Rugd1022 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I was just reading LNWRmodeller's post in the 'Manufacturing Models' thread and the phrase 'cheque book modelling' leapt out at me, which, along with an email I received from Camelot this afternoon inviting me to try my luck with tomorrow's £59m Euro lottery draw set me thinking about what I would actually do in the unlikely event that my numbers finally came up.... now I know we've had similar threads in this vein before, but putting some serious thought into it, what would you do with that much hard cash that would really get your modelling and prototype juices flowing, and just as importantly, actually be achievable? Aside from sorting family and friends out and donating to charities and good causes I'd go this way.... Model wise, I would probably make a start by following Pete Waterman's example and build a large 7mm scale layout, preferably in a purpose built structure with all mod cons, based on a few ideas I've had knocking around for some time. In Pete's case he plumped for a real location, namely Leamington Spa as plenty on here already know, but one idea I've often toyed with is a fictitious third station at Rugby called 'Rugby Exchange' which would have connections to the WCML and GC lines, plus it's own Loco Shed and carriage sidings.... it would be set c1962 / 63 under London Midland Region 'ownership' but anything seen on the adjacent lines and associated branches would be seen running there, the look of the station would be similar to Rugby Midland in it's heyday but with it's own distinctive style, just before the overhead wires appeared with BR maroon enamel signage eveywhere, there would probably be a flyover or two to intertwine the three main routes together and a decent sized scenic section of mainline where full length trains could be given a good run. There would also be removable backscenes carefully placed so that photography from all angles would be possible. With such a large amount of money available it could easily be an enormous project and this is where the 'cheque book modelling' comes into it's own.... although I'd be happy designing and planning the layout it would need many hands to make it work so several very talented people on RMWeb and elsewhere would be commisioned to take on various aspects from baseboard construction and track building / laying right through to making the buildings, signals, locos and rolling stock needed to run it. I would still do a fair amount of modelling myself (scenics mostly and some weathering) and it'd be a nice challenge to make sure all the various elements blend together and create a railway like atmosphere. Being such a large undertaking I'd probably build a seperate layout elsewhere in 'the railway room', possibly in a different scale and based on a compleltey different period and location just to keep things interesting.... going back to the big project would probably be more enjoyable that way. As for the prototype... I'd like to get heavily involved with various preservation groups and schemes, helping to get long term projects finished, examples being the new build Grange at Llangollen, the Glos & Warks Railway's extension to Broadway and beyond (possibly reinstating the double track layout too), along with several others which may or maynot happen.... resurrecting 46235 'City Of Birmingham' for mainline running would be acheivable with a good bit of persuasion and large doses of cash, or connecting up the two sections of the Great Central would be very satisfying. I'd pay for endless mainline charters using the current crop of well known and much loved runners, with cleverly worked out routes and numerous photographic stops, loco swaps and double headers etc, just like railtours used to be in the 60s, 70s and 80s.... in fact, I'd go the whole hog and (somehow) build up a collection of appropriate Mk1 stock fully refurbished in BR liveries and have my own charter sets.... oh the possibilities. Thinking sideways... would it be possible to put some of the pre-nationalisation coaching stock back on the mainline if you threw enough money at the idea....? Just think, a garter blue A4 heading a rake of Gresley teaks over the Forth Bridge, or perhaps King George V taking the Didcot 'Special Saloons' to Plymouth once more.... ;-) The floor is open ladies and gents, what would you really do with a decent win that would satisfy you and give enjoyment to others...? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegheny1600 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I always thought, from the days when the lotto first had big 'rollovers', that I would probably give up modelling altogether and go over to the States and buy a shortline of say, 2 or 3 hundred miles in length and run some classic older Alco or Baldwin diesels on it! Nowadays, I would do the same, just in Greece - there's some lovely metre gauge railways, recently rebuilt and they're just mothballed at the moment! They were running my favourite Alco's there too - see my avatar! Just think - sun, sea, sand,......great food, friendly people, fantastic scenery and a very nearly full size railway to boot - bye-bye blighty! Good mates could probably come with me and work on the railway, too! Keep dreaming, John E. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointstaken Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 My initial good cause would be a substantial donation to my model railway fund. After that ? .........dunno ! Dennis Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 ....what would you really do with a decent win that would satisfy you and give enjoyment to others...? Emigrate. Switzerland and Ireland have always looked good to me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted July 12, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 12, 2012 If I could cover the insurance I would get the streamlined Duchess back to top mechanical condition, hire the ECML and try for 130mph down Stoke Bank. Failing that, recreate a railway like the County Donegal or Cavan & Leitrim. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 ....recreate a railway like the County Donegal or Cavan & Leitrim. It would be very interesting to see obstacles fall away if you could identify which palms to grease...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I don't know about the need for greasing of palms to rebuild an old Irish railway. I would have thought that if you made an offer of £59 m to the Irish government to buy the whole country they would be bitting your hand off to accept it. They could then all emigrate to Switzerland and you could build and run the railway. Bernard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Davis Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Do like Reverend Edwin Boston - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Boston I would love a narrow gauge railway and the pleasure to others, well travelling on it of course! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I don't know about the need for greasing of palms to rebuild an old Irish railway. I would have thought that if you made an offer of £59 m to the Irish government to buy the whole country they would be bitting your hand off to accept it. They could then all emigrate to Switzerland..... I'm not sure some of them haven't already done that..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.A.C Martin Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 So the question is "what would you do if you actually won £[insert number of millions here]?" I'd go and build a 12inch to the foot scale replica of a Thompson Pacific to run on the mainline. That, and have a mixed gauge 3.5in/5in/7.5in gauge railway running through the garden, and the OO scale replica of King's Cross to Leeds Central via Potters Bar and Copley Hill in a big out building, Retford style. Whatever's left over I'd put into my bank account, and a charitable trust to put towards railway preservation schemes, here and abroad, and the railway children charity. Slice of heaven mixed with doing some good for the world for a change. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Dan Randall Posted July 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 13, 2012 I was just reading LNWRmodeller's post in the 'Manufacturing Models' thread and the phrase 'cheque book modelling' leapt out at me, which, along with an email I received from Camelot this afternoon inviting me to try my luck with tomorrow's £59m Euro lottery draw set me thinking about what I would actually do in the unlikely event that my numbers finally came up.... now I know we've had similar threads in this vein before, but putting some serious thought into it, what would you do with that much hard cash that would really get your modelling and prototype juices flowing, and just as importantly, actually be achievable? Aside from sorting family and friends out and donating to charities and good causes I'd go this way.... Model wise, I would probably make a start by following Pete Waterman's example and build a large 7mm scale layout, preferably in a purpose built structure with all mod cons, based on a few ideas I've had knocking around for some time. In Pete's case he plumped for a real location, namely Leamington Spa as plenty on here already know, but one idea I've often toyed with is a fictitious third station at Rugby called 'Rugby Exchange' which would have connections to the WCML and GC lines, plus it's own Loco Shed and carriage sidings.... it would be set c1962 / 63 under London Midland Region 'ownership' but anything seen on the adjacent lines and associated branches would be seen running there, the look of the station would be similar to Rugby Midland in it's heyday but with it's own distinctive style, just before the overhead wires appeared with BR maroon enamel signage eveywhere, there would probably be a flyover or two to intertwine the three main routes together and a decent sized scenic section of mainline where full length trains could be given a good run. There would also be removable backscenes carefully placed so that photography from all angles would be possible. With such a large amount of money available it could easily be an enormous project and this is where the 'cheque book modelling' comes into it's own.... although I'd be happy designing and planning the layout it would need many hands to make it work so several very talented people on RMWeb and elsewhere would be commisioned to take on various aspects from baseboard construction and track building / laying right through to making the buildings, signals, locos and rolling stock needed to run it. I would still do a fair amount of modelling myself (scenics mostly and some weathering) and it'd be a nice challenge to make sure all the various elements blend together and create a railway like atmosphere. Being such a large undertaking I'd probably build a seperate layout elsewhere in 'the railway room', possibly in a different scale and based on a compleltey different period and location just to keep things interesting.... going back to the big project would probably be more enjoyable that way. As for the prototype... I'd like to get heavily involved with various preservation groups and schemes, helping to get long term projects finished, examples being the new build Grange at Llangollen, the Glos & Warks Railway's extension to Broadway and beyond (possibly reinstating the double track layout too), along with several others which may or maynot happen.... resurrecting 46235 'City Of Birmingham' for mainline running would be acheivable with a good bit of persuasion and large doses of cash, or connecting up the two sections of the Great Central would be very satisfying. I'd pay for endless mainline charters using the current crop of well known and much loved runners, with cleverly worked out routes and numerous photographic stops, loco swaps and double headers etc, just like railtours used to be in the 60s, 70s and 80s.... in fact, I'd go the whole hog and (somehow) build up a collection of appropriate Mk1 stock fully refurbished in BR liveries and have my own charter sets.... oh the possibilities. Thinking sideways... would it be possible to put some of the pre-nationalisation coaching stock back on the mainline if you threw enough money at the idea....? Just think, a garter blue A4 heading a rake of Gresley teaks over the Forth Bridge, or perhaps King George V taking the Didcot 'Special Saloons' to Plymouth once more.... ;-) The floor is open ladies and gents, what would you really do with a decent win that would satisfy you and give enjoyment to others...? A most interesting question - I like the sound of all that Nidge and hope you win - soon! Any chance of doing it in S7 though, so I can let my Western stretch its legs once it's finished, hopefully, in the not-too-distant. DIY and babies don't half eat into your spare time, not to mention finances! If I were to win big, I'd do something similar to yourself, though in my case, it would have to be Western Region with, of course, lashings of lovely totems and enamel signs. Though modelling a prototype would be nice in many ways (Slough, Reading or Birmingham Snow Hill spring to mind), I'd probably go for something that incorporates my favourite elements from various photos in my book collection, but which looks as if it could have existed. I'd also like a full sized snooker table - I've already got the cue....! Regards Dan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Happy Hippo Posted July 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 13, 2012 15" gauge garden railway. Regards Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thanks for the replies so far gents - I was actually surprised to see the thread appear this morning, as when I'd typed it all out the night before and pressed the 'post' button the whole shebang vanished into the ether! Dan - thanks for the encouragement squire! S7, why not indeed.... and with fifty nine squillion quid to play around with I'd probably gravitate to building a seperate WR based layout as well as the one above, definitely something in the Hydraulic era but there are some quite varied looking locations to choose from.... the London end is very different in aspect to the other bit near Land's End, then of course there's the Seawall bit in between! SAC Martin - I hadn't thought of the much larger scales either.... a nice sprawing indoor layout built to 5" gauge set almost anywhere in this country in the early '60s would do me.... Reading for instance..... time for a lie down I think, before it all gets a bit too much. I suppose in a way my original post shows a slight lack of imagination in one respect - I've never really felt the urge to desert old Blighty's shores for foreign parts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Physicsman Posted July 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 13, 2012 I would do 3 things: 1) I'd commission the design and build of a new steam engine: probably a Duchess or Britannia and have it on "permanent loan" to the NYMR, where I could visit and ride on it whenever I chose... 2) I'd buy a large plot of land and build a large house. Said house would have 2 very large "garages" - well, mini-barns. In one, I'd enlarge my current layout-build (00, but scaled-up at least x10) and get on with building it. When complete, I'd employ someone to do general maintenance/track-cleaning etc, so I could just get on and "play" with it. 3) In the second mini-barn I'd employ a team to build me a reasonable-sized 0 gauge model, based on a GWR (maybe S&D) location in the 1950's. Since I'm never likely to win a huge sum, I'm not worrying about having to go through with these. Would be nice, though! Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruciethefish Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I'd buy the now-empty Ashford locomotive works, & set about reinstalling all the equipment needed to manufacture & maintain steam locos, so that a facility would exist for any preserved loco to have a heavy overhaul, new boiler, or anything else needed. The place is so vast, I'd also have an enormous layout or three in one of the shops.. I'd then set about recreating some of the elegant pre-grouping designs that never made it to the preservation era... (I'd also go out & buy a bloody nice motorbike...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted July 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 13, 2012 Move house - with a large, flattish garden and space for a "proper" shed. 40' x 20' maybe. The Algarve would be good for me. The shed would house the exhibition layout and workbench. I would retain my 00 background as it enables me to get trains up and running reasonably quickly without going down the 7mm route and taking time building stuff (or having stuff built). As the OP states - it would be "achievable", as well as enabling me to satisfy my yellow/NR fetish. The shed layout would be capable of being extended out into the garden so I can run 21 wagon HTA rakes, 11 car pendos, decent length intermodals and let them stretch their legs. And then a jumbo panel van, such as a VW crafter, suitably pimped, would be on the driveway to transport the exhibition layout. Although the expenses from Portugal may be a bit beyond the average exhibition! Cheers, Mick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart-AU Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi.. I would buy a bigger home, a few cars and a heap of trains and make sure I could travel to the UK each year. In the end I would give most of it away. Having money will not make you happy if you aren't already, helping other bring a feeling of joy. Stuart-AU Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Physicsman Posted July 14, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi.. I would buy a bigger home, a few cars and a heap of trains and make sure I could travel to the UK each year. In the end I would give most of it away. Having money will not make you happy if you aren't already, helping other bring a feeling of joy. Stuart-AU A very good point, Stuart. Money is often a facilitator, but how many people with loads of money are unhappy? Maybe they don't have enough focus in their lives - perhaps they should become RMwebbers and start building layouts! That'd keep 'em busy! Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted July 14, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 14, 2012 1. Ensure myself and immediate family and friends in any sort of debt or need were catered for; 2. Renovate the house and buy another which would be back home in Cornwall and with a suitable barn for hobby purposes 3. Book a first-class trip at least once a year between the two 4. Bring over a few friends to see the layout here 5. Set up the aforesaid barn as a workshop / classroom / railway room to both learn from and teach others along with building an indoor layout (at last!) 6. Secure the long-term future of the SEG 4Cor unit to ensure it is preserved under cover and returned to running order. 7. Might have a couple of beers if there was still some small change! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 A giant Lotto win to me? Following investments, I would set up a manufacturing base with an elderly skilled workforce plus apprenticeships to build heritage buses and LMS Stanier railway coaches. These vehicles would be let on a generous lease basis with a built-in option to purchase at a later date. Rail vehicles would be built to BR mainline compliance while retaining outward heritage appearance. Buses would be of mostly pre-war design with special attention paid to engines which would be of modern design but emit prewar sounds (but not smoke!) In addition I would have built to order a LNWR 'Prince of Wales' and LMS type Compound 4-4-0 with 21st Century technology to eliminate the old bugs, mainline ticketted. Stock to be the above mentioned Stanier side-corridor and open stock. Revenues to be invested in building a redesigned GCR 'Sir Sam Fay' 4-6-0. Finally, set up a conglomerate to finance and build a 4' 8½" tourist railway line between Greenfield and Springhead (near Oldham), and of course a house for me from where I can view operations in my bathchair............ Great! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Larry, should you ever decide to run for Prime Minister of these fine islands, I would vote for you a thousand times over! Something else do I'd regarding all of our preserved railway lines - all of the locos currently awaiting restoration would be rounded up and sent to Brucethefish / Chris's newly renovated Ashford Loco Works, along with all of the pre-grouping, Big Four and BR rolling stock that's lying around yet to turn a wheel.... just imagine the wonderful looking parcels trains you could recreate if you rounded them all up at one location for a season or two.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted July 14, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 14, 2012 Well the sad news is in and it's another Saturday night - another ripped up lottery ticket. One day though ......... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Keep trying Gwiwer! Just had another thoght.... alongside 'the railway building' there would be an adjoining garage-come-workshop brimming with all manor of classic cars and commercials, probably around 90% British too, including a replica of Ivo Peter's Bentley for those Sunday afternoon jaunts to Midford and Midsomer Norton.... sigh! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
298 Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 I'd start an awards fund to benefit projects within the preservation world, such ensuring some unique locos are cosmetically restored and have a roof over them, financing the completion of established replica projects, or maybe towards civils projects such as strengthening the embankments on the G-WR or installing full barriers and CCTV on all of the crossings on the RH&DR. I'd commission a reputable manufacturer to produce a limited number of 4mm scale models of class 82, 83, and 84 AC Electrics and give them away to anyone who has previously tried modelling them. I'd also like to bankroll a few quality model railway events, instead of relying on the largest show in the country being in a dingy warehouse near an Airport in the Midlands. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 should you ever decide to run for Prime Minister of these fine islands, I would vote for you a thousand times over! My voting-toting vehicle would be a replica of Hitlers 6-wheel Mercedes. Ivo's Bentley would be too subtle! Heil coachmann... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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