It's My Train Set....

[stewartingram]

Diesel hydraulics on the GN, anyone?

 

I've taken photos of a Hymek at Cambridge, ok that is GE but also the terminus for GN trains from KGX. Also on 2 occasions we had a Western visit Cambridge though I never saw them.

 

It's a HOBBY after all, and don't forget that.

 

Stewart

[tetsudofan]

Yep, it'll be my trainset when it gets built and I'll run what I've collected over the last 30 years or so.

 

Having just got a dedicated train room have started building baseboards but, as the baseboards get built, just have to get out stuff to test and run.....

 

 

 

Having spent most of my working life abroad I've accumulated a mixed bag of stock so plan on building a layout that can be multi-user - maybe running just UK-outline one day, or maybe Japanese another or maybe one day all mixed up together B) .

 

In the meantime, whilst the baseboards are being built, it will be more testing, fitting decoders etc. Enjoy what you've got, life's too short.

 

Keith

[APOLLO]

Nice collection Tetsudofan.

 

Out of my loft window I can see the west coast mainline just north of Wigan. If I made an accurate model of it, and ran the trains I regularly see / have seen on it, some people would complain and question it. Few years ago we had deltics on virgin scheduled trains, V2 Green Arrow same day on a special - the WCML was the ECML that day ! Still see "odd" trains that make me scratch my head !!

 

On my loft layout steam / green diesel is the rule, though some things are out of sync - a few early emblem locos and red/cream carriages, a prototype deltic, full yellow end green Brush 4 (47) on a Hornby cartic set, and yes, a Heljan Kestrel, which shouldn't run with steam locos, but she does. I turn a blind eye and just run 'em.

I also have a Rivarossi 2-8-8-2 Norfok & Western articulated steam loco, runs like a swiss watch but gets stuck in the tunnels !!! She gets an occasional run on the tunnel-less bit.

 

Brit15

[tractionman]

As with other contributors to this thread: there is plenty of evidence of class 37s working onto the Southern Region, particularly on coal workings from WR via Didcot. They would need either a WR driver with SR route knowledge, a SR driver with class 37 driving experience, or a SR "pilot" to give route-related instructions to the actual driver. Lack of an allocation of 37s would mean the loco got returned pretty sharply, too.

 

Yes, seeing this reminded me of some photos in vol 2 of "Freight Only", published by Rhodes and Shannon in the late '80s - eg. page 63 of 37199 on a Speedlink Coal (6O66) from Didcot pictured at Raynes Park next to a 455 unit, and on page 65 a BR Blue 37248 on Aug 27 1987 with a Tolworth to Westbury, described by the authors as an 'unusual' working for a 37. This book - and the other 2 vols they published - are a mine of information on late '80's freight-workings. I also like John Dedman's "Freight in the 1980s" book, which also has a picture (May 1989) of a Hamworthy-Cardiff steel train hauled by BR Blue 37230, and this routed via Eastleigh.

 

Much fun is to be had tracking down what ran when and where in our chosen modelling eras/regions, yet I too am up for 'anything goes' as my varied loco collection testifies, though I do like to keep locos of different eras reasonably separate rather than seeing, say, 'Lion' running alongside a blue class 20 - though perhaps someone out there will say that sometime, some place, they did do!

 

all the best,

 

Keith

[Brinkly]

As for the title of the thread, what people do in the privacy of their own layout room is entirely their own affair of course, but as far as other people are concerned, either don't show them, come up with a plausible might-have-been, or be honest about running it because you like it. Such honesty tends to be disarming and its own reward in that there isn't much to be said against it*. There is no need to get defensive and say, "It's my trainset and I'll run what I want to": that line just makes people know you feel ill at ease with your decision, and trolls can sense that a mile away and (to mix metaphors) will circle like sharks.

 

I couldn't agree more Simon, if you like something just say so!

[Jol Wilkinson]

Id rather have a wider range of interests and a bit of fun with my trainset once in a while

 

Mickey,

 

Unfortunately that explains exactly why I find the “It’s my train set†attitude too often annoying, the implication that that anyone who wants to impart some accuracy to their modelling needs to get a life.

 

I enjoy the research involved in modelling a particular prototype and era, together with the challenge of reproducing that as accurately as I can. However, I’ve also got other interests, including motor racing, fine wines, overseas travel, reading a good book and enjoying meeting up with good friends.

 

I like to think that a lot of us get enjoyment, satisfaction and a sense of achievement from what we do, even if some people wouldn't consider it fun.

 

Jol

[Nile_Griffith]

Mmmmm lots of shades of thought with this one.

 

Yes it's always good to have a bar set to a height to challenge you. It keeps us honest and introduces some much needed motivation and encouragement to look at things beyond just our models themselves. But all work and no play can make Jack a very dull boy indeed. So I'm with the opinion that every so often it's just good old plain honest fun to run whatever pleases the eye and brings a smile.

 

Like pretty much all of us on here I work hard to make my pennies and make them I do within the confines of a line of work that requires consistent decisions, based on interpretation, standards and regulations. So please don't be too upset with me if I take some of that hard earned coin and buy something that I don't want to have to make a set of critical choices over, so that I may enjoy it. I might not like you calling it a train set, but I am happy for you to call it my toy....... :)

[rob D2]

One of my colleagues has just outed himself and declared he has a pendolino on his Hornby 'track mat' , I suggested he get a class 50 which he has and to be honest he's happy to run them together.

 

There is space for all in this hobby I feel.

[Sailor Charon]

Mickey,

 

Unfortunately that explains exactly why I find the “It’s my train set†attitude too often annoying, the implication that that anyone who wants to impart some accuracy to their modelling needs to get a life.

 

I enjoy the research involved in modelling a particular prototype and era, together with the challenge of reproducing that as accurately as I can. However, I’ve also got other interests, including motor racing, fine wines, overseas travel, reading a good book and enjoying meeting up with good friends.

 

I like to think that a lot of us get enjoyment, satisfaction and a sense of achievement from what we do, even if some people wouldn't consider it fun.

 

Jol

I'm sure we all get enjoyment from what we do... The problem is that too often people get defensive about the choices they make. I can understand that some people want a totally faithful model of a particular time and place, and that they enjoy that. It's not what I'm looking for, but I can totally understand that the people who are, that's what they like, that's what they enjoy...

And there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't make them worse. Of course, it doesn't make them better either.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

I like to be "accurate", in a fictional way, but we also have some older stuff, which usually runs on the appropriate track, temporally set up.

 

So, Ffrwd is a model, but it is also useful for other things...

 

Blue DMU at Ffrwd. (Re-painted Tri-ang Hornby)

 

 

SR R1 at Ffrwd (Hornby Dublo)

 

 

A Land Rover (or should that be a Rail Rover?)

 

 

Have a guess!

 

 

Tri-ang Building, trying for size...

 

 

NOT Bachmann...

 

 

As you were...(Bachmann this time!)

 

 

"As you like it!"

[7013]

Yet another of your locos Sarahagain that I have in my collection, the saddle tank is no 748 a very early Tri-ang loco, mine still runs but makes a noise like a screetching cat

The whole thing about model railways is that it is a broad church and we can be as accurate or not as we feel like. I have a small layouts (portable) of a shed scene and a china clay dry which are fairly accurate representations of the period. However my third layout I am building is not mobile and captures the feel of the Cotswolds and will feature mainly 1950-60s stock, but it could easily be changed to more modern or older periods, or have a mixture of stock for my entertainment.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Yet another of your locos Sarahagain that I have in my collection, the saddle tank is no 748 a very early Tri-ang loco, mine still runs but makes a noise like a screetching cat.

 

Since that photo, I have added some transfers, to replace the early BR crest, and the number, 748 (Which is O gauge numbering, the nearest I could find, in cream instead of white.)

 

Apparently these locos were loosely based on the SECR (South Eastern & Chatham Railway) "S" Class. Tri-ang needed a body that could accommodate the clockwork spring, and this (and the class 08 type Diesel Shunter) came in both Clockwork and electric...

 

Ffrwd is my "realistic" layout, and a lot of enjoyment comes from weathering and detailing things. I also would like a permanent Tri-ang (and Hornby Dublo, etc etc.) Series 3/super 4 layout but severely lack any space. A table in the garden can be used, but the weather does not always agree!

[coachmann]

"Its my trainset", has a particular slant.

 

A thread entitled "Historical Railway Modelling" and the attendant difficulties of maintaining dicipline in a world of temptations might make an interesting antidote.