Armchair modelling - a guide to the basics

[AHW]

Evening all,

 

Just as I sat down to begin a further set of planning I was struck by a curious thought - which led to a question?

 

As I am currently unable to physically lay track on a baseboard (too much else in the way) I am totally focused on building a stock collection which will populate my layout when I finally get to it.

 

Not content with filling drawers with boxes - I research and document my work in odd moments which has led to a curiosity about others in the hobby.

 

Bottom line is I now have multiple spreadsheets allowing me to consider whether a new model will fit into my chosen time period and location (May 1957 ECML Fenland) with links to online resources such as https://www.brdatabase.info/index.php and https://www.modelraildatabase.com/.

 

Unable to lay a point, or weather a line side structure when the moment takes me I can quickly open a sheet and double check if I want this item https://www.hattons.co.uk/98107/hornby_r3303_class_d16_3_4_4_0_62581_in_br_black_with_early_emblem_weathered_/stockdetail.aspx if it appears in a shed snapshot for May 57, or if it would need renumbering/naming.

 

So my question is, and this was posed by my wife, am I the only enthusiast in the country running multiple data collection in this way or are there others out there?

 

There you go - all excitement...

 

 

[HillsideDepot]

I am doing something similar. I've looked at my current layouts, which are all designed to be transportable / exhibitable and therefore can be packed up and swapped over for home use, and decided that they still have quite a lot of enjoyment left in them, but that at some point I rather want to embark, as several have done on here, on my "last great project". Not being morbid or anything, but thinking that if I start that layout in 10 years time, and if it gives me 20 years enjoyment as my previous layouts will have done by the time I start on the last great project then something that lasts until I'm 80 might outlive me, or at least outlive sufficiently good eyesight or dexterity. 

 

Which is all a rather long way to say that I have been reading various carriage working books, working timetables and the like and as details begin to emerge have been on the look out for the necessary coaching stock (most of my focus has been on freight layouts). Whilst I think I have all the coaches I need, I don't think that they necessarily have the correct bogies for my era and location, so 2 of the RCTS Coaching Stock books have been found and purchased, but I'm still looking for the 1st edition to get the full picture of change over time. That data based on Bachmann's coach numbers is tabulated, but the Regional bias of the stock is wrong, so I need to research a joint re-numbering and re-bogieing programme based on proportions of each in the actual fleet, supported by whatever photographic evidence I can find (anything below the underframe being visible beyond the coach is a bonus).

Likewise with parcels stock, and even more difficult here, as I haven't been able to find loading lists for the relevant time (if such things existed, I can only find one document, which is extremely interesting, for 10 years before my period). But as I am basing my parcel trains on several actual ones I regularly go hunting on-line for them hoping more people have scanned their photographs and uploaded them and tabulate, the best I can, the formation in the photo, hoping that a pattern may appear. And if no pattern emerges, then that is, in its own way, a pattern. I think my parcels fleet is about there in terms of purchases, but still has a long way to go in terms of correct detail for my chosen period.

 

Of course, there is the possibility that within the next 10 years and me starting the big layout someone will have introduced a series of Mk1 coaches way ahead of the Bachmann ones now in my fleet. Too bad. I'm happy with what I have, they do the job for me. The roof ribs don't really worry me, but the correct bogies do. Off the top of my head I think the only items of stock I would replace if a better version came along would be the 6-wheel milk tanks and the Siphon Gs. But in both cases having done the research I know what I'd be looking for, in terms of number of vehicles and detail differences, should the manufacturers choose to produce.

 

I'm also saving lots of on-line photos of interesting details. I try to include the date (if given) for anything I save, but tend to use the file name to indicate what it was that caused me to save it - often its obvious, but not always, and it helps with searches. I probably should tabulate the photo references, but haven't done yet, just using various folders for broad topics.  I'll probably need a layout twice the size of the one I've got space for to include all the ideas I have, but better to have too much info than not enough.

So less organised, in terms of spreadsheet use, and possibly laptop rather than armchair modelling, but you're not alone.

[Jeff Smith]

I'm sure I am not alone in having conflicting modelling modes.  By that I mean my P4 modelling has a lot of 'armchair' research whereby I am frequently halted in a project until I have exhausted all reasonable avenues to get the details as correct as I possibly can, even though it's largely for my own satisfaction....  However the other 'me' is quite content to model O-16.5 and On30 to essentially the sloppiness of OO track and wheel standards with approximation of Glyn Valley Tramway stock using the venerable Peco kits.  Actually 16.5mm is exactly correct for the 2'4" GVT track so maybe that's how I can justify it!

[AdamsRadial]

I the past where I've not been able to actually make things, mend things, or operate the layout I've found the train and model railway simulators a good alternative.