200 years of railways 1825-2025 27 Sept '25- 18 Jan '26

[John Masters]

1 hour ago, Mjwomack said:

if you want to build a whole layout

I would need another house...so it will be something much smaller.  Thanks for the welcome.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

On 01/04/2024 at 10:19, Mjwomack said:

Quite possibly a little bit too much Easter wine yesterday, but I think this would be a great strap line for this GB

 

Man is born free but everywhere is in Trains (Rousseau, allegedly)

 

I was thinking more along the lines of Choo Chooo!    

[psdavidson]

24 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

I was thinking more along the lines of Choo Chooo! 

Bet you were chuffed with that idea

[Bobby No Mac]

56 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

I was thinking more along the lines of Choo Chooo!    

 

 

 

[Marklo]

Count me in, I have been promised a present if a Schewere Gustav so all things being equal I shall build this for the GB. If not I may try to track down a Hasegawa Leopold Togo with my already built Moser Karl

[Mjwomack]

On 4/4/2024 at 8:51 PM, Marklo said:

I may try to track down a Hasegawa Leopold

I tackled one last millennium (though it feels longer ago than that) and it defeated me. Always wondered how it actually moved any distance, but we now have our in-house German heavy transport expert ( @raider of the lost part) to answer such questions!!

[CliffB]

Would road going vehicles in BR livery qualify (I really want to build a Scarab sometime!).?

 

 

[Mjwomack]

44 minutes ago, CliffB said:

Would road going vehicles in BR livery qualify (I really want to build a Scarab sometime!).?

 

 

Hummm🤔🤷‍♀️, ah here it is 'Railway related items', knew it was in there somewhere!😉 1/76 or some obscure manufacturer in a larger scale? Scratchbuild?

 

Just waiting for someone to offer a Dragon Rapid inRailway Air Service livery- ferries equally welcome!

[Pig of the Week]

I'd think a BR road vehicle would be perfectly acceptable as they're very much part of the railway as a whole, Dapol did a little Scarab 00 gauge kit didn't they? ...

 

.. Now then what about an "emergency rail replacement" bus service eh 😂

[Mjwomack]

13 minutes ago, Pig of the Week said:

I'd think a BR road vehicle would be perfectly acceptable as they're very much part of the railway as a whole, Dapol did a little Scarab 00 gauge kit didn't they? ...

 

.. Now then what about an "emergency rail replacement" bus service eh 😂

Now you're just being mean! Though I do like the ones with the led set to 

I'm a train choo choo

 

And many of the rail companies did operate buses as a routine

[Pig of the Week]

And horses for shunting.. The last railway horse was retired in 1967 apparently ( PAL / Pedigree Chum no doubt 😞) 

 

Edited April 7, 2024 by Pig of the Week

[CliffB]

1 hour ago, Mjwomack said:

1/76 or some obscure manufacturer in a larger scale?

 

38 minutes ago, Pig of the Week said:

Dapol did a little Scarab 00 gauge kit didn't they? ..

 

Yes, that's the one.  Ex. Airfix, I believe.

Thanks for the OK 

[Mjwomack]

30 minutes ago, CliffB said:

 

 

Yes, that's the one.  Ex. Airfix, I believe.

Thanks for the OK 

Yep, that's the better one- there's also a Merit/ Peco one but it's far cruder. Though obviously if you fancy the challenge🫣, actually in that case you'd do the Langley Minatures white metal one in 'N'!

[Heather Kay]

Here’s my rendition of the Dapol/Airfix Scarab kit. 
 

 

I went to town and rebuilt the Scammell Coupling setup so it matched the real thing better.

 

I also did the Watneys special tanker version. It really did exist, but was only seen round London streets.

 

The obvious corrections to the kit are the windscreen central pillar, thinning the bumper bar, rearranging the coupler so the trailer sits in the right place, and adding a few details to the trailer, like the brake cables.

 

In larger scale, David J Parkins will be reintroducing the former Classic Commercials 1/43rd scale kit at some point.

 

 

 

 

[Mjwomack]

Good morning @Heather Kay, I thought we'd lure you out eventually! Will you be playing along next year? As in showing us how to do it properly?!! While I meander around the branch lines of reality?

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Mjwomack said:

Will you be playing along next year?

Hard to say. I’ve been keeping clear of most GBs this past year. Life’s a bit too full of other stuff right now. 
 

One problem is, while I do have some personal railway kits about, they’re of the cast and etched metal locomotive variety. I really don’t have the space or time to devote to them, even if I decided to build them as static models.

[Pig of the Week]

With this kind of in mind (plus I've  been looking at my random railway bits again) I've been experimenting with making 00 gauge track hopefully look a bit more realistic, obviously 00 gauge is a compromise and is technically too narrow /small to be in scale.. So I've taken a scrap short straight panel and cut all the "webs" away between the sleepers, this allows you to slide them apart and re-fix (superglue) at a less crowded spacing which I reckon looks more like the real thing. 

It also shows a bit of daylight under the rails which looks more like the actual track. I tried a few different spacings and I thought 5mm gap between sleepers looked about right, and kind of suggests a broader gauge, again it's a compromise but better than the rathed toy like lumps of standard 00 train set track (I reckon anyway 😁) 

 

 

 

 

[Pig of the Week]

^ As a test, I asked one of the family (who has no knowledge or interest at all) ... "which of these track pieces has wider gauge rails would you say ?"   they immediately pointed to the newly spaced one, and were quite surprised when I showed that they were both identical ! 

[Mjwomack]

13 hours ago, Pig of the Week said:

 they immediately pointed to the newly spaced one, and were quite surprised when I showed that they were both identical ! 

What strange trick of voodoo perspective magic is this?! Remarkably effective, and not just for baffling relatives!

[Pig of the Week]

8 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

What strange trick of voodoo perspective magic is this?! Remarkably effective, and not just for baffling relatives!

Obviously I was wearing a Fez at the time.... 

I've got loadsa old 00 gauge track and will have a major processing operation to do in order to convert a usable quantity of it as above.

I've contacted a bloke who can hopefully 3d print a simple jig to reposition a number of sleepers at once, rather than as in my experiment, one at a time, which would take forever. 

Call me weird, but I'm only interested in making this stuff from a pure modelling perspective, I'm not attempting to make the tracks electrically live to run as a "train set" or working layout, although you could if you wanted to of course.

I'd be using the track for diorama type set ups, I haven't got the room to have any kind of running layout anyway. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2024 by Pig of the Week
Flat foot floogie with the Floy floy

[Mjwomack]

7 hours ago, Pig of the Week said:

Call me weird, but I'm only interested in making this stuff from a pure modelling perspective

Certainly not weird- one of my hopes for this GB is that it shows that a lot of railwayania can be modelled as a static item, and indeed less compromises need to be made as a result.

It did occur to me on the afternoon dog walk that this could be the most diverse GB yet, covers 200 years of history and most of the world (Iceland would be a notable exception of not having a railway).

[Pig of the Week]

18 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

Certainly not weird- one of my hopes for this GB is that it shows that a lot of railwayania can be modelled as a static item, and indeed less compromises need to be made as a result.

 

Good point, much of the railway modelling malarkey centres around having them go round and round, (or backwards and forwards) and that's the primary concern it seems, and naturally, as you say, compromises  have to be made with that in mind.....coincidentally I went to a rail model show exhibition thingy a couple of months ago, whilst it was nice to have a look round it was a bit underwhelming if I'm honest, I was hoping for some bargain bin bits and bobs too but unfortunately, nah... 

I'd think the likes of the RM forum bods, for instance, would look somewhat askance at the idea of just making model railways as dioramas or whatever rather than "train sets" however posh and sophisticated 😁

 

So, any actual dates punted for the 200 yrs railway GB then? 

[Mjwomack]

On the matter of dates, we are in the lap (metaphorically I stress) of his Magnificence @Enzo the Magnificent has suggested

The issue now is the start and finish dates.  The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825.  That would take the GB through to 18 Jan 2026.

 

And nobody seems to be throwing up there hands in horror at those dates - though it does deny me my usual plow of sidling into KUTA from an autumn GB😬

 

So, plenty of time for foraging the auction houses etc. I agree railway shows tend to be more for operating ones, I've had more luck (some might say too much luck ) with old school auctions for kitmaster stuff etc.

[Pig of the Week]

8 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

On the matter of dates, we are in the lap (metaphorically I stress) of his Magnificence @Enzo the Magnificent has suggested

The issue now is the start and finish dates.  The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825.  That would take the GB through to 18 Jan 2026.

 

And nobody seems to be throwing up there hands in horror at those dates - though it does deny me my usual plow of sidling into KUTA from an autumn GB😬

 

So, plenty of time for foraging the auction houses etc. I agree railway shows tend to be more for operating ones, I've had more luck (some might say too much luck ) with old school auctions for kitmaster stuff etc.

A fair old time to wait, but if them's the rules.... Alternatively what about if it could be timed to end on the 27 Sept 25 ?.... logically they'd have been building and assembling all the stuff before that date in order to go "Ta-Da.." and begin running trains on the 27th...  If you see what I mean 😉

 

[Mjwomack]

31 minutes ago, Pig of the Week said:

Alternatively what about if it could be timed to end on the 27 Sept 25 ?.... logically they'd have been building and assembling all the stuff before that date in order to go "Ta-Da.." and begin running trains on the 27th...  If you see what I mean 😉

 

That's very good lateral thinking (though really railways are linear out of necessity)- again it's all eyes on The Magnificence and I'm suitably in awe of how he makes the calendar work, I guess it depends on what other anniversaries are featured next year, along with the bunfight survivors.

 

Time to turn the puppy pleading eyes towards him.