Hibelroad

Years ago, when I first took an interest in railway modelling, many of the established modellers were people who had seen active service in the war, had lived with rationing or had done national service. They were were a happy go lucky bunch who believed in make do and mend and had a can do attitude. Now we seem to be over reliant on ready made models with manufacturers being berated for omitting to provide a very specific livery or minor variation. I’m sure TT 120 will appeal to modellers who want to roll their sleeves up and get making things. TT in its various guises is a very appealing Goldilocks scale and now that realistic track is available it’s time give it a go.

Well spotted, but the single slips have a rrp of £70 which seems a lot given that the diamond crossing is £30.

I didn’t know we had started a philosophy thread, must dust off the old monty python song.

It’s true that modellers are a nostalgic lot and tend to favour the scenes of their youth but there is still a big interest in steam, which few truly remember now. Personally I dabble with pre grouping stuff and that was definitely before my time (just).

There’s no pleasing some people, that’s all I’m saying.

This is a very bold move by Peco and in my opinion it is absolutely the right thing to so, they have avoided repeating past mistakes which have resulted in OO. This is the right time to revive TT without being dragged down by the Tri-ang legacy. It is being promoted as a modellers scale, no need for train sets as the modellers will lay track and build kits as needed. I do hope the other manufactures will pick up on it and provide stock and chassis parts etc. All we need now is the Hornby announcement. 😄

T gauge track maybe.

I once spoke to her husband when he opened the electricity board training centre in Chorley, don’t know why he picked on me as I wasn’t very interested, and still aren’t.

Like the stop sign, could be the basis of a fun diorama.

Central Anglesey railway, 17.5 miles ?

Please a groan button, just one tiny groan button please. Next you will tell us they were working overtime.

For me it started with a desire to make some money. As a youth (early teens) I had never had a train set or been a spotter. However One day a friend gave me a box containing a battered assortment of Lone Star push along rolling stock and track. I fiddled around with this a bit, then I saw a layout in the window of the local second hand shop and thought I should nail to track to a board and then sell it to the shop. So I set to and created to track layout and started on scenery using plaster of Paris. By the time I had it looking something like I had become engrossed, bought a copy of Railway Modeller, joined the local club and the rest, as they say, is history.

Of course there is another way to avoid shipping delays and cut labour costs, it’s called scratch buildings ( or kit building) and is the traditional way a modeller would obtain stock.

I’ve always disliked flat gable ends being used as a back scene as I think they look so unnatural, but it works in this picture. So I thought I would try and find out why. Blanking off the chimney visible behind the gable give the scene a different look and it looks even more model like. So maybe that’s the answer, if you use flat gables add some extra details behind them to show that the world does not end at a blank wall.

The buffer stop needs weathering too.

I do remember a number of these around in the sixties, I’m sure I’ve seen some which refer to “road locomotives “ rather than motor cars.

Perhaps the problem was his grammar, he should have said the the woman with whom I live.

Cannot agree with this light to dark thing, this is a view from the front door last week, oh, it’s Wales too

I’ve bought from Hobbycraft for several years, a good selection and you can pick those which seem most suitable.

Great news that he’s back, they do have a habit of getting themselves into trouble. Some years ago our Tigger went missing, after hours of searching my wife was on some nearby playing fields and happened to look up at the back of a house and there he was in a bedroom window looking at her! She knocked on, there was no one in except Tigger and two resident cats. In the end the owner returned, it turns out she had rushed out the evening before to see someone in hospital and had locked the cat door. Tigger had managed to get in but couldn’t get out. Luckily he was quite friendly to other cats so they had passed the night together but it just goes to show what strange situations they can find themselves in.

Funny how all this stuff has just come to light isn’t it ?

I always count myself lucky as I started soldering before anyone had a chance to tell me how hard it is. As I result I’ve never had much difficulty, some early attempts were poor but like anything it’s a matter of learning on the job. Iain Rice has written about soldering in his books and magazines and if you follow his advice (liquid flux and the right temperature solder) then you cannot go wrong. I haven’t tried this new lead free solder, I believe it’s tricky stuff so that could be an added difficulty for the new comer.

Black I would imagine, unless anyone knows better.

93% of statistics are made up on the spot.

I’m struggling to understand this. Possibly they think you need an up to date photo but after age 70 your appearance doesn’t change much and the photo on a licence card is tiny and fairly useless, we managed without photos on licences for many years. Also, all you are saying is that you want to keep driving and you think you are up to the job, a fairly pointless exercise as you can say whatever you want. I think this is another case of an organisation blindly following procedure without thinking about whether there is any validity in what they asking. As it is it looks like you will have to visit a post office, which is an inconvenience and a risk to the elderly in the current high Covid risk times. You have my sympathies.