[The 1/50 project, A Lorry.]

[The 1/50 project, A Lorry.]

1/50 is a lovely & logical scale to work in. 1/48 for American O scale is close. 
Airfix WW2 RAF refuelling set is a useful source of 2 vehicles, figures and a Spitfire!
Dava

[The 1/50 project, a cardboard loco.]

Looks like a plausible Metro-Vickers design?

 

Dava

[The 1/50 project, deciding on some dimensions]

1/50 scale is attractive and logical, 12mm gauge is accurate for 600mm gauge.

slaters make a limited range of 21mm gauge wheels/axles for 3 foot gauge in 7mm scale. The 14mm dia railcar trailing wheels could be useful and re gauge quite easily on the shouldered axles. Driving wheels more complex maybe. 
 

Dava

[Keeping 26043 alive B.C.R.W.........OH yes there's more!]

Great restoration job! Where is 26043, looks like Toddington G&WR?

 

Dava

[Connectedness, Concern, Contradiction and Conclusion]

Back to modelling, and thanks to Maurice and others who have shared their thoughts on this. Nearly 3 years ago I was gathering information on the East Fife Central [Lochty Branch] with a view to a modelling project. With the help of a few on this forum I got enough information on the Goods Offices used to model one, and spent Christmas making it. 

 

Ian Futers beat me to modelling Lochty, but the building is temporarily sited on the microlayout I built in Canada, now used for demonstration/testing, and as a backdrop for a Heljan 05. The building enabled me to model the contrasting sand coloured brick facings, marked out and cut from straw coloured paper. It was tedious to do, but there was learning, value and enjoyment in the process. Not a great model, but a pleasing one. 

Prototype photo by Ian Kirk.

 

[Connectedness, Concern, Contradiction and Conclusion]

I admire Maurice's work and also St Juliot from a distance [ I was in Canada at the time he showed it]. He is really sharing his philosophy of modelling, an area we don't go to very often. 

 

I tend towards a modelling approach of thrifty frugality, recycling, reusing and drawing on material which would otherwise be wasted. Not exclusively, I do buy things and models too! Most of my work is in 7mm scale, standard or narrow gauge. Recently I paid $5 for enough mounting board off cuts from a picture framer to keep me in thick good quality board for a long time.

 

A few years ago I came across a layout under construction with an entire terrace of 7mm scale houses etched from brass. This appalled me, just because you can, should you? Etched brass used to be high cost,for locos , stock & accessories you couldn't make in precision small quantities any other way. 

 

Etched metal, like 3D printing and plastic moulding, has an environmental footprint. There are alternatives. Those terrace houses and other projects could have been just as well lasercut in MDF, ply or card from the same design package rather than etched metal. Silhouette cutters and their like have their uses too. Handbullding or manufacture has it's place too. I have friends who build locos and stock from card in 7mm scale.

 

We balance the costs in time, money, opportunity and environmental impact with the gratifications or returns  in speed and quality of results. Maurice shares his age, I am 10 years younger but also I think about the level of ambition of what I can do and complete. You can't recycle time!   Using digital technology intelligently to reduce the detailed repetitive work we used to do seems to make sense..

 

Finally, do we wish to be creative designer-makers or assemblers of pre-made products? Satisfaction may be gained from either, but Maurice and a number of us will tend towards the former, there is a hybrid area in the middle, and the model railway production/retail industry is in the latter category. I suspect it was ever thus.  Enjoy what you do, but think of the legacy. Good models are worth recycling.

 

David

 

 

[Cambrian 2-4-0T and Dean Goods]

A good result & good example of why we've moved on from white metal kits, in this case with unacceptable quality control from the latter days of GEM, I suspect.

[Aire Valley Railway]

Derek,

Your drawings are orderly reminders of a tidier, bygone age, thank you.

Dava

[5043 at Kemble. 19th October 2013.]

Good to see main line steam without a diesel pushing it, as for most of the summer. In the first photo, is that the curving bay platform where the Tetbury branch train left? As in the Heljan AC railbus out soon?

[4101 Dubs 0-4-0Tcrane project part 1]

I saw this loco on its first steaming, good luck with it!

[Me and my big mouth - a new local show for Derbyshire!]

I can bring my 'Irton Road' 09 layout based on the Ravenglass & Eskdale with Heywood stock if you like - its 5 x 2 feet and local, with some features to entertain.