Warren Branch

[Fishplate]

Hi Chris,

 

I've been otherwise engaged for a few weeks and have just managed to catch up on your thread. Some excellent modelling in amongst the conversations about pasties and cream teas .

 

Keeping with the RMWeb tradition of going off topic, I saw these in a local-ish shop window and thought of you. Whilst maybe none apply currently, you could possibly phase them in over a few decades. . . . . . ? 

 

[Rowsley17D]

I could only phase in two of them .

[lezz01]

Sadly I can only phase in one of them the ships having already sailed for the rest.

Regards Lez.

[MrWolf]

Last year it was four. Now it's three. 

[chuffinghell]

3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Last year it was four. Now it's three. 

Don’t know if I dare admit that it’s still four for me as I’m only just the wrong side of forty

 

Which would explain my lack of wisdom

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by chuffinghell

[Rowsley17D]

33 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

 I’m only just the wrong side of forty

 

 

 

A mere bairn.

[lezz01]

Yep my youngest is older that you

Regards Lez.

[MrWolf]

I don't actually feel much different than I did when I was 25 to be honest (I'm told that I tend to act it too. Not sure if that's a compliment!) Most people who I know don't feel over forty either. Not really sure what it's supposed to be like? Our friends are a real mixture of ages and there's no little groups based on age, just a group aged between about 20 and 60 odd.

[lezz01]

TBH I don't feel any different now to how I did when I was 20 odd. It's only when I try to do something stupid that my body reminds me that I'm in fact NOT 20 odd. By stupid I mean Kart racing or jumping out of planes with a parachute, not that I've tried to jump out of a plane for years and years but hey you know what I mean.

Regards Lez.

[MrWolf]

I always found jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane seemed like a daft Idea every time I did it. You do think of some daft things while waiting for the ground to come up.

A friend who actually volunteered for 2 Para, still reminds me that every time he jumped he lost control of his bladder. I tried my hardest to do the opposite and hang on.

[Graham T]

I quite enjoyed it once I had a good canopy over my head.  But the lead-up?  No thanks.  Still, bladder control wasn't a problem!

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I don't actually feel much different than I did when I was 25 to be honest

I'm 65 and when people ask me what I'm going to do when I grow up I reply that I haven't decided yet.

[MrWolf]

7 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'm 65 and when people ask me what I'm going to do when I grow up I reply that I haven't decided yet.

 

There's a lot of mileage in the saying: Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

I tend to think that keeping busy and learning new things is about learning how to live. Stopping doing things and "acting your age" is about learning to die. Nobody in their right mind wants to do that.

[MAP66]

I'm 55 and I feel best with my hands, I find it works best for railway modelling 

[Andrew P]

At 71 I've re joined our old Rock Band, and leap around like a demented baboon when playing, especially the Stones stuff. Its also why I like to build new Layouts, the planning and building keeps the old Brain working, then of course there's my art.

Far to many hobbies, just need a young lady around to re kindle that side of my Yooofff.

Edited October 21, 2021 by Andrew P

[MrWolf]

Back to railway and Warren Branch related subjects, have any of you ever wondered what makes us sufficiently interested in a railway company and a period from forty years before we were born that makes people like myself and @chuffinghellwant to try to represent it in miniature? 

 

It can't be just a creative exercise I don't think.

[NHY 581]

12 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Back to railway and Warren Branch related subjects, have any of you ever wondered what makes us sufficiently interested in a railway company and a period from forty years before we were born that makes people like myself and @chuffinghellwant to try to represent it in miniature? 

 

It can't be just a creative exercise I don't think.

 

 

Ahem. 

 

Looking at my own interests,  1950s /60s S&DJR. Line closed in 1966....just after I was born. Happy with that but my ideal period would be pre-1930 when the lovely blue livery was lost under a coat of LM&SR Black. 

 

Would love to do a pre-grouping layout, ideally L&SWR or Midland Railway. Note the companies. An interest in both arose as they both had much involvement in the S&D. WW1 would appeal. 

 

My initial interest as a young modeller was in the GWR but despite my location, in the midst of GWR land, it didn't gel. Then I discovered the S&D............Midland locos pulling Southern stock...........What? 

Southern streamlined pacifics pulling LM&S/ L&NER and Southern coaches, sometimes double headed by Midland locos........wow.....

 

Then I discovered the Southern......particulary the South Western in the West Country...yum. Adams and Drummond locos....getting better..

 

From this, an interest in bucolic branch lines in general emerged. Victorian locos and stock in particular. ........not to mention Col. Stephens. Now that would be nice, 1920s/1930s......

 

 

I am now tinkering with green diesels so we have moved to the mid to late 60s with the ability to drop back to 1950s steam. 

 

But this is a nice diversion. Where the next layout will be set, well, we shall see. 

 

Rob. 

 

[chuffinghell]

50 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Back to railway and Warren Branch related subjects, have any of you ever wondered what makes us sufficiently interested in a railway company and a period from forty years before we were born that makes people like myself and @chuffinghellwant to try to represent it in miniature? 

 

It can't be just a creative exercise I don't think.

Because we like making things difficult for ourselves 

 

As for why I chose to model GWR in the mid to late thirties…..I honestly don’t know, it just happened

 

Sometimes I think modelling later BR would have been better but only because there is a greater variety of BR locos available

 

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by chuffinghell

[chuffinghell]

9 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

I am now tinkering with green diesels so we have moved to the mid to late 60s with the ability to drop back to 1950s steam…

 

I must admit I too like green diesels, something I will seriously consider once Warren has been finished(ish)

 

I still like the idea of N gauge but I don’t think I could trust my clumsy fingers

 

I also like the idea of a modelling a transitional period running both steam and diesel

 

Hopefully once things settle down at work I’ll be able to do a little more on Warren

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by chuffinghell

[AlfaZagato]

40 years before I was born is conservative.   

 

I grew up reading watching Shining Time Station and reading The Railway Series.  Oliver was one of my favorite characters (along with the stable of the MSR.)   Finding out he was based on a real locomotive, easily modeled, was a revelation.

 

Honestly, the focus on 30's GWR is almost regrettable now, as I have always had a penchant for the odd, and ~1930 LMS is infinitely more appealing there.   So, GWR in N and LMS in OO, where the oddities are often available.

[chuffinghell]

One thing I have been thinking about (which has also slowed progress) is adjusting the goods yard area as I need a little more space. also I need more ‘land’ around the point levers before the embankment.

 

So before I commit myself I’ve cut a strip of thin hardboard to try and help me to decide what to do

 

 

[MrWolf]

Making the goods yard area of my layout just 15 centimetres wider has made all the difference to my layout. It has stopped it looking like I was cramming a quart into a pint jug.

[Gopher]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Back to railway and Warren Branch related subjects, have any of you ever wondered what makes us sufficiently interested in a railway company and a period from forty years before we were born that makes people like myself and @chuffinghellwant to try to represent it in miniature? 

 

It can't be just a creative exercise I don't think.

My very first layout when I returned to railway modelling was a late post war GWR  fictitious location.  I found it difficult despite referring to numerous books on the subject/era.  I just could not connect with it.  They layout was pretty awful and my first attempt at serious railway modelling.

 

Anyway - I then decided to model an era I could remember - which happened to be BR Western Region early 60s.  I've built three layouts for this period , and I personally find this much easier and more interesting/comfortable to try and replicate this transition era.  I still consult reference books (mainly for colour photos) but it is amazing how my memory of this time helps with some aspects of the model.  So I guess this gives me more confidence I am building a creditable model (albeit never truly proto-typical).      

 

I am full of admiration for anyone who models railways before they were born.  Especially actual locations and sticking to prototype practice.  I think it is a real challenge, and one I failed.                         

[chuffinghell]

4 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Making the goods yard area of my layout just 15 centimetres wider has made all the difference to my layout. It has stopped it looking like I was cramming a quart into a pint jug.

I’ll be lucky to gain 15mm without seriously messing up my plan with the canal below 

[Tortuga]

3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Back to railway and Warren Branch related subjects, have any of you ever wondered what makes us sufficiently interested in a railway company and a period from forty years before we were born that makes people like myself and @chuffinghellwant to try to represent it in miniature? 

 

It can't be just a creative exercise I don't think.

For myself, I’d say I’m more interested in the line rather than the company, but then the closest thing to a company that interests me is Midland Region British Railways and even then I’m most interested (from a potential modelling point of view) in ex-Midland and ex-LNWR lines.

 

I’m also more drawn to freight traffic rather than passenger and freight or mixed traffic locomotives rather than top link passenger ones.

 

So, for example, a Southern layout wouldn’t hold my interest, but a Q1 would. I’m not a massive fan of GWR locos, but a GWR layout set in the coalfields of Wales or the china clay quarries of Cornwall would catch my eye.

And all those examples would lose out to a 9f storming out of Long Meg sidings with a train of anhydrate hoppers.