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.

Indietracks 2009, with no Indie and lots of tracks

[/slack] I still havent even left Inverness, and this is supposed to be a train blog, and i prattled on about going on Loch ness and stuff..

Anyway, TRAINS! and indiepop of course are what generally makes my world go round. So it was with the usual mix of over excitement, and the slightly less as each year goes round feeling of dread that the weekend wouldnt live up to expectations that we set off for this years Indietracks festival. I'm not going to talk about the bands, (wonderful, all of them) the food or the atmosphere. No, this is all about how i ended up at Butterly station on Sunday morning, slightly hungover, a little fuzzy, we took MJ Hibbett's cab, as he in turn had jumped in with our friend Clarke, but there were 5 of us, and the need for a Tesco trip for the girls, so i decided to stay and hang around the site. I always found festival sites on 'the morning after' one of those strange feelings, people just milling around, surveying the fun and excitement of the night before. Stage hands setting up for the days acts, people nursing post hangover pick me ups - a coffee, another beer. Just that general buzz of whats to come when people start to arrive. Theres nothing like it. I'd start every day like that if i could.

Butterley then, well it was quiet, there were a handful of people waiting for the Swanwick express, a few of the railway volunteers just sitting around chatting, the usual crowd of railway visitors pushing prams around and getting their pictures taken with the engine.It was just another normal day at the Railway Centre i should imagine, i wonder if they had any idea what was going on a mile or two down the road.

I managed to just miss the DMU, i think i did it on purpose, well, i know i did, because i went in the shop when the guard told me it was about to depart. I wanted this feeling of being able to take my time and make my own way around. Mark Hibbett and Clark waved as they pulled out the platform, i'm sure they thought i'd be annoyed that i just missed the train. Ah, it was lovely though, just wandering around down near the DMU's all in various states of repair, a lone class 08 just outside the shed. The outside garden railway boys were setting up for a days running, i watched a couple of engines go round, put some change in their collection box and headed back up to the station in time to catch a few pics of the DMU going back through towards Swanwick. I was a bit gutted the railway club's layout wasn't open, that was always an Indietracks highlight for me, seeing how they were getting on with it, thinking back to when i first walked in in April 2007, completely captivated by this wonderful and strange event that was taking place. I was really impressed with the layout they had there, and i loved it at the festival when they ran modern image one day, and steam the other, small things.. It's certainly better than the sad excuses for layouts they have at the Swanwick site.

Talking of.. It was time to head down there, Butterley is a lovely place to sit and relax for 5 minutes or so, but time was ticking on.. There was a handful of people who all decided to take the walk to Swanwick, a few obvious festival goers (the wristbands just give it away) a couple of locals, and it seemed, some young farmer who seemed happy to sing along to his ipod as he walked along. I decided to hang back a bit so i could take my time, i really wanted to time it so the steam train went by, but i missed that. What a lovely walk though, it crosses the line just after the Butterley signal box and heads up the hill, so you walk alongside the line, but above it. Leaving Butterley you pass what looks like a carriage graveyard, i guess it's a siding or two, but the rusted carriages in there, probably awaiting attention, made a nice contrast to the both the well restored stock at Swanwick and the summer trees and bushes that were just about covering them. The rest of the journey just dips in and out of view of the tracks, maybe for a mile or so, as you get closer to Swanwick the area opens out and you start to see the engines and the carriages and the yard, the path heads back down to track level, and as you come out of the trees you get this perfect view of the diesels all just sitting there, moved out of the way so 100s of popkids could drink and dance all weekend. I never really spent too much time in this part of the centre before, maybe just a casual wander round that first year, but here i was surrounded by 47s, 40s, a class 20, 50007 Sir Edward Elgar, a Western, maybe a 45.. It was great, like the proverbial kid in a sweet shop, it was like i'd been transported back in time to my dad taking me to open days as a kid and getting all excited as i got to go in the cab of a Deltic or something.. Unfortunately, there were no cab visits this time, everything was understandably locked up. It was still a great way to spend an hour or so on a Sunday morning though...I planned to go and have a look round the shed too, i poked my head round the door and it seemed very well stocked, alas though i had a Sunday morning appointment in the Church..