Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

Andy G, thanks, I had similar thoughts about the body.  The window height is probably OK.  I might increase the overall height slightly, and I need to leave enough depth for ventilators, but I would borrow some of the eves panel depth to add to the matchboarding.   

 

I will have a squint at the bogies.

[Nearholmer]

This is becoming an interesting exploration of the boundary between kit-bashing and scratch-building.

 

There are superb Spanish and US made wood kits for many types of coaches of this kind, in multiple scales from N to 1:20, but at c£70 for a box of small sticks and a sheet of plans ( that's at H0, the bigger ones cost a lot more), with bogies, couplers, and other ironmongery in addition, they don't look like a cheap option!

 

K

[Stubby47]

Which? Life, or Cornwall?

Ah, that'd be telling... But when I am relaxing in the chair, footy on the telly, cricket on the radio, with a good model railway mag in hand, SWMBO would say there is no life in me...

[Edwardian]

Impressive degree of multi-tasking there, Stubby.  For a bloke, at any rate.

[The Stationmaster]

Impressive degree of multi-tasking there, Stubby.  For a bloke, at any rate.

 

I'm not so sure - a true multi-tasker would also be consuming a liquid beverage of some sort.

[wagonman]

I'm pretty sure that the Bishop's Castle (up until about 1924) also had some very early LNW coaches, and London Road make kits for very much the same type (built 1860's).

 

 

 

 

Indeed they did, still fitted with their chain brakes too, I believe. They were replaced by the exLSWR 6-wheeler and the exH&B 4-wheeler.

[richard i]

Ah, that'd be telling... But when I am relaxing in the chair, footy on the telly, cricket on the radio, with a good model railway mag in hand, SWMBO would say there is no life in me...

No when that happens I am found a job to do because it is important I am kept busy. Or so she believes.

[Nearholmer]

Sexist generalisation stuff coming up ......

 

What I struggle to understand is that there is an entire "pampering" industry out there (spa days, hot stone treatments, fish that nibble your toes, that sort of fall of the Roman Empire stuff), funded largely by earnings from the many SWMBOs who like to use its services.

 

But, when us chaps take a moments respite from our labours, to pamper ourselves by doing a bit of railway modelling, read magazines, loaf about drinking coffee and talking about carburettors etc, that is designated the behaviour of a bunch of idle wastrels, in urgent need of a swift bout of DIY/ plug hole-unblocking/bin-emptying, to prevent our immediate moral and physical decay.

 

Anyway ........

 

K

[Edwardian]

My best ever move was to buy the Mem a horse.  This takes her out of the house for hours and hours and leaves her with no grounds to allege that my hobbies are anti-social.  Indeed, if it were not for the success of this stratagem, I doubt I would have ever taken these first faltering steps out of the Modeller's Armchair.

 

That said, she sometimes tries to leave me chores to do before she leaves.  There is some strange law that states that the shortest time I could possibly take to accomplish all these jobs is necessarily greater than the time during which I am left alone to do them.

 

At the moment I am in between two parental visits, In Laws last weekend and Mine this weekend - and have quite a bit of work on.  I seem to have stalled, lost time and energy, for the first time on this project.  I need to show some definite progress, either on rolling stock or the village.  I feel I need to Finish something and to a successful standard. 

 

Of course, it helps to reduce this 'modeller's block' to the page, because it brings home how pathetically backslidey it is and will doubtless help me over it!

[BG John]

Does this horse have a field? If so, how about laying some rails, and building a nice quirky tramcar for it to get some exercise with?

[Nearholmer]

This "horse" sounds very effective. Where can I get one, or better still several?

 

BTW, the "tasks allotted exceeding any feasibility of completion in the time granted, even given the aid of an entire army of plumbers, painters and decorators, landscape gardeners, carpenters, car valeting specialists, people who can cook and do ironing really fast, and several magicians" rule, appears universal, judging by conversations with colleagues and friends.

 

K

[Metropolitan H]

I can second that. It does help if you can develop selective deafness and have a modelling workshop - with lockable door - at the end of the garden.

 

Chris H

[Edwardian]

Alas, our plans to buy a place 'with room for a pony' have crumbled to dust, and we are renting for, well probably, forever.  It was a nice dream, because a property that had room for a nag or 2, a school, stables etc, would also have had room for a Very Big Shed.

 

Still, things are not too bad, because there is a 16' x 10' workshop that I hope to render habitable in the spring.  This will, I hope, house a layout that I acquired many years ago but did nothing with and which requires (and deserves) pretty extensive resurrection.  First, Castle Aching, though I currently have nowhere to put it if and when built! 

 

So, we have much to be thankful for, not least of this is that the 9 weeks living in a caravan through the worst of November and December's gales, floods and snows, is now a thankfully fading memory.  My modelling mojo is slightly dented by our current circumstances, which remain stressful and uncertain to say the least, but, if and when (please God!) we manage to sell our old house, a modest future will be secured.  I will then have the means to create a railway room, and some modelling budget.  In the meantime, I have, so far, managed to avoid having to sell very much of my motley collection of models, and, most importantly, we have managed to keep the horse!

 

In the meantime, I must give an effusive and public 'thank you' to Andy G for all the fantastic stuff with which he has showered my inbox.  I will PM you, Andy, when I have finished downloading it all.  We have had some pretty poor internet issues and I fell asleep late last night trying to download the files!  

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Your buildings look great, and there is plenty of scope for adding to them before you need space to erect baseboards etc.

 

My most productive period until very recently was the six years in Kosova. I had no hope of building a layout while I was there but got on with rolling stock - mainly wagons - and added to my skills by practising on cheap bits of plastic which didn't take up much room either before or after I had cut them up and reassembled them. I did get supplies of wheels, buffers etc on my annual visits to the UK, along with Mekpak (which I later discovered it was illegal to have in my luggage on a plane!).

 

So do your planning, build your buildings, think about rolling stock (and then build it) and by the time you are in a position to think about buying locos and building baseboards you may well be half way there to a layout.

 

Jonathan

 

PS Be warned, though that things can get out of hand. I now have over 300 goods wagons.

[Edwardian]

Jonathan, you are quite right, and this is what I am attempting to do.  I needed to get out of the Modeller's Armchair.  Not having anywhere to build or erect whole baseboards could not be allowed to keep me there once I had finally overcome my own inhibitions!

 

James

[Edwardian]

So, not a lot done due to Parental Visit (they are still here!), but I did manage to set up everything I have so far on the dining table in order to work out how it all fits together. It just about does.  I have done my best to edit out our landlord's rather emphatic wallpaper, but not, I notice, our daughter's kindle.   Nevertheless, I hope it gives a reasonable overall impression of the scene.

[CKPR]

Perhaps we happy few pre-grouping tyros are quite singular in our accommodation needs and circumstances - in my early 50s, I've just got engaged, sold my Georgian batchelor house , hired a transit van (oddly enough,  horse-drawn pantechnicons seem to be temporarily unavailable from vehicle hire companies these days ) and moved all my modelling stuff, including the 'Bolton Loop' , temporarily back to my elderly parents' loft  up in Cumbria. The future Mrs CKPR checks out houses for large kitchen-dining rooms and attic bedrooms whilst I'm looking at outbuildings and cellars...

Edited February 29, 2016 by CKPR

[Edwardian]

Congratulations CKPR!

 

I wish you every happiness.

[Stubby47]

That's a great line up of buildings, which would obviously existed long before any railway came to the town. Do you have a town / railway plan yet, or that dependent on the space you eventually have ?

[Edwardian]

Stubby, thanks.  A bit of both, I suppose.

 

The layout is conceived as 'L'-shaped.  The track will, broadly speaking, swing round from the left of the picture, running in front of the street.  It will curve round broadly parallel to the cottage backs with a couple of sidings, in front of which will be the platform line and run-around. That probably wasn't very clear, so probably I should attempt a sketch at some point.

 

In the meantime, the wide shot below might show the angle formed by the cottage backs and the curve of Bailey Street a little better.  I include a close up shot; with the red brick bay-windowed cottage, we have arrived at 100% 4mm scale.

[Donw]

I do like the buildings

 

Buying a property with a bit of land can be a snare. We previously had a place with a paddock I did build a 24ftx10ft stone and block train shed but the daylight time was taken up with mowing, hedging, etc. and the shed some 100ft from the house was too remote for evenings. After some time in smaller properties we have moved to somewhere with about 3/4 acre all told. But approval has been given to use two bedrooms for the trains so once things are straight (which could take some time as there is an en-suite, doors to be knocked through re-roofing some parts) I do hope to build the layout. Personally I like the feeling of having a good bit of space around the house but it does consume some time.

Don

[islandbridgejct]

Have you considered the justice and equity of leaving someone with a long list of jobs while going off hunting, hacking and generally having a good time? It strikes me as an issue of basic human rights.

[Edwardian]

You're not married then, I take it, Islandbridgejct?!?

 

Bless the Mem, without whose benign tyranny I would be so much worse off.  She does her share, more than, probably, it's just that horses eat up time faster than they eat up hay, so sometimes she needs to delegate more!  

[corneliuslundie]

I seem to remember that some of the iconic layouts of earlier years started in very small spaces - a caravan (East Brent?) and a bachelor flat (Buckingham).

 

Jonathan

[islandbridgejct]

You're not married then, I take it, Islandbridgejct?!?

 

Bless the Mem, without whose benign tyranny I would be so much worse off.  She does her share, more than, probably, it's just that horses eat up time faster than they eat up hay, so sometimes she needs to delegate more!  

I used to have a horse....