Willie Whizz

Money will not in itself make you happy, true - but a sufficient lack of it will make you miserable for sure! As for not giving a stuff what other people think about you, it’s an interesting concept, but not without risk. Taken to extreme you can become a crusty old curmudgeon and end-up alienating some perfectly decent people who mean you no harm. To me the answer is “moderation in all things - including moderation itself”.

[cynicism mode on] No doubt Mr Longworth has been quite bombarded with people pointing out errors in his book, many of them un-necessary had he only (a) waited forever until more accurate information became available and (b) asked for the input of others, who he already seems to have antagonised, and (c) not been regarded as such an insufferably arrogant individual. But surely he will have a website on which some at least of such errors are acknowledged and corrected. And he will not dare deliver another manuscript to a publisher again until he is 1,110% certain there is no error, even though nobody else has delivered anything comparable on the same subject. Or am I thinking of two other authors …? [cynicism mode off; sorry].

I agree with earlier posters. By the time a new project has been decided upon, researched, developed, tested and produced at least two years, and often three or four, have gone by and the model is no longer “contemporary”. Or by the time enough stock has been assembled and purchased to equip a layout, again the livery and the scene being depicted is no longer “contemporary”. The real trouble with this notion is that the current railway scene is changing faster than the model railway manufacturers can keep up with. So “historical” models - even those from recent history - are a safer bet for them to produce, and will sell better.

That is certainly true of one anyway. A few years ago I was assisting in a small way with an article he was writing, in the expectation it would be published in a well-known historical Railway magazine, with whom he’d explained he had a good relationship so was confident of acceptance. He was applying strict “version control”, and each significant alteration to the text had its own number. This is, in many respects, “good practice”, but when I got involved the numbers were already in the early teens; and by the time my participation and modest commentary input ended the “versions” were well into the thirties. By this point much of the text was so heavily rewritten it was virtually unrecognisable from the early writing; the focus had shifted quite some way; what remained had lost much of the freshness and spontaneity of the original. I suggested that enough was enough and that he was in effect taking longer and longer to add very little’; time (as Wellington said) to “publish and be damned”. He ceased sending me further “versions” for comment. I never did find out if the article was finally published (I don’t take that magazine and don’t always see it on the shelves) but I suspect not. Such a shame, really …

That’s the conclusion I came to a couple of years back, sadly … Banks and Carter should have taken the advice of the Duke of Wellington.

Ignore please.

Arrived at the Hall 10:00 am, full of trepidation at how long I might have to queue given the stories from yesterday. Went in, walked straight up to the ticket desk, paid cash (!!) and was in the Exhibition in two minutes flat without queuing at all. Sundays for me in future! There was a good range of traders of medium and large sizes, but as others have observed, very few smaller people these days. I understand why, but I find that particularly sad because it always used to be a good opportunity to browse and find things you didn’t even know existed and, knowing now they did, couldn’t live without. Regarding the layouts, I found the general standard of scenic work extremely high, but the general standard of operation rather weak, and movement often sparse even on the larger exhibits that could have sustained a more intensive approach to entertain the onlooker. Not one layout kept me watching more than five minutes or so and not one tempted me back for a second look. I was rather left wondering whether the “knack” has been lost since COVID, or whether the electrickery is so complex these days it just doesn’t allow it.

Having become somewhat ‘folically challenged’ in my late thirties, I adopted this tactic for a time. It seemed fine, except on windy days. However, I gave it up after intently watching an absorbing TV programme one evening and suddenly realising that my 8-yo daughter had not just been playing with my hair from behind the sofa, but had actually put the combover into a plait and added a red ribbon. It was off the following day! I must add, though, that it took a few years to get used to seeing my reflection as a ‘slap head’, and worrying that no woman would ever fancy me again (though that does assume of course that any ever did, much - which is a debate my pride will not allow to occur …). I would far sooner have gone a ‘distinguished’ grey, even at the same comparatively young age.

It comes from the expectation among the Political Classes: “We must be seen to be DOING something” - usually followed, after a desperate search - by: “all right, this is at least ‘something’, so for want of a better idea we’ll do this!” Whereas what is often required, as observed by that great civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby, is a policy of “Masterly Inactivity “. I’d vote for that.

Ah, The 39 Steps (1935 version) … one of my All Time Top Five non-musical films, indeed to me second only perhaps to The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), the ultimate swashbuckler, and both starring the incomparably lovely Madeleine Carroll, “West Bromwich’s Finest Export”. A genuine thriller with some of Hitchcock’s famous unexpected plot twists to push the action along at a cracking pace. And one of most erotic scenes ever filmed with two fully-clothed people … how that ever got by the Censors of the day I’ll never know. Tony, you are indeed a Gentleman of Taste and Discretion!

I would speculate that if the minimum radius for RTR models was raised to 24 inches, you might well debar anything between 20-30% of modellers from building a working layout (especially a roundly-roundly) more complex than a single track line in the space they have available. Large radii are fine if your layout is mainly linear, or if you have a room the size of a standard garage. Many of us have to work in a spare bedroom or modest shed. The resulting compromises are less than ideal but it’s that or find another hobby. And then, for the manufacturers, find more customers elsewhere.

Also worth bearing in mind that in modern times there are literally hundreds of models and variations of models available for steam, and the same again for diesel. For someone fairly new to the hobby who is looking at, say, the Hattons website for a suitable steam locomotive for the period they fancy modelling, it must be if nothing else a useful shortcut to eliminating 90% of the stuff you’d otherwise have to wade through to get anywhere near what you wanted.

It isn’t uncommon for the proportions of kit-built or RTP model buildings supposedly to a particular scale to look out of proportion to those from other manufacturers. I recently converted an ancient Prototype Models GN station I built many years ago into a pub. It looks ok, but placed next to some Metcalfe low-relief terraced houses, one or other is clearly wrong! I suppose the answer is either to buy from only one maker or to scratchbuild everything yourself for consistency; but as so often “life’s too short” for many of us.

You’d have to be looking very hard indeed to spot any fault with those. Especially bearing in mind the “originals” wouldn’t invariably have been perfect either.

Had an email today from 'The Hive' with whom I have Volume 2 on pre-order. They are now saying publication is expected 1st January, though how accurate that may be remains to be seen. I'd say I live in Hope ... but that's a small town in Derbyshire, and I don't.

Yes, it (or they) were used in conjunction with working wagon turntables to represent movement of wagons by hydraulic capstans into their massive Leicester South Goods shed. “State of the art” stuff by the GC when built, I presume, and something I’d love to have a crack at modelling one day on a lesser scale.

A few months back I attended a model railway exhibition that was based on a 1930s seaplane base with one of these just come off the slipway and into the water. Superb modelling, and although the Railway bit itself seemed so far back you could hardly see it, nobody seemed to care.

Nice. But go on then, I’ll bite: what is a “herb garret” please?

Stood at those gates many a time as a small boy …. ISTR they were manually-operated by an elderly chap who sat in a tiny cabin, just off-picture to the left. The arch that carried the former Nottingham Suburban Railway had an astonishing ‘ringing’ echo for a comparatively narrow bridge. Really looking forward to seeing it all “again”!

61000 Springbok was a regular sight for me as a small boy, trainspotting around the footbridge over Meadow Lane, Nottingham c. 1960-62 or so. She was a Colwick engine by then and a regular performer on some sort of fish train that came along the LMR Lincoln-Nottingham line late afternoon, just before it was time to go back home for tea. The engine was invariably absolutely filthy and almost unrecognisable. And then one afternoon the train appeared, hauled by a positively gleaming B1 which turned out to be 61000. And if memory serves, she pretty much stayed that way until withdrawn in Spring 1962. So for that period you could model the loco in either extreme of condition.

I would simply ask you to consider one point. “Resistance to change” is a dangerously vague concept. “Resistance to all change” - regarding the environment or anything else in life - is actually not so common as one might suppose. It should not be confused with “Resistance to the particular change being proposed”, where the “resistor” may believe, quite genuinely, that there is a better, less costly, or less damaging alternative. Some of those in the shut-down debate were trying to suggest that. Unfortunately, people who put forward such alternatives are too often seen as “obstructive”, “negative “, “off the Corporate/Group/Movement message”, “dinosaurs”, “deniers” etc. when actually they are at least trying to engage constructively. Such attitudes were one reason why I decided to leave one of my old jobs, in banking, some years back. Change there was not only desirable but long-overdue. Unfortunately although many colleagues told “them” the new directions being taken were unwise and not in Customers’ interests so they were throwing the baby out with the bath water, the people at the top basically said “don’t confuse us with different facts and opinions, we’ve made up our minds”. The results are visible today on any High Street, and on any website where you can only get to interact with a chatbot and God help you if your problem isn’t one it recognises.

But Tony - surely it’s all your fault? That so well-publicised view that a loco isn’t quite ‘right’ unless it has the correct lamps for the train it’s pulling? Unfortunately someone seems to have taken you too literally: these various new locos do have lamps all right; just not necessarily the correct lamps for the trains they typically pulled, let alone for the different trains we modellers might want to use them on! (Sorry, couldn’t resist …. 😁)

Just to return for a moment to the proposed Hornby Coronation twin-sets, and whether there will be BR post-war variants, I’m still trying to get to the bottom of this in between other tasks. On a thread in the Hornby pages on here, RobertCWP posted on 5 November 2022: “Last weekend, I saw Hornby’s 3D printed test models for the new Coronation stock. Two twins were on display plus an observation car. They looked very good. The twin-first model on display was in BR condition with valances removed. Alone amongst the twins, the firsts had an extra door on each side but only one side of the model had the door. As you look from the outside, the extra door is always on the right-hand carriage (i.e. there is one extra door on each half of the twin). I did mention this to someone on the Hornby stand but he did not seem to know anything about the models. I did not have the chance to speak to Simon Kohler as he was in the TT room which was not generally accessible. It’s possible that they have done the mock-up so that one side is original and the other side is altered although neither side had the valances.” … This squares with my vague recollection that the original announcements indicated BR versions would be produced as well as LNER, but I haven’t tracked that down yet and there seems no current mention on H’s own website. Robert also appears to suggest that Mike Trice was involved and consulted about the design; whether he could add anything further (obviously without breaching any confidentiality agreements) may be a line worth pursuing.

What, the one in Lowdham, Notts. not far from me? Nice pub, but tucked away and a bit “hard to find” - unless it’s the End of the World as we know it …

An excellent and thoughtful post; and for me the ‘example’ given is a classic one for something I have said on this and other threads before. It is always a mistake to judge the actions and motivations behind ‘historical’ events and behaviours by the standards of ‘today’. Yesterday’s normal all too easily becomes today’s abhorrent; which raises the question of what we view as perfectly normal today that will be seen as abhorrent in 150 years?