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fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Category: Reading Room

Thwap on the mat

8th January 2021 / / 0 Comments
Model Railway Journal Magazine. #281
#130 Thwap on the mat MRJ 281

Look what arrived on the doormat this morning. I really thought that I had run the course of my subscription of the MRJ. But the joy of receiving this package of goodness on this day of freezing rain and general gloominess is one small pleasure in ones rather dull existence. I have to say that there is little that I am necessarily interested in but once again I enjoy reading about the methods and authors of these articles. However I did really enjoy Geoff Forster’s ‘Designs for Bleddfa Raad’ in O Scale. Also John Chick’s ‘My Brain Trains’ bring an interesting slant to modern layout control.

Then there is another one of my addictions that needs feeding on the opposite page from the contents page. Which is “Unconsidered Trifles” from Wild Swan books and I have always enjoyed Geoff Kent’s output.

So once again more food for thought from the great people at Cygnet Magazines. Now where’s my cheque book to extend my subscription for another four issues!

Until the next one…

Model Railway Journal Magazine #266
Model Railway Journal Magazine #266

Reading Room 07 ?

19th October 2018 / / 0 Comments

Model Railway Journal Magazine #266

Model Railway Journal Magazine #266

Today I picked up #266 of the Model Railway Journal and what a bumper issue it is there’s a ton of material in it that I can’t wait to get to get my teeth in to. I might be a bit bias as there is a significant level of 2FS articles and also back scene painting via a very renowned 2mm modeller John Burkitt-Smith. In fact with an editor who is also accomplished in the dark arts of 2FS I guess it was always going to feature in some way. Continue reading

Reading Room 06 ?

25th September 2018 / / 2 Comments

Whilst at the Seven Valley Railway yesterday I popped back into their shop on Hampton Loade station to see if I could pickup some more missing MRJs and I wasn’t disappointed. Yes it’s become a bit of a quest. However my cunning plan of knowing what I had and what I needed fell down as the spreadsheet I had created on my phone was not accessible and consequently I ended up with some duplicates, so much for modern technology. Oh well I’ll just donate them back to my local railway shop, if they will have them. But I’ve now created a much simpler notes list that I can keep track of the missing issues whilst out and about.

There are some real quality reads in my haul including articles about layouts I never got to see in the flesh but wished I had, such as Gordon & Maggie Gravett’s Ditchling Green, Ddaullt and Darenth, not to mention Roy England’s buildings for Pendon, which I really need to go back and see.

I’m looking forward to getting home and reading these with a cuppa and note pad to revive the inspiration.

Until next time..

Reading Room 05

20th September 2018 / / 0 Comments

Whilst out and about today I saw that the latest MRJ on ‘Smiths’ shelves and took a quick flick through to see if it was one I wanted to get but with my new scan and bin it strategy it takes no physical space and limited digital estate so it makes sense to collect them all as you don’t know when a close interest in pre-grouping wagon chassis might hit! A rather cracking issue and particularly liked the Talyllyn wooden buildings article by Peter Kazer.

Reading Room 04

3rd August 2018 / / 0 Comments

It’s been a while since my last update nothing worse than a blog that’s not updated so in order to halt the rot here is a post! Life often gets in the way of serious things like modelling which is the case for me over the last month not to mention the unbearably hot weather that seemed to go on forever and didn’t put one in a good frame of mind to sit at the work table and sweat over a hot soldering iron but now we seem to have some more seasonally temperate weather progress can be made. What motivated the mojo return? Well a bunch of envelopes landed on the doormat over the last week also going into my local newsagent and seeing the latest MRJ reminded my that I really need to pull out my finger and get back to building stuff for myself and others. For the moment I have been reading through the latest progress of both model and real railways that I follow and there are some events that sprang to mind that I would like to attend this year. Firstly there’s the 2FS AGM in October which is not that far from me and it would be good to meet up with some friends from 2mil land and then there’s the golden jubilee 2010 layout challenge! Hmmm. I really don’t need to create more distractions for myself and I am assisting a friend by building some track for there challenge, but it is tempting.

Then there’s the steam gala at the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway at the beginning of September. This is a bit more of a trip and definitely more logistical challenging. I have long been thinking about trying to do some volunteering for them since my first visit in 2014 but always thought I was too far away to be able to offer much only to then find out from an excellent blog that they have help coming in from Australia! Well that’s some commute and I’m guessing they don’t just pop down to polish the brass of a weekend. So it lead me to think that even though I’m around 170 miles away it’s just a stones throw compared with from the other side of the world. I’m going to look into if I can be of use to them, maybe not for the gala but certainly next year.

Keeping momentum going on a blog is the most important thing in order make the effort of doing it worthwhile and to show to myself that I can make progress if I just stick at it fifteen minutes at a time so expect some more bodging post in the not too distant future.

Until next time..

Reading Room #3

16th June 2018 / / 0 Comments

I thought I had got all the old magazines rounded up and rendered down to my digital library after the move but apparently not. So I’ve spent most of the day reading old Railway Modellers. I’d forgotten some really good articles and layouts. There are many timeless stories that wouldn’t look out of place now for there observation and tones.

If you have a pile of magazines, paper or digital have a delve into them and maybe you’ll be inspired by something.

Reading Room #1

22nd April 2018 / / 0 Comments

Model Railway Journal #262Thought I would start off a sporadic thread of things that I read which mainly consists of magazines. The one constant since coming across it when I was a member of a club is MRJ or Model Railway Journal. After all the other mags falling by the wayside I still get it virtually every issue and when at model rail shows I am even collecting the back issue numbers that I haven’t got. There is all ways something of interest even if the theme is not really my cup of tea as I like to think I can learn no matter what the scale it the techniques.

To this months edition is case in point. The lovely layout of Orford by Paul Clarke after a downsizing move had to replace his Debenham 7mm Layout with something much smaller. Just oozes character and detail and then there is more from Gordon Gravett on road surfaces on Arun Quay. Plus there’s a bit of 2mmFS but a bit beyond me. I love going back and browsing through my old collection when there’s a quiet moment and one of the few things I haven’t sold, donated, or scrapped. Long may it continue.

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