A new start

Well hello there!!

I doubt any of my original followers will see this, but to whoever might possibly be reading... hello! And if you are one of that original gang - I'm seriously impressed that you're still following a website that's been completely dormant for the past 5 years!

I can't believe I'm saying this but I started this blog 20 years ago!!! Back then I had plans to build a small portable layout to P4 standards and over a number years dabbled in some track, kit and scratch building as well as RTR modifications. However, with the arrival of children and the resulting squeeze on time, space and money, things started to tail off until finally coming to a complete halt 11 or 12 years ago, everything either being sold off or boxed up and put away in the loft.

I've kept in touch with the hobby primarily through continuing to build my Model Railway Journal collection (complete all the way back to issue 0 I should add!) but in the last couple of years I started to watch more modelling content on YouTube which opened my eyes to just how much has changed in the RTR market while I'd been away.

20 years ago the desire to 'go P4' was driven in part by a natural tendency towards perfectionism and needing to do things the 'right' way or not at all, but also by the feeling that most RTR was, to my eyes at least, lacking the fidelity and level of detail and realism I was after to allow me that suspension of disbelief that is so necessary to the enjoyment of this hobby. 

Things have changed dramatically in that time. We now have PECO bullhead which, while still not perfect, is to my eyes 90% of the way there, when compared to anything off-the-shelf we had before. Add to this modern locos and rolling stock, particularly from the likes of Accurascale, with DCC sound, lighting etc... and what can be achieved today with out of the box models is beyond anything many so-called finescale modellers once even dreamed of.

During the last year I began to feel a serious urge to get back into the hobby again. I think the tipping point was seeing the pre-production samples for the Accurascale 57xx. Something clicked and I immediately placed a pre-order. I had, at the time, no intention to build a layout, although the fact that I ordered the DCC sound fitted version surely indicated, even if subconsciously, that I wasn't ultimately just going to stick it in a display case!

Fast forward to today and a layout is in the works... and yes, this time for real, not just on paper as so many previous ideas were.

Work is already well underway to create a permanent home for it and construct the baseboards, a track plan has been finalised, and track, DCC controls and additional locos and rolling stock either purchased or ordered.

I'll be writing more over the coming weeks,  introducing the concept, talking through what I've done so far and plans for next steps, and hopefully providing reasonably frequent updates as I go along.

I hope you'll join me for the journey!

Great Western Railway Journal

Some years ago I foolishly listed my Great Western Railway Journal and Model Railway Journal collections for sale on eBay. Quite what possessed me to do so I can't really remember now but suffice it to say, I'm jolly glad they didn't sell.

Having since completed my collection of the entire publication run of GWRJ (the final issue of which was published in 2017) and having entertained the idea of getting them bound into proper volumes for some time, I finally got round to it and here is the result - quite stunning if I do say so myself!

And by the way - hello again to anyone reading this.... it's been a while!

New minimalist blog design

Phew, that's blown a few cobwebs away!

Mid Suffolk Light Railway - the ultimate line to nowhere!

I recently purchased a second hand copy of Peter Paye's excellent book 'The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway' (Wild Swan, 1986). It's a superb book with a wealth of information and some wonderful and evocative photos of this charming and much-loved railway backwater.

If ever there was a line to nowhere, this is it. The original proposals for the railway were for some 50 route miles linking up with the existing GER network at 3 points and consisting of two connected 'branches'. In the end only 18 miles were constructed, ending at the relatively insignificant village of Laxfield in the middle of the Suffolk countryside - the 'middle of nowhere' to all intents and purposes.

Most of the tiny stations were located in the middle of open countryside and served small villages or hamlets several miles from the railway itself, and the line retained much of its old-world character right up to closure in the 1950s.

Although my primary interest has always been in the GWR / WR I have a definite soft spot for the GER / ER branch lines and byways. In fact anywhere that is a bit out of the way and off the beaten track really. Some people are inspired by images of crack express trains powering along the main line but that has never really inspired me so much as the rural backwater with its ancient rolling stock, weed-grown trackbeds and empty platforms.

Anyway, I can thoroughly recommend the book.

Hello again!

It's been nearly 4 years since I last posted on this blog (and to be honest I wasn't even sure whether I hadn't taken it offline ages ago - but clearly not) so whether anyone will read this I have no idea. But hello if you are! This feels a bit like the first tentative trip over a weed-grown, mothballed branch line after years of inactivity...

Over those 4 years I have had a chance to reflect on my then haste to discard or sell off my model railway assets and realised that it was the result of an all-or-nothing mentality that had characterised my approach to much in life up until quite recently.

Maybe it was turning 40 last year or something, but I have started to approach life a little differently lately, realising that it is actually possible to sustain a range of different interests alongside one another without being totally consumed by one at the expense of all others, and that it is possible to take an interest in model railways without necessarily having to own a model railway or be in the process of building one.

All of which is, I am certain, absolutely obvious stuff to most people, but somehow it wasn't obvious to me until these last couple of years!

Thankfully my haste to rid myself of all my model railway 'stuff' didn't go beyond selling my small collection of RTR locomotives and rolling stock and a couple of other bits - all of which are easily replaceable if ever I decide to get back into active modelling. The rest is boxed up in the attic (when our second child arrived in 2014 the 'railway room' was taken out of service as such and converted to more pressing needs!)

One thing I came extremely close to selling but which I am extremely glad I didn't end up parting with is my Model Railway Journal collection. I went so far as to list the entire lot on eBay back in 2011, but thankfully they remained unsold and I still have them all. In fact I have now brought the collection up to date with the issues I missed out on over the last few years. I've also extended what was at that time an embryonic collection of Great Western Railway Journals into a complete set (most of which I haven't yet read, but just owning them gives me a sense of great satisfaction!).

I was interested to read in the recent obituaries to Bob Barlow that for many years, even when he was involved with MRJ itself, he never had his own model railway, so I don't feel so bad about claiming an interest in something to which I can't attach any great exhibition-piece of my own handiwork.

Henceforth I am quite content to be known as the eponymous 'armchair modeller'. I won't be making any commitment to writing on here regularly - or at all - but neither will I avoid doing so if there is something I feel inspired to comment on, be it one more than or 5 years from now, so the blog remains 'open for business' at least in the 1960s branch line sense whereby there might not be much 'business' happening for very long periods of time! Whether I return to active modelling at some point in the future who is to say, but that really matters little at the end of the day - there's no compulsion to have to do anything.

Currently for sale on eBay...

Bachrus rolling road worth over £100 - currently £25!

AB-180 gravity-fed double action airbrush and air hose worth over £40 - currently £9.99!

Rotacraft RC230 tool kit and accessory pack - currently £5!

If you're after a bargain, get on over there: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/mattots/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

MRJ 209

Well, how about that... you wait 8 months for a blog post to come along and then two turn up together! And this one after I had effectively announced my temporary withdrawal from the hobby yesterday!

Anyway, my wife kindly picked up the latest issue of MRJ for me while out shopping so I've spent a pleasant couple of hours this evening perusing its contents.

In my usual non-conformist style, the thing that grabbed me the most in the whole magazine is the full page advertisement for Gordon Gravett's new book (published by Wild Swan - who else?) called 'Modelling Trees - Part 1: Broadleaf Trees'. The cover picture, reproduced in the ad, is just breathtaking (at least if, like me, you're as bothered about the realism of things like trees as you are with crossing vees and coupling rods!). Naturally it's gone straight on my Christmas list.

Talking of Christmas lists, and somewhat off the subject... I've been considering investing in one of those Noch Grasmaster static grass applicators. I know they're ridiculously expensive for what they are and I know I said I wasn't going to be doing any modelling, but part of me still hankers after being able to play around with the odd little scenic cameo piece - you know, just a few square inches, a bit of grass, a tree...

But that reminds me... I'd better get on and update the MRJ Index with this new issue...