hayfield Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Morning all.....There were a few more holes than I thought.... Hope you are all well and the last few months have been good for all. There have been some changes.... More to follow.... You know we all love the changes Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixoh8sixoh Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Morning all.....There were a few more holes than I thought.... Hope you are all well and the last few months have been good for all. There have been some changes.... More to follow.... Holes of the pond liner or golfing variety? :-) Look forward to seeing your next steps! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Glad your back Gordon. Ive built and sold 2 small layouts and 1 fairly big one since you were last on here. I do hope we see some more inspirational track laying amd woodwork very soon. ET really is the ultimate in big layouts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_H Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Don't tell me, it's a roundy-round? a single line branch? a change of scale? oh no, you've abandoned ET in favour of slot car racing? Nice to have you back Gordon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 I think Larry, Andy P and Gordon are one and the same person.......... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Mine do SOMETIMES get finished. Not often but sometimes. Hahaha. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted November 6, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 6, 2016 Glad your back Gordon. Hear, hear! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted November 6, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 6, 2016 Great to have you back Gordon and trusting the holes have not been too big a problem or have taken you in the direction of the tip. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Hope the 19th hole hasn't been too much of a problem either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Rowsley17D Posted November 6, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 6, 2016 Good to have you posting again, Gordon. Now, when will we get some photos? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_H Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 I know, I know, you've jacked ET to take up Subbuteo .... subbuteo cricket at that. Come on Gordon we've all missed you and we're all in suspenders (mine's lime green and frilly, I'd have preferred black) wondering what you've done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted November 6, 2016 Author Share Posted November 6, 2016 Hope these changes don't involve a trip to the tip or use of a bonfire. Holes of the pond liner or golfing variety? :-) Look forward to seeing your next steps! Great to have you back Gordon and trusting the holes have not been too big a problem or have taken you in the direction of the tip. Don't tell me, it's a roundy-round? a single line branch? a change of scale? oh no, you've abandoned ET in favour of slot car racing? Nice to have you back Gordon. I know, I know, you've jacked ET to take up Subbuteo .... subbuteo cricket at that. Come on Gordon we've all missed you and we're all in suspenders (mine's lime green and frilly, I'd have preferred black) wondering what you've done. Thanks for your warm welcome after all these months. Numerous issues have taken me away and more of those in due course, but you're pretty close on several fronts with your comments..... Suffice to say, it's warm here in front of the fire and Spurs are still unbeaten this year, so things could be worse.... Lovely to be back. Photos will follow in a few days..... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Ah, the chance for new track? Alway enjoy watching the builds........ Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted November 6, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 6, 2016 Oh God I hope Gordon's not waiting for the new Peco Bullhead..... It won't end well..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted November 6, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 6, 2016 Ah, the chance for new track? Alway enjoy watching the builds........ Best, Pete. ...and rebuilds! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted November 7, 2016 Author Share Posted November 7, 2016 Many thanks for your warm welcome back. The last few months have been tough, but things are turning round on many fronts, so off we go again... It's been a long summer, made notable by several events, all of which made railway modelling seem completely unimportant. Firstly my mother of 93 took a considerable turn for the worse and her dementia and need for full time care increased considerably. Sad to see, but she had to be moved and right now I'm up to my eye balls in sale forms as the sale of her flat goes through. Thankfully she's moved into a lovely care home just 5 minutes away, but the numerous hospital visits and the angst of her having to leave her home to move into a care home was tough all round. Still some way to go, but slowly but surely we're moving into another stage of our family lives together. Right in the middle of all this, I then lost a mate of 40 years who went at 62 to cancer. A real body blow as our careers crossed many times, but cancer came and took him over a very short period of time. RIP Graham.... Then we had a leak in our pond and without thinking thought I would determine which part of the pond or filter was leaking, so switched off the filter overnight. Problem was that switched off the oxygen pumps and that night was the hottest of the year. As water temperature rises, the oxygen level drops dramatically and I woke the next morning to find I had killed 9 of my 20 largest koi. A real emotional loss as we had grown these boys over 20 years from 6" tiddlers to 2ft long and 15lb in weight, so there had been a huge time investment on our part. I could have cried.... Needless to say a great pile of plywood upstairs went nowhere and ET saw no activity for months. The dust piled up and it looked a mess... Eventually you wake up one morning after months of getting kicked from pillar to post and for no reason at all your life returns. A fresh start on numerous fronts. A new pond liner was ordered and will go in this week. Nine new tiddlers have been bought and life goes on. ET had to go. Far too big and too complex, so back to the drawing board.... Everyone says keep it simple, but I fear that I would quickly become bored with a simple oval, but at least something would run.... Back to Templot and start with a simple oval, but then plan to increase the layout in stages. Put most ideas into the plan but just build a circle first and see where it takes you. No splitting the room with boards down the middle. No gradients and keep it easy to build and with good access to all areas. Once everything had been cut up for the woodburner or shipped off to the tip, work started a week or so ago. Here's the basic plan... ET station is on the right hand side and the simple loops are in red. A through station with three platforms and a double ended bay. There is one gradient down to a steam loco shed. 1:80, but loco's only, so even I can cope with that....famous last words... A five road set of carriage sidings/visible storage to hold complete trains. Some goods interest with various industrial buildings spread across the layout and a 4/5 road storage for freight traffic. All of these areas are subject to minor changes as the build progresses, but the basics are there. All of the layout is built with 70mm clearance for the underbridge to the shed area, but this means the open frame construction lends itself to embankments/underbridges at several points across the layout. All of the track will be SMP flexi and hand built pointwork to 00-SF standards. This is how far I've got in the two weeks since life returned.... ET station. Three 8' platforms to take seven coach trains plus a Pacific. Carriage Sidings/Storage plus shed access One of the Industrial areas So hey ho, off we go again. One thing really has come home to me though. Family and good health are everything. Everything else is incidental. I now feel happy to accept golf will take over from April through to October and little or no modelling will get done. ET will flow through the winter months and those wet days. I won't feel guilty about it and will enjoy both. If ET runs, then that's a real bonus. If it doesn't then the journey has been enjoyable.... Fasten your seat belts, here we go again... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Gordon, sorry to read of all your problems. A new start is the best way to re invigerate the enthusiam you had before. I hope to re start mine proporly next week but back with Peco Code 100. I wish you all the best and will be following once again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted November 7, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 7, 2016 Best of luck Gordon, with this latest incarnation of ET. I look forward to following developments. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesysmith Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Which company supplies you wood? Only asking as it would be a good investment come autum time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Very sorry to hear of your difficulties this year. But now you are off to yet another fresh start, you maybe need ot think about things a bit. You say you want something a lot more than simple becasue you would soon tire of 'simple'. You barely get beyond track building so i presume you enjoy this part of the hobby. So try to isolate the problem beyond track. Is it the trains? My interest used to be in individual things like locos and rolling stock whenever I went trackside and this is what I want to model. I eventually found that 00/4mm was about watching 'mass' moving along on rails. I would buy loads of mineral wagons to make a coal train. There was no individuality in each wagon...Each was merely a bouncy plastic toy on a standard cast chassis and it was the 'train' I was looking at. You will already have guessed what I was leading up to! I have one 0 gauge wagon of my own and two on loan. Mine is a BR standard wagon with fully fitted pipework underneath that I can plainly see even at my age. It has vac pipes and screw couplings and very few compromises.....It is in fact a miniature of the real thing and it not only carries a sense of weight and mass, it is actually rather heavy. My GWR 57xx is the same with few compromises to miniaturisation and has correct size splashers. The track gauge is near enough and locomotives look right from the front aspect rather than narrow gauge. The Ivatt Class 2-6-0 has all axles fully sprung even on the Tender, opening smokebox door and water filler cap. Sound decoders have brought both to life. When it touches a train, the buffers compress and as I said, this is perfectly visible in 7mm. I continue to build 4mm coaches because it is my livelyhood, in fact I wouldn't want to build them in 7mm for other people as they are very time-consuming. But no way could i build a 4mm layout now. This was the problem that I failed to identify for so many years. I'm not a disciple of prophet Gay Joe. Maybe a slow measured approach of building individual wagons etc would suit you as well. I'm merely saying look beyond 4mm just in case 4mm is the problem. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Rowsley17D Posted November 8, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2016 Hi Gordon, looks like a workable plan with plenty to keep you interested without over complication. I think your attitude to the difficulties and disappointments you have faced in the last few months is just right. Life is for the living and we have to get on with it, with a little help from our family and friends of course. What has happened, has happened and there's nothing we can do to turn the clock back (but learn from any mistakes naturally.) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Gordon I missed last nights post earlier this morning, quite often less is more, also one of the best bits of advice is get something running. I do admire those who cat just plod along year after year on the same project, I for one enjoy verity to a certain degree which is the odd distraction, but still come back and do the thing I enjoy the most Will watch with interest as Mk 3 or is it more developes Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Gordon I'm glad to see you back online and updating us on your changes. Whilst the reasons were different, you know I too went through a major upheaval, and also ended up simplifying the grandiose layout plans I once had, into something more manageable. No regrets whatsoever. I think you do so well capturing the feel of scenery and place, that you'll be better of getting to a point where your track is down, and you can start building a world for the trains to run through. If not, as you say, the journey will still have been fun. Looking forward to watching your ongoing progress Cheers Scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
60012 Commonwealth of Australia Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 (edited) Glad to see you back! Real shame about all the problems, and I'm glad that you've been able to sort them out. Also good to see that now you'll be able to do some work! Certainly from my own experience (and from talking to others), layout building is very relaxing (although I have heard some disagree about some dark-art called wiring!) I think it's a smart idea to decide to go for the slightly smaller and simpler plan. One of the temptations I've had (and still have!) while I have been (and am) planning Dunoon, is as I have such a large space to work with, it's very tempting for me to try to cram as much in as possible. Certainly one reason which I am putting off starting Dunoon until I have completed the other 2 small layouts I'm working on, is due to the fact that I don't want to start building, and then decide that I don't like what I've done, which in P4 will be far more difficult and expensive than it would be in OO. All the best, and will need to keep a closer eye on this from now on! Peter Edited November 8, 2016 by 60012 Commonwealth of Australia Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted November 8, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 8, 2016 Sorry to hear of your troubles Gordon, but it is good to see you progressing with the new idea. Take care, Nick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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