Delapidated

Hello all, I've been a bit absent over the past few months so may be interjecting with old news. Going back to the discussion on how to cut copper clad sheet into sleepers (or ties if you're American). I came across this guillotine in LIDL of all places at £19.99 - bit of a snip (sorry). So I grabbed one, to join all the other piles of assembled dreams in the attic, awaiting the day should it ever arrive. I do have the reservation that the shearing action might induce a twist into the newly cut sleeper. I'll be damned if I can ever get the picture thing to work - anyway they're in lidl. I also have reservations as to how much abuse it could be put through, The cutting blade is about 2mm pressed steel, and not a ground edge. It is a bit more flexible than I'd like to steel and I doubt it would cope with much more that 2mm. I won't be putting into use for about 6 - 9 months so can't give a full report. As with all things in LIDL I doubt they'll be there for long, I'd say go and have a look, get one out of the box and take it or leave it. I still like the Proxon saw that Gordon used though. Bit of an impulse buyer!!!!

This is the first challenge; The clearing out of all the stuff 'That might come in handy one day' like my fathers Bowler hat, two record collections including 'My Boy Lillipop' (I know) photographs going back to the launching of the Arc, the Hostess Tray, and so on. The excersize Cross-trainer (five years old with five minutes use). A thousand things the 'will be valuable one day - assorted decorative plates that do have a value of about 10% of what we paid for them. That's why programs like Antiques Roadshow and Bargain Hunt are of national importance because if all that assorted crap hit landfill at once the British Isles would sink. So It has started, progress is slow, reminiscence demands attention, then the dithering and eventually it gets shunted off to the opposite end of the attic. Some has made it into bin-liners to the dusties on a Thursday morning. [Never look down on the Dusties - you only find out their true value when they stop coming - remember the '70s strikes]. Slowly out indoor landfill is subsiding, it has to be slow, my employer still keeps paying me so I'd better keep turning up. But, one day, there will be a clear space, one day - As they say - "Every great journey starts with the first step".

RS do sell a guillotine, a choice of 2, but they're above £300, they're the type with a really heavy curved blade with a big handle on, no the roller wheel type cutter - just make sure you come back with as many fingers as you start. If you have access to one, e.g. ex school art department, then you're quids in, no wastage and no dust and razor sharp clean cut, just watch the edges, they'll be short too. The ridged edge a circular saw might give could remove the smooth edge, a bit more realistic.

Thanks,Richard, It's luck I need - I haven't got any skill!

That's my next purchase, Modelling in HO and using Shinohara (that well known Irish manufacturer) with sleepers of 2.7mm width I'm going to need to cut my own. Double sided copper-clad sheet is pretty reasonable from RS, and I'm sure Maplin will be better - RS have a reputation to uphold. If the 44.67mm is approximate it will do for the Durtie & De La Paid et Tete, who's directors would be happy with a bit of tree. Good to see you back Gordon. P.S. that photo of the pond is missing an 'O' Gauge Ribblehead viaduct with a pacific and eight charging over it.

There has come a strange thing with this blog, with it being so long and with all the comments that have come along with it, you get a feeling of ownership. The sort that some of this rubs off onto oneself, you can't help taking a connection, whether it be, herons pinching the carp, holes in the liner, Templot and scissors, or the triumph of chasing a small white ball through some finely presented countryside or whatever. Here is somebody I don't know, I've never met, the only connection is model railways and whatever he does he does it extraordinarily well, and after a while he and his beautiful writing becomes the stuff of kinship, and we as readers begin to feel it as well. I'm sorry to hear of your loss; Mums are special, I often remind my boys the their Mum is the most important person in the whole wide world and to look after her. You might get a warning the inevitable is approaching but it's still a hard hit when it arrives. As Siberian Snooper says, she's in good company, she'll be entertained and serenaded well by this years top bill. 2107 next week, I for one will be glad when it's behind us, new year, new layouts all round and a new year to make the most of (we're all running short of time), not only for ourselves but for those we always want to feel they are just peering over our shoulder, keeping an eye on. All the best to you and yours, Mark.

Now look what you me go and do. I can't give you all the blame, that Martin Wynne and his Templot thing must take some responsibility for his actions. I don't know why it took so long to find this blog, but what a find; inspirational quality of build, generous contribution from the followers, occasional heartbreak - who can forget Coachman's despair. Generous, not only with the pure knowledge but also with the time taken to put it all out there for us all to benefit. Thanks to all, especially the mistakes made - so us lesser mortals don't have to!! Now let's see something running! Cheers, Mark.

Today is the start, the beginning. After over 40 years absence from the hobby today is the new beginning. Having spent years dreaming of building a new layout and how this will fit with that, what radius the ten coupled will go round, how to control it, whatever is DCC, and track laying today is the day. There have been so many false starts, empty promises to self and failures too many to enumerate, today is the day! There never was any intention to start a blog; but why do something when I could be talking about it? Then in wondering how to build complex point work of the sort that could not be got out of a packet I googled and stumbled upon Gordon-s and his splendid blog of the rebuild of Eastwood Town. I had been searching for ages, it's easy to find something if you know where to look, it was like uncovering a sector of the dark web, an 'open sesame' for a secret society. Then the dam burst, a waterfall effect! there giving all sorts of advice on DDC, fishponds, golf, good wine and the electrocution of tortoises, came a whole community of like minded sooths and sages offering all sorts of help. In amongst them some who are truly generous characters who really know their subject of DCC and Templot, Martin Wynne, whose wisdom deserves acknowledging and thanks for allowing us others to read and benefit. My 40 years in the wilderness precipitated by marriage, children, employers, gardens, shopping, decorating, writing christmasy cards and the whole plethora of life that believes it has precedence over what it is all for, the railway. Back then I had 'Beckthwaite' , a 16ft round and round with a through traverser of 1930's LMS main line in the lake district. LMS for it's beautiful locomotives and liveries, and the countryside it ran through. It didn't last - I got married (we all know what happens then). The new house (2012) was built with a 'room in the roof' for the railway - no excuses now! and with encouragement from the Domestic Authorities (DA) the railway now has planning permission. I've got 16ft x 16ft to fill with a railway paradise. The direction has changed. I saw the UK as flat, tidy and conventional, I can see that any day if the week. Go west, my boy. A fellow modeller showed me his interest in the USA rail roads (they can't even say tomatoes right) and John Allen's Gory & Depheted, I was hooked. Outrageous scenery, bug ugly diesel locomotives, pure grunt steam locomotives and anything goes. 2017 is the start of the build of the D-Urty & De le Pied et Tete Railroad, or the Dirty and Dilapidated. Out goes the attic full of years stored crap, the 'to be fixed one day Hostess trolly' it's all to be cleared in the name of progress of 1940's to 1950's somewhere in the mountains HO railway (USA or not it's a railWAY). So there we are, that's the intention, let's see what happens - we've been here before!! However, now I said it, dear reader, I'm beholden, responsible to my shareholders. Now let's have a look at that 'Templot' . . . . Holy Moly.