Lecorbusier

Not interested in discussing politics ... there are many ways to skin a cat - and frankly climate change is too depressing. Modelling is however good therapy!

My hope is that if a major player starts to invest seriously in green technology, it could create a paradigm shift from a technological and therefore an economic standpoint .... The fear that it would be problematic to be left behind as the economic focus shifts - industries of the future and all that. Its coming anyway ... just not quickly enough. I find it fascinating that investors are pulling the plug on traditional power generation in favour of renewables because the payback periods are no longer workable due to the continuing tumbling of renewable prices. The problem of course with renewables is that the scope for money making is more limited as the generation of the power requires zero natural resource provision ... and so it becomes an infrastructure and maintenance model - with the infrastructure being much smaller and maintenance being far easier. It should create a situation of plenty, so I suspect it will be monopolised in some way. Hopefully all of this will lead to smaller and more powerful batteries for our model trains at dirt cheap prices for anyone interested ... this is an interesting web site https://www.carboncommentary.com and his last book .... the switch was fascinating.

It is a sad fact that currently everything seems to be being done to either play down, ignore or deflect from climate change by the mainstream. Figures on American reporting on Australia ... .... it seems pretty similar in the UK. Less important things occupy centre stage - often manufactured or presented polemically to divide opinion and create division ... think Trump in Iran, Brexit in the UK.... and whenever any serious proposals are put forward to try and tackle the problem they are attacked as being either unaffordable (whatever the economic underpinnings) or politically dangerous. I will watch with interest the Sanders campaign in the US, which is proposing a 'Green New Deal' based upon the same underpinnings as the Roosevelt new deal with similar economic rational - it is bold and arguably could also address the economic stagnation in the US (outside of the financialised sector). It has been backed by some pretty serious academics, but is currently being attacked as dangerously leftwing - an odd critique of American history - particularly as many of the major financial institutions are now calling for governments to seriously invest as a way of breaking the long term low/negative interest rate cycle. I am however pretty pessimistic ... In the Uk very similar 'Green New Deal' proposals got next to no traction at all in the recent election with almost zero serious discussion or critique within the mainstream - this all but prevents the majority from being able to make an informed judgement either way. Given the circumstances, perhaps Australia as a major nation will now provide a lead ...

I take a slightly different view. Developers of all ilks (and I have both worked for them and been one myself in a small way) build as a business for profit - whether to sell or to derive an income from rental. As such the main driver is not social need, but what within the market offers the most advantageous outcome. To some extent policy can drive and channel this by generating demand ... but choices are neither altruistic nor social. If you want social outcomes, then it has always seemed bonkers to me to leave it to the market or expect the market to be a willing partner. The plight of developer driven social or "affordable" housing is proof of this, and as far as satisfying demand is concerned, so long as there is a market and a return that is all that is required to drive the sector .... outcomes do not prove to be predictable as far as social engineering is concerned. Housing associations have proved more successful. In London ... as well as many other city locations .... you will find many flats bought off plan as investments, often from abroad and often left empty, with negligible impact upon the housing crisis (and it often seems to be ignored that London has 3 boroughs with some of the highest levels of Poverty in the UK ). Again, if statistics are to be believed, it is not a shortage of property that the country suffers from, but rather a shortage of available property at affordable prices .... we actually have a surfeit of accommodation as things stand. All very interesting ... and something for which a solution will need to be found - you can't disenfranchise too large a section of society without repercussions as we found out during the 1920s and 30s .... 40 - 60% of a persons income (in many cases a double income) going on accommodation costs is not sustainable. It is already having a statistical downward effect on peoples choices of when and if to have a family ... a fact currently partially masked by an ageing and increasingly long lived population. But I find that railway modelling is a fantastic escape from the real world, I just wish I had more time to devote to it .....and to other leisure activities come to that. As things are going it doesn't look as if I will have any hope of retiring much before 70, which is when my own mortgage will be paid off --- but then I shouldn't grumble as I am lucky enough to have a mortgage! By comparison my father retired at 59 and will be 94 this year.

By glut I mean .....if the statistics are to be believed.... a pretty large proportion of property outside the rental sector is now concentrated within the over 65 age bracket. When these houses come on to the market (which they will unless you are an only child and the inheritance tax rules change such that they don't force a sale (or the property is cheap enough to be below the threshold)), then there is likely to be a limited market for such properties at the current values. As such a glut will result and prices will tumble. Now whether they tumble to the extent that they become affordable to those below the glass ceiling, or whether they find a higher level of value where they become pray to the landlord sector (re-enforcing that glass ceiling) only time will tell. It is certain that we currently have an unsustainable glass ceiling.

Some thoughts on layout types and sizes .... It seems to me that large layouts and team efforts are the preserve more often than not of the club ... and I wonder how healthy this once ubiquitous institution remains from the stand point of exhibiting or visiting? I also observe that there appear to be a raft of largish layouts under construction by those entering early(ish) (i.e. hale and hearty) retirement by means of the large garden shed as railway/craft room down the bottom of the garden/yard - the majority of these appear to be permanent and therefore private endeavours. There are a fair few largish endeavours occupying dedicated threads both here and the Scalefourum web site - though how many of these magnum opera will reach fruition will be interesting to watch. If you still have a family then space tends to be limited and the small layout comes into its own. Equally, there are an increasing number of people under 50 who rent (being unable to buy) and when buying can afford very limited space .... so the smaller layout is very much here to stay ... perhaps this will lead to a re-flowering of the club - though I fear the cost and availability of rooms may also be a dwindling resource. I can't help feeling that there is going to be a glut of property at some time in the not too distant future as the glass ceiling continues to rise with age - though this may benefit the professional private landlord rather than the new home owner dependent on inheritance tax rules .... we shall see!

true ... but where it is attached to a run of wagons I suspect one can assume that this is the way round it was attached on arrival? The final image would suggest your guess is correct.

That in a nutshell is what I am in the process of experiencing .... though pretty much at the start Fantastic fun!

As you rightly say, I have chosen P4 very much as a challenge, and certainly not as a judgement on anyone else. I have huge admiration for many layouts in both EM and 00 and the modellers of these are people I very much look up to and learn from. I also think that building a true and smoothly running loco in any gauge is a considerable skill, even if it is less longwinded in some than others. TW makes the process look easy, but then I would expect nothing less from a professional. What I have found is that compensating or CSB springing a loco, whilst certainly taking longer, seems to me to require very similar skills to getting a rigid chassis to run true, just with a longer sequence of stages .... but for a beginner in P4 what it does do is allow you to build something which actually has a chance of running reasonably reliably on your beginner track work. Without it, I suspect that P4 would be far less achievable and far more frustrating.

As very much a beginner in P4 (alongside any other gauge of modelling) I would only make one observation .... it seems to me to be so much less forgiving as a gauge than 00 and I suspect also EM (having never modelled in EM I don't know). That being the case I need all the help I can get. I assume that were I a track building guru then I might get away with a well built rigid chassis (which is a considerable skill in its own right). Equally, if I were a compensation or springing guru I might well get away with relatively poor track work (Mike Sharman's matchstick test). I am of course neither, but to date my efforts with the simple compensation of an 0-6-0 loco and now a CSB sprung 0-6-0 loco, have proved successful in navigating my less than perfect first efforts in track building. ..... though I hasten to add not under exhibition conditions with all that that entails. Perhaps ... just perhaps, it is this relative lack of skill, which dictates the full gamut of solutions available to prevent disillusionment from the outset - and yes it does take a fair old time to put these chassis together - though if you are methodical and take your time they are relatively simple.

Oh dear .... was unaware I have been committing a faux pas with gay abandon Flexichass as a system is therefore a complete misnomer I suppose .... and I have always held the late Mike Sharman somewhat in awe !

I am no expert in things arboricultural, but most of what I have read and gleaned working with tree experts over the years would suggest that erosion tends to occur when trees are not present. I know that in many instances trees are now actively planted to stabilise unstable banks and hillsides because the roots serve to bind the structure together and encourage other binding scrub. How this relates to railway embankments and cuttings I have no idea, but I would have thought they were more stable and better engineered than those slopes where trees are now being actively planted.

I was not advocating lack of maintenance ... whether that be invasive plants on structures or graffiti. Nor am I celebrating the reduction in numbers of lines or complexity of track work. However, the increase in nature ... particularly the wild wood around railway lines is for me a real positive about the contemporary scene .... and there are still plenty of stretches riding high which overlook pastoral landscapes. I travel regularly between London and Oxford ... both via Paddington and Marylebone .... and I really like the increased wildness and feel of passing through nature rather than being distanced from it ... something that I believe would not be possible with Steam due to the danger of fire in the summer. I also like the fact that even when commuting in London there are stretches as one heads into the suburbs where all is wooded and green. So I suppose we must agree to disagree ... I do like stretches of wilderness around railways where all does not feel manicured and controlled.

Wow .... the idea of doing it all twice, but half the size frazzles my brain ..... respect !

By way of my paltry contribution to this years modelling ... I'm afraid it stands solely with my efforts to build the Craftsman 1F .... and I have yet to complete even that ......Still huge learning curve and much fun had I have been spending the last couple of weeks trying to detail up the cab interior as the Kit had next to nothing and what it did have was pretty crude. Firstly I worked out a method of housing the battery charger within the coal bunker ... so the jack point can be hidden under some strategically placed coal. Picture taken prior to cleaning up the solder! The main body needs to be separate from the footplate to allow the battery to be removed and replaced in the future. I cut a hole in the bunker (on the cab side) and used some scrap etch to fabricate up a representation of the coal hole - it should be fun once we have some coal spilling out. I cobbled together an impression of the sanding lever and the handbrake. I have soldered in some tabs to locate the floor of the removable cab section. I also fabricated up a new saddle section for the smoke box as again the white metal offering from Craftsman was poor. Next I bought a back head casting from LRM and fabricated a brass floor section for the cab. I soldered in some flats either side of the back head to represent the rear of the tanks. I then fabricated up the splasher casings ... a lower one on the right with a white metal representation of the reversing lever, and a higher one to the left forming seat storage and a removable timber lid. I then floated in the timber flooring ... I have yet to put in the 'hearth' piece. The flooring is smoother than it looks in the picture - black lines are not gaps but rather PVA filling ... it will benefit from descent painting and weathering. I made up the spectacle plates to the cab portholes using .4mm wire (filed flat on the outside - the roof was already in place so I couldn't reach the interior side). If I loose assemble the footplate and cab it currently looks like this... And sat on the chassis .... So ... whilst I am aware of areas which I will hope to do better next time around ... overall I am pretty pleased with how its going so far. I must say I shall be happy when everything stops being experimentation and the trying out of things for the first time hey ho!

I never really considered that .... but modern stations and other places are not really user friendly for watching trains. Most concourses are secure with barriers etc dissuading the casual observer, and trains themselves feel much more enclosed and remote somehow. The heritage lines on the other hand allow you to wander along the platform and watch the world go by. Terminus describes a relaxed and accessible railway world which seems a world away now. The HST was a classic design and a remarkable achievement .... the APT if the plug had not been pulled might also have been ground breaking - I find it interesting that the Pendolinos make use of similar technology (or so I understand?). But even if you had dedicated tribes of Youthful spotters with little else to fill their time, I find it hard to believe that either would have held the attention long after their original novelty had worn off. Maybe it is because the separate identity of the locomotive and the separate personality of the carriage stock made for a more interesting life? ..... but even if we were catapulted back into the heyday of transporting, I suspect in todays market it would only ever have been niche ... given all the other attractions and entertainments available.

I do vaguely wonder if this has more to do with the vastly reduced numbers and popularity of trainspotting as much as anything? The Deltics ran during a vastly different era. I found this BBC Timeshift programme on the nationalised railways and particularly the modernisation including the APT and HST trains very interesting.

1955 rather than 63 .... but just had to post this.....

Interestingly we all now have access to cheap self publishing. I find increasingly I make printed books of my best images (particularly of children) for posterity with headings and descriptions. Apple offer such a service as do Blurb ... there are others ... the quality is very good and the cost (depending on how big the book is) in the £20 range.

I see them quite regularly out of Marylebone in what I find a much nicer livery .... I have always quite liked them - its nice to have a separate loco. The buffers are much less obvious when viewed from the platform.

Likewise I am far from convinced that it is a case of either/or. We all have our preferences. Personally I think the class 68 has merit .... though on the other hand I think one could argue there is a consensus beyond the bounds of this thread that the Wainwright is indeed elegant (whether it is to your taste or not). I have a particular liking for the style and elegance of Johnson's slim boilered locos (as a set from 0-6-0 tanks through to the express singles) ... which I think are very elegant and well conceived as pieces of aesthetic design enhanced by a wonderful and harmonised colour and lining scheme (not so fond of the class 68 on the livery front). However that doesn't preclude me seeing the merit of the more powerful stance and lines of the later compound. Ditto for Gresley's masterpieces or indeed a King or Castle class. Nor does it preclude me having a soft spot for the Deltics and indeed the 125s. It gets more difficult where the contemporary scene is concerned as time and a retrospective eye can be cruel (as indeed it was to a fair number of steam designs if we are talking about pure aesthetics.