now as theres a pile of old carpet inside the door from when my mum decorated the hallway, but a few things happened recently, well, one in particular really that led me back to here and a new found enthusiasm for updates and action.

It probably won’t last.

Anyway, we got a skip, the other weekend, to clear out a whole load of junk and garden stuff, it was quite exhilarating, in a funny sort of way, i spend my day sitting at a desk, my evenings pottering about, i don’t do enough exercise, i’m not sure if clearing sheds and filling skips is ‘exercise’ but it definitely cleared away a few cobwebs, especially in one of the sheds. For years our old exhibition layout ‘Hartland Valley’ has been stored, well, not all of it, just 1/3. The other 2/3 was disposed of years ago, it was getting silly, some 48’ long, 12’ wide then 48’ long down the other side. I wish i had some pictures of it, maybe i do somewhere. This is deviating though, i had a look at a couple of the boards, they’re in a right state. My heart tells me to tidy them up, restore it, even if its just for one final outing. My head tells me to let go, scrap them, salvage what i can and put the stuff away for further use. Theres also the layout in the loft, which is in a similar state of disarray, although that would be easier to remedy. Then there were the random boxes i found full of track, stations and buildings and junk.. all N gauge, which truth be told, is where my heart lays. As much i have enjoyed the OO in the trainroom, part of me wishes i could rip the whole thing up and make a lovely big N gauge layout, i cant do that though. Either way, it got me to planning again, only in my head, i’d like to get back out on the exhibition circuit, locally at first, i don’t have a car, i cant drive, i cant go too big, hence my love of the N. So i have a nice manageable plan in my head, and a name, and a style, and a bit of a dream too. But i don’t want to do anything concrete yet until i get ‘Hartland Junction’ at least looking respectable, so thats what i plan to do..

More to follow!

Bye Bye Bideford

2 posts in a week, that must mean summer is over and the model railway season is back in full swing, or something. Anyway, suitably inspired by saturdays day out, and boosted by not drinking that night, lead me to feeling nice and bright sunday morning, which in turn meant that i had a good few hours working on Hartland Junction. Well, i had a good few hours sitting on a chair daydreaming about what i wanted to do, but i did finish what i'd started the previous week (or it may have been the week before, i lose track) and that was relay the top station, previously known as 'Bideford' and sometime in the future to be known as, well, i haven't decided yet.

It was actaully suprisingly easy to do what i wanted to do, well, getting the ballast up was a bit tough, but i cleared enough, luckily, having already laid the new station throat before it was more just a case of laying the actual loops. Surprsingly, they seemed to fit perfectly with the minimum amount of track cutting, i was well happy. So much so in fact that i decided to move onto the loco too. This was more of a challenge, there was a small turntable embedded and the ground raised up around it.. Well, a few good jabs with the scredriver soon loosened them and the whole thing came up in a few goes. So i now have a new area i need to clean this weekend, and hopefully the right hand point i picked up after on ebay will turn up in time for me to properly lay the loco this weekend. I also hope to rebuild the station using the offcuts of the old Bideford platform, not sure how that's going to go, especially after a night out on saturday, but if i fuck it up i'll just take the plunge and buy a new station.. I'm quielty confident though. Then i'll need to cover the majority of the gradient behind to move the terrace house onto, it's all about creating room out there and making the railway look part of an environment. Plus i've decided it's time to actually 'finish' the first window of the branch which could do with a new layer of grass on the hill and some general tidying up.. Busy busy, but thats what Sunday mornings seem to be for now..

It's good to have a hobby!

"The John Forbes Memorial Trophy"

So i always planned to head down to Chatham this weekend for a visit to the model railway exhibition, yes, it's geeky, but i know a few people who exhibit, and a fair few traders too. The Kent Model Railway 'scene' is quite insular. I can, and do, go the big exhibitions, like the NRM one at Ally Pally which i've been to for the past couple of years, and i'd love to head to Modelworld in Brighton again, maybe next year. The local ones though are a bit more lo-fi, well, very lo-fi. I thought i'd head down though, pick up a few bits for Hartland Junction, catch up with a few of my dads old friends, it would be good way to spend a morning.. Things took a bit of an odd twist this year though. My mum called me during the week, they wanted to present a trophy for something, it was too be my choice, and it was in honour of, and named after my dad.

I can't lie, i was more than proud to step up and do the honours, it also meant my mum came along too, which not only meant i got a lift there and back, but we also got in free, result! Mostly because if i'd have had to pay £5 to get in i'd have felt more than a little ripped off. As an exhibition if was VERY light on layouts, the ususual mix of traders was as it should have been but they seemed to give up a good portion of the stalls to military/fantasy modelling, which is fine in theory, but not really if you're advertising it as a model railway exhibition. Anyway, i digress, we had a chat to the person who had kindly stumped up for and arranged the trophy, one of my dads closet 'railway' friends, slightly eccentric, but then i guess you need that if making miniature models of trains is how you choose to spend your spare time. We agreed that it would be presented for 'best layout' and i got to choose.. As i said, shame there wasn't more choice, but i knew after one quick wander round the room that is down to 2 - 'Stourford' a nice looking double track N gauge with branch heading off to a country station and ' ' well, i forget the name of the other one, but it was this lovely little dockside layout, i think the reason why that stuck out for me was because they had a CD playing with birdsounds and a general ambience. Try as i might though, i couldn't imagine my dad EVER thinking it was the better than a 'traditional' layout which is everything Stourford offered. So the decision was made, almost, i did have this daft idea for a few seconds that i should give it to Dave's Z gauge layout if only because he was the one who had the whole idea and as said, arranged it all.. Luckily though, the reality of the situation kicked in and it really did go to the best layout there. I imagine that the presentation will be taking place pretty much about now, as is generally the way during the last hour of a show, i couldnt make it down today, so i hope the guys from Stourbridge don't get too confused when given a trophy dedicated to someone they've probably never heard of, from a exhibtion in a crappy town in Kent, that nobody bothered to go to as it was sunny outside and was vastly overpriced. Still, my mum was happy as she got a nice photo of me and her, one for the mantelpiece i imagine.

Plan B

Well, not exactly plan B, more like plan ZZZZZ x 10. Ever since i can remember i've been doodling track plans, i go on a train ride and i see a station, or a set of sidings, or a bridge and i think about what it would be like in model form. Well, this it no different really, obviously theres already a layout in place, a layout that i helped to plan in the first place, but it wasn't exactly like i imagined it would be. Partly because my dad finished the trackwork while i was bumming around Australia, and partly because his idea of a perfect layout is lots of circuits with trains going round he can look at. I need a bit more to keep me entertained, something like a goods yard, or somewhere i can reverse the trains to go into/out the hidden sidings.. Either way, in the last few months i must have gone through numerous designs as to what to do, ranging from an extravagant underboard fiddle yard with extra boards for the gradients to the more simple turn half the main station into a terminus. A few weeks ago i think i cracked it, so much so that i actually started to relay the sation throat at the far end of the top station, the easy end. This is what i spent the last few days at work doing, it's where it all came together, the 'doodle' version, and the 'nice' version. Neither are 100% accurate, but they're good enough to get on with. I'm quite excited about getting on with this, i'm also more excited about actually running trains on it when it's all finished that i have been for a long time. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.