Not Jeremy

Well, if you do manage to come up for the show will I recognise you old boy?

We could perhaps wear carnations in our lapels, or be carrying a copy of the Model Railway Journal...

And no, I didn't recognise him either!

Summit meeting completed, we are pretty certain it all fits.....

Really fantastic images from a great event Ade, thank you very much for sharing them.

All I can say is zut alors......

In my defence I er, um, well it will be magnifique to voir Cogirep un autre temps et aussi je suis, mais non, nous sommes, tres contente avec seulement Obbekaer sans Ribe Skibbroen.

Pour ma defense, j'ai ete dazzle par le gilet de Monsieur Cygne chez le RMweb membres jour.

Mange tout!

And the Larkhall Inn.....

Things are hotting up, we now have a list of what is attending!

Layouts

Iain Rice’s Longwood Edge, built for Don Lepper - P4 South Hants MRC

Obbekaer and Ribe Skibbroen - P87 Geraint Hughes

Les Caves de Roy (Beiruit railways in the 1980s) - HO Matt Strickland

Cogirep - HO scale Al Reynolds

Colwyn Bay goods – 2mm scale Bryn Davies

Parkend (and a Japanese bonus micro) - 2mm scale Steve Nicholls

Parkend Marsh Sidings - P4 John Farmer

Dinas Mawddwy - EM Andy Cundick

The Watchmouth Railway – 7mm in a small space Richard Phipp

Lockdown Fen - OO Chris Hopper

Demonstrations and displays

Gauge One BR Blue; hydraulics and sound Andrew Vines

Radio Control and an animated Hunslet Giles Favell

Gauge One scratch building; from France to The States Dave Easto

Bonus Gauge One in tiny space by Roger Swan

Large scale figure painting Dennis Lepper

Bonus fantasy figure painting Charlie Castens

The 2mm Association Roadshow Paula Martin

Modelling in traditional 3mm scale Bob Brown

The Model Railway that time forgot - EM scale archaeology Forbes Robertson

Trade

Branchlines kits and components Brian Osborne

YouChoos DCC John Gymer and Richard Simmonds

Wild Swan Books (by bus at Tollbridge Studios)

Refreshments available in the hall through the day.

E&OE, just in case....

Also, parking has been kindly confirmed and made available for the show by Fielden Clegg Architects, situated just down Toll Bridge road from the Tollbridge Studios,

https://www.google.com/search?q=feilden+clegg+bradley+studios+bath&sca_esv=405bac46b56f0757&ei=IwNjZsnKHuClhbIPmay70AM&oq=fielden+clegg+car+park+batheaston&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiIWZpZWxkZW

And, even better, Brian Wright and his fabulous minibus from Chippenham & District transport for the disabled are providing a free minibus service between Tollbridge Studios and The New Oriel Hall throughout the day.

Last year's show raised £800 for the two charities, here is the letter from Parkinson's UK, the same amount was donated to Julian House but I didn't get a posh letter!

See you all there!

Well, not all of you, obviously...

Simon

Here on my own HS2, despite problems of incomplete terminal facilities, unfinished infrastructure and a total lack of investment in new trains, lateral thinking and cross border imagination has resulted in a service that is proving quite popular.

Standing room only on market days....

13 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

A bit sooner than that, surely, Dear Heart?

 

Won't you have them with you at the LarkRail International Festival of Railways and Bananas Byways?

 

Ah, possibly not, but other Gauge One-ery will be on view, including this magnifique piece of Plastikard mangling from Dave Easto:

I will likely be wandering around in some sort of quasi organisational cum spectating daze, something along the lines of young Mr Grace I would imagine - "you've all done very well...." Thank goodness we have Jerry and Kim(!)

At Railwells I have solemnly undertaken to bring something of my own, big and green, with lots of wheels. Which may go round...

1 minute ago, Captain Kernow said:

I once made a K's Black 5 for a friend, almost 40 years ago now. In the end I was happy with the result (unlined LMS black), but it was a struggle to fettle the castings to get them to fit properly. The only photos I have of it are non-digital and without a working scanner at the moment, I would have to take a photo of a photo using my phone...

 

Well come on then, can't Jeeves do that for you?

You have huge skill at making unworkable kits into working models, as I recall.

And the odd working models into slightly less well working models too, tee hee!

Personally it is the going round, "up and down", and "in and out" bits of any model that I find most challenging and of least inherent interest. But trains do look better with wheels going round, so I had better persevere. You will be able to come and laugh at my current efforts at Railwells...

56 minutes ago, Suddaby said:

Hi Simon,

 

I was surprised to find this on the doormat this morning, as someone says they are arriving with surprising regularity at the moment!

Just one point about your review, the Scottish PO wagons are S Scale, not7mm.

 

Looks like another good issue to read.

 

All the best,

 

Kevin

Hi Kevin

Thank you very much, I have now corrected the text.

Hope all well with you and yours in the sunny North, bit grey here today....

Simon

Now in stock and orderable from Titfieldshire, my take on it is here.

A good issue I think, featuring the most spectacular recycling of "things that might come in useful" by Mike Lynch - truly awesome.

With Kier Hardy and Karl Crowther each covering recent "diesel developments" in 4mm scale, this is quite an "up to date" issue in some ways. But then again not, of course...

I also liked Paul's editorial, another good observation of "what it is all about", for some of us at least, and as an aside I love the thought that (Cyril's) "modern image" modelling is now 50 years old, at least.

It's good to be modern....

Bee - barp!

Quote

We have looked into it.....    I am reliably informed

Which are, of course, things that anyone might say when refuting or stating anything .

Which is how errors arise in the first place and are then promulgated.

What is a (historical) fact?

How do we absolutely define such a thing?

Sources of courses, but actually we can't state that much with absolute certainty.

Which doesn't stop people, of course...

Back to topic, I quite liked MRC back in the day, and even bought a few, the Datafiles and Paul B and company were definitely good. But Railway Modeller prevailed, I think apart from the "layout angle" mentioned above, (with which I agree), it was blessed with Cyril's engagement with the hobby, his thoughts and  insights and his great enthusiasm. And all driven by Sydney Pritchard, a remarkable character by anyone's standards. I don't mean this disrespectfully to either individual, but another of Cyril's great qualities was (probably) "putting up" with Sydney over many years.

Poor Chris at MRC also suffered at the hands of owners, I'm sure he didn't choose to use some of the rubbish quality paper that MRC tried out on its readers!

They were all good in their way I think. 

Simon

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

You sure that’s not just another person who thinks they’ve found a loophole in the law, or simply invented a fictional Act of Parliament*, to give them an excuse to do something that inconveniences everyone else? If, as I suspect, it is, then it’s yet another example of disintegration.

 

 

*it doesn’t come up

in a search of historical acts, and the way it’s numbered looks wrong to me, and 1882 101 is a Tramways Orders Confirmation Act.

 

Happily not, it is nicely painted bit of humour that conveniences rather than inconveniences "everyone else".

I don't think Donald has ever parked there either!!

Fear not all, pockets of gentle sanity may yet prevail....

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thinking only of magazines available to the general public:

 

RM

CM

BRM

Garden Rail

MR

Hornby

MRJ

 

Have I missed any?

NG&IR

Voie Libre English edition

8 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Maybe so and excellent work, but these are decades old and lots has appeared in magazines since.

Well, yes, I think readers will have worked that out already(!) If anyone were daft enough to create an up to date index then they would be a good starting point. If anyone were even dafter and wanted to make a model, then they remain an accurate and comprehensive source, of drawings, obviously. The best model I have made, so far, was largely based on measuring and sketching the subject of the model. In the absence of which we have photographs. Even accurate drawings aren't, as works didn't always follow the drawing office, for various reasons.

An interesting subject, and then even when correct drawings are around they need to be interpreted correctly, quite a lot of "howlers" out there to demonstrate the point - anyone ever seen a totally believable and 100% accurate model of a "Western" diesel yet?!

Don't forget, Sydney Leleux produced an index to model railway drawings. With a supplement covering up to the mid (ish) 1970s, so not up to MRC's demise but pretty useful nonetheless as I recall.

As regards sketches, there were really good and informative ones in The contemporary "Model Railways" by the hugely talented Bernard Wright, as we didn't ever say, Wright was right....

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

 

open access is about making money, profitably as a business.

it is not about running a railway service…

The railway service is just a vehicle to make a profit for the business.

 

If Virgin felt they could make money using donkeys for transport.. guess what there would be a street full of donkeys, with virgin branding on.

if the routes they planned would run at a loss.. they will go as quickly as they came.

 

its not that hard to understand.

 

Last time around Virgin was being asked to stop making money, and become a pension fund with pantographs.. they refused.

 

You cannot “force” or “they should” any company thats operating in an agreed legal framework and law to do anything in a free market economy. They will do whats in the best interest of the shareholders.. being forced or told “they should” be running loss making trains isnt one of them, unless they agreed to it, and that usually involves payment of somekind… nothing is for free.

 

 

 

The rest was just rubbish and waffle,

Nothing is for free…so i’m interested to know if you paid the usage fee for that picture ?

 

 

Yawn......

1 hour ago, Pete Haitch said:

 

At the very least I think you should acknowledge the photographer: Vasantha Yogananthan, and the title of the work, 'Luva and Kusha Catching Rama Horse'. The use of his work in this way does not fall within 'fair use' and, as far as I'm aware is not available under any kind of creative commons or other public use licence. His UK rep., 'The Photographers' Gallery Print Sales' will no doubt clarify this should you desire although I doubt they would licence you or RMweb to use it in this way. A single print cost over £5000.00 with VAT!

 

I'm not sure what the point you are trying to make with this picture. I will assume that there is no thoughtless cultural appropriation, or anti Indian, Sri Lankan or Hindu racism intended by its use. The picture is one of a  series taken to illustrate the Sanskrit / Hindu epic  'The Ramayana', written more than 2000 years ago when horses existed and trains were a consist of close coupled 1:1 scale camels. Perhaps you are suggesting that Virgin Trains have been driven into exile and that RMweb members are an army of monkeys for them to take to war in the battle for WCML contract.

 

Perhaps you will be good enough to explain the message that you intended to convey, for those of us confused by your use of this image.

 

Perhaps I should now go scan the new Siphon book and put it on line as a free PDF download.

Thank you for the information Pete.

It is a striking photograph displayed in the V&A, which I snapped because it appealed to me. I should have attributed it as you have for me, for which thanks. I'm afraid I did not write down the details at the time.

Relevance to the thread, none whatever.

I was just musing that visual prevarications would make a pleasant change from the more usual verbal meanderings.

By all means put up an image from GWR Siphons if you would like to.

A free PDF download would be something else, I think.

Life is confusing, in my experience it doesn't pay to expect it to be otherwise, nor is it sensible to  read too much into pretty much anything you come across.

21 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

but your not preaching free market capitalism that we live in.

Private companies do not exist to subsidize loss making entities.

 

BA prizes LHR-NYC, but LHR to BHX went the same way of the Waverley route decades ago.

 

Businesses will accept feed losses (ie where one small unit loses money but the impact is much larger on the bottom line of a bigger unit).

The obvious example being domestic air traffic feeding long haul connections, or giving away free condiments with a meal in a restaurant.

 

But in our society, there isnt many restaurant chains that make money from customers and use that profit to feed the homeless*… our society just doesnt work like that.

 

Neither does BA use profits off NYC to subsidise flights to Norwich.

 

* many businesses throwing away unsold/out of date etc donate it, but lets not pretend this is charity, its simply giving away written down stock that saves the cost of paying for waste disposal.

 

 

 

same argument for passenger… no point running widgchester to rottingham if no one wants to ride it, but if a government pays for it, it can be run… this is how Ryanair got started.. running nowhere to nowhere offering seats for £1.. the local govts were paying for it hoping it would pay off long term… some winners, some losers. They didnt really turn hundreds of £mn profit off £1 air fares.

 

Its fine being idealistic, but the world isnt… this is the magical bubble railways exist in.. pretending to be businesses when really they are just passenger transport operators… I guess thats why virgin was so despised.. they were a business looking to make money, ditching none profitable aspects goes with the territory..pensions being one of them.

 

Outside in the cold hard world business is much more ruthless than the rail industry… those constantly militant against the government with rail strikes would do well to think twice as its the government thats shielding them from reality for the rest of us… the government protected staff from a Virgin fate, by selecting Avanti.

 

 

 

And what, pray, is the point that you are making here?

Whatever it is, you would do better to write less and think more.

Or better still, not write at all?

This is a forum about railways, real and imagined.

If only thread drift and pontification were more visual, here you go....

A belated thank you very much to Tim and company for bringing Templecombe down to Bristol, it is a wonderful and fiendishly clever recreation of what must have been a fascinating railway to watch "in real life". Your layout did the ultimate for me, as I really entered the whole scene and felt that I was "there". Which is much as anyone can ask of any model railway. I also really enjoyed meeting you Tim and thank you also for your generosity with your wonderful photographs when I produced "Somerset and Dorset Swansong" by Bob Bunyar. A book which I remain proud to have produced, as you should with your model - a real "tour de force"!

12 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

Despite the fact a friend of mine had a layout therein and another was on a society stand, it wasn't worth the effort. It was nothing more than an afterthought. 

 

Rob

 

Oh a foul, a foul, a most palpable foul.....