PGC
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Posts posted by PGC
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Considering what you started with, Mike, you have finished up with a wonderful looking lady. Can't wait to see her finished with identity etc.
Phil
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Afternoon all,
I have resorted to wireless earphones these days so that I can keep the domestic management happy with chores. I use a Panasonic CD player with a fairly expensive set of Sony earphones which even work well at 200 feet from the hub. Not good enough for the purists possibly, but with my old ears.....? Means that the rest of the family don't have to suffer my tastes!
Talking of which, I listened to the love duet from Othello yesterday, recorded from an old box set of c.1959 (complete with scratches!), performed by Mario del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi. The 'un bacio.......ancora un bacio' never fails to move me, and the ending 'vien.....venere splende' often brings forth tears. I have several recordings of this including Pavarotti (with Dame Joan) and of all people, the great American disaster, Mario Lanza (with, I think Licia Albanese). All these tenors comfortably hit the high note, Luciano apparently without effort. Imagine my disappointment when I bought the Zeffirelli film with Domingo in the lead role and discovered that the final note was written down for him! The same happened in the DVD of La Boheme where his Rodolfo leaves the stage with Mimi at the end of act one and Kiri Te Kanawa sings above him! Sad, but I've forgiven him to a degree because his baritone ranges are ideally suited to the role of heldentenor in Wagner, particularly as Siegmund in Die Wälkure.
My opinion of course and I'll probably set everyone off on a 'my favourite tenor' discussion. How much we have learned from this thread though - the time spent listening to new and re-visited items is getting close to causing trouble with SWMBO!
Kind regards,
Jock.
Ah yes. I've also had to invest in some cordless headphones, and have a decent pair of Sennheisers which are probably better at handling some of the stuff that I throw at my system than the B&Ws. I also connect them to the laptop when listening to YouTube clips (so pretty handy for this thread).
Most interested in the wireless headphones - how do they connect to the main hi-fi? I guess through a headphone socket.
Phil
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It's been a little while since an update, but that's really only because the little work I've done on the layout doesn't merit much in the way of a write up.
As bought, Dave had used chocolate box connectors for the wiring, and I don't like them! So I've taken these off and replaced them with tag strips and soldered joints. I've also got a single panel made to replace the two that Dave had made to accommodate point and section switches, but that's yet to be installed.
At the moment I've been concentrating on getting stock ready for the St. Neots show next weekend so Saxlingham hasn't been worked on, although while waiting for an engineer to come and fix our boiler, I've been creating a template for an over bridge.When Dave built the layout it was in two halves, the scenic section and the sector plate. There is a section of plain double track on the fiddle yard board, and my intention is to make this scenic. To disguise the exit from layout to sector plate, I will build a bridge based on the prototype at Takeley, and I've created a template so I can now start building the bridge itself. I'm not exactly sure how I'll do this, I suspect embossed plasticard, but that's yet to be decided for definite. So, a little further forward, and I will post more as it happens.
Earlier in the post I mention getting stock ready for St. Neots, and one of the locos is my Lima Class 20. As you can read in this thread, I have modified the loco with the worm and final gear that Ultrascale have produced, and now the running is slow and smooth, as I like it, I'm working on back dating and detailing the loco, which is why the front of the loco is in the state it is. However, by the weekend, it will be detailed, painted and weathered.
Phil
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Seeing the posts on Hi-Fi - as people may suspect, I like my music and I enjoy listening to it on a good system. As I listen to predominantly classical music, I bought myself a system based around Ruark Templar II speakers, Phillips CD634 CD player and Musical Fidelity XA50 amplifiers.
I specifically bought MF amps as Anthony Michaelson, the boss of MF, is a very good clarinetist himself and tends to bias his equipment towards classical music playback, which suits me just fine! :-)
A while later, I was at the Hi-Fi show in Heathrow and one exhibitor had a pair of Audiostatic speakers. I'd heard a pair of these a long time previously and was delighted to find them for sale so bought a pair. Then, the amplifiers weren't powerful enough, so I upgraded those to a Musical Fidelity A3 pre amp and A300 power amp (300 Watts per channel, it will drive anything!), sat back and enjoyed listening. a friend whose hobby is Hi-Fi listened to my system and reckoned he'd never heard one with such a good mid-range, and his cost a lot more than mine as well!
When I moved to the cottage where I now live, the Audiostatic speakers had to be put in to storage (they're taller than me and I'm 6' 4", our ceilings are just on 7 feet!) and I currently have a pair of Totem Audio Arro's. that make a very nice sound but don't go very loud as they're not physically big enough (although Domestic Goddess disagrees!). However, I still enjoy listening and now have a Micromega CD transport feeding a Musical Fidelity Tri Vista DAC and a Garrard 401 record deck with Rega RB 301 arm, Benz Micro cartridge in a hand built plinth. All in all, I'm nearly content with my system, although I do have some upgrades in mind, but not until I've got a new job paying me sensible money!
Just listened to the Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy again - deep joy, oh bliss. Now that's what I call music!
Phil
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I'm that predictable aren't I, Phil....
Anyway, a session later today at my favourite Father Willis should allow me to get some more of the fugue of the Dorian (538) under the hands and into my memory...
Cheers,
Tim
I'm that predictable aren't I, Phil....
Anyway, a session later today at my favourite Father Willis should allow me to get some more of the fugue of the Dorian (538) under the hands and into my memory...
Cheers,
Tim
So which is your favourite Father Willis? I would have guessed either Durham, Salisbury or Truro, but I thought you were Home Counties lad, so these are all a little way from you.
Phil
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Sang Evensong at Chelmsford cathedral last night. The canticles were by Edmund Rubbra; I have sung them before, but a very long time ago, and I didn't have very good memories of them. However, having had the opportunity to revisit the music, my thoughts are I'd like to try them again, I don't think they're as bad as I remember them!
I know nothing of Rubbra's music, but looking on YouTube there's a lot of it, so the next time I can spend a protracted period at the modelling bench, I'm going to listen to some of it. I also found a recording of the Rubbra canticles as part of a choral evensong from St. Albans Abbey. This includes a piece by C V Stanford, "For lo, I raise up", a great piece of music. If you're in to church music as I am, this would be well worth a listen.
Phil
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Very much depends on my mood and indeed on what I need to get learned for recitals.... I am, however, a sucker for a good slice of JS Bach and indeed most of the French romantic school of organ music.
However, Scriabin's "Le Poème de l'extase" is just staggeringly amazing. Well worth a listen, especially to all that colour......
Cheers,
Tim
I really didn't expect you to mention JSB or French Romantic organ music, Tim. Honestly!!!!!!!!
Phil
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Spent a very pleasant day modelling while having a lot of music on in the background. One piece was Stanford Symphony No 1. Never heard it before, but I'm going to buy the CD. Another piece was Charles Tournemire's Symphony No 3 "Moscow". I only knew of Tournemire as a composer of organ music, so this was a revelation and I will be listening to it again (and possibly again, and............... :-) )
Phil
PS - The modelling hasn't been as productive as I'd hoped, but that's another story!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fofY0bvzEB4
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Well, now the loco runs as I want it to, I've started detailing it, firstly with SE Finecast flush glazing. So far I've spent an hour and get three pieces of glazing to my satisfaction. Just as well I've got lots of hair, it won't notice so much as I pull bits out!
However, the real reason for this update is that, as I mentioned in the last post, I've had the body off and taken some pictures to show what's involved in the conversion.
This picture shows my loco chassis with the conversion in place and gear box lid removed. Please note, as well as using the Ultrascale conversion, I have changed the standard Lima motor (seen behind the chassis) for a Mashima 1830 with flywheel. This was in an attempt to improve the slow running, which didn't work as well as I'd hoped. There is no need, with the Ultrascale conversion, to change the motor. (Oh, and if you're wondering what all the wires are, I've taken the Lima pick ups off, replaced them with ,35mm PB wire ones and added them to the drive bogie - the loco runs far better for it)
This picture shows inside the gear tower and the Ultrascale worm, while the last picture just shows more detail inside the gear tower. To do the conversion, the power bogie needs to be taken out of the loco (it just unclips) then two of the gears inside the tower need to be taken out (the sides of the tower need to be eased apart and the gears fall out) after which the shaft of the top gear (the one the Ultrascale gear replaces) need to be pushed out through the gear tower, after which the top gear can be replaced.
To change the worm shaft, the front bearing just pulls off of the shaft and put on the Ultrascale replacement while the universal joint end on the original shaft needs to be eased off (I gently levered mine off with a screwdriver) after which the rear bearing can be pulled off the original shaft, replaced on the Ultrascale shaft, then the universal joint housing gets replaced, the whol lot reassembled and all of a sudden you have a very slow and smooth running Class 20.
All in all, I reckon the conversion would take about 30 minutes maximum and gives simply wonderful running qualities. As I said before, if you're interested in getting some of these conversions, either contact me or Ultrascale direct. I'd recommend them, but I would! :-)
Phil
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Well, because he did popular movie soundtracks the great Ron Goodwin is underrated:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIzBQ6vEcIc&spfreload=10
I listened to a lot of his and Hans Zimmer’s work before I ventured into the genre.
Best, Pete.
Sadly, a lot of composers are highly under-rated. Why? Well, I don't know the answer, as I l prefer to judge what I listen to, and not who has written it, but I suspect there is a large element of snobbishness within classical music circles that means a lot of music is put down by the "academics" just because it's not written by someone who is in favour. I also get worried about the number of people who rise through the ranks of music just because they have good qualifications and can talk the talk, not because they are any good at making music. I can think of several examples immediately, but I won't name names here. Yes, a certain element of bitterness could be read in to this comment, but with Cantus, I have founded a choir that now has the reputation among English cathedrals of being one of the best visiting choirs. Personally, I let my music speak for me, and only now am I thinking about getting a musical qualification. As the old cliché goes, actions speak louder than words!
Changing the subject slightly, mention was made earlier of Granville Bantock and Hamilton Harty, both excellent composers to my mind that have been overlooked. I have a song by Granville Bantock, "the song of the peach blossom fountain", that is simply beautiful, but it's not recorded on YouTube. Perhaps I'll have to do something about this! And what about Peter Warlock? A lot of people know his Capriol Suite, but what about "The Curlew" and his carol setting Bethlehem Down (as you'll see from the notes of the video, PW was an "interesting" chap!
but still wrote fantastic music)Phil
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A London centric joke!
Lewisham Police have announced the discovery of an arms cache of 200 semi- automatic rifles with 250,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 anti-tank missiles, 4 grenade launchers, 2 tons of heroin, £25 million in forged notes and a ring of 25 prostitutes on a housing estate behind Lewisham Public Library.
Lewisham folks were stunned.
A community leader said: "We is well shocked. We never knew we had a library in Lewisham”
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As I'm writing another entry to my blog and adding a bit about my Lima Class 20, I've looked at my last post on this thread and realised I didn't write it particularly well.
Now that Ultrascale have produced the worm and final drive gear, they are prepared to offer these items for sale to modellers who want them. At the moment, the price is unknown but won't be desperately expensive, if you're interested, please either let me know or contact Ultrascale direct and they will know what you're talking about.
I will be spending today at my workbench and one of the jobs will be adding detailing and flush glazing to the Cl so, so while the body is off I will take some photos to show how easy this conversion is. I may also try and take some video of it running, but I can't promise that, although I have to say that when running the loco on the club layout last night, the smoothness and slow speed ability are very impressive. Just what I originally wanted!
Phil
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As an aside I would consider that I've rather catholic taste in music. I would usually defer to the Strauss end of the spectrum (upbeat = interesting for me) but this thread has opened my eyes. Thanks for all the suggestions. Consider me converted. ; )
Glad to hear the campaign's working well. If I carry on being this successful, perhaps I'll go in to politics. On second thoughts...........
Funny old evening at the Festival Hall. Pretty standard concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Adam Fischer; Smetana overture, Brahms violin (Mullova), Dvorak New World. The orchestra has reached the final coda, when a drunk lurches on stage and tries to take a selfie. The orchestra doesn't miss a note, the drunk wanders around the stage until he is grabbed by a couple of staff. The conductor just shrugs his shoulders and the orchestra plays to the finish.
Bill
To be honest, the performers reaction doesn't surprise me. In one concert, Richard Hickox gave the down beat and the note (that should have been in unison) produced a lovely open 5th chord. Without batting an eyelid, he stopped the chorus, gave a few seconds and restarted, this time the note came out in perfect unison. After the concert, however.................
We may have more Scriabin in concerts this year. 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of his death.
Excellent news. I like Scriabin's music. I mentioned earlier a concert where I heard one of his piano concert's and I bought a CD. It had the Poem of Ecstasy on it and I've loved the piece since. As I've mentioned in other posts, if you go in to YouTube and search for Scriabin, a whole list of music comes up. The domestic Goddess is doing a double shift tomorrow, so I'm on my own from 7am till 10pm. Guess who's going to be sitting at his modelling bench with the computer firmly stuck on YouTube! Looks a good day!
Phil
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After being married for 50 years, I one day took a careful look at my wife and said, "Fifty years ago we had a cheap house, a junk car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV. But hey I got to sleep every night with a hot 23-year-old girl. Now ... I have a $750,000 home, a $45,000 car, a nice big bed and a large screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 73-year-old woman.”
So I said to my wife, "it seems to me that you're not holding up your side of things."
My wife is a very reasonable woman
She told me to go out and find a hot 23-year-old girl and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap house, driving a junk car, sleeping on a sofa bed and watching a 10-inch black and white TV.
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An English ventriloquist visiting Wales walks into a small village, sees a local sitting on his veranda patting his dog and figures he'll have a little fun, so he says to the taff
'Gooday, mind if I talk to your dog?'
Villager: 'The dog doesn't talk, you stupid English bastard.'
Ventriloquist: 'Hello dog, how's it going mate?'
Dog: 'Yeah, doin' all right.'
Taff: (look of extreme shock)
Ventriloquist: 'Is this villager your owner?' (pointing at the Villager)
Dog: 'Yep'
Ventriloquist: 'How does he treat you?'
Dog: 'Yeah, real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food And takes me to the lake once a week to play.'
Taff: (look of utter disbelief)
Ventriloquist: 'Mind if I talk to your horse?'
Taff: 'Uh, the horse doesn't talk either...I think.'
Ventriloquist: 'Hey horse, how's it going?'
Horse: 'Cool'
Taff: (absolutely dumbfounded)
Ventriloquist: 'Is this your owner?' (Pointing at the villager)
Horse: 'Yep'
Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?
Horse: 'Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly, Brushes me down often and keeps me in the shed to protect me from the Elements.'
Taff: (total look of amazement)
Ventriloquist: 'Mind if I talk to your sheep?'
Taff: (in a panic) 'The sheep's a liar !!!' -
Oh the joys of singing Songs of the Sea. They're great music. I haven't sung them for a while, either in the chorus or as soloist, but would enjoy the opportunity to do so.
I find it mildly ironic that Stanford and his great contemporary, C H H Parry are so over shadowed by Elgar. Without doubt Elgar wrote fantastic music, but so did Stanford, as did Parry with, for example, Songs of farewell. "My soul, there is a country" number one of the set, is a piece I love, both singing and conducting. He also wrote a lot of music that has faded in to obscurity but he wrote one of the most famous pieces of classical music, Jerusalem, as well as the Coronation anthem "I was glad" a setting of Psalm 122. With Cantus, I was privileged to sing the music at York Minster for the weekend of 1st / 2nd June 2013. Those of you who know your modern history will realise that 2nd June 2013 was the 60th anniversary of the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II, so we sang music at Evensong that had been sung at the Coronation itself. The anthem was "I was glad" and, in view of the special occasion, we sang the Vivats as well. A real privilege and one I will remember for a long time.
However, for me, "Blest pair of sirens" is a memorable work, especially the line (at 7' 30" in the recording below) where the Sopranos sing "O may we soon again renew that song, and keep in tune with heaven till God ere long to his celestial concert us unite" the tune is simply sublime and reduces me to a quivering heap every time I hear it. Again, if you want to find more music of Parry, just try searching youtube for c h h parry and enjoy listening!
Phil
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I am enjoying the prospect of hearing Linley's 'Let God Arise' performed on March 21st in St Evenage. Never heard any of his work performed live, have been solely dependent on the excellent Hyperion recording series to hear the 'English Mozart'.
It's a shame that I'm already doing something on 21st (singing in a concert of Russian Sacred music, none of which I know at all) otherwise I'd come over and listen. I don't know any music by Linley, and not ever heard of him until now, so it would be of interest. I'll have to see if I can find some recordings and take a listen.
A few posts ago I mentioned the music of C V Stanford, and since then I've been upstairs doing some modelling (I will shortly be uploading some photos of the results on to my blog) during which I've listened to the Stanford Stabat Martyr. An interesting piece that I will listen to again, along with some more of Stanford's music. I think it's great stuff!
What worries me is that I will shortly have to start finding another job, but I'm enjoying myself so much listening to music and modelling that I don't want to! :-(
Phil
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Phil,
Just carry on. We are all enjoying your enthusiasm. Btw, did anyone listen to the Bruckner 8 at the weekend?
Bill
Thanks, Bill (and Jock, also), I will carry on, then! Didn't hear the Bruckner, I'm afraid, but I'm at home today and suspect I will find it on iPlayer while doing some modelling!
If I start mentioning music that I've mentioned earlier, please forgive me, I can't remember what I've mentioned and it's quite a long thread to search. I suppose I could try using the search facility, but in all honesty, even though I work in IT and should understand these things, I specialise in making things work rather than using them and have never had much success with the search facility.
As mentioned earlier, I sing in the choirs of Chelmsford and Ely cathedral, and I also conduct a choir (Cantus) that deputises for cathedral choirs when they're not in residence. This allows me to sing and conduct music from all periods - a few weeks ago we were leading the services in Exeter Cathedral and music by Purcell, up to Patrick Hadley who only died recently in 1973. Most of the choir members know my love of the music of Charles Villiers Stanford, and although really only known for his church music, the prime examples of which are Beati Quorum Via and Justorum animae, he wrote vast amounts of music of all genres, as you will see if you search for him on YouTube. In the meantime, a few more links to some of his music.
I suspect I've posted this before, but as the comments say, it's possibly the finest piece of choral music written, and I won't argue the point, so it's worth listening again! :-)
Phil
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Morning Phil,
Fully agree with you on the Howells advice - good singers also know when 'silence is the best noise' as an old Cornish chorister once told me (when I lived there!). Of course some, like Pavarotti for instance, were often accused of over-doing it, as well as adding 'grace' notes!
Can I thank you personally for the tremendous amount of input you have given to this thread. It is very informative to have a 'performer' in the ranks and I've learned an awful lot from you that I'm sure I'll enjoy for years to come. I'm sure that I am not alone, thank you,
Kind regards,
Jock.
Thank you Jock, those words are very kind of you.
As you may have guessed, to quote the song title from John Miles, music is my first love. I mentioned earlier having the finale from Vierne Symphony No 1 played when I walked down the aisle at my wedding. Later in life, when she ran off with another man and we divorced, I was devastated and buried myself in singing, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Friday and Sundays with model railways on Wednesdays and Thursdays so I had not time to sink in to depression. What I would have done if I hadn't got my music, I really don't know.
I suppose, in many ways, I am very lucky that because of my history of performing music, I have performed and heard a lot of fantastic music. Another piece that springs to mind as I write this is Schoenberg's Verklerte Nacht. I first heard this when singing with the Chorus of Academy of St Martin in the Fields, we were singing Mozart's Requiem in Salisbury cathedral and the Schoenberg was in the first half of the concert. Needless to say, the orchestra were fantastic and Neville Marriner got the best from them. The first thing I did when I got home was go to Tower Records and buy a CD.
Another composer I knew very little about was Alexander Scriabin. I was singing in a concert with London Symphony Chorus at the Barbican, and the first half was a Scriabin piano concerto and I was mesmerised by its beauty.
While finding the Scriabin recording, I was reminded of another very little known Russian composer, Cesar Cui and his Magnificat, and finding the recording below on YouTube I saw Borodin mentioned. His Polotsvian Dances are wonderful. There's so much more music out there; I'm singing on a concert on 21st March which is all Russian sacred music from this Oxford Univeristy Press publication, and I don't think I know any of it so I can't wait to learn some new music!
In another thread, you talk, Jock, about RM Web taking you down memory lane, and this thread is bringing back some wonderful memories for me, and as I think of more music, I will carry on adding it. I feel as though I am the only person who's actually adding music to this thread - if I am and people have got fed up, apologies, but this is the subject I love more than model railways!
Phil
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I sometimes look at threads like this and think "They have the space for a big layout, lucky bug*ers", but then I look at the work involved and think "thank god for my 8ft x 1ft shunting plank.
Keep going Mike, your workmanship and dedication is impressive and invigorating.
Phil
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Phil,
Though badly expressed, the point about 'dodgy' stock was that if everything else runs fine through a section of trackwork but one loco/item of stock continuously fails, it can't be the track.
I'm interested in your point about chocolate box connectors. For ease and expediency, I used some of these on Little Bytham's fiddle yard for the point motor connectors. One or two have 'worked loose'. I couldn't believe this, because the layout isn't an exhibition layout. So, I'm 100% with you on tag strips and solder, and I'll be working through replacing the chocolate box system with something more permanent. Soldered electrical joints, if done properly (and if not, why not?), are by far the best for model railways in my experience - chocolate box, crimped joints or any of the alternatives eventually fail - sooner or later it might seem.
One of the things I never used to understand is why electrical good with 13 Amp plugs would suddenly stop working. My father, who was a member of the institute of electrical engineers, explained that AC currents, with their switch between positive and negative currents, can set up extremely small vibrations that work the screws loose. This, he added, was just one aspect of the problem, what about areas such as the expansion and contraction of different metals causing such small changes we would normally consider them insignificant. As he commented, metals don't think "Oh, I shouldn't be doing that", they just do it and it's our brains that say "they shouldn't be doing that!"
On a similar but different tack - did anyone see the item on the BBC One show tonight about shower gels, face creams et. al. with exfoliant beads in them? Apparently these cosmetics have very minute beads in them that are small enough to get through the filters in the water systems and then escape to the sea. They showed some magnified pictures of plankton with these beads inside them. Plankton are the lowest level of the food change, so in time these small beads will get back to our internals. What has this got to do with model railways? Well, it just proves small details matter!
Phil
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I've never had the opportunity to meet Howells - even though you may not have been old enough to appreciate it at the time, I envy you! One of the people I sing under, Paul Trepte of Ely Cathedral, was taught by Howells and speaks very highly of him.
There is one piece of advice that Howells is reputed to have given that I treasure. He talked about introducing shafts of light in to the music, in other words, small silences that highlight particular phrases. Some of the conductors I've worked under just plough on regardless without realising that these gaps are as important as the music. Those performances aren't, usually, particularly stimulating.
Phil
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This is tremendous stuff, Graeme. It was a delight to see it in the flesh on Sunday.
I think I know the layouts you were referring to at last weekend's show - seeing those made the day entirely worthwhile.
I also agree that at a local show the organisers have more strictures placed on them than those faced by larger events (though some large shows sometime leave a bit to be desired with regard to the 'quality' of layouts).
I believe it's also fair to say that if one is a 'critic', that (constructive) criticism should be offered by someone who's 'been there, seen it, done it'. That's why when, say, the likes of Larry Goddard points out a detail anomaly, I always take notice. I don't know how many shows I've attended over the past 40-odd years as a demonstrator/layout operator, but it's several hundred. I know at some, when acting as a demonstrator, I occasionally got comments such as 'I don't think I'd have done it like that'. When I questioned the source as to how he (it's always a bloke) might have done the job quicker, better, more easily, more economically or what you will, almost without exception it was a case of 'Oh, I haven't done it yet - but I will!' I think the best was from one dead-scale hair-shirter, who, on viewing part of my 'Queen of Scots' set (described in BRM over 20 years ago) congratulated me on its appearance (he should have really congratulated Ian Rathbone), but opined 'What a great pity that you've got the whole lot running on narrow gauge track'. When I pointed out that I'd never seen a ten-car Pullman set (of any type) running on a P4 layout, anywhere, he didn't pursue the conversation. EM, yes, but P4? Please don't think I'm being anti-P4, but I think the chap, pleasant as he was, needed a touch of pragmatism.
It's the same with 'criticisms' over layout. One friend was astonished how I spoke to a couple of the Stoke team one day when trains ceased to run as frequently as they should. In my view, it was vital to keep things moving. It was the same with recalcitrant locos/stock. No matter who'd made it, if it malfunctioned it was off - and fast. It only returned after being fixed; not in full view of visitors.
Down the years, I've observed layouts where the operators stand in earnest conversation, blindly unaware that a loco is revving like mad against a set of bufferstops or a train has derailed. Last Sunday I (politely I hope) pointed out a 'fault' to an operator and was told, twice, that 'it's Bachmann'. I made my excuses and walked off.
How many times have you seen a loco/item of stock derail or stutter, at the same place on a layout, every time? Why isn't it replaced? That said, if it has been, often the builder sneaks it back on and the scenario continues.
I have great respect for all who put their work on display at shows, especially if it is 'their' work. If one does, then criticism (of the right sort) is to be expected. But, greater attention to prototype practice and, particularly, running should be an ideal for all in my opinion, whatever their experience/skill-base.
To my mind, if it's always the same place, I would look at track, wiring etc. rather than stock and I would be most annoyed if it was my layout!
As I've mentioned elsewhere on RMWeb, I have recently purchased Saxlingham from Dave Tailby, and the first change I have made is to replace the chocolate box connectors with soldered tag strips so that I know teh joints won't fail. There will be other changes that I will make to get what I want from the layout in terms of reliability - this is not to say that Dave got it wrong, he didn't, he did it a different way from how I do it.
Phil
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Ooh - where does one start? (as I recognise many of the anomalies you cite).
I maintain the belief that two factors are at play (and they are to some extent related).
1) Up until the end of steam (sweeping generalisation!) it was generally 'OK' to be a trainspotter / railway enthusiast - so did folks simply observe the real railway and incorporate operational realism into their model railways without even thinking about it? Also, pre-mass car ownership train travel was more common - even if it was only once a year for the annual holiday.
2) The swing from crude looking model railway equipment in an era where scenery hardly existed (or mattered) to today's desire to create a picture of a model which is indiscernible from the real thing. The former's focus was operation; the latter's is appearance.
In terms of the second of these, you yourself Tony contributed to a most enlightening BRM publication called 'A Century of Progress' [1999], a well-thumbed item in my modest library and always an entertaining and thought-provoking read. You only have to look at some of the layouts from the 1920s and 1930s to see just how crude they were and how much ingenuity their builders had to use. Yet it appears they were generally signalled and operated correctly (even if the 'great hand from the sky' was a necessity for the clockwork operated ones).
If I can also offer a provoking comment in return. Is it possibly the case that the work of yourself and others in taking ever more realistic photographs of layouts - and especially the increasing desire to get down to eye level - is inadvertently fuelling the desire to create scenically marvellous layouts (to the detriment of operation), sending out the message 'that is where it's at' in terms of today's railway modelling? More than once I've read 'got the track-laying out of the way; now on to the scenery!' or 'I'll get round to putting the signals in ... one day'(!)
The great irony of course is that today's railway modeller has an unprecedented range of items available for purchase (that our railway modelling forefathers could only dream of), together with seemingly infinite ready access to research material (courtesy of t'internet), to help create a model railway that is both scenically superb and operationally correct.
I do agree with Tony (Gee) and others in that shows should have balance and there is clearly space for Thomas the Tank and Little Bytham to happily coincide in this great hobby of ours.
I would have liked to say something like this myself, but this post say's it so eloquently I won't say more.
Phil
Saxlingham
in Layout topics
Posted
Thanks exmoordave - I hope my alterations will do justice to Dave's work, I think the layout's one of his best and I'm very pleased he's sold it to me.
Phil