Website - toys and models

PAGE NUMBER

Week One

So I was taking some books to the tip when I discovered in the paper skip some old railway modelling agazines, dated between Jan 2011 and Dec 2012, British Railway Modelling and Hornby Magazine and Railway Modeller.

PICTURE HERE

I had tried modelling in OO and had discovered, first, that I enjoyed the creation of a landscape more than I enjoyed running a rail line and, second, that OO guage was simply too large to create a model that would excite me. So I broke up that model and put the idea aside.

And the cost. Doing it right would mean several thousand pounds of expenditure. No way.

And now. Now I decided it was time to attempt it and attempt it on a budget.

The first stage was to rip apart the magazines, keeping the articles and photographs that interested me. That was a brain numbing morning.

The next stage was to call up Ebay and search for secondhand N Guage items. Add them to my watch list and allow them to run to term to see what kind of prices they reached. It was clear that they normally reached a price close to  WHAT ??? The conclusion was obvious: I needed  great deal of luck. I would have to bid for a lot and hope no one else bidded for some of them. It is going to take a lot of time.

Week Two

In the meantime I began the design. I knew I wanted a seaside location but I also wanted an industrial location but I also wanted a countryside location. And there had to be fishing boats and canal boats. And there had to be terraced housing and corner shops and a cast iron station roof and tunnels and bridges and mountains and ... So it was unlikely to be a specific location that I modelled. I had always liked the locations of Staithes and Robin Hoods Bay so the name Baytown seemed appropriate. Had anyone else used it ?

I began sketching.

PICTURE HERE

Of course, this will show you nothing. Every idea I could think of was overlaid on the one sketch, ciorrections and mistakes and notes as to levels and appearance and any thing else. I guess it was designed to be discarded.

I knew I wanted it to be about 8’ by 4’, the size of a standard ¾” plywood board. Strong. Only I was beginning to realise that if I wanted digital controls I would have to make lots of holes. And wire it. Did I say that I wanted proper speed variation and electric points and train and building lighting and sound effects  ?

Week Three

Money. How much would it cost to build a nice railway ?

Controller eg

Track eg XXX for points straights etc

Engines

Coaches

Wagons

DCC kits

Buildings say 30 buildings at how much ?

Scenics materials

People

Already, before putting any prices to the above, I can tell it is going to be huge. And having pt figures to the categories, what is a reasonable and affordable target secondhand ? Say 20% ?

Week Four

I am somewhat obsessive. I don’t like a model to just reach an end. There has to be some logic why a model has such and such a side.

MAZES

In 2016 ??? I planted some willow whips, in two batches. The first batch is towards the centre, the second batch around the sides. The first batch grew rapidly to six feet the second batch is not yet there (as of 2019). Now it is time to try and develop the mazre.

tage 1