Inspiration from YouTube

Been trawling YouTube a bit for inspiration: lovely to see how many folks are getting cameras on to their layouts and documenting the build process.

Two I'm particularly taken by:

Everard Junction: entirely NOT my period (1980s Network South-East) but some beautiful, and detail-obsessed scenic work;
Lakeside: again, not quite my period, but he demonstrates (especially in the village) how every little piece of scenery is placed and thought about and detailed, and tells a story.

A little bit of shopping this week produced some more PO coal wagons on eBay, a metre of flexitrack and a point, both in Peco's new code 75 bullhead, and some spare wheels and couplings for the 'make everything run on fine scale track' project.

Aiming to get a board for Longville built as soon as I get my bit of the workshop back next month.

2018 announcements, planning

*sigh*

No love for the GWR this year from Bachmann or Hornby, and Dapol are releasing their own versions of things that already exist and I already have (61xx, Churchward Mogul).

Ah well, still got some catching up to do on LMS stock - the Webb coal tank from Bachmann is lovely, new since I took a break and ubiquitous on the area I like. Now if someone would make a Cauliflower....

Picked up an online PDF of the GWR 1936 working timetable for the Shrewsbury/Hereford area, which is fascinating reading (very distracting from what I'm supposed to be doing!).

I have drawn up the Five Year Plan (aka what happens when the tenant in the workshop gets to the point where they need more space and moves out), and the short term part of it is to go back to my original plan of building Longville on the Wenlock Branch, only on an 8'x2' (so plenty of room for scenery). I've been reading John de Frayssinet's "Scenic Modelling: A Guide for Railway Modellers", which is very inspiring, as it talks about the Pendon-esque approach of making the railway a part of the landscape. Recommended reading.

2018

Yes, that does mean I last posted 7 years ago. :D

Railway modelling has been a bit on hold for a number of reasons - first off, I'm also a wargamer, and have been quite (publicly) active in the hobby which has been taking up a fair amount of my time. Secondly, due to that and being in a couple of bands, available space for a layout has dropped to almost nothing. And thirdly, James is now 18, and has other interests (including a drum kit)

That said, the itch won't go away. We have just had the workshop floor relaid, which has entailed a massive clearout as well as getting one of our garages converted to a storeroom for all the accumulated junk. Unfortunately, there are other uses planned in the short term for the workshop, but that doesn't preclude some advance planning, and reverting to one of my older plans for a layout, namely Longville on the Wenlock branch, as a first step that can go elsewhere in the house.

I'll try and post again before another 7 years pass! (Apart from anything else, I'll be retired by then!)