Return to the hobby after about 30 years

[Dave_Bec]

This is my first post on this forum .. in fact, any forum ... 

I have returned to railway modeling after 30 years or so, just a small shunting layout at present. Been messing with a few structures and wagon kits - couple of photos attached. Nice to be modeling again especially with the advances in electronics ETC 

[AY Mod]

Doing a nice job there Dave! Interesting alternative usage of coal staithes. Add in the Sprat and winkles and we can tell you're no newbie to the game.

[33C]

Welcome back, did you get the teabags? 

[Dave_Bec]

8 minutes ago, 33C said:

Welcome back, did you get the teabags? 

 

10 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

Doing a nice job there Dave! Interesting alternative usage of coal staithes. Add in the Spray and winkles and we can tell you're no newbie to the game.

Thanks for the welcome .. I find the Sprat & Winkles brilliant in both no hand of god and the fact that from 3 feet plus if painted correctly almost disappear .. 

[Dave_Bec]

9 minutes ago, Dave_Bec said:

 

Thanks for the welcome .. I find the Sprat & Winkles brilliant in both no hand of god and the fact that from 3 feet plus if painted correctly almost disappear .. 

 

23 minutes ago, 33C said:

Welcome back, did you get the teabags? 

Oh yes ... plenty of those and a little drop of the highlands finest !!!

[Dave_Bec]

The problem i had with Sprat & Winkles involved bogie stock, the attached image shows a Heljan 33 fitted with my NEM pocket solution .. works a treatat (Bar only on traction stock).

[Dave_Bec]

And another shot shown over a magnet  that i'am yet to disguise.

[Dave_Bec]

Just wanted to share a few more details re my experience with my choice of couplings ... 

Being out of the hobby for so long (30 years plus) and with all the information now available thanks to the 'Web' I settled on the Sprat & Winkle coupling, I very quickly leaned that a jig is a MUST for these to work first time every time - which they will. A lot of people using these couplings dedicate a 'master' wagon or the like which they set coupling height against .. I found the use of a dedicated jig from day one was the way to go, I made the jig from one half of a track cutting aid that I had  from the 1980's. All my subsequent stock was fitted with couplings using this jig, and the fact that this jig had slots in for OO track to sit in meant that I could slide the jig over a magnet to test uncoupling and perfect alignment. The first two pictures show the jig itself and the third shows it in use against a newly built wagon awaiting paint.

[latestarter]

@Dave_Bec I am coming to railway modelling for the first time (at the age of 66) and I'm still at the 'laying down the layout' stage (see below). Your layout of the shunting yard is very impressive, and my dad drove a shunter in a factory for 30 years, so I'm planning a similar theme.

Could I ask what you used for the ground cover - as shown in first 2 photos - as it's exactly what I'd like and I've been struggling to imagine how I would model it . Am I right that it's dark coloured ballast...or something else? Thanks for any advice.

Stephen

p.s. I went to school with a David Beck. Too much to suppose it might be you?

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by latestarter