Keith Addenbrooke

Thank you @Peachy for sharing this here - in my view the Hornby team came across very well, and I found their candour when explaining the whys and wherefores of releases moving about particularly helpful. I can see why there is such interest in the HST - I wonder if it almost resonates for those of us now in our mid 50’s with the kind of excitement the prototype launch had in the 1970s? (exactly the kind of nostalgia for excitement that drew some of us towards the hobby in the first place, so we could relive happy memories in miniature). Seeing full length sets in motion will really demonstrate the advantages of TT. Perhaps, because it is double-ended, it will work in a way that a Pacific and a variable number of coaches doesn’t quite (however impressive that may be). All good stuff. Thanks, Keith.

Most of the rolling stock I’ve tried building looks quite like that…

Looking forwards to coming on Saturday - as has been noted, an another strong lineup making good use of the available space for the Show. Would just like to say thank you in advance to everyone involved - a huge amount of effort goes in, all voluntary, and it is appreciated, Keith.

Had a quick look through my subscribers' copy yesterday - looks to be another cracking issue, thanks to all. @AY Mod seems to be working overtime on the reviews in this issue! Much to enjoy, Keith.

As I understand it, that distinction was the basis for the ‘safety’ designation - bringing the rider closer to the ground (so they could touch the floor), Penny Farthings also being known as ‘ordinary’ bicycles at the time. No idea if Penny Farthings were ever carried on trains though? Keith.

Wow! I hope you like / understand wiring better than I do - a lot better (after all, this is not an overly complicated layout, at least not on top). Hope it goes OK, Keith.

Nice to see a photo of the two weathered 08 locos in the new BRM magazine (p35). Well done all, Keith.

He @Ressaldar I missed it! I’ve been meaning to check out the club since discovering you’re so local. Is it possible to arrange a visit some other time please? (Afraid I can’t do Sundays anyway, sorry). I’m not a 7mm modeller, just wanted to pop in and say hello. Would that be possible? Are opening times still Tuesday and Thursday evenings or Wednesday afternoons? Thanks, Keith.

First time I’ve seen an RDC in Z scale - particularly impressed with that one (I think it’s an AZL model?). Excellent, Keith.

Having spent most of the last month trying to fight an ongoing On30 temptation, this could finish me off completely - it had never crossed my mind as a possibility, but actually makes a lot of sense in many ways. Well done Bachmann! I should say. Will await with interest - too much interest, Keith.

I treated the store front installation as a separate modelling task. Having previously made some Walthers’ Merchants’ Row kits without any interior detailing, I knew I would need to include something inside the stores in this build (it would be stretching things even for me to have regular boxcar deliveries to perpetually empty rail-served stores!): First part of this build were the doorway entrances, which came from the same ‘peel and stick’ sheets as the window frames: The fake shop interiors were from some unused 4mm scale Metcalfe shop interiors that were included as alternatives in their low relief departmental shop kits. I’d built them some years ago, and kept the spares ‘just in case’: Noticeable in the photo above is a gap between the centre access door and the ceiling. This was caused by some springiness in the base I’d not spotted earlier, and was (unsurprisingly) able to resist all attempts at gluing the pieces together. It would only be much later on, after several failed attempts to line up the store front section with this out-of-position door, that I realised I could solve the problem by detaching the door and glueing it in place in the store front before fitting. I could have saved a lot of time (and quite a bit of glue) if I’d thought of this sooner! What would cause my biggest problem was the Metcalfe interiors were designed to be set back inside the shops, not pasted to the windows: The first bits I’d done were set back in the doorways of the new build and looked OK, but when I proceeded with the picture windows they ended up looking horribly flat Painting the window frame a darker blue didn’t improve things much at all: Nor did adding paper coverings to the other windows, cut to size using the surround left after removing pieces of the kit as templates: Although I toyed with trying to set the interior back a bit inside the shop, the L-shaped end window would have made that more difficult to pull off (again, I only thought later about using diagonal card inserts, which might also have worked). Completing the front confirmed my suspicions - not the effect I was after with this build at all: Research prompted by a question on the NGRM Online Forum had revealed that the team track was actually on the other side of the store, and not flush with the loading dock (confirmed by checking the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the prototype). This meant the side picture window would be trackside, so even though the main frontage would be side on in any layout / diorama setting, the flat interiors might still be too readily visible: A sizing photo taken earlier: And the store from a similar viewing angle: Eventually the lightbulb came on and I realised I had another option - build outwards instead. I painted the frets from which the window and door frames had been cut, then cut sections to fit the windows: perfect (already formed into grid shapes, and with ‘peel and stick’ backings so no glue needed): I’m happy that breaks up the picture interiors enough, and at an angle the frames are all I now see when looking along the sidewalk. As I’m not trying to model the original exactly, this modification is no problem (even the oldest photos I’ve found online of the original show the large sheet glass windows). I breathed several deep sighs of relief at this point! Job saved!! I considered turning the building round and building a loading dock out from the car level doorway, but as a left-handler, uncoupling is easier for me when locos are on my right - so this way round is easier. I can now proceed to the roof, lessons learned. Have a good weekend, Keith.

Mirror card is not something I think I’ve seen used before (conventional mirrors are more common in this type of situation, particularly on American Model Railroads). The photos seem to show something of a ‘shimmering’ effect from the mirror card. Is this more pronounced on the photos than in real life? Just wondered, Keith.

I’ve been meaning to ask where you get your paint from? Kit Stop in Birkenhead don’t sell a lot of Model Railway stuff but the guy does seem to know paint whenever I’ve been in for some bits. Just wondered: my buildings are only lightly weathered, but I could do with a bigger selection of weathering colours to use. Thanks, Keith.

If I might make a suggestion, I think adding an extra straight section between the traversed and the curve could prove to be essential, so that trains entering or leaving the traverser don’t start to sideswipe anything on the adjacent tracks as they begin to take the curve. Adding enough straight track for your longest cars or locomotives to approach dead straight might be wise. Just a thought - enjoyed the video (a smooth running sign of a layout coming together nicely), Keith.

A tragedy indeed. My own red / green colour blindness was confirmed when I was a naval cadet many years ago now: being unable to distinguish between port and starboard lights ruled out a career in the service (as a cadet I was a bandsman, so just had to be able to read music), Keith.

Getting back to the craftsman kit store build, the next job was to tackle the windows:a large job best done in batches, but aided by having the frets backed with a pre-glued peel and stick coating, and with the window panes scribed on the glazing sheet: The sash windows have a separate lower part. When both parts are glazed they’re fitted to the outer frame. Once glued in place (fitted from the outside), shutters are added, so each complete sash window has seven parts in total: The inner roof panels have just been loosely fitted here for the photos: The loading dock is perfectly sized for my HOn30 boxcars, although I think the prototype was served by a standard gauge line: Next job will be the storefront - I’ll have to decide what level of interior detailing I want to show first. Hopefully the biggest part of this build is now done, Keith.

Having got to the point where I was watching too many videos on YouTube, sufficient for me to actually give it up for Lent in order to have a break, I’d say there is no one perfect way to present a video - certainly not to satisfy everybody. Personally, I liked the backstory introduction, especially as this is the first video (so no prior knowledge should be assumed). The film was not too long, the camera was steady, and there was no repetitive talking over the pictures, so I was able to enjoy the film. Videos explaining builds can be harder to make, based on what I’ve seen, and may need more practice,but as an appetiser for a new channel I thought this was fine, Keith.

Dunno - personally I find having several jobs on the go works quite well - at the practical level, there’s something to do while glue / paint dries on one model in progress, and there can be ‘economies of scale’ when bits of different kits all need the same colour paint too. With less enjoyable parts of a build, they can be left to wait until the motivation strikes without getting stuck. I currently have four kits in progress, and am enjoying building them as much as ever. Just a thought, Keith.

Very enjoyable, and well presented too. On video some of the details really stand out - even found myself thinking, “I hope those chickens don’t stray onto the track when the train is coming!” Thanks for sharing it here, Keith.

Hi Jez. Good question. Perhaps you could print / paint a wall with fake windows as a compromise between a plain solid wall and another round of cutting out the windows? Just a thought, Keith.

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.

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.

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.

Incroyable!

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.