I have recently been honoured by having an article entitled “Slow Modelling - an alternative way forward” published in the Model Railway Journal (No. 274, page 276).
This described some of the recent changes in my modelling practice and the relationship between modelling and wellbeing, but it did not really get to some of the underlying problems. The original, first draft, of the article included what might be seen as more contentious comments about the natural of railway modelling
Sometimes a simple, experience can assist in the clarification of thoughts and ideas. While on a recent visit to the northern edge of the Forest of Dean, I came across one of those fine examples of ‘Reuse’ (and indeed ‘Reversion’). The capital ‘Rs’ are a reflection of those increasingly important ‘R’ words: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle*. I made an unexpected discovery: the remains of a B.R. plywood van.
After a ridiculously short working lives, many of the B.R. fleet of
Several weeks ago I attended the Exeter Garden Railway Show with a demonstration table, trying to spread the arts of scratch building and low impact modelling in 16mmNG fraternity.
The purpose of my display was to produce a cardboard mock-up of a loco body that would eventually be made mostly from scrap and recycled materials, the main source being the high quality tinplate found in Golden Syrup tins. "Out of the strong came forth sweetness."
Whether the resulting card body is "swe
I was looking for something else and came across this....
"Do I really need to watch a video of steam in Northern Ireland?"
"Well why not?"
"It would be interesting to see the German's mean by romantic steam!!"
It is well above average photography and suddenly gets very interesting (at 3 mins 50 secs) ... that's if you are thinking about modelling inside valve gear.
I did not watch any more but intend to get some stills of various points in the cycle.
This chance discover
The beginnings of a little something in recycled tinplate. Well, at least the body will be recycled. Other stuff has been to hand for sometime including the now rather depleted collection of Golden Syrup tinplate. Trouble is that I stopped taking it with my porridge to help keep the weight down.... It gets complicated this purchase, use, reuse/recycle .... did I need the Golden Syrup in the first place?
The Golden Syrup tin does not render a plate quite wide enough for the 100
After a very early start we arrived at the RailEx just as the back of the queue was clearing. This unexpected visit was stimulated by the offer a lift in the fourth seat of a very comfortable car.
As always, it was an impressive exhibition, and it was rather nice to be able to wander around with no responsibility for operating a layout.
Having made a comment to several people during the course of the day about the curve on the front of one of the 'Cameo Competition' runn
After an unaccountable delay....
Here is the finished tin-smithing for the loco.
I have tried to get it in the same location as the picture of the cardboard mock up but the sun is all wrong and the vegetation has changed.
A better picture with the light.....
.... and one to show the origin of the materials.
This follows on from "Recycling" and further back "Exeter Garden Railway Show".
After a distraction or two the Loco Works has open for a day to begin the fabrication of the cab. Rather than try to saw the thin tinplate over my normal inverted cutting 'V', I fixed it to some 4mm ply using double sided tape. In addition the cuts were marked out on sticky labels applied to the surface that did not want to take any sort of marking. This allowed a more robust work piece to be handled w
In July 2015 I posted a picture of my cut-short garden railway.
It showed the original cutting devoid of track, but left like so may closed railways, to the passing of time and the advance of nature!
The post received a comment that the space for the line curving away had a certain attraction.
The relaid track in the 'station' looked in good order, although ballasting was not complete.
Today the scene shows signs of both neglect and
Yes, Shaker Chairs in the first instance.....
Having completed my last Shaker Chair project.... (It is not a true Shaker as it has square lower back legs for reasons too complicated to explain here!), I moved on to rebuilding some rather disappointingly short lived, plastic based, garden railway (16mm NG) points. These had become rather twisted and out of gauge. The rails were removed and reused with the remaining stock of white metal chairs, brass pins and screws, so
This appears to have little to do with model railways .... until we see the crossover.
Sometime ago to save me working with a 16mmNG loco up on blocks, Phil Copleston kind lent me his 32mm gauge rolling road, and very useful it was too.
Now just about this time of year my mind moves to thinking about getting out on my trike, especially on a lovely sunny day like it has been in Exeter today.
..... But rumour has it that the over 70s are about to be grounded.
