The smell of model railways

[Dava]

My model workshop also accommodates my home brewery so there is often an aroma of hops, brewing malt, and a faint residue of past leakages.....

 

 

Dava

[DavidBird]

16 hours ago, Robert Shrives said:

... in my lounge last night I got the slightest hint of old layout. a sniff next to some scenery confirmed the smell of dust, sawdust grass, oil, paxloin and a simpler time ...  Quite how you bottle it and sell it I have no idea but it did make me smile.

(Ambi- pur latest air fresh scent perhaps ??)

Robert    

 

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Because I’m into old toy trains, I frequently get whiffs of that special perfume of light mineral oil, warm phenolic insulation, and what is always supposed to be ozone, produced by sparking, but I’m not sure actually is. 

 

That is a Very Good Model Railway Smell. It goes with valve radios, warm post office relays, and, as had been said, pipe smoke. All deep, complex, evocative smells.

 

The musty aroma of slowly decomposing scenic-work is less up my street, but is definitely part of the hobby.

...

 

Thanks for all your replies.  All good stuff.

The smell is certainly not the XO3, although that is distinctive as well.  It's not an exhibition smell either, in a full day at Model Rail Scotland at Glasgow last month, I never thought of RBS once.  In fact, there was no obvious smell at all, although that may have something to do with a purpose built exhibition space with decent ventilation.

I think that Robert and Nearholmer have probably got what I was thinking of.  Dust, sawdust grass, a hint of oil & paxolin and "ozone", old, reused from goodness-knows-what timber with whatever glue was used 30-40 years ago, all slowly decomposing...

[Flying Pig]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Unless, like me, you can't abide tea, fresh or stale.

 

Commiserations in your sad affliction.  Perhaps Vimto would be a suitable Coarse Railwaying alternative, though nowhere near as sustaining.

[Nearholmer]

I've always regarded my dislike of tea as having saved me from it. And, I don't like Vimto either.

 

Coffee . Which I think might have a longer history as a drink in Britain than tea, although I'm not sure.

 

Yep. "Thomas Garway (or Garraway), a tobacconist and coffee house owner, was the first person in England to sell tea as a leaf and beverage at his London coffeehouse in Exchange Alley in 1657"

Edited March 14, 2020 by Nearholmer

[PatB]

6 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

My God!

 

They didn’t paint your tackle with Humbrol gloss Brunswick Green after the job, surely?!

 

 

 

 

I'm actually more concerned that Nova Scotian might be a cyborg and not realised it. 

 

As for tea, Earl Grey tastes like hot water with a lavender bag in it (©Terry Pratchett) but I'm OK with regular varieties as long as they're strong. The history of tea in the West is remarkably short, as it was relatively late to be cultivated outside of China. I do gather, though, the Samuel Pepys mentioned it, although in the context of it being rare and exotic. I guess, being attached to the Admiralty, he'd have had first crack at all sorts of stuff coming in from distant lands. 

[bradfordbuffer]

On 14/03/2020 at 18:46, Nearholmer said:

Because I’m into old toy trains, I frequently get whiffs of that special perfume of light mineral oil, warm phenolic insulation, and what is always supposed to be ozone, produced by sparking, but I’m not sure actually is*. 

 

That is a Very Good Model Railway Smell. It goes with valve radios, warm post office relays, and, as had been said, pipe smoke. All deep, complex, evocative smells.

 

The musty aroma of slowly decomposing scenic-work is less up my street, but is definitely part of the hobby.

 

BO, stale fag smoke, and a thick fug of mouldering cardboard and stale tea are also in the mix, being the old model railway shop smells, but are definitely best forgotten.

 

*Actually, thinking about it, it probably is ozone.

 

 

Cant beet the smell of napalm in the morning!.....sorry wrong forum 

[Nova Scotian]

Isn't there also a smell to old packaging? The way the mineral oil seeps into the cardboard on an old Dublo or Wrenn box.

[Dagworth]

There is/was a very distinct smell when opening a Lenz decoder when they came in the nice plastic boxes. Probably the ink in the instruction manual but I love that smell

 

Andi

[The Johnster]

As to the smell of light oil, my first ever Black Princess set came with a small glass bottle of 'Shell finest grade whale liver machine oil', which smelled a bit fishy but was very conducive to believing that you were involved with precision engineering.  

[Nearholmer]

I don’t know about whale oil, but old mineral oil is a curse.

 

It degrades over time to form a watery non-lubricant and a hard, grey shale, both of which often have to be cleaned from old mechanisms.

 

Smells nice though!