Jump to content
 

Keith Addenbrooke

RMweb Premium
  • Posts

    2,731
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Location
    Wirral
  • Interests
    Continental and American Standard and Narrow Gauge Railways and Model Railways, Layout Design, GW Branch Lines; BRM Subscriber and 009 Society Member

Recent Profile Visitors

5,077 profile views

Keith Addenbrooke's Achievements

5.9k

Reputation

  1. Thanks @AndyB and @Phil Parker. From memory, author Nigel Adams was a Vicar in Coventry. I remember going to a model railway show they put on inside his Church (I think there were half a dozen layouts, all O Gauge / Scale). I seem to recall he was also involved in the Talyllyn (volunteer guard?). I did have a copy of the book, must have been twenty years ago now. Melbridge Dock is an excellent example of a small layout that has stood the test of time. Not sure I’ve seen a plan for Wyandotte Transfer before, but it was another well-known layout back in the day: I think it was featured in “The Encyclopedia of Model Railways” sold as a Marks and Spencer “St Michael” book in the late 1970s / early 1980s. Thanks Andy - two very good examples (and a good cake joke too), Keith.
  2. Thanks @AndyB - exactly the kind of ideas I’m already having: Definitely on the list for consideration: something I could tackle in either Narrow Gauge H0e or early-era German H0 with what I already have (previous pictures refer). I’m reminded of the ideas a few years back for IKEA Billy-bookcase layouts. For a larger project with my big kits and longer trains, I could see if a Minories-type terminus / FY might be possible, or at least a working diorama rather than a shelf display of stand-alone buildings? (As you say, I do enjoy making structures). …perhaps like this one, which I have in stock - when built it is 19.5” long, enough for a couple of boxcars to be hidden: In my break today I’ve spray painted the parts of this kit to get it ready for assembly. It wouldn’t take long to get started, as despite several rounds of clearing out and slimming down my collection(s), I still have the buildings for a US switching layout - add a transload / team track facility and there’s more than enough for a portable Inglenook: My first task though is to put the brakes on - even with the busyness of Easter, this is the stage in the ideas process where I can easily go in to hyperdrive: with almost 50 years of studying track plans and ideas to call on I’m already generating too many ideas - it is settling on something that is genuinely practicable and seeing it through that needs consideration. Knowing me, I’ll be tempted again by smaller scales, even though my exploring has proved H0 gives me a nice balance when it comes to the proportion of modelling time to be spent on the frustrating fiddly bits (every scale has fiddly bits). Z-scale remains enticing, but as I struggled with some of the detail in N (esp. couplings), I need to be disciplined / realistic about how I’d fare when things started to break on a Z-scale layout (static model shown here with H0 Sam): My hope is that moving house and starting with a clean slate will give me the incentive to change my thinking about what will satisfy me as a layout project(s) - to match that with what I will actually have storage space for. There is certainly much to be said in support of your final observation: Very true - there are some fantastic small and micro-layouts around. Once we get the keys to our new home (which should be soon), I can try and turn the excitement of new opportunities into project ideas - all being well, that’ll be what happens next, Keith.
  3. Thank you @Mikkel - for clarifying that I do indeed mean ‘no dedicated layout running space’. No self-respecting fan of micro-layouts can claim there’s no layout space at all, and your Farthing layouts / modules are a wonderfully creative application of the concept. The explanation in your comment of how you manage to arrange modelling practically is particularly helpful as a useful guide to minimising disruption to home life, thank you. A welcome aid to domestic harmony! The Model Railroader author and contributor Pelle Søeborg is another modeller who comes to mind who’s face the challenge and moved to diorama modelling. Steering my ideas back to micro-layouts would require some careful thought - the structures and trains I’ve been buying haven’t been collected with that approach in mind, but could be an option - perhaps alongside (or as part of) a portable layout? I certainly feel encouraged by the responses from yourself, @ian and @AndyB. Thanks to all, Keith.
  4. Remember the dreams of railroad empires we used to sketch out in our youth (and sometimes still do)? While sorting some stuff this morning I found this plan for the Cumbres & Toltec 3’ Gauge Railroad. I’ve not been there, so it must have come with a calendar I had a few years ago: In the context of this blog post and conversation, it struck me as exactly the sort of thing I think still sits behind my perpetual flow of over-ambitious project ideas, so it seemed relevant to share it here. Beautiful! Keith.
  5. Thanks @ian, an interesting idea - our 009 Society Group doesn’t have a premises (a hall is rented for monthly meetings), but there are several societies locally I could talk to, including the very active local club whose buildings are close by (the club to whom I donated my American HO buildings). Thanks, Keith.
  6. Thanks @AndyB, the outhouse has proved useful. The baseboards I brought with me sat untouched in the garage for a couple of years after we moved, until I began my Great Western Adventure(s) during the 2020 lockdowns, and I realised the outhouse was the perfect workshop for spring and summer. At the new house, I’m afraid the garden is very small, as the house is on a corner: in the old days that would have meant a house with a big garden and plenty of room, but now it means two houses squashed in with small triangular shaped rear gardens meeting at the point instead. There is a shed already (for garden tools, etc) and a conservatory, but not room for another shed. As I’m no gardener, we’re OK with this, but an outdoor layout isn’t really an option, Keith.
  7. Our planned house move is now likely to happen in the Summer. With more time to get ready, an Easter update makes sense. There's a new challenge to report on, as well as some modelling progress. I'll start with loose ends being tidied up: Loose Ends: Left over from my American HO project last year was my incomplete Walthers' Grain Elevator Kit. I've been keen to build this for a good while, so even though my plans have changed it was nice to get it finished. First task was to weather the head house and loading / unloading shelters. As I use brush weathering, it made sense to do this before assembly: I added some styrene card strengtheners to the head house when I assembled it, and a false floor at the elevator end to hide the curve of the silos: The finished model is as impressive as I'd hoped, even if it would still be small by prototype standards: (Some of these images also appear in my Narrow Gauge HOn30 thread) Question is, what to do with this now? We're having a big clearout, as our new home will have less storage space. The Narrow Gauge mini-layout I built in 2021 has been passed on through our local 009 Society Group, and I have thrown out some of the building kits I assembled a while back but now have no use for (I really didn't need a dozen railway stations!). I wasn't sure what to do with these three American HO building kits though - all personal favourites but also now surplus: All three being Walthers meant they were designed to complement each other, with selective compression carefully managed to help them go together. When I compared them to a part-built Craftsman Kit of a single store however, the illusion was broken. All of a sudden, the Walthers buildings look smaller than they probably should, although all are 1:87: (Images above have also appeared in my HO Union Station Diorama thread) After this test, it was a much easier decision to part with the three plastic buildings, donated to the local Model Railway Club for use or onward sale through their Club Shop. This has created a bit of space on the workbench: The Craftsman Store Kit is being kept for possible use in my HOn30 project, but progress is slow. Each window has delicately cut separate upper and lower sashes. As the frames (and shutters) have 'peel and stick' backings, they aren't difficult to assemble, it's just one of those jobs I find best tackled in small stages: When completed, the model will appear in my Narrow Gauge Modelling Thread. Last Orders: My previous blog entry talked about the impact of Hatton's Model Railways closing. Largely out of sentiment, I made a last minute purchase just before the website closed, buying a heavily discounted Continental Signal Box (Stellenwerk): (also pictured on the ‘Hattons to close’ thread) But 'Last Orders' applies to some modelling too. Our current, Victorian house has a single-storey outhouse at the back which I've been able to use for spray painting and as a baseboard factory. With a couple of larger kits in my stash, it makes sense to spray the larger components now, even if I don't tackle the actual kits before we move. It's no coincidence I have two models using the same components, as I bought the Post Office as a substitute when I couldn't find an affordable kit of the station (I'd noticed the Postamt is modelled on an end part of the station): Key parts of the Post Office were sprayed first. This is now all dried and back in the box (not the box pictured): Just getting a photo of the pieces for the station proved a challenge: the box is not only large but 4" deep. In the end I took advantage of the floorspace created by ditching a bed that used to be in this room but had become surplus too: These are just the walls, having been painted and left to dry in the outhouse before coming back in. It's big: I think the photo on the box shows the station as it appeared in an earlier era, matching the postcard shared by @Mikkel below my previous blog entry, here. Over time I think it has been repainted in a lighter colour, which I prefer and which explains my choice of colour for the walls. The current version of the kit is lighter in colour. I also brush painted the impressive entrance piece for colour matching: With the baseboard factory also closing, it'd be good to place a final order (with myself) before we move. At the moment it's all just tidied up for house showings: But this brings me to: The Fresh Challenge: In previous posts for this blog, I've been refining my modelling aims and project list. But I've now run into: 'the problem.' Our new home is more modern and will be much better for us in many ways, both as a family and as my wife and I work out of the home office. But we're losing spare space and storage - not just the outhouse. As we make progress with our much needed downsizing clearout it's become possible to see how life will work after we move, and we've realised the plan we had to accommodate my modelling and layout interests isn't going to work - at all! Long-suffering readers of my contributions to RMweb over the past four years will be familiar with the regular changes our family needs have imposed upon my ideas for space to use. Now I'm having to think about modelling with no space at all. Let me explain: I'll be able to set up a workbench in a spare bedroom when the family aren't staying, but the lingering smell of paint and glue means it needs to be in a room where others aren't waiting to use the space (we won't have a garage, a cellar or a large shed in the garden either). I can look at ideas for portable layouts, but have to think about a question I was first asked about portable layouts by @AndyB in August 2020: "Where will you keep the layout?" It's a rather good question for a property without storage space: I have been here before: the first layout I ever had (but didn't finish) was a very compact N-Gauge Branch Terminus to Continuous Run that could easily have come from an early Cyril Freezer plan book (3'8" x 2'2", with 9" min. radius curves and points): I wrote about it in the Layout and Track Design Forum back in 2021 (here). When not in use, it actually went into my wardrobe! But I wasn't trying to include a station that will be 3' long or run mainline trains (or have three layouts)! If I'm going to build some new baseboards before we move, I need to get my thinking cap on again. Despite all the lessons I've learned, I've never really considered the prospect of having no dedicated space. I've always assumed I'd have a railway room one day (when the kids grew up), and never imagined I wouldn't one day be building the kind of layouts I dream about. I'd like to see trains like this running on my own layout: This was a test run to see if a six coach train looks OK for mainline running in H0 (I decided it was): But a 6' x 3' table top isn't what I'm aiming for! I know lots of dedicated modellers face this challenge, and have often posted on the Boxfiles, Micro layouts and Dioramas Forum (and back in the day contributed to Carl Arendt's Micro-Layout website). It's just not what I'd been working towards. I've plenty of modelling to keep me busy (not everything has been shown in this post), but whatever happens next may - once again - look a little different. Until then, thanks for reading, Keith.
  8. Interesting - I particularly like the way the lettering on the Departmental coach is in its ‘original’ position to emphasise the change of use (I’d not doubt have centred it without thinking). Could I ask how you did the fading of the paint - clearly a very effective technique? Just wondered. Thanks, Keith.
  9. If it’s an HO Scale model I’d go for Bachmann USA 61241 model of a high hood EMD GP50 #6551 of the Norfolk Southern. The GP50s were introduced in 1980, with most new purchase operators having low hoods - the Southern had their built with high hoods, and these later became Norfolk Southern Locomotives. Some have been rebuilt, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t know what to look for to find out if this is a model of one that has been rebuilt or not. Happy to be corrected if wrong, but hope this helps, Keith.
  10. I believe just four Re 4/4 iv locos were built? (Perhaps four was someone’s lucky number?). Although the class didn’t become more widespread, a lot was learned from them that was incorporated into later models, so an interesting loco to have as part of the model fleet when you can get a DCC one. I think they were also used to try out different liveries, so each one was unique in that sense when introduced too, Keith.
  11. I can’t find an exact match, but I’m not a bus expert - the distinctive shape at the rear looks to be modelled on the Daimler Fleetline 1960s rear engine design (later the Leyland Fleetline) which had the cutaway section and the lifting rear bonnet on the engine compartment. The side window arrangement (entry door, small window, large window, four panel exit door, etc) looks more like a Leyland Victory Mk2. The front with the solid section splitting the front window in two isn’t one I recognise (I’d be tempted to remove the centre pillar and have a single panel window). Don’t know if that helps? Keith.
  12. It is sometimes possible to find the instructions / spares sheets on the internet or in the roco archiv, which may help? Based on the age of the box and other Roco locomotives I have from this period I'd be inclined to expect it doesn't have a socket, but I stand to be corrected by anyone with product specific information for this item, Keith.
  13. What a beautiful runner - the way the loco glided on after uncoupling had me give a quiet “Wow!” when watching the video (esp. having noted the model is likely half a century old already). An excellent interlude in my day. Thank you, Keith.
  14. Congratulations to @Tony Wright and all those who made the shortlist for RMweb Modeller of the Year. I find it’s not just the quality of the modelling (which is inspirational across the board), but often the standard of the communication too that encourages me to raise my game when it comes to Modeller of the Year. “Thank you!” to all. I know Modeller of the Year is the category I spend longest thinking about when it comes to voting (and, like @PaulRhB and others have already noted, I also only vote where I feel I can make an informed choice). Thanks also to @AY Mod for organising the poll - always interesting to see the results, Keith.
×
×
  • Create New...