Your favourite moment whilst modelling ?

[jonny777]

Many, many decades ago; when I was about 13 years old, I was known locally for being a railway enthusiast with a train set and so was asked to visit a house many miles away by the grandfather of the kids who lived there. The grandfather just happened to live across the road from my parents.

 

So, one evening after school I was driven by the grandfather, in his old car with a wonderful inside leather smell, to a strange house many miles away where there was a quite large and expensive layout (far bigger than anything that I could afford) in a spare room. The father was not there and the mother was preparing the children for bed, and so the grandfather explained to me how every time they tried to run the trains, a red light came on the controllers and nothing would move more than a few inches.

 

He told me not to do anything drastic or the father would be livid when he came home, but could I fix it? With that he left the room and shut the door, leaving me to sort out the problem. I tried everything that I knew, looked at the wheels and the loco motors to make sure nothing was obviously shorting the tracks. Nothing had any effect and I sat there thinking that I had no idea. 

 

After about ten minutes of this, I was reduced to following every individual joined rail around the system to see if it conflicted with anything else, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary except this one power wire which seemed to be linking two rather redundant sidings, electrically speaking. The problem was that the wire was neatly soldered at both ends and I had been warned about the father.

 

However, at that age I was something of a rebel and so after a very short yes/no interlude in my head, I ripped up the wire and disconnected it at both ends.

 

On trying the controllers, everything worked perfectly although I was not sure why. While I was playing with the trains to my hearts content the grandfather appeared in the room and seemed delighted. He said I was a genius and asked what I did. I replied that I was not sure but one wire had something to do with it, and showed him it. He looked a little concerned and put the wire in his pocket but at the same time pulled out a ten bob note and shoved it in my hand. I had rarely owned ten shillings before- it was something I only used to get at birthdays and Christmas and that seemed to vanish into my Post Office account.

 

I said, "are you sure, I haven't done anything?", but he insisted and the mother appeared and thanked me. She seemed delighted, too.

 

Whether this was my favourite moment, I am not sure - but it was certainly one of my most memorable.

 

Ten shillings for about 15 minutes of head scratching and the removal of one wire.

[Jeff Smith]

What would 10 Bob have bought you then, a wagon or two, maybe more?

[Black Sheep]

Those rare days when you can do no wrong, when results exceed your expectations and the outside world fades from conciousness.

And then you awake to find your alarm clock failed

[pointstaken]

When SWMBO justifies keeping her by putting her head round the corner and telling you that she's just made a mug of tea.

 

Dennis

[Satan's Goldfish]

Some recently released OO shipping containers are the same 'brand' as some transfers I made up (bodged in my own special way!) Many moons ago. At a recent show my old home-brew containers were beside the commercially available containers, the decals were identical and show visitors couldn't tell the difference it let me know I'd got something very right.