Wright writes.....

[robertcwp]

8 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Andrew,

 

It would be a tragedy if LSGC were never exhibited again.  Surely when exhibitions start again there will be a market for layouts like that.

 

Andy

I agree, but there is always hope that the excellent trains will find a home on a new layout.

[Headstock]

12 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Andrew,

 

It would be a tragedy if LSGC were never exhibited again.  Surely when exhibitions start again there will be a market for layouts like that.

 

Andy

 

Good morning Andrew,

 

many thanks. Without a vaccine I can't see it myself. We have already lost one member of the team in these terrible times and a couple of others are just too vulnerable to risk.

 

10 minutes ago, robertcwp said:

I agree, but there is always hope that the excellent trains will find a home on a new layout.

 

If Charwelton ever comes up for sale again, perhaps it might survive us all.

[t-b-g]

32 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

 

A shame but perhaps that's the curse of many a club layout (too many?).

 

It doesn't just happen on club layouts. Much comes down to the preferences of those responsible for the layout. I divide people into those who like to run trains and those who like to operate. I would have Tony W and Roy Jackson firmly in the former camp. I am in the latter.

 

I see points and sidings and I want to see what they are there for and how they are worked. When I first saw the Retford layout, I imagined all sorts of movements that would be possible with all that track and pointwork but when the running sequence was arranged, there were around 100 movements and all but a handful were a train running round from the fiddle yard back to the fiddle yard. Operating it, I used to look ahead to see if there was something more interesting coming up and it would be many moves before something stopped or shunted. I got to the stage where I no longer enjoyed running it and usually declined the chance to get involved. I got roped in to work Babworth signal box on one running session. In 3 hours, I pulled a couple of signal levers and put them back a few times.

 

In the case of Retford, it was all done in the name of recreating what really happened there. There were long spells when the sidings were quiet and nothing happened other than trains running through. It may be authentic and accurate but for an operator, it was really dull.    

[LNER4479]

1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

 

We have discussed the operation before, so I won't go over that again but if if the sidings and points had been used a bit more (at all) ...

 

I think it was Frank Dyer who wrote about recreating the typical rather than the exceptional if you want a convincing layout. 

 

I (sadly) never saw Charwleton at a show in its original (ie steam era) format; however I've discussed the layout several times with Tony (Wright). One thing you say, Tony, is that after a while the operating team abandoned the planned shunting moves for the simple reason that it effectively 'shut down' the rest of the layout and unduly interrupted the 'parade' of trains. 'Nothing moving on this layout' (from the viewers down at the tunnel end)

 

That 'chimes' with me as we have a similar syndrome on Grantham. We have a pretty established sequence of 30 stages (each of which includes up to 3 or 4 individual 'moves') and everyone's happy when that's one of the premium expresses flying through. But that's contrasted by other stages where there's a shunt across the mainlines or a loco change going on. I like to think that we aim for a balance in that respect and certainly don't intend fundamentally changing it. And we probably get away with it more as it's a more complex layout with capacity for four or five movements to be happening simultaneously so there's usually something moving somewhere, including the now activated road system (which I quite happily accept as more of a gimmick).

 

Those that appreciate more of the minutiae of prototypical operation clearly enjoy it and hang on the barriers for hours, but I suspect that the overall popularity of the layout suffers a little overall. We now have an interesting contrast with Shap, which is much more of a 'parade' layout and the early signs are that it'll probably be judged as a more successful / popular layout in time.

 

So what do you do? Pander to the exhibition visitors who only have a 30 second attention span or stay true to the original concept (assuming that is sound in the first place) and keep the balance between the spectacular and the mundane in depicting a typical vignette of the slice of railway you're trying to portray.

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

I divide people into those who like to run trains and those who like to operate.

What a neat distinction, Tony. I'm with you, in group 2.

[St Enodoc]

8 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

I (sadly) never saw Charwleton at a show in its original (ie steam era) format; however I've discussed the layout several times with Tony (Wright). One thing you say, Tony, is that after a while the operating team abandoned the planned shunting moves for the simple reason that it effectively 'shut down' the rest of the layout and unduly interrupted the 'parade' of trains. 'Nothing moving on this layout' (from the viewers down at the tunnel end)

 

That 'chimes' with me as we have a similar syndrome on Grantham. We have a pretty established sequence of 30 stages (each of which includes up to 3 or 4 individual 'moves') and everyone's happy when that's one of the premium expresses flying through. But that's contrasted by other stages where there's a shunt across the mainlines or a loco change going on. I like to think that we aim for a balance in that respect and certainly don't intend fundamentally changing it. And we probably get away with it more as it's a more complex layout with capacity for four or five movements to be happening simultaneously so there's usually something moving somewhere, including the now activated road system (which I quite happily accept as more of a gimmick).

 

Those that appreciate more of the minutiae of prototypical operation clearly enjoy it and hang on the barriers for hours, but I suspect that the overall popularity of the layout suffers a little overall. We now have an interesting contrast with Shap, which is much more of a 'parade' layout and the early signs are that it'll probably be judged as a more successful / popular layout in time.

 

So what do you do? Pander to the exhibition visitors who only have a 30 second attention span or stay true to the original concept (assuming that is sound in the first place) and keep the balance between the spectacular and the mundane in depicting a typical vignette of the slice of railway you're trying to portray.

Down here, the great majority of exhibition layouts are what I call "Australian Standard" double track ovals with a station in front and hidden loops behind. They do attract a crowd but the crowd doesn't stay long when the same pair of trains has gone by for the fourth or fifth time.

 

Part of the challenge is getting a team of operators for an exhibition, particularly for a club layout, who a) know how the real thing was operated (increasingly rare); b) know how the layout works (not as common as you might think); and c) have the nous to put both those things together (multiplying probabilities...).

[t-b-g]

1 minute ago, LNER4479 said:

I (sadly) never saw Charwleton at a show in its original (ie steam era) format; however I've discussed the layout several times with Tony (Wright). One thing you say, Tony, is that after a while the operating team abandoned the planned shunting moves for the simple reason that it effectively 'shut down' the rest of the layout and unduly interrupted the 'parade' of trains. 'Nothing moving on this layout' (from the viewers down at the tunnel end)

 

That 'chimes' with me as we have a similar syndrome on Grantham. We have a pretty established sequence of 30 stages (each of which includes up to 3 or 4 individual 'moves') and everyone's happy when that's one of the premium expresses flying through. But that's contrasted by other stages where there's a shunt across the mainlines or a loco change going on. I like to think that we aim for a balance in that respect and certainly don't intend fundamentally changing it. And we probably get away with it more as it's a more complex layout with capacity for four or five movements to be happening simultaneously so there's usually something moving somewhere, including the now activated road system (which I quite happily accept as more of a gimmick).

 

Those that appreciate more of the minutiae of prototypical operation clearly enjoy it and hang on the barriers for hours, but I suspect that the overall popularity of the layout suffers a little overall. We now have an interesting contrast with Shap, which is much more of a 'parade' layout and the early signs are that it'll probably be judged as a more successful / popular layout in time.

 

So what do you do? Pander to the exhibition visitors who only have a 30 second attention span or stay true to the original concept (assuming that is sound in the first place) and keep the balance between the spectacular and the mundane in depicting a typical vignette of the slice of railway you're trying to portray.

 

You don't have to do one or the other. You can do both with a bit of imagination and organisation.

 

Out of Grantham and Shap, I much prefer Grantham because of the variety of movements. You have several locos all over the layout and as a viewer, you never quite know what or where the next movement will be. An express, then a loco change, then a van being attached.

 

I looked at Charwelton and could easily see how a train could draw up and reverse into the yard while an express thundered by in the other direction. Hardly "stopping everything".

 

The most fun I have operating a layout a shows has been with small shunting layouts, the best being Leighton Buzzard. The number of people who have watched for a whole run through the sequence of around an hour is most gratifying and I have known people come back and watch through it all again.

 

That wasn't just Denny fans either. It happened with families and youngsters who would never have heard of Buckingham. If you have a big gap, even a minute, between one move and the next, people will quickly drift away. If you are on the ball as an operator and you cut those gaps out, you can have a 15 second pause and people will stay and watch.

 

 

 

 

[t-b-g]

9 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

What a neat distinction, Tony. I'm with you, in group 2.

 

I wish I could remember if I made it up or stole it! There was a reference to the difference between running trains and operating in Frank Dyer's series of articles in the early MRJs, which are still my "bible" when it comes to operating a layout. He, along with Peter Denny, really understood the subtle nuances of operating a layout more than anybody else I am familiar with.

[Headstock]

15 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Down here, the great majority of exhibition layouts are what I call "Australian Standard" double track ovals with a station in front and hidden loops behind. They do attract a crowd but the crowd doesn't stay long when the same pair of trains has gone by for the fourth or fifth time.

 

Part of the challenge is getting a team of operators for an exhibition, particularly for a club layout, who a) know how the real thing was operated (increasingly rare); b) know how the layout works (not as common as you might think); and c) have the nous to put both those things together (multiplying probabilities...).

 

Good afternoon St E,

 

you also require people who can drive big trucks in our case and do the heavy lifting to transport the thing, set it up and pull it down again.

 

26 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

What a neat distinction, Tony. I'm with you, in group 2.

 

I like a bit of both, if it something that I've researched, I would want to incorporate that operation. If it is something that I've built then I can get pleasure from just seeing it run.

[t-b-g]

10 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

Good afternoon St E,

 

you also require people who can drive big trucks in our case and do the heavy lifting to transport the thing, set it up and pull it down again.

 

 

I like a bit of both, if it something that I've researched, I would want to incorporate that operation. If it is something that I've built then I can get pleasure from just seeing it run.

 

That aspect is one of the reasons why we stopped exhibiting Narrow Road. Advancing years, the baseboards getting heavier as we get older, infirmity and even the loss of some of the operating team. Any future exhibition layouts will be very much a "one car with two people" size. I am lucky in that I can enjoy a small shunting layout just as much as I can a 30ft main line one.

 

One time when I do like to set them going and let them run is when I am working on a layout. We have an optional continuous run on Narrow Road in its permanent set up and setting things going round and watching them pass at different places while you are tinkering with some scenic work is very pleasant. Then there is the testing of new or repaired locos and stock. Seeing your latest creation going round (hopefully!) like a sewing machine is a lovely way to enjoy the completion of the project.

 

We do have a distinction between going down to the shed to run some trains or going down to the shed to operate the layout. The two are quite different.  

[St Enodoc]

14 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

Seeing your latest creation going round (hopefully!) like a sewing machine

That expression always makes me chuckle. Have you ever heard a sewing machine in action? I wouldn't want my locos to sound like that!

[t-b-g]

Just now, St Enodoc said:

That expression always makes me chuckle. Have you ever heard a sewing machine in action? I wouldn't want my locos to sound like that!

 

It does me as well. My mum had an electric sewing machine that drowned out any conversation. I hope it refers to the smoothness of the movement rather than the noise level.

[LNER4479]

1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

 

I divide people into those who like to run trains and those who like to operate. 

My love of operating was nurtured from a very early age. As some will be aware, my father is also a great railway enthusiast and railway modeller and his layouts have always leant towards operations. His layouts always run to a 24 hour timetable (his present one still does) - and it takes 24 hours to go through 24 hours, even if that means occasional (but not too many) moments of waiting for the clock to tick round. The night time hours are for sleeping car trains, fish trains, express freights (etc).

 

As a train-mad child, I recall many a wet, rainy weekend day when we'd repair to the Model Railway Room after breakfast and start operating the layout. We'd start after breakfast at around 10 in the morning and restart the clock from wherever the last operating session had got up to, the locos and stock all ready to pick up where they'd previously left off. Lunch time would come and go with Mum bringing up a plate of sandwiches. Still we were shunting stock up in the station, locos were coming on and off shed. Even tea time (hot meal) wouldn't interrupt things, a convenient 'slack' time being arranged for the plated meals to be brought up as we continued on. At half 7 or 8, I'd nip out to get into my pyjamas and there'd be a final train agreed to be run before I went to bed.

 

We'd been operating the layout - nay, running a railway - for 10 hours continuously. Locos had come off shed for a planned working, gone to the 'rest of the world', returned with their balanced working and come back on shed in that time. They'd been periods of intense activity, where keeping to time was a real challenge and required thinking ahead and they'd been quieter times when you could catch up with shunting or cycling locos around the shed (all needed to go over the ash pit, to the coaler, turned and be watered before being berthed in the shed building).

 

A subsequent career on the railways only served to sharpen the awareness of how a railway is operated with hopefully a fair dose of that ploughed back into the subsequent layouts I've built.

 

I guess we all have our own stories to tell that influence our own particular preferences within this great hobby of ours.

[t-b-g]

48 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

My love of operating was nurtured from a very early age. As some will be aware, my father is also a great railway enthusiast and railway modeller and his layouts have always leant towards operations. His layouts always run to a 24 hour timetable (his present one still does) - and it takes 24 hours to go through 24 hours, even if that means occasional (but not too many) moments of waiting for the clock to tick round. The night time hours are for sleeping car trains, fish trains, express freights (etc).

 

As a train-mad child, I recall many a wet, rainy weekend day when we'd repair to the Model Railway Room after breakfast and start operating the layout. We'd start after breakfast at around 10 in the morning and restart the clock from wherever the last operating session had got up to, the locos and stock all ready to pick up where they'd previously left off. Lunch time would come and go with Mum bringing up a plate of sandwiches. Still we were shunting stock up in the station, locos were coming on and off shed. Even tea time (hot meal) wouldn't interrupt things, a convenient 'slack' time being arranged for the plated meals to be brought up as we continued on. At half 7 or 8, I'd nip out to get into my pyjamas and there'd be a final train agreed to be run before I went to bed.

 

We'd been operating the layout - nay, running a railway - for 10 hours continuously. Locos had come off shed for a planned working, gone to the 'rest of the world', returned with their balanced working and come back on shed in that time. They'd been periods of intense activity, where keeping to time was a real challenge and required thinking ahead and they'd been quieter times when you could catch up with shunting or cycling locos around the shed (all needed to go over the ash pit, to the coaler, turned and be watered before being berthed in the shed building).

 

A subsequent career on the railways only served to sharpen the awareness of how a railway is operated with hopefully a fair dose of that ploughed back into the subsequent layouts I've built.

 

I guess we all have our own stories to tell that influence our own particular preferences within this great hobby of ours.

 

Some of my earliest memories involve "playing trains" with dad. When I was very young, it was little more than a Hornby Dublo trainset but we had a two track Kings Cross, a circuit with a single platform station that was Peterborough, Grantham etc. depending on how many circuits you had done and a two track Edinburgh in the middle of the circuit. Golden Fleece on 2 corridor coaches was the Express, which only ever ran North as we had no turntable. An N2 on two non corridor coaches went either way and the goods was handled by an 8F. It was always operated "properly" and we never cheated on the number of circuits. 

 

On a Saturday, we would go to the local model shop and buy a kit for a wagon or a building and sit and make it together. By the time I was 14 we had a much more realistic layout, with Peco track, a junction station and a branch line and it was run to a timetable. We never just "ran a train". It was the 6.05 stopper to Nottingham, with motive power that dad had seen on a Nottingham stopper in the 1950s.

 

Those twin aspects of making things and operating a layout are very much what the hobby is about for me. Lose either one and half the fun would go.

 

Your Dad's layout sounds like great fun to work. Has it been published or photographed?

[Dave 46]

5 hours ago, SP Steve said:

All this talk of the GCR brought this to mind:

 

 

I wonder what the men of 16B Colwick thought when this turned up - Merchant Navy No. 35030 "Elder-Dempster Lines" brought onto shed after running north from London Waterloo to Nottingham Victoria with the Great Central Railtour 3rd September 1966.

I was on that train, and was disappointed that a southern loco had been used.  Would much have preferred something more appropriate.

 

Dave

 

[thegreenhowards]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

My love of operating was nurtured from a very early age. As some will be aware, my father is also a great railway enthusiast and railway modeller and his layouts have always leant towards operations. His layouts always run to a 24 hour timetable (his present one still does) - and it takes 24 hours to go through 24 hours, even if that means occasional (but not too many) moments of waiting for the clock to tick round. The night time hours are for sleeping car trains, fish trains, express freights (etc).

 

As a train-mad child, I recall many a wet, rainy weekend day when we'd repair to the Model Railway Room after breakfast and start operating the layout. We'd start after breakfast at around 10 in the morning and restart the clock from wherever the last operating session had got up to, the locos and stock all ready to pick up where they'd previously left off. Lunch time would come and go with Mum bringing up a plate of sandwiches. Still we were shunting stock up in the station, locos were coming on and off shed. Even tea time (hot meal) wouldn't interrupt things, a convenient 'slack' time being arranged for the plated meals to be brought up as we continued on. At half 7 or 8, I'd nip out to get into my pyjamas and there'd be a final train agreed to be run before I went to bed.

 

We'd been operating the layout - nay, running a railway - for 10 hours continuously. Locos had come off shed for a planned working, gone to the 'rest of the world', returned with their balanced working and come back on shed in that time. They'd been periods of intense activity, where keeping to time was a real challenge and required thinking ahead and they'd been quieter times when you could catch up with shunting or cycling locos around the shed (all needed to go over the ash pit, to the coaler, turned and be watered before being berthed in the shed building).

 

A subsequent career on the railways only served to sharpen the awareness of how a railway is operated with hopefully a fair dose of that ploughed back into the subsequent layouts I've built.

 

I guess we all have our own stories to tell that influence our own particular preferences within this great hobby of ours.

That’s an inspirational tale and what a great experience to be able to share with your father. 

 

While my dad encouraged me early on and bought me my first train set aged 7, later on he thought I should have ‘grown out of it’ and never approved of my real railway career either!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

My love of operating was nurtured from a very early age. As some will be aware, my father is also a great railway enthusiast and railway modeller and his layouts have always leant towards operations. His layouts always run to a 24 hour timetable (his present one still does) - and it takes 24 hours to go through 24 hours, even if that means occasional (but not too many) moments of waiting for the clock to tick round. The night time hours are for sleeping car trains, fish trains, express freights (etc).

 

As a train-mad child, I recall many a wet, rainy weekend day when we'd repair to the Model Railway Room after breakfast and start operating the layout. We'd start after breakfast at around 10 in the morning and restart the clock from wherever the last operating session had got up to, the locos and stock all ready to pick up where they'd previously left off. Lunch time would come and go with Mum bringing up a plate of sandwiches. Still we were shunting stock up in the station, locos were coming on and off shed. Even tea time (hot meal) wouldn't interrupt things, a convenient 'slack' time being arranged for the plated meals to be brought up as we continued on. At half 7 or 8, I'd nip out to get into my pyjamas and there'd be a final train agreed to be run before I went to bed.

 

We'd been operating the layout - nay, running a railway - for 10 hours continuously. Locos had come off shed for a planned working, gone to the 'rest of the world', returned with their balanced working and come back on shed in that time. They'd been periods of intense activity, where keeping to time was a real challenge and required thinking ahead and they'd been quieter times when you could catch up with shunting or cycling locos around the shed (all needed to go over the ash pit, to the coaler, turned and be watered before being berthed in the shed building).

 

A subsequent career on the railways only served to sharpen the awareness of how a railway is operated with hopefully a fair dose of that ploughed back into the subsequent layouts I've built.

 

I guess we all have our own stories to tell that influence our own particular preferences within this great hobby of ours.

 

I wish that had been my childhood.  My dad threw my model railway such as it was into the garden one day in a fit of rage about something or other.  

 

All my yearning towards a model railway have been based on the idea of operating it over a period of time, as if it were a real railway - just very small.  

 

Also, I don't understand the 'constant parade' approach.  To me, the quiet lulls or the different tempos throughout the day are part of the magic.   And the special magic of the night trains!

Edited July 14, 2020 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters

[thegreenhowards]

4 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Good morning Andrew,

 

many thanks. Without a vaccine I can't see it myself. We have already lost one member of the team in these terrible times and a couple of others are just too vulnerable to risk.

 

 

If Charwelton ever comes up for sale again, perhaps it might survive us all.

 

I’m sorry to hear of your loss. Our club hasn’t suffered any yet, but many are in the vulnerable category, so I fear the worst for the future. I agree that no exhibitions are likely before a vaccine (or a better way of treating the disease). That may take longer than people currently assume, but we will get there and exhibitions will happen again in (relative) safety.

 

On the bright side, I have had a couple of new members contacting me for our club. I think they have got into modelling during lockdown and are looking for a club to help them take it further. I haven’t met them yet (we’re still shut but reopening next week in a limited numbers socially distanced way) but I think they may be younger blood returning to the hobby which is good news for the future.

 

Andy

[Erichill16]

4 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

It doesn't just happen on club layouts. Much comes down to the preferences of those responsible for the layout. I divide people into those who like to run trains and those who like to operate. I would have Tony W and Roy Jackson firmly in the former camp. I am in the latter.

 

I know lots have quoted this but this is my take. At an exhibition, on a Saturday morning I’m wanting to operate the layout but by Sunday I’m just interested in running trains. If it’s been a bad ‘set up’ I may be just happy to run anything on

Saturday !

Robert

[LNER4479]

On 14/07/2020 at 14:17, t-b-g said:

 

Your Dad's layout sounds like great fun to work. Has it been published or photographed?

Two of his layouts have been in the mags over the years.

 

First was 'Hanbury' RM March 1982 ROTM (photography by Brian Monaghan!)

Then 'Strathmore Route' Model Rail May 2001 (my favourite of them all to operate)

 

Those mammoth operating sessions were actually on the previous layout to 'Hanbury', dismantled in 1975 (house move) and never made it to the mags.

 

Current layout (Aberdeen) is ready for photography and is on the 'to do' list now lockdown is starting to lift.

Edited July 17, 2020 by LNER4479

[ROY@34F]

9 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 Off the top of my head, Tom,

 

The A3s left the GC a year before the regional changes.

 

Certainly when 'spotting on Donny Station in the summer of 1958, I saw both 60102 and 60111 on ECML expresses. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Yes Tony , I agree it would be sometime in "58 . both 102 and 111 were Grantham engines at that time . You know what the nickname was for 111....Nelson , ( one eye , one arm , and one ar$ 'ole ) .

 

Regards , Roy .

[Chamby]

I too would fit into both camps (or neither).  Sometimes I find just running trains very therapeutic.  At other times operating suits my mood much better.

 

Regarding exhibition layouts, it is a shame if the layout only enables either shunting or through running.  Being able to do both simultaneously provides more continuity for the viewing public, keeping something moving, or at least having very short periods (seconds not minutes) between movements really helps to keep the crowd.  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly viewers will move on it there’s not much happening, and how it impacts on perception of the layout, no matter how excellent the modelling standard.

 

Yeadon's cites the remaining A3’s as all leaving Leicester and Neasden sheds in September ‘57.

[t-b-g]

45 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

I know lots have quoted this but this is my take. At an exhibition, on a Saturday morning I’m wanting to operate the layout but by Sunday I’m just interested in running trains. If it’s been a bad ‘set up’ I may be just happy to run anything on

Saturday !

Robert

 

I think most exhibitors will have had those experiences. It doesn't matter how well you prepare, either some damage in transit, or temperature, humidity or your favourite shunter breaking down can all make it difficult.

 

Much of it is about intent. Do you set out wanting to put on a show of interesting operation or do you set out just to send round a procession of trains? That is the basic mindset difference between train runners and operators. I can usually tell an operator from a train runner very quickly. I will illustrate with a short tale!

 

Under other conditions, I have occasional visitors to see Buckingham. Some don't want to touch the layout, others can't wait to get their hands on the controls. That is an early indicator. I had a small group visiting one time and the operator didn't set the point into the goods yard and lower the signal as a goods train set off from Grandborough. They brought the train down to a slow walking pace approaching the signal, then changed the point, changed the signal and accelerated the train ever so slightly. That was the first time I had seen this person running a layout but I could immediately tell that he was an operator, not a train runner. It is little things like that. 99% of people wouldn't even notice what he had done but it didn't matter to him, he was replicating what would have happened on the real railway. Dead simple but massively effective.

[coronach]

4 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

My love of operating was nurtured from a very early age. As some will be aware, my father is also a great railway enthusiast and railway modeller and his layouts have always leant towards operations. His layouts always run to a 24 hour timetable (his present one still does) - and it takes 24 hours to go through 24 hours, even if that means occasional (but not too many) moments of waiting for the clock to tick round. The night time hours are for sleeping car trains, fish trains, express freights (etc).

 

As a train-mad child, I recall many a wet, rainy weekend day when we'd repair to the Model Railway Room after breakfast and start operating the layout. We'd start after breakfast at around 10 in the morning and restart the clock from wherever the last operating session had got up to, the locos and stock all ready to pick up where they'd previously left off. Lunch time would come and go with Mum bringing up a plate of sandwiches. Still we were shunting stock up in the station, locos were coming on and off shed. Even tea time (hot meal) wouldn't interrupt things, a convenient 'slack' time being arranged for the plated meals to be brought up as we continued on. At half 7 or 8, I'd nip out to get into my pyjamas and there'd be a final train agreed to be run before I went to bed.

 

We'd been operating the layout - nay, running a railway - for 10 hours continuously. Locos had come off shed for a planned working, gone to the 'rest of the world', returned with their balanced working and come back on shed in that time. They'd been periods of intense activity, where keeping to time was a real challenge and required thinking ahead and they'd been quieter times when you could catch up with shunting or cycling locos around the shed (all needed to go over the ash pit, to the coaler, turned and be watered before being berthed in the shed building).

 

A subsequent career on the railways only served to sharpen the awareness of how a railway is operated with hopefully a fair dose of that ploughed back into the subsequent layouts I've built.

 

I guess we all have our own stories to tell that influence our own particular preferences within this great hobby of ours.

My Dad built a gauge 0 garden railway which, as young children, my brother and I would operate with ‘selected’ friends all day and every day whenever we could - using the imagination to fill the gaps in reality. As I grew older I learned more about railway operations and signalling, and learned how to construct track, signals and rolling stock. My Dad took me along to an operating night once a week at another garden railway in Heworth (York) built by Doug Hutchinson, a professional railway operator who made sure everyone followed the Absolute Block regulations and timetable.  Another work colleague learned the trade as a member of the Crewchester team. Nowadays, I think the equivalent opportunities are provided by the heritage railways - quite a few Signallers and Train Crew have migrated from the likes of the Severn Valley to the main line

[APOLLO]

Quick point about (smallish) portable layout baseboards - why use wood ? A range of strong light plastic sections used for soffits on house roofs is available from DIY stores / specialist building suppliers.

 

 

I'm making one in my loft, a UK O gauge "plank" to run my Dapol 08.  Mine will be capped with expanded polystyrene which is both strong, lightweight and available in several thicknesses. Materials at the moment are cut to size the concept seems viable. No woodwork required, and not expensive (A 5m length of 9" wide soffit is just over £20).  My aims are lightweight, portable and long lasting / quick to make / easy to store / quick to erect & pack away.

 

I'll post pix if anyone is interested - it's just an experiment at the moment - but looking quite feasible.

 

Brit15