Gummy-Joe

Great pictures as usual, Pete! I also agree with your sentiment about BR blue. Some manufacturers don't even have a 'standard' blue across their own product range... :-(

It Ended On an Oily Stage - British Sea Power

Your weathering certainly improves the appearance of the 'old' 37, Pete. That overhead view is a bit of a shock! Your photos from the 'shot on the water' POV create such a convincing illusion of depth - your layout can't be just 6 inches wide! ;-)

Very nice photos there, Pete!

Sunshine of Your Love - Cream

Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band

Blue Monday - New Order

Their shop is about half a km away from my home. Yes, they survived the earthquakes- this area has come off very lightly- but they are shutting up shop for good at the end of the month. So I guess that might have happened last weekend. Talking to the owners Mike and Henry, they said that it was just not financially viable to keep the shop going. As well as wanting to properly retire they had had three(?) increases in their insurance after the September 2010 earthquake, a rent hike, and had to vacate one of the two shops that they had occupied (their store room). Also, they said that trade had almost completely died since the earthquakes, with people having more money worries... Very sad to see them go - they had been in that shop for a very long time

Unlike many others here, BR blue was not a feature of my childhood; the locos I grew up with were 3/4 scale versions of EMD and GE products. So that kind of nostalgia is not a factor. Price and availability means most people over here model either the UK or US scene. When I was 12 I got a Hornby Flying Scotsman train set, and for years after, I was only interested in things LNER. As I got older, I gravitated more towards diesels. I like the Blue period because, colour aside (and I think the colour is actually a really spiffy bit of design), it was a really diverse era: I'm mainly interested in the 1970s period, and so much was happening in this time. TOPs, headcodes, no headcodes, three different marks of standard coaching stock by the latter 70s, a fair bit of pre-nationalisation NPCCS and the odd buffet knocking around in blue/grey, heaps of different classes of loco and unit, each with their own geographical sphere... The Blue railway, for all its problems, was still a real railway. Locos hauled passenger trains, and range of freight still travelled by rail. Loose-coupled unfitted freights and revenue earning HSTs coexisted for a while. Blue provided the impression of a cohesive railway network with a bit of permanence. There is a lot of scope for things in the Blue era!

Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin

When I first saw a schematic of the 1902 track layout at KoL, my eyes watered at its complexity. It's intriguing just how much an actual location can be abbreviated in a model, yet still be identifiable as that place. I believe that your 'sripped down' version of KoL still has a more complex track layout than this side of the real station has today

Don't Bring Me Down - ELO

If You Want Blood (You've Got it) - AC/DC

I must confess to being one of the lucky inhabitants of the city's north-west - we've come through the whole thing pretty much untouched. The central city is stuffed, and there are a lot of people still waiting to hear what will happen to their homes, but I think most of us here are just trying to get on with things. The baby is probably more of a threat to the modelling than the earthquakes at this stage

It's a fascinating spot which I particularly like due to its harbourside location (I've always thought that rail and ships were a good mix). I have a sketch of a simplified KoL here next to me (literally on the back of an envelope) that I was mulling over perhaps building at some stage, but I think that in your version here you have managed to distill it down to its essential minimum. Your track looks fantastic; so much better than PECO setrack

I also reside in beautiful Christchurch, NZ. Although I'm interested in a variety of NZ, UK & US railway subjects, I am trying very hard (and rather unsuccessfully...) to concentrate on Blue era BR in N scale. Hoping to get something small up and running in the near future.

Stunning!

All Revved Up With No Place to Go - Meatloaf

Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

Back in Black - AC/DC

Turn Into - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I Wanna Be Adored - Stone Roses

I Still Remember - Bloc Party

Seven Seas of Rye - Queen