RJS1977

Also, although the lane crossing the line is technically a footpath, it appears from Street View that it may get occasional vehicle use - there are KEEP CLEAR markings adjacent to the gate at the Farnborough end of the lane, and at the other end of the lane, the gate is signed "No Parking. Keep Clear for Emergency Access."

Could the gates not be interlocked with the signalling so that the signals go to red when the gates are open? Or would that cause too much disruption if the gate failed to close properly?

2 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

It's not really relevant to talk about the correct bogies for the Tri-ang clerestories as they are rather generic and not models of anything that actually ran on the GWR.

Generic is back in fashion now ;-)

I think we can be sure that whatever variant the Triang clerestories are closest to, they certainly didn't run round on BR Mark 1 coach bogies...

Fitting either the Hornby long coach bogies, or 3d printed Dean bogies from Shapeways both seem to be quite common "fixes" for the issue.

I never quite understood why Hornby went to the effort and expense of tooling up for the "long" clerestories with their non-existent beading, when they could have simply reissued the old Triang ones (albeit ideally with the correct bogies).

I know the Triang clerestories don't match any known diagram, but for most modellers' purposes, that doesn't matter.

It's interesting too that despite having had both versions in and out of their ranges since I was a boy, Hornby have never (as far as I know) released the Triang clerestories with the correct bogies off the longer coaches.

4 hours ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

Once the impulse purchase on a day out is made at a Heritage Railway, (and how many have that level of discretionary spending power ?), how likely is someone to travel back to the railway to buy extra items ? Much more likely to look on-line, a search for "Hornby" will show the Hornby direct sales site, than try to look up "local model shop" which again if they did may not be "local".

That depends. Some railways already have established model shops, often selling top-of-the-range items, so that suggests that discretionary spending power is there. Sales from the Polar Express shop at Wallingford at Christmas (when families had already spent £35 per person on the experience) indicate that too. And although enthusiasts will often travel many miles to visit a particular heritage railway, there are also often a good number of local families who will visit a railway regularly because it's local, especially if it's one of the shorter lines, or offers partway fares. 

Back when my grandparents lived in Carnforth, Steamtown had a model shop which could be visited without paying the entry fee for the rest of the museum. My father and I often used to call in at the shop when visiting my grandparents (we did go to the museum from time to time but not as regularly). Indeed it was on one of those trips to the shop that I first saw Flying Scotsman (as she should look, resplendent in apple green, and without smoke deflectors) - and of course didn't have my camera with me!

On 21/04/2023 at 13:41, tomparryharry said:

I can't argue against that; very true. 

 

However, tenancies & leases need to be taken into account when going down this road. But! The prospect of sub-divided shops do indeed work. A notable example is Lord & Butler, who started out with a smaller shop in the Pump House, Cardiff. Some years later, to migrate just down the road to larger premises. Power to their elbow, I say. 

 

30 miles away, In Blaenavon, is the model railway shop for the Pontypool & Blaenavon. It started out as a tourist information centre, funded in part by a small local grant, with model railways as a sideline. Over the years, the model railway aspect continues to grow. Once again, Kudos.

 

Being a society member at Blaenavon gets you a discount as well, so it's a bit of a win-win. Added to that, you can see your prospective purchase in the flesh before you buy. 

 

Shameless plug over.... 

Heritage railway model shops can have several commercial advantages over the more traditional shops:

* If the shop is owned by the railway, there's no rent to pay (though of course profits would go to the railway)

* Staff may well be volunteers, cutting staffing costs

* It's in a place that railway enthusiasts already go to.

I still think it's a shame that Hornby/Bachmann don't support heritage railways more by producing a more typical "heritage railway" set, particularly at the budget end - a couple of Mark 1s and a Pannier Tank/Jinty/ex-Dapol Austerity/ex-Dapol Terrier/Railroad 08.

I think I've suggested before that one way of marketing would be to step back slightly from the pre-defined train sets, to one where the heritage railway/retailer can choose a loco, couple of coaches, and maybe some scenic items from Hornby's stock, and Hornby puts them all in a gift box with an oval of track and a controller.

6 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Thanks for that, but I have what I have, and can  / will use the excuse that the rear Platform would not conform to modern day practice, hence taken out of use and now derelict, or will be soon enough.

 

Just needs painting and new signage now.

 

 

 

 

To be fair, it does look good - the "low relief" treatment on the far platform works well, and the fence along the near platform helps hide the lack of clearance, though as Dave F has pointed out, there are always some exceptions anyway.

One more thought from me on platforms and footbridges.

The minimum platform width of 6' I referred to in an earlier post is in fact 6' clear of obstructions (hence my comment that lamp posts should be along the rear edge). If the footbridge steps are partway along the platform, I don't think you will have the 6' clearance to the platform edge - indeed the footbridge may encroach on the yellow line that most platforms have these days that passengers must not cross except when boarding or alighting. Representing the stairs to the rear platform on the backscene (by simply glueing the bannisters to the backscene) will help in this regard but the front platform may be trickier. However plan A with the footbridge at the end of the platform gets round the problem as passengers don't need to get past it to access the rest of the platform.

ISTR back in the days when refuelling was allowed in Formula One, that a new team sent their car out for a few laps in the first practice session of the season, brought it back to the pits to refuel and then realised that the fuel flap was on the wrong side of the car...

2 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

This (in your first paragraph) is roughly how a lot of 009 and narrow gauge groups work, as I described. Slightly differently, there have also been at least a few ‘clubs’ that have basically been formed specifically to operate a particular layout and keep it going.

 

I’m intrigued by the second paragraph. How big are the layouts? Perhaps more to the point, how big is the shed?! 😀

The shed is not particularly large - probably about the size of a garage.

The layouts vary in size from 4' x 1' up to 16' x 4'6" but a lot of layouts share common parts. So the same fiddle yard and end curves may be used on several different layouts over the course of a couple of years before repeating (obviously those different layouts can't be exhibited at the same time).

The alternative route to go down is the "circle" concept. There is no club layout as such, or club premises (and usually no membership fee), but the members take turns to visit each others' layouts and help each other out. One member may be good with electrics but terrible at woodwork, another is good at woodwork but doesn't know one end of a soldering iron from the other, so one builds baseboards for the other's layout in return for the other wiring up his layout. A development of this is a modular layout group where each member builds their own module (which may be a viable layout in its own right) then every now and then get together in a garage or hire a church hall to put it all together.

The extreme though is the "Circle" I'm in where one member has over 75 layouts stored in his shed (!). Twice a year they hold an exhibition in a church hall where he puts some of his layouts up the day before and the other members bring their own stock (or their own "guest layouts")  and operate them! (As the exhibition raises money for the church, there are no hall fees so very little financial outlay). 

On 06/04/2023 at 10:19, Compound2632 said:

Nothing wrong with special wagons so long as they are used sparingly and appropriately. If you are modelling a line that serves one or more quarries, a fortnightly gunpowder van would not be out of place, perhaps. 

Of course, if you're modelling the Cambrian Coast Line in the vicinity of Penrhyndeudraeth, you will need a lot more than one GPV!

On 05/04/2023 at 14:40, rovex said:

 

Well perhaps, but my point is the number of different models available would probably be sufficient to carry enough explosives to support a small war

For 10 years in the 20th century, Britain's railways had enough GPVs to support a very large war....

On 12/04/2023 at 17:57, TheQ said:

There were two explosions at the Savernake forest military sidings.

The first in mid 1945 killed one America service man and injured 4 locals.

 

The second on 2nd January 1946 killed, 8 British and seriously injured 6.

Two GMs and 5 BEMs were awarded to the soldiers trying to move loaded wagons away from the explosions. An estimated 200 tons exploded before the fires were put out.

 

Twenty years later and 12 miles further south I was living by the same line, most of the military traffic was then in vans, very few opens. Though a large proportion of them would have been medical supplies, some will have likely been rounds for the tank ranges and similar military weaponry..

A memorial to the 1946 accident will be unveiled on 23rd April, opposite Pino's in Marlborough.

43 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

You can't fool us. Any fule kno that International Rescue's UK HQ is concealed within those two little islands just upstream from your viaduct.

Interesting, I thought IR's UK HQ was in Slough ;-)

Those platforms look OK to me with-wise (apart from a little bit on the outside of the curve but as that platform's against the backscene it can probably be disguised).

Single-sided platforms only need to be 6' wide provided that lamp posts etc are along the rear edge. 

On 05/04/2023 at 11:01, luckymucklebackit said:

 

Then there was this one (allegedly)

 

Someone in the 009 Society built a model of it a few years ago!

On 24/02/2023 at 13:58, papagolfjuliet said:

I'm somewhat curious as to how Lady Penelope's Rolls managed to reverse up that incline in a foot of scale snow.

It should be remembered that FAB1 had been "re-engineered" by Brains, and apart from the machine gun in the radiator, was also fitted with a hydrofoil to enable it to be driven on water. As such it would be no real stretch to posit that Brains had also enabled it to be driven backwards up a snowy hill.

Just watched "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?". Very well done, apart from the scene where the characters boarded a train in Wales (pre-War) headed by a Bulleid Pacific which turned into a Collett 2251!

7 hours ago, OnTheBranchline said:

 

I spy a foreign engine! Did it lose it's way?

1948 locomotive exchanges ;-)

4 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

I don't think an episode passes without me saying out loud: "Calm down Timothy".  But his enthusiasm is infectious.

At least it's not "Language, Timothy!"

Why does Dolly Parton wear hipsters?

Because they're

Low jeans, low jeans, low jeans, low jeans!

Personally I enjoyed both HAMW and GMRC in different ways. Whilst I think the ideas on GMRC got a bit too outlandish towards the end of the second series, I think a series of "Let's make a model of Little Snoring as it was in 1927" would have lasted for precisely one episode. What GMRC set out to do was to show that a hobby that is often perceived as "anoraky" doesn't have to be seen that way, and for the most part it did it well. I'm sure we've all seen layouts at shows with Thunderbirds vehicles, dinosaurs, etc which have been built to be of interest to younger would-be modellers. And if we take away the outlandish themes, the actual quality of the modelling on those layouts (at least on those I've been fortunate to see at shows) has been pretty good 

Whilst I do enjoy HAMW as well, I think to a degree its emphasis on detail and accuracy is almost reinforcing the "anorak" stereotype - and Simon's repeated blanket statement of "Modellers demand accuracy" almost has me wanting to throw something at the screen. Yes, it's a popular view, and possibly a majority view, but certainly not a unanimous consensus. Fortunately it does find time for some more light-hearted items like the Mr Bean Mini to provide a bit of balance.

9 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

Did you mean to put this post in the Hornby TV show thread? 🙂

Yes, not sure how it got in here!

Personally I enjoyed both HAMW and GMRC in different ways. Whilst I think the ideas on GMRC got a bit too outlandish towards the end of the second series, I think a series of "Let's make a model of Little Snoring as it was in 1927" would have lasted for precisely one episode. What GMRC set out to do was to show that a hobby that is often perceived as "anoraky" doesn't have to be seen that way, and for the most part it did it well. I'm sure we've all seen layouts at shows with Thunderbirds vehicles, dinosaurs, etc which have been built to be of interest to younger would-be modellers. And if we take away the outlandish themes, the actual quality of the modelling on those layouts (at least on those I've been fortunate to see at shows) has been pretty good 

Whilst I do enjoy HAMW as well, I think to a degree its emphasis on detail and accuracy is almost reinforcing the "anorak" stereotype - and Simon's repeated blanket statement of "Modellers demand accuracy" almost has me wanting to throw something at the screen. Yes, it's a popular view, and possibly a majority view, but certainly not a unanimous consensus. Fortunately it does find time for some more light-hearted items like the Mr Bean Mini to provide a bit of balance.