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Modelling "mojo"


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I think I have come to a decision.

 

Sell some of my N gauge stuff that is outside the sort of railway I want which includes a full length Dapol HST that I only got the buffet for last year and out goes all my LM and ER stock to be left with GW & Southern. BR blue is my other passion so I will trim back by not buying stuff like MK2 Aircons when they come out.

 

Funds will then be used for a transition to OO with a small southern region BR blue early 70s layout which will be my main one with the N gauge layout being something portable.

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Well I think I have found some of my Mojo! A loco, I started about 18 months ago, is moving forward with a boiler rolled last night... it even looked round once it was belted clamped sworn at.. heated, and finally cooled.  The loco is certainly looking like one now... tonight the smoke box gets a going over. Still no tender on the scene though.... yes waiting its turn. Actually getting some where encourages me to go back to a chassis that was not playing fair in the short term! 

 

Roll on tonight after work! (I know why work is refered to as a 4 letter word!) 

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Poggy - don't worry....Beyer Garratt scratchbuilders lose their mojo too.  I started this one in spring 2010 (it's battery r/c 16mm scale, not Gauge 1 - the boiler is a steel table leg from B&Q, the pony truck bearing covers are drawing pins, the treadplate is from the packaging from some fancy bread from M&S and the lubricator handles are press studs), and I'm taking a mojo holiday while I pluck up courage/enthusiasm to start tackling all of the pipework, washout plugs, boiler handrails, cab fittings etc.  It's been six months and counting since I last worked on it - in the meantime, it's been putting in the miles on my garden line while I try my best to ignore all of the incomplete bits.

 

David

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Poggy - don't worry....Beyer Garratt scratchbuilders lose their mojo too.  I started this one in spring 2010 (it's battery r/c 16mm scale, not Gauge 1 - the boiler is a steel table leg from B&Q, the pony truck bearing covers are drawing pins, the treadplate is from the packaging from some fancy bread from M&S and the lubricator handles are press studs), and I'm taking a mojo holiday while I pluck up courage/enthusiasm to start tackling all of the pipework, washout plugs, boiler handrails, cab fittings etc.  It's been six months and counting since I last worked on it - in the meantime, it's been putting in the miles on my garden line while I try my best to ignore all of the incomplete bits.

 

David

At least you are using it.

 

I've just had the dawning realisation if I move back up to OO but keep some N gauge stuff then I will probably leave the N untouched so why am I keeping it.

 

This is stock built up over several years and never fully utilised, I'm angry at myself for buying stuff which hasn't seen use and at the same time I find it difficult to sell it on because I haven't used it - some of it hasn't even seen track.

 

What the heck have I done.

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I just can't get started.  I have a 10'x8' room available, the stock is piling up, and there's plenty of planning going on in Xtrkcad, but I'm stuck.  Building a layout round the whole room seems too ambitious, but I'd find a shunting plank tedious to operate.

 

Maybe I just need to stop planning, put up some boards and see what happens!

 

Mal

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.....What the heck have I done.

You could of course do what my late friend did, which was to buy so much stock that there was no hope of ever running anything, never mind building a layout. Then compounding the whole thing by having a fatal heart attack, not being discovered for about nine days (by which time decomposition had set in) and leaving a nightmare for the surviving (mostly distant) relatives to sort out....

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You could of course do what my late friend did, which was to buy so much stock that there was no hope of ever running anything, never mind building a layout. Then compounding the whole thing by having a fatal heart attack, not being discovered for about nine days (by which time decomposition had set in) and leaving a nightmare for the surviving (mostly distant) relatives to sort out....

A timely reminder it's toy trains, not worth getting stressed over and less cluttering may bring about happiness.

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I lost mine for a while back in the mid-'70s but fortunately got it back in the late-'70s and never been without it since. As Model Railroader has it 'World's Greatest Hobby'!

What amazes me on here is some of the layout threads which consume pages and pages and they still haven't laid one piece of track. As my wife would say "JDI, David, JDI" . . .

 

David

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At least you are using it.

 

I've just had the dawning realisation if I move back up to OO but keep some N gauge stuff then I will probably leave the N untouched so why am I keeping it.

 

This is stock built up over several years and never fully utilised, I'm angry at myself for buying stuff which hasn't seen use and at the same time I find it difficult to sell it on because I haven't used it - some of it hasn't even seen track.

 

What the heck have I done.

The RTR offerings do make the hobby very solution-oriented. We could to be deciding what we want to model, and then building the models we need, but we buy extra models because we like them (sounds fair), enjoy them (good) and then kick ourselves because they don't quite fit the layout we want. How about getting a display cabinet for the N gauge trains, so you can enjoy looking at them while you begin the 00 project? This would keep more options open.

 

- Richard.

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This thread is proving therapeutic.

 

So having put myself in a place where I would have to sell all my N gauge stock  I am beginning to see how attached I am to it.  If I go OO then I have to sell it all, because I know I won't have more than one model railway in the house.

 

Some of the things I wanted to do in OO were DCC and Sound plus I had this sight issue which has been making life difficult - but people with glasses do 2mm so why the heck can't I do N.

 

Stepping back and looking what I would get in OO and what I have in N and what I want from a model railway I have come round to the following:

  1. I am very attached to N gauge
  2. I have too much N gauge stock
  3. I try to run trains that are perhaps too long for the space
  4. I try to design railways for trains that are too long for the space
  5. I get frustrated then by the lack of running line and also lots of points in a short space
  6. I like the idea of DCC but have been put off by the number of locomotives to convert (wired DCC)
  7. Sound would be nice but actually it's not perfect or absolutely necessary
  8. A branch line is more appealing that a big mainline

So with this in mind what do I do next:

  • OO is not perhaps the only solution
  • Sell the stock I don't need - I have a lot of older Farish Mk1s - perfectly good but more stock than I need and lots of older vans as well
  • Go DCC & chip all my DCC ready stock
  • Sell the locomotives that require wiring but have more up to date versions available - Farish Panniers, a 61xx and class 40s
  • Get someone to fit chips in my locomotives that aren't DCC Ready: Dapol 45xxs, M7, Ivatt Tank and a couple of Farish shunters
  • Challenge if I really need that 8 coach HST from Dapol, the Stanier and Gresley stuff.
  • Forget L shaped end to end - build a loop around the room - it's my room and I can lift sections when not in use.
  • Reduce train lengths - no more than 3 foot including the locomotive - that's still a five coach train - two more than in OO which would be restricted to end to end.  I could keep a single longer train but it would be the exception not the norm.
  • KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid! - single line, straightforward fiddleyard, crossing loop country station with a couple of sidings and maybe some exchange facility somewhere.

I am already feeling less stressed by this.

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Very interesting topic this - I like to think that I have regained some of my mojo over the last few weeks following a fairly radical rethink of my priorities.

Basically I have pretty much abandoned the pursuit of just buying as much rtr as I could afford ( good training for when I retire early next year - I will definitely have to watch the spending then!) and instead I recently exhumed various unmade and part-built kits, parts etc - a fleet of 11 Bulleid coaches (Comet sides grafted onto old Bachmann vehicles - not easy but It can be done) is now progressing nicely, along with some Parkside wagons - always a pleasure to build. The consequence of this is that after a diversion into other areas, I am returning to my favourite BR Southern Region for the next couple of projects - building those coaches has done much to boost my enthusiasm for doing some proper modelling!

Of course, rtr Bulleid stock will doubtless be announced now ..........

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My mojo went into (deep) hibernation 5 years or more ago, following a heart attack. Until then I had been building stuff for a new club layout and things I wanted for myself. The previous year we had bought a static caravn and I would spend days modelling while looking at the sea, over my long weekends. The heart attack made me realise that I needed to be more active if I was to have a reasonable future, so much of my time at the van I spend out walking now.

I also realised that many of the things I had built years ago, in many cases well over ten years previously had never been run on a layout. The club always had another layout set up, then seven years ago we had to move, I spent a lot of time, with others of course, getting the new premises ready, kind of expecting that we could then get on with our layout. It didn't quite work out like that! I spent the last evening at our old clubrooms collecting the last stuff to be moved, on my own, I wasn't amused! When I arrived at the new clubrooms, the other groups who had contributed little to the preparations and move had set their layouts up and were happily playing trains!!

Eventually we managed to get our layout up, after a couple of years, so progress could be made. That lasted about a year for me when I had to take charge of another very important club function at short notice, whereupon somebody else decided to take over the wiring that I had been doing, not too much of an issue, except that he changed the way I had envisaged it. Undaunted I set about getting on with track and building points, until it was decided that a looming display date for part of the layout couldn't be met with band built points, so the decisiion was taken to use rtp points. That was the best part of two years ago, the points are still not fitted and the job was taken on by the guy who was doing the wiring which came to a halt! I can't go back onto the wiring as part of the layout is dismantled to give room for another layout. You could say my mojo has been stolen but I'm looking forward to regaining it as I've been partitioning my garage to be able to set up our semi retired exhibition layout. I had the garage built with this in mind 20 years ago and it's now getting close, and I'm looking at a time when I can get stuff out of boxes, most of the rtr stuff I've bought in the last ten or more years and kit builds done up to 20 years ago!

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