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How do you know if you're made it as a railway modeller?


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  • RMweb Gold

I have three suggestions:

 

1. When you have a substantial article published in MRJ, and it's not just describing the layout you paid others £££££££ to build.

 

2. When you can build a loco to the same or better standards than current day 00 RTR.

 

3. When you personally are genuinely satisfied with your modelling and feel you have reached the point where you cannot improve any further.

 

BTW, I don't qualify under any one of these headings.

 

1. Why is MRJ seen as the pinacle of modelling ?

 

2. Why only a loco (e.g. see Coachman's work for details) ?

 

3. Who would ever get to this stage ?

 

Stu

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Stubby, I would say that MRJ is the pinnacle of pedantry sometimes. However, I'm not aware of a higher standard of modelling and it is the benchmark I look at longingly knowing I will never get there. However, this should not stop us from trying.

 

Getting a loco to run smoothly AND look good is a mix of engineering and art. The challenge with coaches is getting them to look the part - especially when ornate lining is involved. Coachman has certainly acheived that and I look at his work with awe. Perhaps coaches should be a 4th category.

 

We should never get to the point where we are satisfied.

 

John

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1. Why is MRJ seen as the pinacle of modelling ?

 

2. Why only a loco (e.g. see Coachman's work for details) ?

 

3. Who would ever get to this stage ?

 

Stu

 

1. Because the best articles in there generally whack the best articles in any other magazine of my acquaintance. IMHO. There may be exceptions, of course.

 

2. I suppose it could be a coach, a wagon, or even a building. I said 'loco' after seeing a 00 commercial model of an ex LNWR 0-8-0, which made me think 'If I could build something as good as that from scratch, or even from a kit, I'd be very pleased with myself.' I'd suggest a loco is (maybe) the biggest test as you have to get the thing to pull other vehicles in a realistic manner - with rolling stock (however beautiful) you just have to be sure the wheels turn freely and that the thing runs along the track as it should. No disrespect intended to any craftsman who produces non-locos - I'm principally a wagon man myself after all. (And I am confident of exceeding the quality of current RTR O Gauge wagons, with the possible exception of Lionheart.)

 

3. My subjective opinion is that some (few) have reached this stage, while others think they have. I can't see into other people's heads, but this criterion would be a personal one for the individual concerned.

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1. When you've just spent the weekend with your layout at a "big" show with a group of modelling mates who humour you (for about 48 hours), do anything you ask to make the show successful and ridicule you mercilessly.

2. You get a lot of "thank you - I really like your layout"s from a very wide range of visitors who stand and watch you play trains as well as lots of gratitude for the advice and help you can offer.

3. Oh...and the crowds are three deep in front of your fiddle yard watching others who have "made it" playing in the sand on Fen End Pit - the rather excellent layout next door...

That'll do me.

Chris

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is this when someone comes up to you while you are demonstrating weathering and tells all in the vicinity how rubbish you are and how much better they can do it - and the bite back is when they produce either:

 

1 my stand is over there and I can sell you lots of airburshed dirty locos or

2 heres one I poured paint over earlier

 

and the audience just ask you to continue with their hands on demo!

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is this when someone comes up to you while you are demonstrating weathering and tells all in the vicinity how rubbish you are and how much better they can do it - and the bite back is when they produce either:

 

1 my stand is over there and I can sell you lots of airburshed dirty locos or

2 heres one I poured paint over earlier

 

and the audience just ask you to continue with their hands on demo!

Delicious! You obviously get invitations to some really classy events!

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You are The Ultimate Railway Modeller:

You create a layout with a township that's so perfect in every detail that it becomes real, and because it is your own creation, your Utopia, you can go down into it. And as for your unfaithful wife and her lover...

 

No, I haven't gone mad; that's the essence of the short story "Small Town", by Philip K. Dick.

It's a good read - http://www.sffaudio....20K.%20Dick.pdf

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I was under the impression that you would have to be balding or grey haired with a ponytail, suffering from myopia, bad breath, BO and have a hair lip whilst suffering from a weight problem, and still have all the pretty young ladies screaming, begging you for your autograph and swooning at the very sight of you...............and that's before you've walked into the local church hall with your N gauge version of Rosebush Halt in the 1990s tucked under you arm.

 

Regards

 

Richard

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You know when you have made it, when the senior members of your club or group, who have in the past, looked down their nose at you, start asking you questions!

 

Gary

 

The reverse can also apply - when the patronising g*ts in the clubrom suddenly start ignoring you. Now that is a measure of achievement :boast:

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I model for myself and care not a jot in whether my results promote me to the ranks of the so called "made it" brigade.

 

Having unsolicited praise heaped upon you for your efforts is one thing. Spending time wondering about whether you see yourself as reaching some higher place in the modelling world is quite another.

 

Enjoying what you do is the main thing.

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