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Mick's Drivel


mick
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l done the same last week, some stuff went in storage and started get rid of a surfit of track via a well known on line site. It looked great, even bought a small swivel chair from local junk shop which fitted in nicely. Went down shed today and it was back to a tip. All my fault, not the worlds most organised person.

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Mick and Jimbob, you dare are describing my attitude toward the railway. A lot of times I have to wander around and get unrelated things ready. Sure, I need to fix the railway, but I'm not ready until I get those flowers planted, or I tidy up that one part of the garden that is a mess of winter accumulation.

I've been outside doing the same thing on and off. But as I do it, I am eyeing the railway and trying to come up with a plan for engineering the big fix so I can get back to a little running. I expect we will see the revival of several railways this summer. :D

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I've enjoyed myself today. It's felt good getting back to a bit of layout construction with hands covered in black bitumen and the overpowering odour of white spirit after trying to clean it off. It was also good to be back into my tatty old work trousers with a split between the legs that really should signal their demise. I find I work so much better when I'm in proper attire!

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  • 7 months later...

So, it's the beginning of another 'New Year' - a time when I don't feel too bad for not having done much over the previous twelve months because this is a(nother) chance to address that over the year ahead. My New Year's resolution I suppose - perhaps we all have similar good intentions?

Actually I don't feel too bad about my rate of progress with the garden railway; it was always going to be a long-term project and there are other things in life to enjoy apart from model trains. There are many model railway enthusiasts who spend years working on their layouts, whether they be indoors or out in the garden. I find that if your interest in something runs deep enough then you can take a break safe in the knowledge that you will eventually return. I know that model railways will remain one of life's interests to me, even though my interest in trains goes little further than that, so my lack of progress isn't concerning.

Conditions outside at this time of year are rarely favourable for us garden railway modellers but I'm looking forward to getting things up and running again, especially with some new loco's that I'm keen to try out. I have more free time at the beginning of the year but it's also a time that I purposely set aside for catching up with jobs around the house such as decorating. For the time being the garden railway will have to wait but it will no doubt waken from its slumbers as the days lengthen.

Happy New Year everyone.

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  • 2 months later...

Are we allowed to defer our New Year's resolutions? I've spent more time decorating than I had intended - more time than I had hoped. At least that's about it for another year so I'll have to find other excuses to keep me from the layout now.

The past two days have brought some sunshine this way, awakening thoughts of garden railways and running trains and although I'm looking forward to what opportunities the better weather brings there have been some changes in my thoughts concerning model railways - mainly it's getting very expensive. I've found myself NOT ordering several models that I would most certainly have ordered and cancelling my membership of certain clubs/magazines that I would normally have supported. In a way I suppose that's contributing to the downfall of the hobby but I just feel enough is enough - best make do with what I've got. 

I'm not sure the outlook is all that bright with escalating prices and commissioned models cancelled. Even Locomotion have begun inviting interested parties to 'reserve' before committing to new models which I guess is understandable. Times are certainly changing and caution would seem to be the way forward.

I remember paying little more than £20 for a new Bachmann MK1 Pullman coach that today costs almost £60. It's staggering, but the same goes for products in the weekly shop at the supermarket so it's not confined to model railways alone. However, we have to eat so we have to choose.

My biggest concern right now is how all those models I've purchased over recent years have endured storage. Remember those Heljan class 47 chassis's I found that had expanded and almost destroyed the plastic bodies? I dread to open some of the boxes for fear of what I might find inside. I thought once I'd bought them there'd be nothing to worry about other than the occasional oiling but now it's all got me thinking if holding on to models is really worth it. I used to look upon them as a type of investment but now I'm not so sure.

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  • 5 months later...

Well here I am again full of excuses for doing nothing at all this year. Even the website has taken a back seat and been left to stagnate as I simply haven't had the enthusiasm required to mess around when the Invision forum software itself has proved lacking.

In just a few hours time it will be September and I ask "where has this year gone?"

We've spent the greater part of this year at our caravan where our little Westie, 'Charlie', was more comfortable. Warm weather didn't suit him and up in the Yorkshire Dales, where our van is sited, it's usually a few degrees cooler than it is at home. For the past year or so he'd been suffering from pulmonary fibrosis meaning he could no longer accompany us on our walks and we had to plan our days out carefully so there was somewhere for him to enjoy nearby. He's always loved going out in the car no matter the destination.

In recent weeks his condition worsened and in addition he acquired an infection on his facial area that spread rapidly despite the antibiotics and other treatments which our vet prescribed. Last Saturday we were forced to make the decision that he couldn't suffer any longer and that trip in the car to the vets was his final journey.

But what a journey it has been. Yes we're devastated to lose him but so grateful for the joy he brought to us. I remember him spending every day outdoors with me during construction of the Selby Garden Railway although his interest had waned somewhat by the time of Worsley Dale. He accompanied us on almost every holiday, and on the odd occasion when we left him in kennels we had to return early to collect him because it wasn't the same without him around. He's travelled with us to the extreme south west of the country and to the far north of Scotland. He's been east and he's been west. There's very few places we ever went without him - the back seat of the car was his domain.

His collars are now attached to our rucksacks so that it feels like a part of him is still tagging along when we go out walking.

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  • 2 months later...

We're coming to the end of another year and my progress has been much the same as the ones before. The trouble with having a holiday retreat is that when it's nice and sunny I'm not at home to do anything, and when I do make it back home then you can bet it's seldom fit to be doing anything outdoors. However, I have taken steps to organise myself better and focus my attention on what's most important. Yesterday I began cutting logs again for my OTA log wagons - it's a start. I hadn't realised just how many OTA wagons I had obtained over recent times but the total currently stands at 34 so I'll need to trim logs for at least half of those to enable an empty and a loaded working. I am currently working my way through a lot of bush fuchsia trimmings that have been stored in the greenhouse over the past two winters but today I've done none as my finger tips are numb from yesterdays chopping.

I've always kept a record of my loco collection but never had much idea of the number of coaches and wagons I had amassed, so over the last three weeks I've been going through the whole lot and printing out lists of everything I've got so that I can work out what I want to keep and what I really should let go. The outdoor layout was always intended to be worked as a preserved type railway but one that I could always change to one with a Scottish Highland theme. I don't intend for either to be prototypically correct, they will both be simple loose representations of the actual scene. I don't have the time or desire to do the necessary research or the skills required to carry out necessary stock modifications.

I still intend creating a running line around my attic, in fact I do have some track laid up there already, but that will be based on what I experienced during my railway career so there'll be plenty of coal workings utilising class 56, 60 and 66 locos with an abundance of MGR, HTA and HEA wagons. Returning to those lists I've been making I find I've currently got 96 MGR wagons so more or less three full rakes, and two full rakes of HTA wagons among many others. I have some weathering to do.

So, what the lists actually tell me is that I've got a sufficient number of coaches and wagons to cover all my needs but also an abundance of stock, including locomotives, that just don't fit in with either scenario. I decided it was time to dispose of as many as I could providing it could be done for the right price. My biggest offload has been my sound-fitted APT-E - totally unused and unheard since purchase, but that's the point I've been trying to make - I'm not using these things so what's the use in keeping them? They may increase in value but they may also get damaged or worse, stolen. They may even succumb to the dreaded chassis distortions I've experienced with some other diesels. It's time to keep only those I intend to use and make a pledge never to buy anything else that does not fit in with my future plans. Considering the price of some of the latest models, that isn't a bad thing.

I'm sure I'm not totally alone in having far too many loco's, coaches and wagons?

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Hi Mick,

i've wondered what you've been up to since you have not been very present on the forum.

Progress is Progress! So much of the modeling activity can be a chore, such as making lists of things, or maintenance. I am doing similar things, but nothing tooo exciting to report, with the exception of some new stock and some train photos from my recent trip ti europe. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dark nights and the onset of Xmas can mean only one thing round here.... burglars!

I'm sick of the fact that these days it seems it's something we just have to accept and endure. No, fortunately it's not me that's been a victim but close neighbours, an elderly couple. I say fortunately but to be honest its fortunate for the scumbag who did this that he didn't chose my house instead because he wouldn't have been cycling away on his bicycle if he'd been trying to get in here.

The elderly couple went to bed around 9pm and scumbag had obviously been watching. He approached shortly afterwards, just rode straight down their driveway on his bicycle, and threw a brick through the glass panel of their rear door. It went clean through and smashed into a fridge/freezer opposite. It seems he left and waited to see if anyone had been disturbed before returning.

He rode back out on his bike when a light came on in a bedroom, probably one of the couple going to the bathroom, but returned again when the light went out. He entered the house, went into the bedroom where the couple were and took jewellery and whatever else he could find. During the space of an hour he went in four times - captured on CCTV. It was a further 2 hours before the couple discovered what had happened.

The police came and took statements. If he's ever caught then no doubt he'll get a slap on the wrist and be told he'll be in trouble if he's ever caught again.

You see it on the news occasionally where an elderly person has been attacked in their home after disturbing an intruder. The media post photos of the horrific injuries sustained and yet unless they do actually cause bodily harm there seems little importance placed on simple theft. I think the punishment for being there in the first place should be the same as that for those who do cause bodily harm because no doubt if the elderly couple near me had disturbed this scumbag during his ransacking of their home and the theft of their personal possessions he would most probably have 'defended' himself.

Punishment at school was a marvellous thing. It taught right from wrong from an early age. It didn't work with everyone for sure but on the whole it made a difference. I remember getting the slipper at High School even though I can't recall what I had actually done wrong but I do remember being on my best behaviour from then onwards.

There's no deterrent these days. In the case of burglars I'd start by cutting off their hands - at least it would stop this one making a quick getaway on his bike!

  • Sad 2
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I have been burgled a couple times. Mostly my car parked on the street. I thought if I just left it unlocked they could look around and realize I have nothing in the car, but they still smashed windows, just because. Once they broke into my home. I could make this along response, but I figure you have better things to do than read my novels on here. 

I used to think nice things like, oh the poor guy needs groceries. No, he needs drugs and expensive running shoes. I am not sympathetic. I have bars on my windows and security bars on my doors. 

When my house got burgled, one of the things they took was a DVD player that was extremely cheap. They tend to go for easy to pawn items like that and jewelry and such. Best place to store valuables is in hidden places they wouldn't look like a pantry, linnen closet, or under your kitchen sink. You can also get small safes that can be affixed for that. So yes, leave decoys around. You can have the cheap portable CD player I got at a yard sale, you can have my cheap whatever - - Knock yourself out. 

Here in Denver if you come in my house, I can shoot you dead and it is self defense.You don't know how many weapons I have near me and of what caliber. ;) Lots of home owners have guns. Our burglars tend to work between 9am and 5 pm so as to avoid armed home owners.

The hard part of being burgled is the feeling of no longer being safe in one's own home. My strategy in deterrence is to make my house hard to get into. If it is night time, you will wake me up. I will be armed and ready, the police will be on their way. If it is daytime, It will take some time for you to get in. You will make noise and attract attention. But hey, there is a house just a little way down the street that has not taken these precautions. Even dumb thieves look for an easy target.

you may want to get some of those solar LED Lights that click on when someone passes by. I need to get several for my house. 

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The one advantage I have, is living out in the middle of nowhere, which also means few low life, My neighbours until not long ago never locked their house. I rarely lock the car to get to us you'd need a car so they wouldn't need to nick one!!. Althoughthe car is in the back garden and we have something with 4 feet and teeth, they don't know he'll only lick you to death, not bite you.

For the nearest low life to get out from the nearest town to us is a 5 mile bike ride or by car and they stick out like a sore thumb..

 

The low crime rate does mean on a night shift there are only 4 policemen within 20 miles (thats 2, 10 miles away and 2, 20 miles away), as Cromer found out when they were invaded by travellers, they had more crime that weekend, than in a normal  month..

Edited by TheQ
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In many cases it not what they take but the damage they cause. I have been burgled  twice, after the first time we started locking the internal doors down stairs but when it happened again (years later) they tried to prise the door of its hinges and in the process pulled the door frame of the wall!. The cost of getting that repaired was more than what l lost. 

I also had my business premises robbed, that would'nt have been so bad but as there was nothing of value there they set one of our vehicles on fire and smashed allt he windows on several others. The police arrested a couple of teens but they had an alibi, the local pub landlord said they were drinking there all evening. Two years later he was arrested for reciveing stolen property, oh hum.

My rule now is if you can't afford to lose it, dont own it !

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everyone from sunny Caloundra, QLD is living up to its name today, being the sun shine state, can't even go out in the balcony to have a morning coffee , second day of our holiday, rest day too much walking yesterday.

Sad to hear of you losing your dog  Mick, very hard when they become a member of the family , we we the same when we had to put our little dog down to cancer,she made it to 17 and a half years, grand old lady .

Over here is very bad for robberies, they are going for big time  ATM's and the amount of damage they do to the shops where they are,use utes to ram the glass doors or use angle grinders to to some time go through the roof of shop next door, some times they succeed, and usual the cars are stolen, to feed their bad habit drugs manly ice is real bad over here..

I am so glad my son was disabled and didn't mix in the wrong group like his cousin did..

After reading these posts I decided to do a list of my trains , locos first 65 all up and rolling stock, counted all the different freight wagons took pics and passenger fleet and the add-on set I go from Germany I locked up in the steel cupboard, where other locos are that be very hard to get hold of and took pics of every thing else, my wife has them in her notebook in  iPad, you just don't know.

I have seen people driving back and forward  checking out who is or not at home, we have high fences with lock up gates, only keeps the honest person out, we have been broken into  twice , first time

did me a favour, they took all my old garden tools , and electric tools, but was very upset as they took my very first electric tool I bought was a drill was was replaced  with  Makita drill , glad we have insurance .

Just a few days back I old bloke was in his 90's and got broken into beaten pretty bad , lived just out side  Bundaberg  QLD  a couple of nights back was being tot ready to be flown down to Brisbane, one time you could leave the back door open cars unlocked while going into the  shop> even have to lock the doors of your car even sitting in while the wife or I duck into the shop car high jacking is a big problem here .

Just put the air-con on , pretty hot here in Caloundra now, Brisbane is coping 35 degrees, Ipswich a degree hotter.

Tony Muller from down under keeping on moving ahead

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I've continued clearing surplus models from my collection - 29 loco's, 68 coaches and a good number of wagons have all left me in the past few months leaving me with a more manageable holding, not to mention the increase in available space. Other than a few more MGR wagons, which were required to complete my current rakes, I've also resisted all temptations to restock.

I hold my hand up - I'd become totally obsessed with collecting and completely withdrawn from actual modelling, leaving my outdoor layout completely untouched for well over a year and my plans for an indoor layout existing only on a sheet of A4 paper. I'm trying to give myself some space to breathe, the chance to clear my head, and to get back to doing what I'm supposed to be doing - running an OO garden railway.

I'm not going to make any promises but when the weather settles down again I'm hoping I can resume from where I left off about 2 years ago.

 

 

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Mick,

Get a deck chair out. Put it beside that awesome viaduct which must look amazing now it has weathered. I was going to suggest a nice glass of wine but looking at your last post maybe a cup of Ovaltine would be better. Or a duvet! Get a diesel with a great rake of coaches and just watch it go around. Video it for the likes of me and enjoy. There is no such thing as bad weather. Just poor clothing choices. :ph34r: Especially in the UK.

 

Dont get disheartened. You guys are the reason I came to this forum....for inspiration.

cheers

Mark

 

 

 

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