Like many who ‘lurk’ or even join RMWeb, I am a returnee to the hobby after a considerable hiatus. Again like many, I have been buying equipment, kits and RTR ready for the day I stopped reading and dreaming and actually made time to build something worthwhile (at least to me ). To be fair, I’ve actually experimented with a couple of bits and pieces – but haven’t actually finished anything useful. In all honesty nothing seemed good enough, the standards I had set myself being so high (thanks to all the wonderful modellers here in this community).

An off-hand remark from the wife along the lines of “When will I get to see these trains running on a layout?” got me thinking about what was stopping me, and how to overcome it…

The History

A thousand years ago as a teenager in the 1970’s I was moving from being a keen train set operator to a modeller. I started hacking Airfix infrastructure kits about, repainting stock and building what I would now call ‘a plank’. The results were pretty poor, but I was learning, and it was fun. Then my hormones erupted, and by the time I re-joined humanity my interests had changed…

Scrolling forward to the current millennium, the world is a different place – and me with it. My father had started collecting a few items of RTR stock to run on a couple of non-scenic loops pinned to Sundela in his garage, and the bug started to bite me once more. Long work hours and supporting my wife’s hobby (showing dogs) gave me an excuse not to do anything of my own until Dad passed away and I inherited his collection. I couldn’t bear to open the boxes for a year or two, but when I finally did my old enthusiasm was re-born. Cue attending exhibitions, buying stuff, subscribing to magazines, scouring the ‘net, joining RMWeb.

Builders Block

So, what’s been stopping me from turning several large boxes of purchases and inheritance into something visible? Fear. It’s easy to study, plan, and buy; it’s hard to get past the fear of failure. Personally, I could only remember how bad my teenage attempts at modelling were – what if I was still that poor? I’m a successful IT professional and quite good at most of the things I have to do, and I want everything else to reflect my years of experience and wisdom!

Back To The Future

OK, so I worked out what was preventing me from making a proper start (although publicly I was blaming long commute, too many jobs around the house, helping Her Ladyship). What could I do to get myself going? It finally dawned on me that I just needed to pick up where I’d left off in 1975 – and make all the mistakes I would have made as a young man if I’d carried on with the hobby at that time. But with the added advantage that I now have considerably more pocket money than I had then! Also, RMWeb and other modern resources mean that mistakes (or “learning experiences”) need only be made once – the right answers should be much easier to find nowadays!

Once thinking in this more positive way I was able to re-appraise my efforts from “the decade that taste forgot” and I realised that without much help or guidance I actually managed quite a lot with Airfix, Super 4 set track and coarsely applied Humbrol enamels.

26^th April 2015 - D-Day

Now, I had planned to catch-up with the gardening yesterday – Sunday, 26^th April – but circumstances had put me in charge of our friends’ two 15 week old Irish Setter puppies, as well as our own dogs. Activities being confined to the kitchen and yard, I decided to go for it and retrieved a Ratio wagon kit from the overflowing box labelled “to build”. With a little thought I managed to set out everything I needed on the kitchen table in such a way that it could quickly be scooped up out of paws way if I needed to deal with canine misdemeanours, rolled up my sleeves and started to build an LMS 3 plank wagon.

Despite interruptions to prevent various household items getting ripped up in three-way games of ‘tug’, attempts to dig to Australia, and the usual chores – I finished it! Well, apart from painting, decorating and weathering. And fitting couplings. And it was so, so enjoyable!

I’ve made a right mess of it in places – but nothing that won’t be masked by paint and powders. It runs perfectly and all 4 wheels are level. Incredibly, I managed to try and glue the solebars in the wrong place, and then the sides… but I rescued it. Lessons learned.

Next!

“What’s the point of all these ramblings?” I hear certain of you thinking. Well, I hope that by charting my progress through all the embarassing gaffes I’m sure I have yet to make that it will inspire more people to have a go and not worry about not reaching the high standards seen on RMWeb at their first (or even second or third or….) attempt. Selfishly, I also hope to get advice on a project-by-project basis as I tackle my ambitions.

To do list:

More wagon kits, coach kits, detailing RTR, building turnouts, test track, DCC (laptop, Sprog & iPhone), scenics, GWR BLT (really!), proper layout.

I will post pictures of the wagon build (warts and all) when I return home this evening.

Andrew