The master plan

Might as well get this down somewhere as plans start to solidify :D

After discussion with my likely partner in crime, we're shooting for the original (wow, how far back was that?) idea I had.

Onnybrook Junction will be set between Craven Arms and Marsh Farm Junction: it's a smallish through station on the LMS/GWR joint line from Hereford to Shrewsbury: the date is late summer 1934 (with a tiny bit of leeway to allow me to run a 4-4-0 County (all of which were scrapped by 1933). Track plan to follow (it's on the other computer) but basically it's typical of that line in that it's two through platforms, and then a refuge siding on one side, and a loop and some goods sidings on the other, and the classic crossover with single slip feeding the loop. We don't yet have space for a full oval, but we do have a lot of length, so currently it'll be about 15' with a fiddle yard either end.

Someday, I may yet have a go at Craven Arms and Stokesay, but, as they say, This Is Not That Day. 

Well, that took a bit longer than anticipated!

Largely, to be honest, because despite the supposed extra space that having the workshop converted and the spare garage turned into a storeroom generates, we still have Too Much Stuff, compounded by being in a band with all the attendant stuff that entails.

Still, after much juggling, changing jobs, and other fun, I now have a clear shelf onto which I can move all the model railway stuff out of the back of the storeroom, and have started doing so. (Apart from anything else, once I get the toys out of the big Really Useful Box in there, it can be used for storing the band lights that are cluttering up my workbench!)

Please tell me I'm not the only person who has this kind of problem?

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!)

Deeping model railway exhibition and fiddle yards

Went to the excellent small show in Deeping St. James (just up the road) last week. Several nice layouts, including Woodcroft. which was using aluminium-angle based cassettes in its fiddle yards.

I've just acquired, from a friend who's clearing out, a couple of 5'x18" or so papering tables. which are a touch wobbly to lay track on, but DO look as though they could be reasonable supports for cassette-based fiddle yards.

Hrm. Must think about that :D

On 00 R-T-R pre-nationalisation releases generally

An interesting few contrasts this year between the Bachmann and Hornby new releases, at least from my point of view.

Hornby are ‘celebrating’ the GWR 175: one reworking of the 28xx, ditto for 61xx (in shirtbutton livery only), and a set of Hawkesworth coaches that actually (as far as I can tell) never actually ran on the GWR qua GWR. To be fair, I will be buying the 28xx, but... by contrast, let’s look at Bachmann...

Brand-new S&DJR 7F 2-8-0. Brand-new Johnson 3F 0-6-0 (if you’re being really uncharitable, there was a R-T-R 3F back in the 60s by Triang, but short of a complete rebuild below the footplate, I don’t think it counts). City of Truro. No coaches. Now, the latter is a shame, but given that Hornby’s Hawkesworth’s are pre-nationalisation in name only (and they’re only producing them in maroon and blood-and-custard), that’s pretty much a draw on the coach front. (Some Toplights next year, maybe?)

To me? Bachman win hands down by daring to produce new stuff, and moreover they are (as I commented on RMWeb) very much actively encouraging pre-nationalisation modelling: in fact, they seem intent on turning modelling the S&DJR into this decade’s GWR branch terminus. And they’re not afraid to produce unglamorous workhorses like the 3F, the kind of thing that’s as common as muck and usually covered in it. More power to them.

It is, as I’m sure I’ve said before in this blog, perfectly possible to produce R-T-R Big Four (or even pre-grouping) stock that’ll attract the BR Steam Era modeller - in fact, if I were one, I’m sure I’d be delighted at the chance for something unusual to offset the dreary procession of Standard Class engines and Mark I coaches. Custom paint jobs aren’t THAT pricey - witness the number of custom finished modern era locals and MUs that are produced for various model shops. Putting out a shortish run of something in a GWR or LMS livery isn’t going to break the bank. I don’t believe that the cries of ‘there’s no demand’ are true. There’s no demand because you aren’t making the stock!

So, I say more power to Bachmann for daring to produce genuinely new Big Four locos and actively trying to create a demand, even if it’s for the S&DJR! Keep it up.