Dad-1's Blog

I couldn't agree more!

Agreed.

 

My layout has been to 36 shows, and when the criticism comes I wonder if it's worth the bother.

 

Well my critics will be pleased, only four more shows to go!

Hi Tim V,

 

How do you get so many weekend passes ?

 

Thought you may appreciate this though :-

 

My wife was beginning to get close to the weekend pass limit where out Thomas layout has done 23 outings since May 2015. Then a few months back when she was with the Diabetic Nurse for a check up she let slip I was away at the coming weekend running my Thomas layout at a fete. Said nurse then asked for the phone number as she's running the Axemouth fete this coming year and thought it would be an interesting addition to attractions.

We had a good laugh at her becoming my booking agent !!

 

Dad-1

36 shows in 27 years, no more than three a year, so not many weekend passes! My son was born in that period - much more important than model railways. He then became an avid operator later on.

Having just spent the weekend at The Great Electric Train Show at Gaydon, I feel qualified to pass a few comments.

 

lt was the eleventh exhibition that I have done with our club in the 4 years since joining, and this excludes any punter visits to other club's shows. I came back into the hobby after a lapse of 30 years and have met contacts from the past, enabling yarn-swapping over coffees etc.

The friendship that develops is just brilliant, both within the club and with suppliers, organisers and other exhibitors and helps one's pleasure gained from the hobby to grow. 

 

Just hiding behind a layout, displaying it for nothing more than a free pass to get in to the show as l see many doing, not talking or explaining their layout to the public is not the way to get pleasure from the hobby, nor to learn nuggets from others' lives and experiences that often help to improve one's layout.

 

At a show, I try to spend most of the time available to the public to answer questions on the layout whether geographic [even a mythical layout is somewhere] technical or operational, then I will also get around to see others on their layouts.

 

I agree about layout size to an extent. l have just bought an end-to-end 15' layout, it fits into my Peugeot Partner, with room for 2 passengers and their luggage for a fortnight. Why so long? The 3 of us have been invited to exhibit some way from home, the south of France to be precise. Oh, it fits in my lounge between the window and my wall of book-cases with 3'' to spare.

 

The layout that we have exhibited this weekend is one of four that use the same rear boards, including the 16-road fiddle yard. It sounds monstrous, but it isn't really. 5 of us put it up on Friday in under 2 hours, and 6 dismantled it into the van in minutes over an hour and a quarter. This I feel is reasonable for a layout that displays 24 trains without removing/replacing stock and handles 10-coach trains, double-headed on occasion. It is 25 years old and runs with few issues every time that it is assembled, as do the other alternative front scenes

Yes, it is beyond an individuals' ability really to achieve this, but as part of a team, it is not.

The sociability of a club environment also benefits an individual in the current electronic communication age, where society is trying to stop face-to-face contact. It is getting more and more like Orwell's 1984, albeit apparently more benevolent at present.

 

Several of our club are seniors and have lost partners, others' partners are glad to get rid of their's for a show or several, other partners help the club with catering at our shows and share the interest anyway.

Sadly some partners do not take time to understand the hobby, and think that we should grow up, maybe they are right, but what l do know is that since l restarted my modelling, my stress levels have fallen through the floor and my general health has improved greatly due to being better relaxed, my doctor's opinion.

 

To sum up, if you do not enjoy the hobby anymore, then pack it away for a while, but do not get rid of it, it will be there, waiting patiently for your return in the future.

Remember that we create a small part of a world and it has a life. It exists and always will, even if only in memories, but you will have touched others in the process of your exhibit, and that is something of which to be proud.

 

The major problem with the larger layouts is of course their footprint.

Our club gets around this by building modular boards, that can be worked on without needing the whole layout to be erected, this means in turn that we can use smaller premises, reducing overheads and also the desire to just run trains on the layout and not get on with building/ improving the layouts is quashed.

 

We have built a three-oval test-track on a castored table, this gets rolled out and usually has something running-in or being serviced for the less nimble-fingered amongst us. It works for us.

I do have a partner who insists that my having an interest helps our relationship not be too enclosed, outside interests are essential to a healthy time.

As for criticism, don't let it bother you. [Tell'em  b**l-x]

The layout is what you want, built with the skills that you have. Most critics, when pushed do not have a layout at all, and would not build one in case they were criticised.

if they are persistent, they will get the message with a few choice words.

It takes a lot to rile me [about 1/2 hour of needling and nit-picking], but l have had a great education in the ancient language of Anglo-Saxon and will use it when I feel appropriate.

Don't get disillusioned, but if a rest is needed, find a nice, dry dark cupboard and either put yourself or your layout into it.

Pete