I've been thinking that railway modelling needs a better public image. People seem to think the hobby is a bit weird and nerdy, when really we’re a bunch of smooth adrenaline junkies. Here are some examples from my own awesome life.
Firstly, we railway modellers have really cool gear. These DIY tamping and scribing tools were made from coffee stirrers and my wife’s discarded sock knitting needles. Max bling! The top three are for smoothing DAS between sleepers and
I had a setback with my Dean Goods. I was spraying on some varnish in preparation for lining, when this happened:
Orange peel - or something similar!
There followed the usual process, so well described in Dr Mindbender’s insightful ”Coping with Failure in Railway Modelling: The Four Phases of Modeller’s Recovery” (Wild Swan, 2019):
Phase 1: Despair (”Why me, Lord?”)
Phase 2: Resentment (”Stupid model!”)
What goes through a modeller’s mind? 'Very little', my wife would say, and she’s not far off! Am I the only one who enters a Zen-like state of mind when operating the layouts?
It begins like this. You decide to run some trains, forget all the worries. Get the gear out, set up on the dining table.
The engine purrs into life, pulls a train off the traverser. You get down to eye level, begin to dream. What if there was something else behind t
This may not be to everyone's taste, but I've been playing around with some photos of the Victorian coaches that I recently dug out (see last blog entry). For some reason, out-of-focus photos of historical stock have always captured my imagination. Like ghosts from the past, or whatever. These manipulated images are a quick attempt to recreate something similar.
This shot somehow looks quite "real" to me. Perhaps a reminder that there are other avenues in layout pr
Well they say we have to learn as we go along, so here are six "lessons learnt" that I'll be taking with me from the scenic work on "The bay". Some of it is basic stuff I suppose, but perhaps there are one or two things of interest to others.
Wiltshire or Arizona?
1. Kill your darlings
I tend to have these little pet features on the layout that I really like when viewed on their own, but which somehow don't fit into the bigger picture. After much agonizin
Before you think RMweb has become a dental forum, I am referring here to a new chair that gracefully supports my backside during layout operating sessions.
Strangely, neither my wife nor teenage kids have been able to mobilize any enthusiasm for this great find - I guess they have finally given up hope in me. So here it is on RMweb, a place where people are able to appreciate the finer things in life. It is in fact an old hydraulic barber's chair that the founders of my w
