My early 2023 update and unforseen twist

It has been quite a while since my last blog post for varying reasons. The good was a trip overseas last September-October which ended with a visit to the Great Electric Train Show in Milton Keynes on 9th October 2022. I had planned on publishing some photos with a couple of blog posts after that but family and work commitments got in the way. And then it seemed the timing had passed.

 

I also had a wonderful visit to the home of legendary British modeller and author, Tony Wright. I must say this was a real highlight seeing "Little Bytham" in person. Tony was a most accommodating host and he and his wife made me feel most welcome. I also bought Tony's book about the building of this exceptional layout which is both informative and captivating. Again, I was slow to get the photos from my phone to the computer, albeit it takes me several goes to get the actual transfer to work!

I had lots of plans and intentions for 2023, starting with some long service leave in March and possibly additional leave mid-year. I am still working on my US layout and had plans to accelerate things in 2023. There are several upcoming model railway exhibitions I was planning on attending: Forestville (4-5 March), Canberra (26-27 March), Sandown (11-13 March), and the Australian Narrow Gauge Convention over the Easter weekend in April, and the Epping Club's exhibition at Rosehill (6-7 May). And then there was possible travel in the second half of the year. However, these plans are in disarray for the moment.

Alas, I ended up with a heart attack. Fortunately, the attack itself wasn't too bad but the discovery of blocked arteries was a real shock. I spent all last week in hospital and had my first two stents put in last Friday. Got a couple more to go in the coming weeks. At age 61 who never smoked, was never overweight, and had a reasonably healthy diet (but not enough exercise), I have been rocked to my core.

Amazingly, I am back home but instructed not to do anything (well, I can type a bit as long as I can keep my concentration) for at least two weeks and then to take further direction from my cardiologist. The next couple of stents can't go in for a few weeks apparantly. Funnily enough, you'd think that having permission to do nothing would be a good thing, but it's not: just leads to more thinking and worrying!

I am lucky to have an engrossing hobby and friends in model railways that will help move my mind into more positive thoughts and activities. Thanks to LF, DL, DM, JP, and a couple of other people who helped ease my mind over the past week. Thanks also to MD who shared his story with me, and my local NMRA club members.

I hope to get to the Canberra Exhibition but this will depend on the date for the next "procedure". And I'd like to think, at the very least, I'll be all set to go to the Epping Club's exhibition in May.

My 2023 is now a lot different to what I was looking forward to at the start of the year. But at least I am able to pen this blog post and hope to pen a whole lot more (plus modelling) throughout 2023.

The 2022 Rosehill Model Railway Exhibition

Congratulations to the Epping Model Railway Club for an absolutely fantastic model railway exhibition at Rosehill racecourse. After two false starts in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19, it was great to have this exhibition back in business as it is truly one of the best in the country.

This exhibition was a two day affair instead of the usual three day exhibition. Talking to exhibitors, they were pretty happy with a two day event. I don't know what the patronage was over the weekend, but on Saturday when I attended it was pretty busy, both inside the second hand section and the the exhibition proper. The venue (and the sunny weather) was excellent with good lighting, plenty of aisle space and a great range of layouts and commercial stands.

I had pre-booked and entry mid-morning Saturday was easy. The $20 entry fee, at first glance, seemed a bit high but everything seems to be expensive at the moment. That said, when I consider I was there for about five hours, enjoyed the layouts and catching up with people, then a $20 entry fee was good value.

Before I go any further, let's see a sample of some of the layouts on show.

First up is Yendys (HO scale) from the ACT Model Railway Society. As you can see from the exhibition plaques in the second photo below, this layout has done a lot of shows. It is a very good layout and always worth a good look. As always, click on the image to expand. 

Next up was the Peterborough Line, an interesting layout with separate vignettes showing the Light River bridge (photos) and Tarlee. The layout is HO scale and set in the 1982-86 era when Australian National trains plied the rails. I look forward to seeing further developments on this layout in the future.

The popular Binalong layout (HO scale) from the Epping Model Railway Club made another exhibition appearance. This layout is always a pleasure to view.

Widgeree (N scale) was a new layout to me and one that packs a lot of model railway into a scene. The layout is from the Sydney N Scale Model Railway Club. The layout is based on a small country town in the goldfields region of Victoria on the Castlemaine to Maryborough line in the early 1980s. The layout showcases a wide range of locos and rolling stock from club members.

The Canadian-themed Cheakamus Canyon in HO scale was an amazing layout set in the mountains of British Columbia. The layout features a number of bridge scenes, all based on real locations. The scenery was built using plaster castings on a foam base. The enormity of the scenic areas really place the trains in context. The layout was featured in the December 2021 issue of Continental Modeller. This layout is one to look out for at future exhibitions.

One of the highlights was the HO scale layout Burrowa. This layout is now 30' long (just over 9 metres) and well-scenicked using static grass and various coloured fibres. The slow pace of this branch line replicates the prototype nicely. The layout modules are are constructed using aluminium frames with plywood and foam superstructure. The station and associated buildings were all scratchbuilt, save for the S008 grain silos. The control panel uses the DCC Concepts Alpha Central for switching the points. I really love this layout and enjoyed talking to Peter, the owner/builder, about its construction.

 

 

In contrast by size, my other favourite layout was the wonderful Cass layout (HO scale) set in the mountains of West Virginia, USA, located a "ways up" the Chesapeake & Ohio Greenbrier Division. This layout was new to me. The layout featured shay lumber workings of the Cass, and then later, Mower Lumber companies. Note in the photos below the wonderful shay (brass) and how the right side of the layout extends back deep to give the layout a strong sense of depth but within a relatively small amount of space. The layout was constructed dusing Qubelok aluminium and foam core board which makes this layout light and easy to transport. This layout was superb.

Another layout I saw for the first time was the Queensland Railways HOn31/2 Walloon from the Logan District Model Railway Club. The layout is set in the 1960-80 period with a good variety of locos and rolling stock. In particular, the station buildings and the church were very nicely made and contributed to the realism of the associated scenery.

 

Another layout I was very impressed with was Over the Fence (NSW, HO scale). This layout is loosely modelled on Adamstown (including the station). The layout features some wonderful suburban houses and cameo scenes which we've come to expect from the layout builders in the now familiar perspex display mode. The railway line literally passes these houses "over the fence". All the buildings and structures were scratchbuilt using styrene. The different houses and rooflines are exceptional.

Stay tuned for the second instalment later in the week for the completion of the exhibition report and associated layout photos. But once again, thanks to the Epping MRC for an exceptional day.

Christmas day a long, long time ago

At this time of year I always reflect on my own childhood and the sense of wondrous expectation Christmas used to bring. And from one of those Christmases came a lifelong passion for model railways that has rarely diminshed over the (many) following years. On this particular Christmas Day I received my first train set - a Tri-ang Transcontinental passenger car set (RS.34).

Dad and I set up the track on the carpeted floor of the lounge room and had hours of fun just watching the train with its blue and gold passengar cars rotate around the oval of track (which I think at the time was called System 4). Having already been exposed to the real railways on some steam tours and the odd photographic expedition with my father, as well as dad's collection of "Railway Transportation" magazines, I imagined the train to be the wondrous Spirit of Progress in all its glory. It made no difference to me that the models were not great replicas, or that the scale and coarse track profile were not prototypically accurate. I let my imagination take over and that was it.

I added to that train set growing up but never really had a permanent layout while living with my parents (albeit my dad had a plan to have a lift up layout on pulleys above the car in the garage at one stage that never came to pass). 

In my teens I was exposed to Australian prototype model railways - firstly through the Australian Model Railroad Magazine (as it was called at the time) which I first saw at the local model railway shop (Micro Models in Hornsby). Not long after, I made my first Australian model railway purchases - a couple of MRC and Friedmont kits bought from Casula Hobbies in Casula. Joe was so impressed that my dad had driven me all the way from Hornsby that he gave us a discount. Joe from Casula Hobbies remains a wonderful advocate for the hobby and a genuine trailblazer supporting Australian prototype model railways. In fact, I just took advantage of his Christmas special 5% discount - thanks again, Joe!

Locos and rollingstock from Mansfield Hobbies and AR Kits soon entered my collection and the focus on NSW railway modelling took hold. But it wasn't until many years later that I built my first permanent layout and managed to actually run most of the equipment purchased from the preceding years. It was the time when if you saw something you wanted come onto the market, you snapped it up before it was gone forever! It's fair to say that I have more than enough in the collection nowadays.

Since then we have had a tremendous explosion of local manufacturers bringing in detailed Australian model railway locomotives, passenger cars and rollingstock from China over the past 20+ years, as well as locally made products. These manufacturers are well represented in my collection, being from Trax/Powerline, Austrains, Auscision, Anton's Trains, Bergs Hobbies, BGB and BGM, Casula Hobbies, Eureka Models, IDR Models, Lloyds Model Railways, On Track Models, Southern Rail Models, SDS, Trainorama, and many more.

I still have that first Tri-ang train set as the photos show. It doesn't have much use other than to bring back some wonderful childhood memories. Thanks to my father and mother for introducing the hobby of model railways to me at Christmas time all those years ago.

Finding the model railway mojo

Over the past few months I've lost interest in model railways. I don't read as much or watch Youtube train layout videos. My layout in the garage languishes despite the bottom deck being completely functional and operational (OK, it is often 4 degrees Celsius in there but that's no excuse!). Conversing with other railway modellers has diminshed markedly. Ripping up the layout and housing the cars sounds like a very good option indeed.

  Finding the right levers to bring back motivation can be difficult

Recently, I did some research for work on motivation in the workplace. As I read a wide array of articles, there were some common themes that nagged away at me as I passed by the garage door each day. These themes were as follows:

• Being bored with your routine
• The sense that the job is all too much 
• Not being satisfied with what you’ve done
  
• Comparing yourself to others 
• Feeling stressed about what you’re doing

Now for a hobby, these themes are pretty counterintuitive. The purpose of a hobby is to alleviate all of those motivation killers. But motivation does lapse from time to time and we need a way to get our mojo back. How to bring the "hobby" back to being a "hobby"?

If I review my readings on motivation again, I get the following answers:

• Remind yourself of the purpose and reset your focus if you have to
• Check your environment (i.e. change or improve your environment)
• Get back to small tasks instead of focusing on the grand outcome
• Similarly, it's the doing not the end in itself that makes the hobby so interesting 
• Realise there is an ebb and flow in what we do (i.e. don't be too hard on yourself)
• Celebrate what you've already achieved
• Start something new to find new motivation that can remind you what it feels like

I'll report back next month to see how things are going.

Model Railway Exhibition Programs

Eleven years ago I attended the Wagga Wagga Model Railway Exhibition. It seems like yesterday. I wonder if people are building model railway exhibition layouts now during the Covid-19 pandemic in the hope that exhibitions will return next year. This prompted me to check out other model railway exhibition programs from the past in my collection. It would be good to reminisce about all those exhibition layouts from the past and go through my archive of exhibition photos.

 

 

 

There were supposed to be three boxes of exhibition programs in my collection and a portable hard drive with all my photos. I knew I had been to plenty of exhibitions both prior to and after that 2009 exhibition in Wagga Wagga.

 

But as fate would have it, I couldn't find the portable hard drive or any of those exhibition programs. The portable hard drive was somewhere in the house but where were the boxes of programs? Then I remembered having a Marie Kondo moment about six months ago when I decided to tidy up my study. This meant throwing out a lot of "ancient" material, using the well worn rationalisation that I hadn't looked at any of this stuff for ages so there was no point in keeping it.

 

I don't have to tell you what an absolute mistake that was! 

 

As we all know when it comes to hardware items (for example, scraps of wood, strips of metalwork, random nails and screws of unknown size and origin), we NEVER throw that stuff away because we know some day it will be absolutely essential. Of course, we joke around with mates about this phenomenon because it's part of who we are, or in this case, being a railway modeller.  We laugh with self-conscious identification when comedian Michael McIntyre relates his man-drawer experience because it is all so true. And when our wives, partners or girlfriends shake their heads in complete ignorance of our strategies, we shake our heads too because they simply do not understand.

 

And so it is true that my boxes of model railway exhibition programs from the past 30 years (and maybe longer) had been taken out of my study, by me, and dumped unceremoniously into the recycling bin for roadside collection. And while I had no need to refer to them for the past six months, nay the past 30 years (or maybe longer), it is of no small comfort to know that now I needed to refer to those programs like never before!

The only thing worse about having thrown out something you now need is when you know you have the item you need but you cannot find it....

Looking ahead 2019 - Exhibitions

Every new year I make a mental list of all the things I want to achieve in the coming year. I have done this for many years now. However, I stopped calling them New Year resolutions because I wasn't particularly resolute in making the hoped-for achievements come to fruition. Still, I think that tradition is important and so my mental list prevails despite annual disappointments.

In 2019 I have a number of things I would like to achieve; some even related to model railways and this blog. As an aid to help me on this treacherous road ahead, my blogging will become what it was originally intended to be: a place to put down some thoughts about model railway layouts and the hobby in general. Over the past few years, the bulk of my posts were about exhibitions. I know that many people really enjoyed these exhibition summaries and accompanying photos. However, I am less inclined to visit exhibitions these days and even less inclined to photograph the same layouts over and over again.

That said, my first few posts for 2019 will be on model railway exhibitions. I appreciate that a frank discussion on some of the accepted practices in the hobby might cause some consternation, especially those closer to some of the issues than myself. I therefore preface the following thoughts by saying that I wish only to encourage some serious thinking about exhibitions and the hobby in general so that we can actually grow the hobby and make it successful in the years to come.

In this first post for 2019 I want to explore a couple of issues about model railway exhibitions. The first is the well-worn claim that model railway exhibitions are important to introduce the hobby to people who will then hopefully become active participants in the hobby, even if it is just as consumers of model railway products.

I appreciate the logic behind the claim but I have never seen any evidence that indicates any type of conversion rate. Reading articles in the model railway press, many authors cite childhood prototype railway experiences and/or train sets as an early introduction to the model railroad hobby rather than exhibitions. 

So, how many punters who attend model railway exhibitions ever go onto become railway modellers? From my observations, many punters (especially with children) pay only occasional attention to what is being displayed in front of them. Lego layouts seem to grab a lot of attention though. I often wonder why it is that Lego train displays remain overly popular compared to scale model railway layouts, especially those with strong prototype fidelity.

 And this brings us to another model railway exhibition mantra: the public want to see trains running around the layout at all times. I admit to having some sympathy to this claim in an age of attention deficits and immediate sense gratification. Lego layouts may also support the claim. I do wonder, however, if displaying exhibition layouts in this manner really provides a representative experience for the people who may want to join the hobby at a later stage. Does aimless running of trains enhance the model railway experience or not? Is it an effective demonstration of the hobby to entice new hobby participants? Or are exhibitions really just about entertainment?

In conjunction with the layouts and what is portrayed on the layouts, we must also look at the "real" model railroaders themselves. How do we come across to the public behind our model railway layouts? Are we engaging, knowledgeable, and approachable? Are we human showcases for the best of what the hobby of model railways can bring? Do we want the "average Joe" who visits the exhibition to say to themselves: "model railways, I really want to be like those guys and gals behind the layouts?"

In conclusion, do we even know why the "average Joe" comes to a model railway exhibition? Do we have any clue as to what they want out of the experience besides killing a couple of hours with the kids and grandparents (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Has there been any research to find out what percentage of exhibition visitors are your "average Joe" compared to existing railway modellers; and then discover what it is they get out of the experience? Do we even really care about the "average Joes"?

This leads me to the fundamental question behind this post: are model railway exhibitions really about showcasing model railways to the "average Joe" in the hope of converting them to the hobby at some point in the future?

My answer: I have no idea!

Opinion

In my role of armchair modeller, I tend to spend quite a bit of time reading model railway magazines and blogs on model railway topics. They all pretty much give an opinion or two on some aspect of the hobby or on life in general. For example, you can see some of the blog sites in my blog roll that I will often refer to, even if the updates are as slow as my own! What amazes me, however, is how worked up some people can be in their derision of people's modelling preferences and their modelling efforts, and in some cases, the person as well. Model railroading is supposed to be fun, is it not?

Recently, I was going through the blog of US modeller Lance Mindheim. Lance had his layout featured in the December 2013 issue of Model Railroader. The layout is a great example of taking inspiration from the prototype (Miami, Florida, in this case) and building a really nice model railroad. The composition and scenic elements of the layout are superb. There really should be no doubt that Lance is darn good modeller with a quality model railroad. And, as an aside, I hear Lance is to be a guest speaker next Easter at the New Zealand Model Railway Convention in Hamilton, New Zealand (home of the Chiefs rugby union team).

In Lance's blog entry for 30th November 2013, entitled "Live by the sword, die by the sword", Lance has compiled a number of derogatory comments from a UK forum about his layout and his layout article in Model Railroader. It seems that there are some people who don't like the dimensions of Lance's layouts. Building layouts using a standard 6' by 1' baseboard size irks some people. Other comments are critical of Lance's views about model railroading, particularly his expression about "modelling the ordinary". One US commentator didn't like the fact that an image of Lance's layout in Model Railroader had been digitally enhanced with the addition of a photo backdrop instead of showing the basement plumbing!

Lance shrugs off these comments and so he should. Lance is a very good modeller; one who thinks seriously about his modelling while at the same time enjoying the hobby as well. One of the greatest ironies from the criticisms is the fact that the UK model railroad magazines regularly feature micro-layouts which gives pause for thought for those who don't like shunty-plank designs!

The other interesting observation from these criticisms is the comment about Lance's personal views that he expresses sometimes in his model railroad blog and in his other blogs. Personally, I don't know why this is a problem when millions of bloggers around the world are just airing their opinion on pretty much everything. Blogs, by their very nature, are opinion pieces. I could go on, but I don't want to offend anyone with a lecture on the impact of social media on contemporary society...

Whatever ones opinion and whatever the way one chooses to express it, the model railway hobby includes people with umpteen different views on everything from layout planning to scenic detail and operational preferences. Note that I am talking about opinion, not fact. HO scale is 3.5mm to the foot - that's a fact without too much argument. Opinions about a layout in HO scale is another matter. The variety in what modellers do in HO scale (and other scales) is enormous and something we should cherish no matter what our own selective interests may be.

Variety and newness can help instigate our own thinking, whether it emanates from some feature we dislike on a layout or something we find fresh and appealing. Sometimes something that didn't interest us last year is now of immense importance as it now coincides with some modelling work we are doing now, rather than previously when we had just a passing interest. Newness can thus mean relevance at a certain point in time.

People are in the hobby for a range of different reasons and with a range of different skill sets. Individual preferences will abound but we are all part of our common hobby. Like humanity itself, essentially we are all the same. Where we differ in our preferences and approaches in doing things, we should take the opportunity to enhance our knowledge rather than simply deride those who take a different path to our own. It would be a boring hobby and a boring Australia if it were any other way.

That said, may you all have a safe and enjoyable festive season and New Year.

The making of our plastic trains and slot cars

I just stumbled across a couple of interesting YouTube clips about the manufacturing process for model trains and slot cars. Both clips look like they come from a YouTube set of similar clips about how things are made. There is all manner of manufactured products featured, including how prototype steel rails are made and how mass-produced hot dogs are made.

I am interested in some of the manufacturing processes to find out if they might be industries useful for the model railroad. I therefore want to understand the production process and what are the inputs into the manufacturing process. While the transport in or out of the factory would also be of interest, it's not critical. I can either do further research on particular manufacturing companies or just make it up for the model railroad if it all sounds plausible.

Anyway, here are the two clips. The first is on model train production. I am not sure the clip is complete because it sort of just ends but there is still enough of interest there. It would be interesting to get a comment from one of our local Australian manufacturers to see if what's shown in the clip is the same as what goes on in the Chinese factories they use.

The slot car clip says it's about Scalextric slot cars but they look like Carrera products to me!