This coming weekend at the brilliant Railex in Aylesbury has given the opportunity at short notice to exhibit Shelfie2. Due to circumstances beyond their control one of the layouts had to cancel, and with help from some good friends, I was able to offer Shelfie2 as a stand in, and this weekends spare time has been in the man cave testing it and trying a couple of new items out.
Railex is one of those shows that is consistent in its quality of exhibits and trade, this year including Alexandra Sidings above and Canada Street below.
Interesting that both layouts above have been inspiration for projects, undoubtedly Canada Street was ‘in mind’ in the background when building Shelfie4, and Alexandra Sidings has certainly given food for thought with Shelfie3 which is still in development.
So if you’ve got time this coming weekend, and want to see some really good quality finescale modelling across the main UK scales and gauges, get to Railex, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re there, come and say hello too, it’s always interesting to meet the readers!
This post was to be an #FEF theme, but having been away for a few days last week mixing work with pleasure, (it can work), I thought I’d put up some pretty pictures instead 🙂
The last time I was on Yr Wyddfa I was perched on Crib Goch as my starter for ten. Quite the intro for hill walking, if you know, you know!
These are all north Welsh locations, it’s a country I love and is excellent for detoxing, and with stunning scenery. If you’ve not been there, go.
If I had done #fef, it would have been this, so a win win, pretty pictures and an #fef!
This is the most recent part of the improvement package I’m doing on the Bachmann Standard Class 5, and as this covers the improvements made to the front bogie wheels and the chimney, sort of comes under the #fef banner!
Most of the components used here are from the Alan Gibson range.
Good quality replacement parts always make these sort of tasks easier and quicker, as do good tools. The above work not taking much more than an hour, makes these improvements a viable set of small changes, that can be done sequentially. Next steps will be changing the smokebox door detailing and AWS boxes which will follow in a similar format.
These techniques in the video aren’t of course unique in their application to the Standard Class 5, the work on the 4575 prairie above used very similar techniques and components.
Continuing my makeover of Bachmann’s OO BR standard class five, I’ve now completed the tender conversion. The model as supplied comes with a BR1G tender and this needs converting to a BR1 type. So above is the vidjo of how to easily do that.
The next step will cover the work on the locomotive itself, including the tender coupling, and a few upgrades to chassis and body. Then the paint!
With the festive season officially over, twelfth night and all that, it’s been quite a good couple of weeks of getting stuff done.
Over the period I was able to do some short bursts, as well as lengthier sessions in the man cave. We all pick up kits and models at shows, or from friends over time, and the shed from Severn models above is just one of those examples for me. I’ve got a number of things underway at the moment, preparing items for a trial N Gauge layout, some 4mm Bachmann makeovers, and a couple of Accurascale gems to complete.
The benefit of doing these fifteen minute tasks is you can either get a small job completed, or chip away at something bigger.
The real beauty of a simple, well designed kit like the workshop above, is the assembly was literally around 15 minutes, (I’ve a 4mm one to do which I’ll cover properly). So it’s like you get a modeller’s endorphin kick, and it spurs you on to other tasks. A real mojo fire starter.
Thank you again for taking the time to drop by and wishing all you readers a great new year for 2024.
As we take our last steps out of 2023, it’s time to say thank you to all you readers, who take the time out of your day to read the blog, or look at the Instagram, YouTube and Facebook pages.
Also thank you to my fellow social media authors whom provide me with inspiration, as always, please take time to look at or read their links they’re always a good read.
A final nod of appreciation too, to the manufacturers and publishers of the products we use. In my experience they’re approachable, helpful and enthusiastic about our hobby, without them our ‘world’ would be a much poorer place.
While thinking about reading, my choice of best book for this year goes to one of the above. The Trainspotters Notebook gets it, given as a birthday gift, I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it. However as Luke Nicholson has massively helped raise the profile of rail hobby interest over the past few years, in a positive way, it obviously deserved the respect to approach it with an open mind.
Well, what a book. An unexpected surprise, a real page turner. It’s written in a simple uncompromising way. You feel you’re sitting in the same room listening to a conversation with Francis(Luke). I learnt stuff from it, what’s not to like?
It’s not written in a nerdy way, the paragraph above is an excellent example of how the narrative reads. That passage took me to climbing above the southern tunnel at Welwyn North, sneaking through the fence (oldschool obvs!) and sitting with a view spread across the River Mimram valley, and at our feet the East Coast mainline. Being able to hear the distant hum of an approaching Deltic, as it crossed Digswell viaduct turning into that familiar drone as it dived into the portal beneath our feet.
As Francis’ popularity grew with his quirky Instagram videos it was fascinating to see the social media commentators, complaining that he was somehow, in effect, being disrespectful to ‘rail enthusiasts’, when the opposite was plain to anyone who was able to breath through their nose. Luke does cover some of this in the book, some of those self appointed hobby experts out there, really need to read this book. I’m not sure however that the subtlety of someone appreciating the hobby in a different manner to Colin of Basildon’s dyed in the wool stereotype, of how ‘their’ hobby should be done or enjoyed will sink in! It’s interesting that my 20’s daughters know who he is, and think nothing untoward about him and his role as a positive ’influencer’. However they don’t know quite so much about Colin from Basildon and his dated opinions…
What I found engaging is how open he is about the buzz he physically gets from trainspotting, particularly the acoustics of it. Again for me this has a hook that I can relate to, for the flat six rumble of a 911, flat four of a scooby, crackle of a tuned 2-stroke will turn my head, not to the same extreme, but certainly ‘Ooh I want to have a look at that!’
Some of you will recognise Nicholas Whittaker’s Platform Souls in the image above, a 20th Century reflection of 60’s and 70’s trainspotting, and a brilliant and emotive book in it’s own right. The Trainspotters Notebook is a 21st Century narrative, which in my opinion earns its right to sit side by side with that book, and is a more than worthy companion. I wonder what a 22nd Century trainspotting notebook will read like?
You weren’t expecting that were you? Thank you again, and see you next year!
It’s that time of year again, a quick thank you to you readers for taking your time to drop by and spend some time here. The blog, YouTubeInstagramthreads and Facebook wouldn’t be possible without input and inspiration from other modellers, and friends in the trade whom all inspire and support in many different ways the production process f this blog and associated content. As always if you have time to spare do read the linked blogs and social media accounts, they’re full of good, wide ranging and interesting content.
This is one of the few Christmas periods where I’ve not been working in some form. If you are working, or caring for someone, or animals your efforts are very much appreciated.
An introduction to a makeover I’m giving to a Bachmann BR Standard Class 5. The model dates from the early noughties, and still holds its own today. The overall accuracy is excellent, the shape and core dimensions are all there and correct, so why the makeover?
Well this release, and one other had a variety of detail errors. By this I mean that the wrong components were assembled making an inaccurate representation of any variant of the class. A bit like Eric Morecambes ‘all the notes are there, it’s just they’re not in the right order!’
What I intend to do is to cover the modification and re weathering of the model with stages here, and on the Albion Yard youtube channel. A bit of a journey in identifying areas to improve, perhaps trying a new technique, the coupling rods for a start, and removing/reducing the factory weathering. They’ll keep me occupied in the man cave for a while. That’s enough wibble from me though..
You must be logged in to post a comment.