Buildings for Abbotswood and Norton

[Phil Bullock]

Thought I might seek advice here on buildings please.

 

Started off by looking at what kits might work … may well have to move on to scratch building if nowt suitable for some structures.

 

Here’s the first stab … a Scale Model Scenery farmhouse, a good fit for a house by Norton Junction. 
 

A laser cut kit… property is rendered so ditched the supplied textures and painted it with … exterior paint! Sandtex micro seal smooth masonry , £4 for a tester pot which will do several buildings. Added extra details…. Barge boards to the porch, crepe paper curtains upstairs, flashings around the chimney stacks,  drain pipes and guttering…. Just waiting for some decent chimney pots to arrive. 
 

Any other details or advice welcome….

 

[ISW]

13 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

Any other details or advice welcome….

Phil,

 

I've been making the buildings for Burton-on-Trent station (the 1883 version) out of cereal packets and inkjet printer paper over the last few months. You can 'read all about it' onwards from: 

I've tried to document all the main steps and method(s), so you might find something useful.

 

Ian

[Phil Bullock]

Was planning on using the Hornby Skaledale East signal box at Abbotswood as per the last layout but….. the locking room windows ain’t right and other areas are a bit coarse.

 

So have gone for a Ratio 538 Midland box instead. As supplied again the locking room windows were wrong for Abbotswood which lacked end windows but with the help of some extra parts courtesy of Peco I have modified the model. Just waiting for the Bobby to re-appear - looks like he has dashed out to grab the rabbit he shot earlier, he has left the up and down mains pulled off….and me to figure out how to paint the etched name boards ….. 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Phil Bullock

[ISW]

2 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

and me to figure out how to paint the etched name boards ….. 

Phil,

 

Do let us know if you figure this one out. I'm in the same position with 2 signalboxes painted and assembled, but still missing their nameboards for the same reason.

 

Maybe we'll all end up ordering 'custom' transfers from Railtec transfers. Or, we could place a 'combined' custom order?

 

Ian

[Phil Bullock]

51 minutes ago, ISW said:

Phil,

 

Do let us know if you figure this one out. I'm in the same position with 2 signalboxes painted and assembled, but still missing their nameboards for the same reason.

 

Maybe we'll all end up ordering 'custom' transfers from Railtec transfers. Or, we could place a 'combined' custom order?

 

Ian

Hi Ian

 

i hadn’t thought of that option but it might be easier! Narrow Planet have done me some lovely etched plates for both Abbotswood Jct and Norton Junction Signal Box but I can’t get them painted without making a mess. Advantage of etched plates though is that if you don’t like the result they are easy to clean off.

 

Phil

[ISW]

1 hour ago, Phil Bullock said:

Hi Ian

 

i hadn’t thought of that option but it might be easier! Narrow Planet have done me some lovely etched plates for both Abbotswood Jct and Norton Junction Signal Box but I can’t get them painted without making a mess. Advantage of etched plates though is that if you don’t like the result they are easy to clean off.

 

Phil

Phil,

 

If you 'seal' the paint (gloss clearcoat) before you apply the transfers (and then spray them matt clear afterwards) you 'should' be able to remove the transfers without affecting the underlying paint. This 'trick' seems to be what most modellers use for affixing transfers to locomotives to enable them to remove all their weathering and transfers without affecting the original paint.

 

Ian

[Phil Bullock]

42 minutes ago, ISW said:

Phil,

 

If you 'seal' the paint (gloss clearcoat) before you apply the transfers (and then spray them matt clear afterwards) you 'should' be able to remove the transfers without affecting the underlying paint. This 'trick' seems to be what most modellers use for affixing transfers to locomotives to enable them to remove all their weathering and transfers without affecting the original paint.

 

Ian

Cheers Ian. Only problem is am not talking transfers here … my problem is getting decent white paint on raised etched plates over a black background. But sealing the white with your gloss coat before trying to apply black may help…

 

Phil

[melmoth]

Theoretical idea, untested. Paint the black background of the plate, and once it has thoroughly dried, carefully remove black paint from the raised lettering. Next, apply a level coating of white paint to a small piece of level glass and then gently press the plate against the paint so that the lettering picks up the white paint. A bit like block printing in reverse.

 

I've though about doing this before, but have not had an opportunity to try it out.

[Nick Holliday]

Could you paint the whole thing white, and then apply the black, then, whilst wet, wiping the face to reveal the white?

[Phil Bullock]

11 hours ago, ISW said:

Phil,

 

If you 'seal' the paint (gloss clearcoat) before you apply the transfers (and then spray them matt clear afterwards) you 'should' be able to remove the transfers without affecting the underlying paint. This 'trick' seems to be what most modellers use for affixing transfers to locomotives to enable them to remove all their weathering and transfers without affecting the original paint.

 

Ian

 

10 hours ago, melmoth said:

Theoretical idea, untested. Paint the black background of the plate, and once it has thoroughly dried, carefully remove black paint from the raised lettering. Next, apply a level coating of white paint to a small piece of level glass and then gently press the plate against the paint so that the lettering picks up the white paint. A bit like block printing in reverse.

 

I've though about doing this before, but have not had an opportunity to try it out.

 

1 hour ago, Nick Holliday said:

Could you paint the whole thing white, and then apply the black, then, whilst wet, wiping the face to reveal the white?

Thanks for all the suggestions gentlemen. Going to try a combination of them all ..,

 

Paint whole plate white

 

Spray with gloss varnish and leave to harden

 

Fill background with thin black paint and wipe off letter faces and border 

 

Spray with Matt varnish

 

The alternative is to paint the whole plate black, leave to harden and then polish away paint on lettering and borders with fine abrasive. Leaves letters silver though not white…. 
 

Phil

[railtec-models]

20 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

Was planning on using the Hornby Skaledale East signal box at Abbotswood as per the last layout but….. the locking room windows ain’t right and other areas are a bit coarse.

 

So have gone for a Ratio 538 Midland box instead. As supplied again the locking room windows were wrong for Abbotswood which lacked end windows but with the help of some extra parts courtesy of Peco I have modified the model. Just waiting for the Bobby to re-appear - looks like he has dashed out to grab the rabbit he shot earlier, he has left the up and down mains pulled off….and me to figure out how to paint the etched name boards ….. 

 

 

 

Hang on, I'm sure I can easily help here. If memory serves I've made 3d signal box boards in 7mm for the Leamington Spa layout, so in the same way as I make 3d nameplates, they're 3d in all the right places (and the backing board is "raised" too), and ready painted. So basically all you end up having to do is fix it to the signal box. Let me get a new customisable offering together. Shouldn't take a couple of minutes and hopefully it'll save people having to paint etched plates.

[railtec-models]

Actually, rookie question - did any boxes ever have more than 3 nameboards?

[chuffinghell]

13 minutes ago, railtec-models said:

Actually, rookie question - did any boxes ever have more than 3 nameboards?

 

Hi Steve

 

I appreciate that you're no doubt snowed under but did you received my emyther last week?

 

Regards

 

Chris Nicholls

[railtec-models]

36 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

 

Hi Steve

 

I appreciate that you're no doubt snowed under but did you received my emyther last week?

 

Regards

 

Chris Nicholls

 

Hi Chris, I'll reply on here also rather than via PM. I'm sure I will have, but simply not had resource to get to it yet.

 

To pre-empt Phil's thread (and any others where I might chime in to offer help) being hijacked with a monumental barrage of "did you get my email / SMS / WhatsApp / FB msg / forum tag etc", I'd ask folks to keep in mind that I'm one guy who decided to set up and help as many people as humanly possible with a (self-taught) hugely niche product and service, and despite best efforts it's simply a physical impossibility to keep on top of all the comms all the time. It just is. I do get to them eventually. And if I happen to chime in on a thread to offer help elsewhere then it's (a) usually because it's very low hanging fruit to quickly help someone, and (b) maybe I might just need a mental break once in a while from whatever new complicated design project I was working on. More on that here: https://www.railtec-transfers.com/have-you-done-it-yet.php

 

And I was working on a new customisable offering for name boards, but now time's up and I need to get the day's orders prepped!

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by railtec-models

[chuffinghell]

Sorry Phil

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by chuffinghell

[Phil Bullock]

@railtec-models Steve thanks for chiming in with your thoughts. Am sure it would be popular but know you have heaps of work on your plate! 
 

@chuffinghell Steve no need to apologise to me….. t’other Steve is more than capable of mounting his own defences…

 

And I guess that’s what we all need to remember particularly with the one man and his dog companies like Railtec and Shawplan … both of whom do a brilliant job in keeping us all supplied with what we need for our pet projects… they can’t do a lot of comms as well as being productive!

 

But hands up I have been just as guilty …. Not least with Accurascale who I have harassed mercilessly to produce as built South Wales EE3s …. Now my wallet has to pay the price! They are of course a much bigger company with excellent public facing communications … and the resources to do it! 
 

Now back to those verdammt etched plates … I have another idea, will let you know if it works!

[Phil Bullock]

3 hours ago, railtec-models said:

Actually, rookie question - did any boxes ever have more than 3 nameboards?

Not as far as I know Steve …. But there’s bound to be an exception! 

[ISW]

7 hours ago, railtec-models said:

Actually, rookie question - did any boxes ever have more than 3 nameboards?

Steve,

 

There are only the 2 nameboards on the two (ex-Midland) signalboxes for which I'd be very interested in your proposed transfers; Leicester Junction (Burton) and Burton Station South.

 

------------------------------------

I wonder what is the 'longest' signalbox name? It's all got to fit on the provided nameboard (mine are Peco / Ratio OO models).

 

The longest signalbox name in Burton-on-Trent was possibly 'Wellington Street Junction' (26 characters, including spaces). However, a quick Google search gave the following RMWeb posting with names over 40 characters long!:

-------------------------------------

Ian

[railtec-models]

Thanks for the info. I've never really paid too much attention to signal boxes even though they were always a favourite feature on our old layout when I was a nipper.

 

Ok so I've just created a new customisable offering on the web site which lends itself to more than just signal box names. 4mm so far but other scales could be done easily.

 

4mm-9975

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=10735

 

 

Like it says on the tin! I decided to make them available in blocks of "2" so that folks who may only need 1 or 2 name boards don't have to buy a block of 4.

 

Does this help? Any glaring "gotchas" that I may have missed and need to ex/include?

 

[Phil Bullock]

1 minute ago, railtec-models said:

Thanks for the info. I've never really paid too much attention to signal boxes even though they were always a favourite feature on our old layout when I was a nipper.

 

Ok so I've just created a new customisable offering on the web site which lends itself to more than just signal box names. 4mm so far but other scales could be done easily.

 

4mm-9975

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=10735

 

 

Like it says on the tin! I decided to make them available in blocks of "2" so that folks who may only need 1 or 2 name boards don't have to buy a block of 4.

 

Does this help? Any glaring "gotchas" that I may have missed and need to ex/include?

 

That looks great Steve heading over to your web site now….

[MrWolf]

12 hours ago, railtec-models said:

 

Hi Chris, I'll reply on here also rather than via PM. I'm sure I will have, but simply not had resource to get to it yet.

 

To pre-empt Phil's thread (and any others where I might chime in to offer help) being hijacked with a monumental barrage of "did you get my email / SMS / WhatsApp / FB msg / forum tag etc", I'd ask folks to keep in mind that I'm one guy who decided to set up and help as many people as humanly possible with a (self-taught) hugely niche product and service, and despite best efforts it's simply a physical impossibility to keep on top of all the comms all the time. It just is. I do get to them eventually. And if I happen to chime in on a thread to offer help elsewhere then it's (a) usually because it's very low hanging fruit to quickly help someone, and (b) maybe I might just need a mental break once in a while from whatever new complicated design project I was working on. More on that here: https://www.railtec-transfers.com/have-you-done-it-yet.php

 

And I was working on a new customisable offering for name boards, but now time's up and I need to get the day's orders prepped!

 

 

As someone who has been self employed for a good number of years, I can sympathize, but having read your link, I was immediately reminded of a conversion I had with a friend of mine who went self employed just before lockdown and found himself surprisingly busy with work, enquiries and all of the peripheral static. He too was getting quite overwhelmed with people asking about lead times and overrunning jobs. In fact he pretty much parroted your statement.

I told him that I had to find out the hard way that making the step from turning a hobby that makes a few quid into a business is a massive step. Everything changes, particularly your relationship with people. 

You are no longer John down the pub who they've known since school. You're a business, a supplier, a service provider and whilst any decent human being will empathise that you have a life, sometimes you're sick or your girlfriend ran off or your van threw a rod, but that doesn't change the business relationship.

 

This doesn't mean that you can't be friends with any of your customers or pop in and offer a bit of free advice of course, quite the opposite, it's good PR, and free advertising.

 

I know what it's like to work eighty hours a week and more, in fact I've done it in some truly horrible places where you're constantly on your guard whilst trying to maintain the speed and skill necessary to keep to a critical path schedule.

 

But that was a different kind of job altogether. It sounds like you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, if you're working two average shifts, why not employ someone to deal with all those tasks that don't require your unique skill set?

 

Or if that isn't financially viable, you need to create yourself some breathing space so that you can work like a normal person (a normal self employed person unfortunately, but nothings perfect!)

 

The man who rebuilds the magnetos and dynamos for my vintage motorcycle projects is one of the few people left who has the skills and the machinery to rewind them.

His answer to enquiries is yes, send me the unit. BUT he will also state that the lead time before it is returned in fully working order is X weeks. Sometimes, if he gets bogged down, or is going away for a week or two, X becomes Y or Z. He's been in business since the 1980s.

 

The great thing about all those email requests is you can sit down, put a star by all of the obviously serious enquiries and draft an email to copy and paste.

 

Dear xxxx, Thank you for your enquiry. Please be assured that we working towards a professional result with the transfers, but due to the development work involved and the high demand for bespoke items there is a waiting time of X weeks. I am sure that you will understand that the quality of our work is our reputation and we don't do half a job.

I will be back to you with preliminary designs as soon as possible.

 

Etc. You then make it personal by adding the customer name and send. If people are then rude, you probably weren't going to get their money anyway.

 

If they're serious, they'll wait.

 

One other thing I do is paint and there is nobody anywhere who can do that for me! 

Then I organise prints, exhibitions, dealer arrangements, PR, invoicing etc etc.

So I get why you might feel the need to vent, but if I put up something like your link, it wouldn't do me any favours. In fact I know that it would scare people off, thinking I might just walk away and let them down.

 

I'm saying that because I heard that response to such statements from me in the past, it's not personal, people are talking to and expecting things from the business, not you as such, even though you are a one man band.

 

Why you might ask, am I intervening here?

 

Because Chris and I have been working on one of our projects for an item that isn't available elsewhere in the form we are making it. He had worked out what we needed for transfers, drawn it up and passed it on to the person best placed to deliver the kind of results required for the prototypes we are currently assembling. This is a serious venture which, if the figures add up to making commercial sense...

 

However.

 

1.We do understand that what we are doing at the moment is purely hobby, not business.

 

2. When all is said and done, it's only a part for a model railway item, not a cure for blindness, so, It is NOT a problem, but an ETA would be good for everyone - and make sure you give yourself breathing space!*

 

I think that all of us share the same reactions to stroppy, entitled messages, so we don't do them ourselves and frankly Chris is the least likely to be so impolite.

 

 

*I once red oxide primed a fabrication I had made whilst it sat on the back of my truck about 4am and the paint dried as I headed down the A49, because I was too exhausted the night before and couldn't see much in the dark!

[railtec-models]

7 hours ago, MrWolf said:

It sounds like you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, if you're working two average shifts, why not employ someone to deal with all those tasks that don't require your unique skill set?

 

Or if that isn't financially viable, you need to create yourself some breathing space so that you can work like a normal person (a normal self employed person unfortunately, but nothings perfect!)

 

 

...but if I put up something like your link, it wouldn't do me any favours. In fact I know that it would scare people off, thinking I might just walk away and let them down.

 

I largely don't disagree, and I do genuinely appreciate the insight. Having lived and breathed doing nothing but R&Ding decals for some considerable time and nurturing relations with others who supply to the model railway community in other fields, I think there are very few suppliers that burden not so much just the demand, but more importantly the absolute sheer enormity of variety of subject matter. It's absolutely no disrespect to other suppliers who for example, may specialise in making signals, or trees, or turntables - they're equally a vital part of our hobby and no doubt they have their own challenges, and when they're at neighbouring stands at Warley, I am in awe of their craftsmanship - but the scope of R&Ding intricate markings spanning pre-grouping to the ever-changing modern day is really quite a different beast, and hand on heart I don't think there are many others who truly understand what it's like to (voluntarily!) be the guy who stands up to be on the receiving end and says, "Yes, I can try to help you with your project, whatever it may be." I could have made the decision to point blank refuse to do anything on a custom basis, stick to let's say, nothing but the sub-sector period, and that itself would have probably been several years' work to research, design and test in each small scale every livery variant for every loco type, non/passenger vehicle, variations in wagon TOPS codes thru a brief period etc, but would folks rather have depth rather than breadth? Being rigid and sticking to a very specific period just didn't feel like the right thing to do.

 

You're absolutely right that I probably do put a lot of pressure on myself - I can't help that - it's just in my nature. I've always been a perfectionist and it no doubt contributes to why I do what I do. But to be honest that pressure is dwarfed by the 24/7/365 inbound comms. That itself isn't a problem of course and it's flattering to have so many people want the product, but it does introduce what is without doubt the most stressful element. I openly admit that trying to keep on top of all the inbound comms across multiple platforms (email, FB, Instagram, RMWeb, WhatsApp, SMS, PMs on multiple different forums) is an ever-losing task, and it's a physical impossibility to be able to keep on top of them all and certainly respond in a timely manner, at least with anything meaningful. I have in the past taken someone on in that regard, as I was describing to Chris on PM, but such is the endless variety of "can you do" type questions (back to what I was saying about the sheer scope of decal making) that they ended up having to ask me how to respond to every single question, because only I would know how to respond, and that just added to the workload. I'm not even sure if AI could come to the rescue! There is however something to be said for having someone take over prepping the ever increasing number of orders that come in through the web, although that may save ~10% of resource. I don't believe there's any other element of what I do that could be delegated. Even setting up the print jobs - I basically hack the machine code, thanks to know-how from a previous career, depending on the job to bend the hardware to get the best possible output for the job at hand. I assimilate it to teaching somebody how to paint the Mona Lisa: which brush, what blends, how should each stroke be applied, in what order.

 

In terms of promising ETAs, I wish that were realistically and consistently viable. Numerous unforeseen things can impact a schedule. Besides life events:

- Some new designs can take an unexpected turn in terms of complexity, needing a lot more research or hacking of artwork to get looking right when printed at small scale. Maybe the shading of the LSWR lettering doesn't look quite right in 2mm although it might in 4mm, maybe the under carriage explosive warning labels on the new Colas HST power car could be tweaked a little further, I wonder if the customer realises this ScotRail 47 had curly 7s on one side from 1989 onwards and so which variant do they want - and everything in between.

 

- It's not uncommon for FOCs/TOCs and govt organisations to ask for something bespoke last minute, e.g. as part of a retirement gift. These would be the same organisations who have kindly granted permission for me to reproduce their protected logos and Marks, so that we can all benefit.

 

- As technology evolves, periodically the web site will need to be updated to be compatible with the latest version of the underlying software. Sometimes that can mean significant re-writes of not just the pages you can see, but back-end stuff too, for example parsing responses from PayPal to write orders to the database, send confirmation emails etc. And then you have to test the be-jesus out of it to ensure that everything remains compliant and secure.

 

And so, in an attempt to try to protect my own sanity and keep me wanting to keep driving Railtec - I find myself frequently having to try to enlighten and help people understand that although this may only be small scale model railways, it's a mind boggling amount of dogged specialist work by one guy. I empathise in this day and age we're used to Amazon Prime and chat agents on demand, but all these small suppliers are typically run by one or two people and consequently there's limited resource to perform sometimes even the most basic things, and I don't think I'm alone. I wish things were different. Of course that isn't to say that there's a justification for a crappy "customer" experience, but equally we need to keep in mind that - as you say - these people are often fellow hobbiests perhaps with other things going on outside of model railways. Occasionally! And sometimes when we want something, that can be easy to forget. I created that page some years ago now to help illuminate this intricate landscape, and it was sadly necessary due to being on the end of a growing number of unreasonable demands ("you're a decal maker so make what I want else I'm going to slag you off on forums / I had to throw a model in the bin because Railtec refused to make what I wanted"), endless prods, nudges, repeated phone calls bordering on actual harassment, and more. And not just one or two instances of those. If its content deters the respectful modeller then of course that's absolutely not my intent. It would be great to think that everyone in the community is understanding and respectful, and the majority certainly are (and I'm absolutely not inferring that anyone here isn't), but sometimes, I do have to set the stall out and set expectations because otherwise one can easily end up becoming a virtual/verbal punch bag and quickly losing the spark and enthusiasm which ignited the venture in the first place.

 

Meanwhile I did send Chris a PM with specific regard to your project.

 

Ok, probably my longest post yet, but I felt it necessary to explain. I wonder if I could have got AI to write it for me... Sorry Phil. But hopefully the new 3d boards will compensate (got your email btw) and maybe Phil will treat us all to a few lovely shots of the finished masterpiece. How I dream of having a layout of my own!

 

 

[Phil Bullock]

@railtec-models  That’s some response Steve! Well do for finding the time to write it… you describe your situation very succinctly and it behoves us all to bear your words in mind when we are agitating for something we need … desperately???? Your sanity is prime… without it there’s nowt.

 

No need to apologise for the thread drift , it’s a feature of all web forums. Will get it back on track with photos as you suggest.

 

As for no railway of your own …. Come and have a drive on the new Abbotswood and Norton Junction if it floats your boat…

Edited March 31, 2023 by Phil Bullock

[Phil Bullock]

Here’s the next project - Norton Junction Signal Box.

 

Laser cut kit is courtesy of Andy at Railmodel … looks very nicely made.
 

 

Was not in their range but Andy very kindly adapted the Brearley Junction box kit for me to get the access steps and locking room doors right! @railtec-models Steve is doing me plates for this one too…

 

Thanks to all involved….

 

Phil

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

22 hours ago, railtec-models said:

 

I largely don't disagree, and I do genuinely appreciate the insight. Having lived and breathed doing nothing but R&Ding decals for some considerable time and nurturing relations with others who supply to the model railway community in other fields, I think there are very few suppliers that burden not so much just the demand, but more importantly the absolute sheer enormity of variety of subject matter. It's absolutely no disrespect to other suppliers who for example, may specialise in making signals, or trees, or turntables - they're equally a vital part of our hobby and no doubt they have their own challenges, and when they're at neighbouring stands at Warley, I am in awe of their craftsmanship - but the scope of R&Ding intricate markings spanning pre-grouping to the ever-changing modern day is really quite a different beast, and hand on heart I don't think there are many others who truly understand what it's like to (voluntarily!) be the guy who stands up to be on the receiving end and says, "Yes, I can try to help you with your project, whatever it may be." I could have made the decision to point blank refuse to do anything on a custom basis, stick to let's say, nothing but the sub-sector period, and that itself would have probably been several years' work to research, design and test in each small scale every livery variant for every loco type, non/passenger vehicle, variations in wagon TOPS codes thru a brief period etc, but would folks rather have depth rather than breadth? Being rigid and sticking to a very specific period just didn't feel like the right thing to do.

 

You're absolutely right that I probably do put a lot of pressure on myself - I can't help that - it's just in my nature. I've always been a perfectionist and it no doubt contributes to why I do what I do. But to be honest that pressure is dwarfed by the 24/7/365 inbound comms. That itself isn't a problem of course and it's flattering to have so many people want the product, but it does introduce what is without doubt the most stressful element. I openly admit that trying to keep on top of all the inbound comms across multiple platforms (email, FB, Instagram, RMWeb, WhatsApp, SMS, PMs on multiple different forums) is an ever-losing task, and it's a physical impossibility to be able to keep on top of them all and certainly respond in a timely manner, at least with anything meaningful. I have in the past taken someone on in that regard, as I was describing to Chris on PM, but such is the endless variety of "can you do" type questions (back to what I was saying about the sheer scope of decal making) that they ended up having to ask me how to respond to every single question, because only I would know how to respond, and that just added to the workload. I'm not even sure if AI could come to the rescue! There is however something to be said for having someone take over prepping the ever increasing number of orders that come in through the web, although that may save ~10% of resource. I don't believe there's any other element of what I do that could be delegated. Even setting up the print jobs - I basically hack the machine code, thanks to know-how from a previous career, depending on the job to bend the hardware to get the best possible output for the job at hand. I assimilate it to teaching somebody how to paint the Mona Lisa: which brush, what blends, how should each stroke be applied, in what order.

 

In terms of promising ETAs, I wish that were realistically and consistently viable. Numerous unforeseen things can impact a schedule. Besides life events:

- Some new designs can take an unexpected turn in terms of complexity, needing a lot more research or hacking of artwork to get looking right when printed at small scale. Maybe the shading of the LSWR lettering doesn't look quite right in 2mm although it might in 4mm, maybe the under carriage explosive warning labels on the new Colas HST power car could be tweaked a little further, I wonder if the customer realises this ScotRail 47 had curly 7s on one side from 1989 onwards and so which variant do they want - and everything in between.

 

- It's not uncommon for FOCs/TOCs and govt organisations to ask for something bespoke last minute, e.g. as part of a retirement gift. These would be the same organisations who have kindly granted permission for me to reproduce their protected logos and Marks, so that we can all benefit.

 

- As technology evolves, periodically the web site will need to be updated to be compatible with the latest version of the underlying software. Sometimes that can mean significant re-writes of not just the pages you can see, but back-end stuff too, for example parsing responses from PayPal to write orders to the database, send confirmation emails etc. And then you have to test the be-jesus out of it to ensure that everything remains compliant and secure.

 

And so, in an attempt to try to protect my own sanity and keep me wanting to keep driving Railtec - I find myself frequently having to try to enlighten and help people understand that although this may only be small scale model railways, it's a mind boggling amount of dogged specialist work by one guy. I empathise in this day and age we're used to Amazon Prime and chat agents on demand, but all these small suppliers are typically run by one or two people and consequently there's limited resource to perform sometimes even the most basic things, and I don't think I'm alone. I wish things were different. Of course that isn't to say that there's a justification for a crappy "customer" experience, but equally we need to keep in mind that - as you say - these people are often fellow hobbiests perhaps with other things going on outside of model railways. Occasionally! And sometimes when we want something, that can be easy to forget. I created that page some years ago now to help illuminate this intricate landscape, and it was sadly necessary due to being on the end of a growing number of unreasonable demands ("you're a decal maker so make what I want else I'm going to slag you off on forums / I had to throw a model in the bin because Railtec refused to make what I wanted"), endless prods, nudges, repeated phone calls bordering on actual harassment, and more. And not just one or two instances of those. If its content deters the respectful modeller then of course that's absolutely not my intent. It would be great to think that everyone in the community is understanding and respectful, and the majority certainly are (and I'm absolutely not inferring that anyone here isn't), but sometimes, I do have to set the stall out and set expectations because otherwise one can easily end up becoming a virtual/verbal punch bag and quickly losing the spark and enthusiasm which ignited the venture in the first place.

 

Meanwhile I did send Chris a PM with specific regard to your project.

 

Ok, probably my longest post yet, but I felt it necessary to explain. I wonder if I could have got AI to write it for me... Sorry Phil. But hopefully the new 3d boards will compensate (got your email btw) and maybe Phil will treat us all to a few lovely shots of the finished masterpiece. How I dream of having a layout of my own!

 

 

 

That's 20 minutes of your life you'll not get back!

 

Mike.