HonestTom

Well, now I'm wondering about the practicality of turning a homebrew kit into a working model brewery. I'll film myself after the end result for the amusement of viewers.

They learned their lesson from The Titfield Thunderbolt.

It's not so much seeing the cereal box as a house that's the problem, but the question of how you get from box to house. Sure, you could spend countless hours figuring it out, making an entire street of defective houses where things went wrong at a different stage. If you're really determined, you might even get to the stage where you have both a passable building and your sanity. Or you could follow a simple tutorial, master the basics in a few days and let your creativity run riot. Personally, I'd have loved something like that when I was getting started. Generally I think the issue is that people think "influencer" and "YouTuber" are synonymous. An influencer is specifically someone who has been paid to promote something on social media, which most YouTubers aren't.

I'm late to the party on this one, but I could certainly go for a couple of these. They'll add a bit of variety to my goods yard. I hear Hornby had to build an entire P2 from scratch, scan it, modify it, scan it, rebuild it, scan it, rebuild it again, scan it again and then dismantle it. And people complain about the price of new models!

More dock railway. This very short bit of track can be seen from King George V station on the Docklands Light Railway. There's probably more behind the various fences, but sadly I couldn't get there without trespassing. I've often wondered if those "If you see anything suspicious..." announcements are manually triggered, because I swear I get one every time I start photographing anything unusual on a station. Almost like there's something odd about getting up on a footbridge, walking to the bit that doesn't lead to anything and taking photos of the road surface below.

It's not really a case of the hobby not being rewarding in its own right, but wanting to share it with others. Much the same impulse that leads people to exhibit layouts, or give demonstrations, or write for the modelling magazines, or even to post photos of their models on RMWeb. Pride in the craft, the desire to help others, wanting to connect with likeminded individuals. My own model railway videos were begun with the aim of helping beginners who wanted to get into more "serious" modelling - to show that anyone can create something they can be proud of without decades of experience or a bottomless bank account. I don't know about corporate rhetoric, but when I was presented with the opportunity to make money doing something I love, I took it. If that makes me a pitiable person, then I'll be a pitiable person who loves my job. I confess I'm not familiar with 00Bill's work, but I did just check a couple of his videos out. There is a pretty strong market on YouTube for people who make or repair things. Type "Restoring" into the YouTube search bar and you'll get a feel for just how popular the restoration genre is - everything from antique weapons to toys to vehicles. There's even someone restoring neglected bonsai trees. Personally, I like the channel Rescue & Restore. It's strangely satisfying to watch a pile of rust transformed back into something beautiful. And of course, it can be useful if you want to restore things for yourself.

TfL have Pride stripes on their roundels at Hammersmith District and Piccadilly stations (possibly other locations as well). Pride aside, I think it rather livens up the network. Particularly the Thameslink livery, which I've always found rather bland.

I believe those are prototypical, aren't they? I'm afraid I'm really not up to speed with what's going on with present day liveries. I'm absolutely fine with Hornby producing Pride stuff, but I do think there's something to be said for donating some of the profits to LGBTQ-related charities. If that was the case, I might buy the van, which is a bit of colourful fun. I wonder what it's transporting? I rather liked the comment (now sadly deleted) from someone on Facebook complaining about Hornby's "deviant 66." The mind boggles.

The personal nostalgia thing is interesting. I grew up firmly in LSWR territory and I live in LSWR/LBSC territory, yet the LSWR has never particularly excited me. I have an LBSC train, but that's more because I just like Terriers. Which might well be the fault of the Railway Series books and Stepney, which is a whole other kind of nostalgia.

For me, it's a confluence of things. My area of modelling interest is London, particularly the Docklands, in the BR steam era. It's not my only area of interest, but it's certainly the biggest. I fell into BR modelling simply because, when I was getting into "serious" modelling, I had several BR-liveried locomotives. These days, it's one of the easiest eras to model because so much is available, there's so much photographic material (including colour photographs) and there are plenty of people who remember it. I've lived in London all my life, and since I was a teenager, I've been fascinated by exploring the docklands (I suspect watching Tugs at age 6 was a formative influence here). There's a lot of what we might term "industrial heritage" to be seen around there, even though much of it has been eliminated by redevelopment over the years. The final push into actually modelling the area was the arrival of several appropriate ready-to-run models and the publication of a couple of books on the subject, which brought it all into the realm of possibility.

The upgraded Hymek strikes me as an obvious candidate for the Railroad Plus range. I don't know how common my way of doing things is, but there are certain prototypes that I'd quite like to own, but not enough to spend huge amounts of money on. I acknowledge that I'd be getting a much better, more detailed model, but the engine isn't a "must have." Therefore, a model that is a decent representation, but more affordable, is more up my street.

That seems like a lose-lose situation. Either you get barred from the pub or you wind up with a pint of Coors Light.

Interestingly, I just tried Googling “model railways” (using incognito mode - obviously my normal browsing habits would skew things otherwise). The top three results, in order, were Hornby, eBay and Hattons.

I think it's a difficult question. Would it even be possible to create a truly budget range these days? Hornby's Railroad range mostly uses old tooling that paid for itself years ago and they're a huge company with a lot of name recognition. To get a decent range up and running would require significant investment. I mean, any new range would, but a budget range would be going up against the big boys. Personally, I think the way to go is either to go with a really eye-catching prototype (as with KR Models and the GT3) or something useful and complementary to existing models (as with Hardy's and their Kerr Stuart Victory). If I was going the former route, I think I'd go with the Jones Goods. It's a prototype that was in service a long time and it's a Scottish loco, a region still very under-served. Plus there's the preserved example that was repainted in HR colours in BR days, so it wouldn't just appeal to Scottish modellers. If the latter, some form of Manning Wardle 0-6-0 saddle tank. Again, in service a long time. Lots of them were built. There's a wide variety of possible liveries. It would complement existing industrial locomotives, but it would also be suitable for light railways. And they have a quirky, old-fashioned and appealing look. My follow-up to whichever of these I went for would be a SECR brake van. Generally I think pre-Grouping rolling stock, particularly goods wagons, are a market worth pursuing.

I mean, I wouldn't want to be two-faced with a Janus.

It's not my cup of tea either, but if that's what other people find entertaining then it's their money (I have similar opinions on watching sport). However, it's about engagement. YouTube is seen as more intimate than most forms of entertainment, with a more direct connection to the creator. A lot of people want to engage with the creators they like, and that engagement is something YouTube themselves encourage. Unless it's a business account, any form of paid advertising has to be declared.

Not yet, I'm currently working (very slowly) on a micro-layout. You can see one of the structures in the background - a ruined hydraulic accumulator tower. I'd like to built something fancier in the long term, but at the moment it's a basic Inglenook/photographic plank. I kind of want to keep the setting a little bit vague, because different parts of the docks had different traffic and I'd like a bit of everything.

DRINK!

I nearly bought a second PLA Janus a little while back, because I mean the PLA had more than one, and this Janus on offer really is a bargain...

That's a little different from just outright asking for your layout to be funded by others. The YouTuber is producing something that other people consume. In principle, it's no different from an actor, writer, TV presenter or musician getting paid - it's just more direct. Hence my suggestion that a better way to e-beg is to produce something in return, e.g. a blog, a video, even something like an E-book. That way, other people can get something from your hobby. There's an astonishing number of YouTube channels based around hobbies. I think it's partly because people are looking for information, but also people just enjoy watching other people engage in their hobbies. It's a bit like being an armchair modeller. The YouTube rules demand that paid promotion is clearly stated within the video. They come down on you like a ton of bricks if they find out that you've accepted sponsorship without declaring it. Hence you'll often see YouTubers frantically explaining when they haven't been sponsored by a company they endorse.

If Hornby are looking for a more authentic "add some gubbins to a 4-wheeler" steampunk coach, maybe they should take a look at this, from 1871.

Not the best photos, but I've just finished giving my 6-wheelers a bit of simple weathering to make them look suitably dilapidated for the BR era. The setting is East London, a fictional dock that for some reason still gets passenger trains. Due to the clearances, modern suburban rolling stock cannot be used (a problem that the real life London and Blackwall Railway shared). Therefore, a couple of coaches from an East Anglian light railway were snaffled from the scrap line at Stratford. Research is ongoing as to which light railway it was.

It's the little details that bring it to life. If I didn't know this was a freelance engine, I'd assume it was some long-forgotten Widened Lines loco. Some loco works' response to the ubiquitous Beyer-Peacock 4-4-0s.

Where they kept their rocket launching wagons, searchlight wagons and exploding boxcars, presumably.

Coincidentally, I was there myself yesterday. There was a hydraulic power station on site, and indeed the accumulator tower is still there (complete with piston). Article here. I'd thoroughly recommend a visit to the site. If you don't mind a bit of a walk, there's also the former goods depot at Camden a little way up the canal. This not only includes abandoned rails, but some LNWR and LMS signage. Also security guards who get a bit funny about you photographing the building, so you have to be discreet.