Keith Addenbrooke

6 minutes ago, Huw Griffiths said:

 

I'm not sure about that.

 

Obviously, I could be wrong (not unknown) - but some of the couplings on wagons etc. look suspiciously like Hornby style OO types.

Good point: I was viewing it on a small screen.  Thank you.

On 04/04/2020 at 22:23, Booking Hall said:

As I am SI in a mobile home I shipped in all I thought I would need to build a dockside themed micro layout.

Could I ask: Is this N scale or OO - from the size of the writing I’d guess N - just wondered?

8 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Bill wasn't sure how wide the mini was in metres, he'd never understood the need for a metric system, but he was damn sure he was staying behind the car just in case.

 

You could add: the garage behind is closed, and the train service may have been reduced in frequency too, in addition to the absence of other people in the scene?

A simple US Walthers’ kit I bought just before the lockdown, but is actually getting built now - without waiting months to get started.  The home office is a shared space so layout progress is on hold, but this is a helpful way to relax - I don’t make any claims of great modelling skills, but am happy enough with this.

10 hours ago, Baby Deltic said:

Eat about 3 cans of beans, half a dozen eggs and a pound of figs and social distancing won’t be an issue.

If you can get the eggs...

On 02/04/2020 at 17:16, Dava said:

Has anyone seen powdered milk or self raising flour? Maybe all the panic-buyers were entering the Great British Bake-off, I doubt it but not been able to buy either for weeks.

 

Dava

Own brand flour (plain and self-raising) was available today in our Morrison’s: just half-sized packets (500g) and limited to 2 per customer following the panic buying, but as they had a good shelf-full I didn’t feel bad buying two. Fair price too.

Photo taken this morning: beanz reappearing on our supermarket shelves.

9 hours ago, Baby Deltic said:

The Seagulls are social distancing on the Wirral.

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Sainsburys are among other outlets selectively discounting Easter products with some at less than half price today.  Your local outlet may vary.  

Easter, have I missed Easter?  I hope not!

Remembering the day of the week is hard enough (but the bin men came today, which makes it a Thursday).

21 hours ago, BMS said:

Local Aldi is allowing 60 total at a time total then 1 out 1 in. West Kirby, Wirral

 

19 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I don't like the updated layout at West Kirby (ok, I know its been like that for ages!) but I still can't navigate it automatically!  I prefer to go to Heswall instead.  Or up to Prenton if i want things from Sainsburys or Home Bargain!

 

Given that, on Friday when I last went shopping, Heswall were doing 60 in/1 in 1 out and the queue stretched along the long side of the building and along the back wall.  They didn't have a couple of things I wanted so I went into WK on the way back. No queueing at all.

 

Don't tell me that the police have a roadblock at Thurstaston and are turning shoppers back to WK..... 

West Kirby is better for watching trains while waiting to go in.

The most effective and concise definition of a “Leader” I remember from my time in industrial management was simply this:

Someone who has followers.

Applying this principle here, as others have already suggested, can look like this:

A professional is someone who has customers.

Following the logic therefore:

How do I qualify as a customer, in order to be able to validate / justify / legitimise the work of a professional?

On 18/03/2020 at 07:11, willsheldrake said:

So finally, after a long time of doing nothing but thinking, I have decided to start my first proper layout. I have a small 1ftx4ft baseboard which I plan to use. I'm thinking about doing a small station, on possibly a light railway, with a small siding. It will probably be slow progress as living in NZ and school don't help much. I've included the track plan below and would love some advice on it. Stock will be 7 plank wagons and small 1-2 coach trains. No back story as of yet...

When I saw this idea I immediately thought of it as a passing station on a narrow gauge line (though that is a different concept).

I think there are examples of heritage narrow gauge lines where trains only stop in one direction, so having one platform is valid, particularly if passenger trains would stop when travelling right to left (so trains in both directions head straight into the loop, rather than taking the diverging point).

Most important thing is to have fun, whatever you go for, and there are loads of experienced modellers on this Forum to help along the way, so enjoy the journey. Keith.

On 18/03/2020 at 23:20, MAP66 said:

 

I like the concept and I have been scratching my head to come up with something similar you could try which adds some more operational potential.

I have kept your baseboard dimensions the same but added an additional one foot to the right for a fiddle yard. I used anyrail and track is Peco streamline 100.

You now have a headshunt for a run round loop at the station and the addition of a double slip allows the coal yard siding to be on the right with more space for the yard and possibility of further goods siding with store store of goods shed and yard crane. I have tried to keep to your original concept and hope this is of help but please ignore if of no use - no problem.

 

Regards

Mark

I like the look of this one: it would make a nice model, but I also agree that a prototype light railway probably wouldn't stretch to a double slip.

It could work with a single slip too - one that completed the run-round loop: it's not likely there'd be stock movements between the two sidings as shown.

For a small (excessively compressed) station on a branch line, a double slip would keep the running line free if the right hand siding was a headshunt, but it's again unlikely (such a branch would probably run one engine in steam, and losing the coal yard would be most unlikely).

Just some thoughts on this one, I think models similar to this have been built and much enjoyed.

I can't promise how far I'll get, but I've mail ordered a US building kit I've long fancied to get started on.

There won't be a build thread, but I wanted to acknowledge this thread for the inspiration: thank you.

Ensured I sought out the kit I actually wanted, not an easier to get UK one.

(My "bigger" long-term micro layout projects - US and UK - will have to remain on hold while everyone is at home).

Inevitable the way things have changed this week. Full marks to Mr Y for his management of the communication of this in my view - it's not an easy balance.

There will be as many reactions and feelings as people who were involved / thinking of going / not sure.

Experience has taught me that our first reactions can be one thing: our later responses maybe something else.

I'd fully understand exhibitors feeling flat about modelling for a while, even if also relieved at not having a health risk to worry about at the same time.

Same perhaps for some customers who'd been looking forwards to the show.

Maybe, after a pause, there'll be the incentive to do some modelling to make up for the disappointment: after all, this is a hobby for many of us, a source of pleasure to help us step away from the world and relax for a bit.  That can be a helpful thing at such times.

For some the cancellation is a business issue too: amongst the 'groups' affected that we talk about, there will also be those indirectly hit as exhibitions close, such as some local van hire companies for example, along with hotels / accommodation / the rail companies (etc), venues, as well as those directly affected such as Warners in this case.

Hopefully we can all continue to support one another as partners whose passion / hobby and business come together at events like this.

Keith.

Happy Birthday and congratulations! RMWeb (through Phil P's Cakebox challenge) finally got me to put together my first scenic diorama after 4 decades of collecting, designing, dreaming and crastinating like a pro.

Thank you!

Further projects are slowly now coming along - without RMWeb I doubt they'd have got off the graph paper yet.

One more thought* - over the next few months RMWeb will have much to do to maintain, support and encourage community across the ages and oceans of our world: now is the time for true social media: I've never met the BRM / RMWeb team in person, but I believe we are in good hands.

Keith 

(* apologies if it's on earlier pages already - bit pushed for time today as it's a Sunday).

Thank you for inviting us to comment: no surprise there are votes either way, of course.  Perhaps it depends if the two main buildings go together (ie: part of the same firm or industry) - in which case I'd go for plan 2, or are separate in terms of their non-railway ownership or operation (in which case I'd go for plan 1). Either way, you have a couple of well built pieces to work with, Keith.

5 hours ago, Ian Holmes said:

The platform should be longer though. For as good as the W&M Railbus looks and runs, I have a 2 car Derby DMU that I can’t use because the platform Is too short.

 

Good to hear you enjoyed the show.

From the photo, it looks like one option for a slightly longer available platform would be to try "sliding" the existing platform down a bit so the end ramp is before the buffers? It looks like there's enough space before the fence starts.

Wouldn't be long enough for a two car DMU (I don't think single car 121 / 122 Bubble Cars went far enough East for this kind of line).

Just a thought, so you could see what it looks like? Keith.

On 29/02/2020 at 19:41, MAP66 said:

 

Hi Mark, the backscene comes across really effectively in the picture - the post and wire fence running behind the platform had me convinced - if I'd not seen the posting about the diagonal "part-real" fence I wouldn't have known!

Could I ask a question though: I was trying to find a fence for a platform on a diorama I'm doing and was assuming I'd need to keep the fence posts vertical on the sloping ramps. Looks like you've done it more simply by using fence panels that stay perpendicular to the ramp? I couldn't find a photo either way (all the photos I found had trains in the way). You may have saved me a job, Keith.

Several of the High St WHS stores I know now include Post Offices, and I do suspect that their outlets at Railway Stations and Motorway Services (and Airports?) contribute to margins.

I seem to remember from a Hugh F-W health programme last year (BBC TV) that WHS sell 2% of UK chocolate. That might just be snack bars, but is still a lot.

There was (hopefully still is) a good WHS in Altrincham in Gtr Manchester, with a well-stocked model shop just a minute or two away as well.

10 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

The ones who nick the DVDs off the cover should be looking at a custodial though. 

Aren't they actually looking at Phil Parker making things..?

On 21/02/2020 at 02:27, 4901 said:

"wheels from a tiny shop near New Street Station in Birmingham (decades before Ian Allen)."

Was that the shop down an alley way off New Street? More the size of a newspaper kiosk from memory? If so, it was still trading in the 1970s.

In those days you could also buy R-T-R from the Co-op department stores in the City Centre too.

Probably straying OT, sorry (there's a separate thread for memories of old shops elsewhere on RMWeb, I think).

Point of relevance is, at the start of the pre-internet "consumer era", I suggest a high street presence went hand in hand with developing first layouts.

My Dad built some Superquick kits for a plastic push-along Playcraft set we had as kids in the early 1970s . My brother may still have some of the kits.

As for an identifiable model railway, it's Nov 1977 or 1978 for me: N gauge Peco Settrack oval with one siding (left hand point), train-set style. H&M Powermaster Controller (which I still have), ready for expansion.

Train was a Grafar 94xx GWR Pannier (my favourite UK loco then and now) and two chocolate and cream corridor coaches.

Baseboard of Sundeala offcuts 3'8" x 2'2" built for me by my Dad as a Birthday present - no legs (sat on the floor, stored in a wardrobe).

Advantage of a late Nov birthday is that Christmas brought four more points and some Peco goods wagons.

No photos exist (my small 110 wasn't a flash camera).

Further track and 2 (non-matching) blue BR diesels and undersized 1:160 Lima Mk1 coaches followed, along with some kit-built buildings, but never any ballasting or scenery.

It was eventually stored and sold off, after overambitious plans I had to rebuild the boards myself into a larger layout didn't work out (I thought I could build a new layout in 3 days - no comment).

I've remained interested in operating and layout design (UK and US) ever since, but am only now starting work on what could yet be that elusive first scenic layout (a UK micro and US diorama).

Perhaps, for me, in one sense, the first layout could also be the next one...

15 hours ago, Ian Holmes said:

I was entertained by a gentleman who thought that full sized railways in the UK must use larger versions of the Hornby tension hook and loop couplings. 

Being serious, I guess there's a logic there: American Kadee (and similar) style model couplings look enough like prototype knuckle couplers.

Shows he was paying attention, and it's a compliment to the overall quality of your modelling that he believed it.

Could I ask how you clean your wheels and track? There are a number of techniques, but yours clearly works under exhibition conditions so worth noting. Apologies if it's elsewhere on your thread already (I'm on a train with limited WiFi for searching). Thanks, Keith.

On 29/02/2020 at 03:08, Ian Holmes said:

All set up and ready for the show. No lights because I really don’t know what to do about them currently. But the hall is very well lit and we’re using tension lock couplers. Americans seem fascinated with them. Might as well play to the layouts strength then. 

Hope you have a great second day.

Forgive my impertinence, but I did just wonder if, at the end of the show, you'll be wisking away the black cloths without disturbing the layout as a final, magical flourish?

Not sure I'd recommend it though, Keith.