Jump to content
 

Neil

RMweb Premium
  • Posts

    2,682
  • Joined

  • Last visited

6 Followers

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

Neil's Achievements

13.4k

Reputation

  1. Late I know but I've just returned from a trip to Rotterdam by Eurostar; Travelodge Kings Cross £73.99 on the way out and Travelodge Kings Cross Royal Scot £69.99 on the return leg. I book ahead as far as possible and avoid Friday and Saturday nights as they're usually far more expensive.
  2. There's been a long running if sporadic debate in the hobby about whether model railways are art; I think that Voie Libre is the place where it's most consistently proved that they can be. If art is about telling a story, illuminating the unconsidered corners of our world or just a joyous outburst of creativity then the magazine nails it. It's never shy to promote whimsy or fantasy alongside the really finescale stuff, an equality of status I find really attractive.
  3. I remember this from Warley (I think), spent more time in front of it than many of the better known layouts.
  4. We used to use the Premier Inns either Euston or St Pancras, though now our preference is for the Kings Cross Travelodge.
  5. I've had a few copies or inspired by versions of my layout Shell Island, which I've been totally happy about. I regard it as a bit of a complement and the builders were kind enough to acknowledge where the notion or their starting point came from. Another of my layouts very obviously inspired a modeller with a major section of his layout and while I know it shouldn't, it did rankle a bit that it wasn't credited. Yes I know it's a bit shallow and I open up myself to accusations of vanity but it would have been nice, polite even to acknowledge it. From the other side of the fence .... Now I know the modeller who built this and he's a lovely bloke and a talented model maker. Many years ago he said he found the formulating ideas part of the creative process difficult which is why he would take inspiration from the work of others which he liked. This was many years ago, before the days of social media where it's now easy for us to get in touch with our peers and easy for us to share ideas.
  6. Was talking about this with Mrs R this morning. We first took Eurostar in 2013 and there was no queuing, we could walk up to the ticket barriers and progress steadily through. Yes trains stopped at Ebbsfleet but there was no mass boarding on the way out and no mass disembarkation on the return; St Pancras seemed to be able to handle the throughput of large numbers far better. I think what happens today is that because of the increased immigration checks, Eurostar get people to turn up earlier, hence the snaking queue for the barriers. Those at the front of the queue get through earlier than before and add to the waiting trainloads. Those in the middle and rear of the queue trundle through more slowly than before, the cumulative effects of fractions of a minute extra per passenger will have a huge effect on the time taken to transit the formalities. This leads Eurostar to require passengers to turn up early so as not to miss their train which gums up both the departure lounge and the station concourse. Sadly I can't see things improving until the bottleneck of immigration control is eased. There would be space to do this as there is space between security and border control allocated for further queueing. I guess that staffing is the issue and I guess that this won't get better until there's a more constructive attitude towards Europe which hopefully would result in a reciprocal change.
  7. Yep, that was the standout bit for me too.
  8. Further woes hit the railway. A shame as it was one of my favourite visits when I lived in York.
  9. Can you have too many wagons? The latest stuff up on the workbench, more wagons. Over the years I've picked up the odd wagon that I like the look of, even if it doesn't fit in with the grand scheme of things. One thing they do have in common is that they're all bought second hand for three to four quid and they all started life with the ugly large tension lock couplings. Some can be replaced with the screw fixing sort of mini tension lock from Bachmann (with a bit of faffing) but those with the plug in style efforts take a bit more work; here's how I do it. Unclip the covers and take the old couplings out; you'll need the long reach screw fit couplings from Bachmann as replacements. While you're at it take out the wheels too as they'll get in the way. If you line up the couplings with the moulded spigot on the coupling mount you will see that even the long reach coupling is set too far back. However the clip on cover has its hole offset to the rear in the factory fitted position but if we reverse it then it brings the locating hole a few mm closer to the end of the wagon and we can just about get by with this, so file away the moulded spigot. You will now be able to fit the clip the 'wrong' way round. Drill down through the clip with a 2mm bit and also trim back the wings of the coupling so that it will slide between the two raised edges on the coupling mount. I took the cover off to show the altered mounting position compared to the ghostly outline where the spigot was filed away. Clip the cover on, if like me you removed it, and slide the trimmed back coupling in until all the holes line up. I use some 2mm diameter plastic rod to peg all three bits, mount, coupling and cover together, and fix in place with glue. I was lucky that this particular underframe was moulded in the sort of plastic that can be solvent welded. Obviously the rod was cut to size once glued in place. It's easier to line everything up with a long length which then needs cutting back than one cut to the exact length required. Now I should point out that the coupling still won't stick out as far as is usual so it is a bit of a compromise but if your curves are of a reasonable radius all should be well. Here's the wagon coupled up, closer than usual but not ridiculously so. Finally, why bother with stuff that doesn't fit with the premise of the layout? Why put in the time and effort? I think it all boils down to the sheer attractiveness of the models; they're nice things to have but it's possible to make them even more pleasing by putting a little work in, weathering lifts the models as does fitting better working and more discrete couplings. Here's the two latest wagons on the left and a couple I did earlier on the right.
  10. Browsing one of those Model Rail published bookazines on layout planning I saw this: It's not very finescale (I hope the builder doesn't mind me saying so) but it has bags of charm and character, something in my opinion that's harder to achieve. I'm intrigued and would like to know more. Can anyone point me in the right direction for further info, does the layout appear on the internet, perhaps here or is there a particular issue of Model Rail which features it? Many thanks.
  11. I think this may be a matter of perception; certainly a lot of the Brexit rhetoric was hostile to the EU and to some extent that remains so. Some factions hold the view that the form of Brexit in place at the moment isn't 'pure' enough and that this is why we in the UK are currently disadvantaged. It wouldn't surprise me if the view of the UK from the continent wasn't that of a 'jobsworth' nation being less cooperative than it could be.
  12. Look what rolled up earlier this week. Well I could hardly resist, could I? It's a York loco, on my interpretation of what might have been in York, ordered and delivered from Monk Bar Model Shop in York. I'm impressed both by the sweet running loco and the service from Monk Bar. I had an email on Monday saying the loco was in stock, I phoned them on Tuesday with my details and it arrived in the post on Wednesday dinnertime. I know that the real thing was kept in reasonable order, but I am going to have to do something about the cab roof and tone down the bodywork. I thought I may have to repaint the buffer faces, but apparently not, just some grease marks should do the job. Here's No.84 in York's roundhouse in 1968. Finally another gratuitous shot of one York icon viewed against another.
  13. The light railway platform came inside after the test fitting for painting and fixing the brick plinths which would have supported the timber edge. Also seen on the workbench this week a pair of wagons requiring finishing off. The match wagon started out as a Triang single bolster with a chassis cobbled up out of Parkside parts. Originally OO it's been converted to EM and then back to OO. It had three link couplings in early life, then changed to some not very good tension lock hoops and then finally gaining some proper Bachmann small tension locks using Parkside mounting blocks last week. The brake lever on one side had gone AWOL over the years so I found a near replacement in my box of useful bits and cut it down to size. The lowfit is an out of the box Bachmann example to which I added some weathering. Weirdly I found both couplings to be angled offset. Their mounting pads not sitting squarely on the chassis moulding. They are a screw fix but locate on a moulded ridge which I had to trim back to allow me to centre the mounting pad and therefore the coupling.
  14. I'm hugely impressed by the last paragraph, "Seeking staff for your organisation? We are more than happy to circulate any opportunities you may have to our highly capable former members of staff. Contact Us →" They manage to be a class act to the end.
  15. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. I used to be on the organising committee for the York show and now I help out a bit with the Corris Railway's exhibition (August bank holiday, Machynlleth) and they're both very different in terms of what they can provide. However exhibitors and traders at both seem to appreciate those differences and tailor their expectations to match. The common theme is that bar a few grumbles, which usually have nothing to do with remuneration, a good time is had by all. I guess that those just in for the cash soon move on to more lucrative enterprises.
×
×
  • Create New...