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Iain's occasional drivel, moans & groans


ba14eagle
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Hi Mark

We have only just got back from our honeymoon - 11 days in sunny Boa Vista (Cape Verde). A lovely, barren place.

I love travelling but flying has to be the worst form. Being a large person, the seats are really uncomfortable. I also find it incredibly boring, not being able to relax and get comfortable enough to sleep and not being a technical geek, I dont have the whizz to download loads of movies or programmes to watch. I was very happy to get back into the drivers seat of my X-Trail, to drive home from Gatwick, last night 😊

So, there has been little time for train running, but hopefully, I will be running soon.

Im glad to see you had some retail therapy in Chester - somewhere Jo and I are planning a long weekend for - we like the tv prog "The secret life of the zoo" which is filmed at Chester. Hopefully I will be able to get to the model centre too.

 

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CONGRATULATIONS!!!  I have been to the cape Verde islands by ship, never by air. Must be about a 5 hour flight from London?? We use it as a stop over when crossing the Atlantic from  Europe to south america and vice verca. 

I get used to airline travel. Its a means to an end. I have to fly every 10 weeks either too or from New Zealand to where ever the ship is. Normally takes me 2 days. But its my life. I have gold cards for all the alliances which sounds glamorous but they all mean my backside has been welded to an aircraft seat for more hours than I care to imagine. Saving airpoints as the air New Zealand shop has a dremel 4000 in it. Not got enough points just yet for it.

The chester shop is really good. The top floor is model railways only. Ground floor is RC and other stuff.

Just bought a class 50 off ebay. Ark Royal.  First time I have done that so took a chance. Its at a friends in Liverpool ready to post home when i get back in july. Just need to get a rake of coaches to go with it. My railway will feature locos and stock that remind me of my own life. When I lived in Shaftesbury and our kids were young we would take the train to london to the museums from Gillingham dorset behind a class 50 . So I had to get one. This was in the BR days before network SE. Any idea what the rolling stock make up would have been? Think it was about 7 coaches but cant remember. 

Well I hope married life treats you well. Again congrats to Jo and you.

 

Mark

 

 

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Hi Iain, same as well, gee that would of being a long flight  over 6 hours, your would of flown over the Canary Islands where Rossi  live, haven't heard of him for a while now., put a search where the islands are , wow nice place to visit did you see the castle and there is a ship wreak as well   close to the beach, didn't say what island.

Keep the lady interested in the hobby my wife isn't at all, there is a museum close by and is part of a branch line want to go there for a visit, will con her, every third Sunday, there is a couple of new suburban railway lines opened a good day out.

Congrats again to you and Jo.

Winter isn't far away now very cold morning, can't sit outside to have the fist morning coffee, no sun till 9am.

Tony from down under.

 

 

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Mark & Tony

Many thanks chaps. Luckily :lol: Jo likes spending time with me, so is quite happy to come along for a day out, whichever of my many interests its to do with!

Tony - yes, we did see the wreck of the Cabo Santa Maria - we did a quad bike safari out there - a short video / slideshow is on my YouTube channel. There is little of it left now and its disappearing quickly.

Mark.

In the early 1980's there were still a few Mk1 coaches on the Exeter to Waterloo route, as well as the Mk2, which feature in my representation of one of these trains - take a look in the rolling stock section on here - the photos should still be there. Normal formation, as I recall, was load 8 or 9, with 5 or 6 x TSO's, a TSOT (a TSO with miniature buffet counter / trolley point) and 2 x BFK providing the first class accommodation and brake van space - these were normally back to back in the centre of the train. Lima do the Mk2b & c coaches at the cheaper end of the market or Bachmann do some Mk2a (but at the higher end of the market). All of my coaches are Bachmann models, with the TSOT being a cut and shut of a few Bachmann TSO's - not done by me I hasten to add :$ - , as Bachmann don't produce these later Mk2b & c's.    

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Hi Iain, had a look on your you tube channel, saw you and your wife on those bikes, will have to do a search what the name of the wreak was called that is is for sure something different going in an old fire engine to your weeding, my dad could of driven one of those, looks like some research need on the history of Brisbane fire engines.

metzladder1.jpg

How close am I, sent you the QLD Fire Museum link, what my dad would of driven  drove in the late 50's 

Tony from down under 

 

Edited by aussietmrail
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  • 3 weeks later...

Cheers Riddles.

I was good too - less than £10 in total! - well, that's if you ignore the class 37 sound chip that went on the plastic :lol: - paid for today mind, with a 12hr day shift!

I am thinking of ordering a couple of pairs of those Cargowaggons - only thing putting me off, is I doubt they will fit in my stock boxes :lol:

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  • 2 months later...
1 hour ago, ba14eagle said:

Its no good - I think temptation may get the better of me :oops:....

You're going to need a bigger garden!

The price of O gauge is suddenly making it a more realistic alternative to OO gauge although we then return to the matter of available space which is the main reason we went outdoors with OO gauge in the first place. I have to admit that O gauge is stunning and has a great feel about it and if I were starting completely from scratch again I'd be tempted to go down that route too. 

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Well, temptation did get the better of me and I placed an order with Rails for a "Whizzo".

I'm in no hurry, but am looking forward to it arriving! Just need a few 16t coal wagons, brake van etc, to give me enough to set up a shunting plank for the "Whizzo" and the "gronk" ive already got :-D  

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  • 2 weeks later...

20180909_124503.thumb.jpg.ed1fdfb8d15db2a6195d275f2cecacfb.jpg

Well, Christmas has arrived early in Summer Hampton! This beauty arrived at the weekend and its very impressive (although I will be reworking the weathering a bit).

I have been surveying the garden, to see how I can incorporate an O gauge line as well as the OO.

Im thinking a single line can replace the outer 2 OO circuits, around the "square" part of the railway - it wont be able to go around the pond, as thats too tight. Im going to have to get my engineer head on and see how I can alter the existing boards to make it work. Stay tuned!

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  • 4 months later...

Ive not been upto much lately, but exhibition time is back and i am busy with visits.

Here are a few videos of just the last couple of weekends. I visited the CMRA show in Stevenage, at the weekend, for the first time (free travel comes in handy 😉 and was really impressed with the great selection of layouts, traders and demonstrations. Most impressive was the free 🤔 showguide, which was brilliant.

I left a loco with a certain dcc sound chipping supplier, who is going to bring it to life for me - cant wait..

Here are some links to my videos.

https://youtu.be/cBMCauiXrDo

https://youtu.be/UaaPxngm0pM

https://youtu.be/coTwtzeQbNc

 

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  • 1 year later...


Crikey! Its been over a year since I've posted anything in here. I would like to say I haven't been idle, but until recently I have really - other than dismantling Summer Hampton - but we wont revisit that unhappy event. New decade and everything, lets look forward again.

Here is a quick overview of where I am currently.

The resurrection of the garden railway currently amounts to one cast piece of concrete - about 15ft long so nearly a quarter of what is to do.

OO stock wise, I've completed 4 x mk3 sleeping cars (for 1S19/1V32), a mk2 BFK (long overdue for the Exeter to Waterloo set) and a mk1 RMB (for a cross country working) this last week on nights. I am sat looking at 4 x mk2 TSO, a pair of mk1 BG's and a mk2 BSO, all in a dismantled state, waiting for renumbering, passengers to be added and weathering. These are all for 1S19 / 1V32. This shortened representation of the Bristol to Glasgow & Edinburgh overnight sleeper service is 12 vehicles long (the real thing had at least 1 more sleeping car in each portion, thus loaded to a minimum of 14 vehicles, and often up to 16 vehicles) and looks a great sight, snaking around the garden. Pre-ordered items expected for delivery this year are a Bachmann Class 116 DMU, a pair of Cavalex PFA MOD wagons, a Revolution Trains IZA Twin Cargowagon, a 5 car Accurascale TPE Nova 3 set and, fingers crossed, Dapol TPE class 68 to haul the Nova 3. Thankfully, most of this has been pre paid for!     

O gauge stock wise,  my "Western" is about to be returned from Youchoos, having had sound fitted and it sounds fantastic! (I went to the workshop last week and saw it running) There hasn't been anymore freight stock joining the fleet, but I'm thinking about purchasing my first coaches - these will probably be from the Darstaed range of BR Mk1's. And its about time I had another loco to run - the Heljan class 25 is high up the priority list. It is a shame I will be at work this time next week, so wont be able to go to the Bristol O gauge show :( 

Lastly, a shameless plug, if its allowed. Have you ever considered owning a share in a steam locomotive - 1:1 scale? A year ago, I became a shareholder in the 5637 Steam Locomotive Group and so far, have enjoyed 2 separate trips on the footplate, hand on the regulator. Shares are currently available and offer a very affordable way to become involved in a real GWR tank engine. Check out the 5637 steam loco group website for more information. The loco is due a 10 year, heavy overhaul in April, so is likely to be out of traffic for 2 years whilst this is carried out and selling the last shares will see the overhaul fund get over the winning line (I know, I'm not selling it yet am I :lol:) The loco should be appearing at both the East Somerset and the Swindon & Cricklade Railway's Spring Galas, in March 2020.    

Edited by ba14eagle
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7 hours ago, ba14eagle said:

OO stock wise, I've completed 4 x mk3 sleeping cars (for 1S19/1V32), a mk2 BFK (long overdue for the Exeter to Waterloo set) and a mk1 RMB (for a cross country working) this last week on nights. I am sat looking at 4 x mk2 TSO, a pair of mk1 BG's and a mk2 BSO, all in a dismantled state, waiting for renumbering, passengers to be added and weathering. These are all for 1S19 / 1V32. This shortened representation of the Bristol to Glasgow & Edinburgh overnight sleeper service is 12 vehicles long (the real thing had at least 1 more sleeping car in each portion, thus loaded to a minimum of 14 vehicles, and often up to 16 vehicles) and looks a great sight, snaking around the garden....

I admire your attention to detail. I don't even seem to be able to get round to completing the weathering and adding loads to some of the vehicles I started on a year or two ago. 

What work have you had to do to the sleeping cars?

I would imagine it's a great feeling to recreate a particular train formation yourself rather than simply purchasing a representation of it in RTR form. I don't really know enough about trains to either want or know how to do it. The closest I can come by comparison to your 1S19 is the Caledonian Sleeper but I'm happy to have the standard Hornby vehicles for now and a high level of imagination. It's still exciting to see it circling the garden.

Do you use the usual 'Chinese' passengers for your coaches? I've looked at some higher grade seated figures such as 'Bachmann' and 'Presier' and it would cost as much as the coach again to populate the vehicles using them.

8 hours ago, ba14eagle said:

....O gauge stock wise..... And its about time I had another loco to run - the Heljan class 25 is high up the priority list...

I was wrong. I've been expecting you coming onto the forum saying you'd got the class 50.

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As I don't run trains on a beautifully scenic layout, I do try and at least make my trains look a little more prototypical. I don't go to the lengths some on RMWeb might, but I satisfy myself.

TBH, the sleeping cars required very little work and were deliberately chosen, as they provided motivation to do the rest, being a fairly quick win. I have removed the white windows at one end on 2 of them, so they now represent a SLE (non pantry, 13 berths) as opposed to a SLEP (pantry with 12 berths). Then they were renumbered, weathered and varnished.

Yes, Chinese people have to be used, by virtue of the quantity I use. I've about 60 or 70 that need some colour adjustment - perhaps a job for tonight.

As soon as someone produces an O gauge class 50 in unrefurbished condition, I will be buying one. I am looking forward to really being able to go to town with the weathering on that!  

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  • 2 months later...

Another O gauge loco has arrived (a few weeks ago now but just catching up) and its a Heljan Hymek - D7017. The real thing is preserved, so again, it ticks both boxes as being good for a BR 1970's scene or on a preserved railway. The loco came from Tower Models who have numbered it for me. I just need to add a driver and secondman, weather it and get it sound fitted. I will go with YouChoos again, whenever we come out of lockdown.

20200318_141235.thumb.jpg.eb8e843dc35a72a70021f014cc868ed2.jpg

 

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