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Modelling mojo and state of mind


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I queried that, but the insurance company said it'd be a cat N, and even if it was repaired it would still be classified as cat N, so in the long run the repair would just lose me money paying for the repair and the eventual re-sale value after. Best to bite the bullet in the long run.

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Just come back to this thread as I have been under the clouds a bit recently and haven't really spent much time on here or anywhere else on the whole. I have even stopped looking at FB for the moment as I felt a mixture of indifference and positive dislike for much of the content. I know when these things happen all interest in railway modelling disappears. I'm not sure what flipped the switch but the clouds have parted and in that moment of clarity I have decided to flog off all my railway related stuff apart from one scale and for the moment locale and it has/is giving me the feeling of a breath of fresh air, in fact somewhat freeing in that I don't keep looking at the boxes of stuff I have be lugging around in some cases for decades and feel guilty that I have not done anything with it. Periodically I get to a point where I think I will chuck it all but thankfully I manage to get myself back from the edge and know that it is the one constant through life that has given joy as I think I have said before. I have started to embrace the less is more mantra or what ever they call it at the moment and have been trying to follow some advice given about order and cleanliness helping the mind feel relaxed. Funny really when for most of my life I have tried to avoid order.. for me modelling is like riding a wave, stand up as it approaches, ride it whilst one can and then know when to get off and wait for the next one.

Anyway in the process of selling of collections of things that I either have no space for or interest in any more I have managed to find enough mojo to consider a small layout for the stock I am keeping and with the proceeds of the purge maybe able to buy some ready made boards so I don't have to get the energy to build some kac-handed efforts of my own.

Finally in comment to previous posters I am trying to listen to more music as I for so long never listened to anything and I had drives full of music where as now I am narrowing it down to what I like and want to listen to and I have found a new joy music by Phillip Glass and Steve Reich it as a hypnotic quality..
 

I find that I can use music to influence my mojo, especially when I’m in one of those listless moods and struggling to get stuck into anything. Easy to listen to, flowing music works best for me.



The TV series, just finished, "The Detectorists" articulated this perfectly and is a minor masterpiece.  It might have been about metal detecting as a hobby, but the characters could just have easily been interested and slightly obsessive about railway modelling, birdwatching, fishing, classic motorbikes.....  Their partners didn't "get" their hobby, gently ribbed them about it but were supportive and saw that it did them all a great deal of good.

 
And the Detectorists, this has to be one of my all time favour TV programs ever! So understated and visually beautiful, it conjures up so many memories.. Mackenzie Crook is very talented and I look forward to more of his work being on the telly.

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Ah OK, sorry to hear that but you're probably right to let it go unless it's something you really cherish beyond the monetary value.

Hope you can find something to replace it

 

I have finally got a replacement (09 Golf Estate), quite happy with it, albeit weird going back to manual from an automatic.

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Just come back to this thread as I have been under the clouds a bit recently and haven't really spent much time on here or anywhere else on the whole. I have even stopped looking at FB for the moment as I felt a mixture of indifference and positive dislike for much of the content. I know when these things happen all interest in railway modelling disappears. I'm not sure what flipped the switch but the clouds have parted and in that moment of clarity I have decided to flog off all my railway related stuff apart from one scale and for the moment locale and it has/is giving me the feeling of a breath of fresh air, in fact somewhat freeing in that I don't keep looking at the boxes of stuff I have be lugging around in some cases for decades and feel guilty that I have not done anything with it. Periodically I get to a point where I think I will chuck it all but thankfully I manage to get myself back from the edge and know that it is the one constant through life that has given joy as I think I have said before. I have started to embrace the less is more mantra or what ever they call it at the moment and have been trying to follow some advice given about order and cleanliness helping the mind feel relaxed. Funny really when for most of my life I have tried to avoid order.. for me modelling is like riding a wave, stand up as it approaches, ride it whilst one can and then know when to get off and wait for the next one.

 

Anyway in the process of selling of collections of things that I either have no space for or interest in any more I have managed to find enough mojo to consider a small layout for the stock I am keeping and with the proceeds of the purge maybe able to buy some ready made boards so I don't have to get the energy to build some kac-handed efforts of my own.

 

Finally in comment to previous posters I am trying to listen to more music as I for so long never listened to anything and I had drives full of music where as now I am narrowing it down to what I like and want to listen to and I have found a new joy music by Phillip Glass and Steve Reich it as a hypnotic quality..

 

 

 

And the Detectorists, this has to be one of my all time favour TV programs ever! So understated and visually beautiful, it conjures up so many memories.. Mackenzie Crook is very talented and I look forward to more of his work being on the telly.

 

 

I sometims do a similar thing in that I shut everything off, pick up one of my railway books and have a flick through under the reading lamp.

 

One of my problems lately is the shift work. In this 'stint', I've had 1 day off in an 11 day stretch, its testing my stamina, as I still have 2 days to go of that 11. Thankfully, Friday night I shall be extricating with the girlfriend on weekend at a nice hotel in Stratford-Upon-Avon. No trains, just the two of us.

 

GCR gala the following weekend too for some 1:1 scale steamy goodness. I'm expecting a half decent bonus this quarter so hopefull be able to either buy that boiler kit or treat myself to something small.

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Well, just when things are on the up..... it has been a bad few weeks due to an incident at work for me, but this could be something that affects the rest of my life!

I work in an A&E department and between Christmas and New year I was on the receiving end of a "needle stick injury" from a drug addict that had hidden their dirty used needles in the sock. They arrived with us unconscious and breathing. At this point no one knew that they inject drugs, and one of the first things we do is a heart tracing (an ECG) and attempt to gain vascular access (a cannular). All was going well until I rolled up their trouser leg and found two used needles stuck in my fingers. Queue my turrets! It then turns out that this scum has a blood born virus and I have been exposed to it. Now I have to have blood tests to see if I have caught anything for this dirty little scumbag. The blood tests are at six weeks, 3 months, 6 months and maybe 12 months. I am told that the risks are low, but there is still a risk! The following day I get a telephone appointment with occupational health to get the obligatory "safe sex lecture" from the nurse young enough to be my daughter! To compound this the HSE want answers....

Just to make things even better....this was an extra shift to help fund some of the new Peco Bullhead track....

Model railways are currently helping me keep my sanity along with my good lady wife.

Arr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ian

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I have started to embrace the less is more mantra or what ever they call it at the moment and have been trying to follow some advice given about order and cleanliness helping the mind feel relaxed. 

 

And the Detectorists, this has to be one of my all time favour TV programs ever! So understated and visually beautiful, it conjures up so many memories.. Mackenzie Crook is very talented and I look forward to more of his work being on the telly.

Very best wishes for what sounds like, "Recovery".

 

A declutter is very good for the soul.  On TV programmes about hoarding (not suggesting you're in this league, although my own loft could be the subject of a documentary), the OCD-like hoarding behaviour is stated to be a form of control, just like an eating disorder.  Ironically, being surrounded by so much stuff and not knowing which of them, which all have an intended use, to deal with first, is a huge stresser.

 

Glad you also liked the Detectorists, a perfect example of less-is-more.

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A declutter is very good for the soul.  On TV programmes about hoarding (not suggesting you're in this league, although my own loft could be the subject of a documentary), the OCD-like hoarding behaviour is stated to be a form of control, just like an eating disorder.  Ironically, being surrounded by so much stuff and not knowing which of them, which all have an intended use, to deal with first, is a huge stresser.

 

 

Yes it has taken most of my life to reach the point when I realised I am actually happier with less.. and thankfully no, I am not a hoarder unlike my parents. I am not planning to live in a room with 3 things but certainly it helps my mental state if I don't have clutter around me. Anyway first item sold on ebay tonight and I just can't wait to get rid of it ALL!.. :)

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Well, just when things are on the up..... it has been a bad few weeks due to an incident at work for me, but this could be something that affects the rest of my life!

 

I work in an A&E department and between Christmas and New year I was on the receiving end of a "needle stick injury"

Just to make things even better....this was an extra shift to help fund some of the new Peco Bullhead track....

 

Model railways are currently helping me keep my sanity along with my good lady wife.

 

Arr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ian

 

Jeez Ian that is scary!! I hope its all clear.. Like I have said before, and agree with you about Model Railways keeping one sane, well me sane-ish :)

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Yes it has taken most of my life to reach the point when I realised I am actually happier with less.. and thankfully no, I am not a hoarder unlike my parents. I am not planning to live in a room with 3 things but certainly it helps my mental state if I don't have clutter around me. Anyway first item sold on ebay tonight and I just can't wait to get rid of it ALL!.. :)

I'd agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly, I've come to the conclusion that the treadmill of working to acquire money to spend on stuff you don't really need combined with spending the little time off you get between going back to work to shopping for the said stuff is futile and foolhardy and in the long run not sustainable, and in this direction fulfilment and happiness does not lie.

     Consumer spending is, just about, the only thing that keeps our economy afloat and that's why we all have to have our dose of advertising indoctrination at every possible opportunity so we don't forget to get back on that treadmill AND CONSUME MORE. :dontknow:

 

Guy

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Yes, I’d say you nailed it pretty fair and square there.

I pretty much got myself off that treadmill over a few short years.

Just this last couple of weeks though, I took stock of my activities in the hobby again. Having been plodding away fruitlessly for four and a half years in EM, I realised it wasn’t working for me any more so I’ve reverted to OO.

I ‘m in the process of selling EM items. I’ve used some of the proceeds to buy small parts to upgrade a load of old stuff that’s been lying around awaiting repair or conversion for years.

It’s just making use of and enjoying what I have rather than itching to acquire new stuff not really needed.

It’s a lot of fun and since there’s no buying into the consumerist thing involved it also feels pleasantly subversive! :-)

 

D4

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Perhaps less is more when you are older, more or less...  My current, and probably last ever BLT, Cwmdimbath, is very minimal; a run around loop, and sidings off each end of it, plus a kickback siding to private industry off the platform road.  The station is inspired by Abergwynfi, even simpler, and the kickback siding is a crib from Clarence Road in Cardiff.

 

I would not have considered such a simple layout in my younger days; operation is vital to me and must be interesting.  It took a very long time for me to learn that operational interest is actually increased if you haven't got enough sidings and have to keep running around to use the ones you have got.  I have given myself an imaginary steep incline just off-scene so cannot leave stock on the main line when shunting, or even shunt with loose coupled wagons on the 'country' side of the loco; the Sectional Appendix forbids it!

 

I have been able to bring the layout to a state of effective completion in less than a year, which is a phenomenal success for anyone who works at my tectonic speed, and find operation very satisfying.  There are no point or signal motors, everything is done by hand, which enforces a very railwaylike 'think about what you are doing before you touch that control knob' discipline to things, but this would not be possible on a more complex layout.  Costs have thus been kept down to what a poor pensioner (cue violins) can manage, and reliability is not compromised by my electrical bodgery.

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I like your thinking. That’s pretty much the idea I have in mind for what remains of my EM stock.
Everything that I have OO I shall retain for use on club layouts and maybe an oval round the loft for those moments when just sticking a train on and watching it go round is what’s required but I like the idea of a small goods yard in an urban backwater where you can model the scene in great detail and, in the manner you illustrate, operate in a style akin to what the professional railway folk do.

Best of all; I already have all the resources required for such a project, other than some baseboard and electric components.

Yes, sounds like the way ahead. :-)

S4

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Perhaps less is more when you are older.

 

 

I couldn't agree more and the older I get the less I want and like you I am interested in the operational side and would be happy with a plank of wood and a timesaver layout without any scenery as I can make that up in my head, like some of those US OPS layouts who never put scenery on, although with the location I have chosen this maybe a bit hard to get by, but once I get track and electrics done it wont stop me having "fun"

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Just had a day where everything has gone wrong. First been rejected for the house we wanted, then we found out we didn’t have as much as we thought and I know how much is in the pot which leaves an uncomfortable feeling that has been dibbing in and then on the drive home from Work someone threw a stone off the underpass & smashes my window screen. I was gonna ballast the track but right now I really can’t be bothered. It’s sad really I’ve been making leaps and bounds with the layout. So instead I’m gonna play shadow of war to take my mind off it.

 

Big james

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My go to stress relief game atm is Kerbal Space Program. I've built a Space Station with several tankers docked and I'm now building a similar moon station to allow ships to refuel before heading to the other planets. I may do similar things and place orbital fuel tankers around the other planets.

 

I've also shot down a space station with an ICBM, which I am immensley proud of.

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The stress relief of shadow of war last night and taking on what seems like most of Mordor. I feel so much better today, today was pretty uneventful so I’m gonna try ballasting tonigh. although I did invest in a ballast spreader a few days ago so maybe that’ll help my stress levels go down.

 

Big james

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I bought a Baccy 56xx before Christmas. Needs re-motoring.

 

All of the bits are there. I know how to get it done. I just cant get it together with the soldering iron. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Luckily, Mrs Smith isn't pushing me to clear the dinner table. With luck, I might do it this week.

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I bought a Baccy 56xx before Christmas. Needs re-motoring.

 

All of the bits are there. I know how to get it done. I just cant get it together with the soldering iron. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Luckily, Mrs Smith isn't pushing me to clear the dinner table. With luck, I might do it this week.

You should persevere with soldering because it's such handy thing to be able to do, once you get to grips with the basic 'rules' you won't look back. Perhaps practise on scrap cable and brass sheet before tackling loco work. Best of luck.

 

Guy

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You should persevere with soldering because it's such handy thing to be able to do, once you get to grips with the basic 'rules' you won't look back. Perhaps practise on scrap cable and brass sheet before tackling loco work. Best of luck.

 

Guy

Thanks Guy, you're quite right.

 

However, the problem is me, not the pressing problem. I'll have a go tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.

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I know my mojo has been missing for a long time, found some idea how long earlier today. I bought a compressor intending to get on with weathering the many models I have, not to mention spraying the O gauge class 76 kit I was building at the time.

The compressor has sat unopened in the upstairs loo (don't ask why!) since I bought it. Opening the top flap this afternoon I found the original credit card chitty, dated 28th February 2011.

At the time I was insulating and lining the shed to use as a spraying room, all going well until a stray cat appeared and moved into the shed, after the wife's idea was to feed it in there, thinking we'd be able to bring it into the house before long. Still can't get near it so the shed is out of bounds to me.

Around the same time there were major upheavals at the club which meant that I had to back off from work on the layout I had been working on to concentrate on getting things back on an even keel. Another member then took on what I had been working on, but still hasn't completed it to this day, although I've no wish to take it back on, as my ideas and methods have been turned upside down.

Every so often I try to pick up on something and make progress but it usually ends in another step backwards, I've stripped two sets of brass gears trying to get locos running in the last year or so. Being honest with myself I've built lots of loco kits, although only a few have actually run on a layout, most nothing more than static test runs so who knows if they do actually work or not? Added to the fact some of them go back well over 30 years I don't think they're up to current standards and I can't be bothered to update them all, especially with little prospect of a decent appropriate layout to run them on.

The class 76 I gave back to it's designer on his retirement to finish for himself, I believe it is now more or less done.

Went to Stafford show yesterday to try to find some enthusiasm, excellent show with very good layouts I might add, but came away still feeling nothing in terms of motivation.

I spend most evenings on my own, wife goes to bed around 6 to talk to friends on her laptop, watch the telly or play games on her phone.

Thoroughly enjoy being at work, I reach 65 in April, no intention of retirement, partly because I can't afford it, but almost totally because I don't want to!

I've been toying with the idea of selling everything but then again I see my railway stuff as the only personal legacy I can pass on to my son, he's not interested but if nothing else he can sell it and get himself a good few pounds.

So that leaves me still with a room full of stuff for which I have no apparent use and little other than frustrated at the situation at the same time.

Maybe I'll try to do something soon, maybe I won't, not helping my state of mind either way.

I'm rambling now so time to stop and press pist

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I’ve observed my own moods over recent past winters and decided that this year I was just going to write off January as any kind of productive month from now on; particularly the first two weeks. This is possible in my instance because I work part time now (I paid off my mortgage when I retired early from my old career) and I have a modest monthly pension. I still have to work for my pocket money but the part time roster I work gives my a stretch of eight rest days and one of seven, spaced every third week in a six week cycle. The seven day cycle fell over mid January which allowed me a sort of ‘hibernation week’ where after giving the dog her long morning walk I spent the afternoon evening just reading, listening to music and chilling out. There’s no point in forcing yourself to do something half heartedly when your energy levels are so low. The last week or so has seen the beginning of longer and brighter days and the start of the run in to spring. Already I feel more inclined to do a bit more modelling and the previously mentioned RTR upgrades have increased. Today I finished a handful of diesel locos, one of which I started to work on eight years ago!

Even the class 40 you see here was bought nearly four years ago.

I like February though, even though it’s still dark and cold, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s also when Model Rail Scotland occurs. It’s fair to say it’s about the biggest social event in my year where I get to catch up with folks I’ve known for decades but only really see at the show now!

That for me marks the transition from winter to spring and the start of the three best months of the year from a personal perspective. I’m a proper spring baby! :-)

post-22467-0-21658700-1517786129_thumb.jpeg

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