Neil

I'm pleased to say that the station build is all over bar the shouting. There will be some weathering to come, once the paint has hardened and I'm in the right frame of mind and there's also some detail painting to be done on the shoulders of the chimneys to represent cement render. Though small this is about the fiddliest building I've put together but it's not the first go at this particular prototype. Many years ago when I lived in York I built a cruder version of it for my Foss Bank layout. The layout is long gone but there was something about the concept that I really liked.

Moving to cleaner, greener ways of manufacturing isn't the same as advocating outsourcing all our industrial capabilities. Likewise smelting ore or for that matter coal mining, drilling for oil and their like are not the sum total of UK industrial activity. Not building HS2 is a political choice rather than an economic one. Well yes, I can see why you would be fed up with the rest of the world doing nothing to tackle climate change however that's not the case. For example the USA is now far more enthusiastic about getting to net zero than it was under Trump, China too is gearing up for green energy. Just because some other countries lag behind is that a good enough reason to not try ourselves. If we give up then we will be part of the global problem.

I'm not a fan either. I have a Peco track rubber sharpened to a chisel point which I use to clean wheels.

As I see it the principle downside to the closure of the blast furnaces and their replacement with an electric arc furnace is the lost jobs. We need to move to greater recycling of materials and this would take us a step in that direction. Unless we want to see an ever warming world for our children and grandchildren then we have to change how we do things; the old ways can't continue. It is magic thinking to imagine that tackling climate change can be done without change and that we should have some sort of special exemption for polluting industries that contribute to global warming.

While Gordon gets his beautiful, historic images re-orientated I'll put up a few of my more recent ones from ten years ago.

Well the algorithms cam up trumps today. When searching for old footage of York this fascinating short film from Pathe was suggested. Cuneo at the height of his powers. Enjoy; I certainly did.

There are many excellent reasons why layout videos deserve their place in the hobby. Social anxiety, distance and the fact that some layouts may never appear at exhibitions have been mentioned. Some layout videos cover the build process of both layout and its constituent parts, something that's impossible to demonstrate at an exhibition as days, weeks, months of build time can be compressed into an easily digested segment of time. For the cash strapped enthusiast it removes the cost of travel, entrance fee and refreshments. There's also an argument to be made that by removing the travel element it helps to combat climate change.

A well reasoned philosophy Al. I'm pretty much in the good enough camp too; these days I'm quite happy to buy older versions of models (particularly locos) and do a bit of light tarting up. On occasion I'll buy a non runner or one with cosmetic damage and effect repairs. It's not just the Yorkshire in me coming to the fore, there's a lot of satisfaction in the process of repairing and fettling a broken cast off.

Well that's interesting. I guess that I have no less enthusiasm for model railways than the wombat but my wallet gets very twitchy when three figure purchases are contemplated. I think I've only actually spent over a hundred once and that was just a smidge over for Oxford's J27. However I have absolutely no hesitation on spending on holidays as memories and experiences last a lifetime. Go places, see things, do stuff while you can; travel with the people you love wherever the fancy takes while you can. We will all have different priorities but whatever they are, we should be grateful that we can indulge our interests, many struggle to make ends meet.

Oh dear I've become far too interested in this topic however, Point 1 - Agree Point 2 - Disagree. In the early eighties I bought the cheapest version of Hornby's Smokey Joe for around nine quid. Here the 1980 catalogue price is given as £8.95 for the slightly more deluxe Caledonian version. Taking a look at how much that model now costs at Rails of Sheffield with a 10% discount £44.54, more than four times the price. Also the problem with looking at wages rises in isolation doesn't give the whole picture. Housing costs have shot up leaving less disposable income. An example, my first house a two up two down terrace in York, bought in 1985 for £13,000 last sold in 2017 for £177,500 according to Zoopla. So just comparing wage rises to price rises of model railway items gives a false view of affordability.

For most of us, it's a hobby and even 'can no longer be bothered' is a valid reason to quit. I actually think that it's more like 'getting too much' particularly if you read the press release. As Reorte has said we should thank them for what they have done rather than criticise for what they no longer choose to do.

I read the piece in the Guardian and I didn't think that it presented an unbalanced view of the hobby. I don't think there's any getting away from the fact that the demographic has changed over the years. In the fifties and sixties mass market products were largely aimed at children but exploited by adults; Wills body kits on Triang or Hornby chassis for example. These days the mass market products are aimed at the older, established enthusiast. Certainly over the last few years there's less stuff aimed at pocket money prices. There is perhaps a smaller pool of young enthusiasts who might carry their interest forward into adult life. This has probably been going on for some time now. To give another example; I moved to Wales seventeen years ago when I was in my late forties and started helping to organise and run a local exhibition. I'm now in my early sixties, with creaky knees, but there are no middle aged volunteers hoving into view that might step into my shoes. I think if we're honest we would struggle to see twenty, thirty year younger versions of ourselves, in the same numbers becoming involved to the same extent we did. Is this doom and gloom; well maybe if we want to somehow freeze time and for the hobby to continue in the way it has done for the past forty or so years but there's also an argument that accepting the reality of where we are allows us to adjust what we do and change before change (or collapse) is thrust upon us. I think this lies behind the recent decisions made by Hattons and the Warley exhibition team.

Well it's a couple of weeks on since my last update. Firstly I'd like to share this image that cropped up on facebook group that I'm a member of. It's reproduced here with the permission of its owner but I'd be grateful if it wasn't reposted elsewhere as I don't have permission for that. It's of Low Ousegate in York, sometime during the fifties. It caught my eye because it reminds me very much of the paintings of Atkinson Grimshaw but it also serves to illustrate that there's a lot of stuff out there on local history sites that can add to our knowledge of time and place. As modellers we can tend to be a bit blinkered in our choice of sources. Not all my time has been frittered away on the internet; I've also made some progress with the DVLR building. As ever a case of steps back as well as forwards, the first coat of green paint was a bit of a disaster but fortunately enamels come off with white spirit even after drying overnight. I'm far happier with this shade and finish but there's still a way to go before I can call the job done.

Given that advances in H&S practices have occurred at the same time that death and injury in the workplace has declined then it becomes patently obvious that 'common sense' wasn't sufficient to avoid accidents. That this stops people 'thinking for themselves' has no basis in fact unless you count the odd bit of nonsense that the Daily Mail and their like punt out on a slow news day.

The travel costs interest me. I've just checked and from home (Tywyn) to Birmingham International the return train fare varies between £32 and £37. According to Google the most direct route by road is 126 miles, the train will travel a few more miles looking at the map. Of course the economics of travelling by car improve if you share the cost with friends, but then again there are railcard discounts and group travel discounts if you go by rail. The last time I went to the Warley Show was before covid and if memory serves me well it cost about sixty quid for train, entrance and dinner.

Thank you Andy, much appreciated.

It's possible it may just be my connection or machine but I've noticed of late that with image heavy threads the words will appear almost instantaneously but images seem to be taking far longer than they used to. Other forums that I visit don't seem to have a delay to this extent which makes me wonder if it's an RMweb issue?

My take is that there are two separate questions. Should I encourage my grandson/granddaughter into the hobby? Depends; if he's shown some interest then yes but if his interests lie elsewhere then help and encourage those instead. Is the hobby a dead end? Maybe, but does that really matter? I've reached the age where I'm a grandad and I've got enough stuff stashed to last the rest of my life and a bit more, even if the global model railway trade threw in the towel tomorrow. I've no idea what the far future holds for my grandchildren, I can only hope that the world is a kinder, safer, healthier, fairer place than it is now.

Some time ago I looked into this and couldn't find an alternative to the Peco and Hornby items. I ended up using the Hornby passing contact switches as they're readily available second hand at a keen price if you shop around. They also look a bit more like a lever frame than the Peco switches.

For a variety of reasons model making was very much on the back burner last month, in fact I've only just resumed it this side of Christmas. Here's the result of a few afternoons cutting and sticking plastic. The tracery has all been hand cut from 20thou plasticard chosen so that it would match the Evergreen planking. The windows are cut from 10thou though the glazing bars on the doors are scribed lines filled with paint. The green paint will be sanded down and repainted in a more muted shade, it'll do as an undercoat. The glazing for doors and windows is cut from an old CD case. Finally I've stumbled across a new (to me) set of DVLR images on this website here.

Happy New Year Steve. I see motive power shortages have become so critical that control have had to 'borrow' a couple of exhibits from the museum at York. Vintage locos out on the national railway network; it'll never catch on you know.

Here's a lovely piece of nostalgia from and about the transition era. It's a useful reminder of how dirty and drab the world looked then; a pet bugbear of mine is models set in the past but using a modern palette of colours.

Quite possibly. What we do know is that we have a government that is at best lukewarm about rail transport. The PM seems to think it's fine to travel extensively by helicopter or private plane for journeys of moderate distance and has cancelled the northern bit of HS2. I guess this is a pretty good indication that their priorities lie elsewhere.

Apologies, I must have missed it on my first read through. The figure is now £2,017,000.

From a financial standpoint the 'worthwhile' cost might be higher than commonly imagined. Back in 1997 the D of T put a figure of £860,000 on a human life. I would guess that it's well north of a million by now though I haven't been able to find confirmation of this yet.