Somewhere in the Top-Left Corner of Wales... Ivor the Engine clockwork micro

[33C]

1 hour ago, Ben B said:

Thanks everyone for the kind comments!  I did wonder before posting these, as it's perhaps more 'arts and crafts' than traditional railway modelling, but it bought me a lot of calming vibes and enjoyment making it, and it's nice to see it's struck a positive reception from equally nostalgic modellers!

 

A couple of people commented about exhibitions, and it would be tempting, except this is a layout that's only about 1ft x 2ft and just goes round and round, so somewhat operationally limited... plus I'd probably get sick of constantly winding-up clockwork mechanisms.

 

I did toy with doing something far bigger; I'd got some lovely 32mm scale 3D printed track of very tight radius (from Loco Remote), or maybe could have used some Hornby tinplate 0 gauge track, and had wondered about reusing the folding boards from my "Port Eden" layout to do a bigger, more complicated layout with more going on... a radio-controlled Ivor maybe, and some more series-accurate stock in a larger scale.  As usual though, it's the problem of time, space, money and storage, and I just can't accommodate it.  I think I'm content to have just had this as a contained project and a bit of fun, and it can live in a box under the bed until the kids move out!

You need a cheap, Chinese, train set loco, battery powered, that you can use the chassis from. The "Rail King" sets I use have a loco with a chassis that can be adapted into 4,6 or 8 wheel configuration and they are 00 gauge with a headlight! A cheap speed controller attached with 1.5mm m/f  connectors, from Am@zon, mounted in the body or adjacent wagon, can give you a crawl to 50mph (no more winding) and the sets give a large oval of plastic track for your next  Monkeypox lockdown project!! (I've stocked up........) 🤣🤪

Edited July 31, 2022 by 33C
Missing letter.

[Stubby47]

I think the layout as it is would be very popular at exhibitions,  even with it being clockwork.

[CameronL]

2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

I think the layout as it is would be very popular at exhibitions,  even with it being clockwork.

Wear a T-shirt printed with "£1 to wind up the engine." You could end the exhibition in profit.

[Multigauge]

Really inspiring bit of modelling. Very well done.

[1722]

Sensational modelling. Thank you for sharing. 

[doctor quinn]

Enchanting modelling- thanks for sharing it with us 

[Guest Jack Benson]

On 31/07/2022 at 12:12, Stubby47 said:

I think the layout as it is would be very popular at exhibitions,  even with it being clockwork.

Absolutely perfect for the SWAG show…….ticks all the boxes

 

StaySafe

 

[MyRule1]

Best modelling I have seem on RMWeb for some time. Apart from the track everything seems to have been built from scratch. It just looks right. Also great photography.

Well worthy of featuring in a main stream magazine.

 

 

[marc smith]

On 28/07/2022 at 22:58, Ben B said:

And so, there we go, all done.

 

 

 

........And that was that.  Perhaps not 'proper' model making, and more of an art/illustration piece, but as a zero-budget, nostalgia-driven, compact distraction from the times it was completed in, it worked.  I actually derived so much pleasure from this build, it was great from start to end.......

 

 

I think this is absolutely brilliant. Some might say it's not "proper modelling" - but not me.
They key here, is that you had lots of fun building it, and moreover, many of us on here will have smiled as soon as we saw that photo of it completed. Ivor The Engine was on TV right at that point for me to enjoy it, and like everything else Oliver Postgate touched - it was a hit and an integral part of so many lives.

I too would really like to see this at a show. It would draw a crowd and stoke an awful lot of nostalgia, I'm absolutely sure of that. Being a Welshman (though from the bottom right bit of Wales) I'm already talking in my best Dai Station and Jones The Steam voices, and thinking about re-watching my DVD of the show :) 

Well done sir - hats off to you for doing something bold & different...... isn't it now boyo ;) 

Edited August 8, 2022 by marc smith

[40152]

I really enjoyed reading this, thank you. Some proper modelling, no ‘let’s wait until <insert obscure, one-off experimental loco of your choice> is produced in RTR and moan until it happens’.
 

Proper job - nice one!

[PaulRhB]

I’m glad you didn’t embellish the simple ambition to use what was to hand and created just what those start sets looked like in our imagination 👍

 

 

[RedgateModels]

Fab, my O gauge Ivor approves! 😀🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂

 

[Ben B]

13 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

Fab, my O gauge Ivor approves! 😀🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂

 

That is lovely! Is it brass?

[RedgateModels]

Just now, Ben B said:

That is lovely! Is it brass?

 

Yes, it's the PH Designs kit http://www.phd-design-etchings.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=172

 

he does do a 4mm version too

[fresian]

This is brilliant.  

“Ivor, is this all were having for dinner?”

 

”No, there’s still fish to come fish to come fish to come”

[Ian Holmes]

Francois Fontana, editor of Voie Libre gave the latest issue of The Micro Model Railway Dispatch a mention in the new issue of his magazine. He said that he enjoyed this layout.

 

Ian

[southern42]

 As a proud companion of Jones the Steam, I can only say this layout would suit him down to the ground tracks. Superb little rendition of the top left-hand corner of Wales. Wonderful! It captures the stories beautifully!

@Ben BA little thing, any doubt as to Ivor's gauge may be dispelled by this link to smallfilms video Episode 2.  (Sound button: bottom right of the video.) 

 

Polly

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by southern42

[nomisd]

Having just found this thread, can I say gorgeous. Looking at your supberb modelling I feel like its half five in the mid 1970s and tea will ready soon. Beautiful.

[Pacific231G]

Really excellent Ben. I've only just found this and it's glad I am that I have. It really seems to capture the atmosphere of Oliver Postgate's animations and using the cut-outs of the characters  rather than trying to model them works really well. Ivor always had something that Thomas didn't- I think it was the sense of community in the small Welsh industrial villages.

Thanks too to Polly for the link to the first few episides of Ivor fron 1959. Noggin the Nog was part of my childhood and much later I got to transmit some of the later colour series of Ivor when I was a BBC network director (my first job in television) I'd never though seen those first six episodes where Ivor gets his new whistle and absolutely  loved them (no Idris though)

There was  a programme "Oliver Postgate: A Life in Small Films" in the BBC's Timeshift series that I watched recently so it was lovely to see some of his earlier work.

The layout would have belonged well on the late Carl Arendt's site and such micro-layouts are a delightful aspect of the hobby- about as far as you can get from proto rivet counting but just as valid.

 

[Ian Holmes]

17 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

 

The layout would have belonged well on the late Carl Arendt's site and such micro-layouts are a delightful aspect of the hobby- about as far as you can get from proto rivet counting but just as valid.

 

The layout was featured in issue 6 (Autumn 2022) of the Micro Model Railway Dispatch. I hope you knew that already. If not, I'm doing a terrible job of advertising my micro layout e-zine.  

https://micromodelrailwaydispatch.com

 

Ian

[Pacific231G]

2 hours ago, Ian Holmes said:

The layout was featured in issue 6 (Autumn 2022) of the Micro Model Railway Dispatch. I hope you knew that already. If not, I'm doing a terrible job of advertising my micro layout e-zine.  

https://micromodelrailwaydispatch.com

 

Ian

Hi Ian

Even though I was an occasional contributtor to Carl's site,  I'm afraid I knew nothing of MMR Dispatch. I do now though so will enjoy it. 

 

[Ian Holmes]

29 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

Hi Ian

Even though I was an occasional contributtor to Carl's site,  I'm afraid I knew nothing of MMR Dispatch. I do now though so will enjoy it. 

 

I hope you like it. As a contributor to Carls site. You’d be welcome as a contributor to The Dispatch. (As would all micro layout builders hereabouts)

 

Ian