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!
The 2FS mag came through the letterbox the other day. In it is an interesting article on amongst other things DIY DCC. I have rather been out of the loop with DCC as I have not had a layout to run it on and also I’ve not been in a club environment for a long time where they have been using it on a group layout. It struck me about this particular article was the simplicity of the set up, and the flexibility of it. One forgets that often we are bound in to proprietary systems to keep u buying additions or because they offer something that other manufacturers don’t.
Yes I know I can hear the people saying that it’s not that easy and that you can’t just plug a play. But let’s face it, if you have the bent to be interested in the electronic to that point you maybe able to fathom the depths of the diy digital. The fact that there is so much open source out there is testament to the back room hackers want to do something differently.
I for one fully support this and will be mashing up my Arduino and Raspberry Pi and teaching myself some programming stuff to control my little world, and with technology being so cheap, there’s never been a better time to do it!
Since I decided to part with a jewel in the modelshop stock room as I need to finance some upcoming projects they have now found a good home, I am assuming, and will wend there way to Cumbria on Monday. FSMR unfortunately never passed the three issue count due to the untimely death of Bob Barlow. I had always admired his work and was excited to find out that there was going to be another fine-scale mag on the scene. Along side the journal (MRJ) it was soon to become a very firm favourite, much like the Railway Modeller of my youth which I couldn’t wait to collect from our local newsagents once a month. I remember the chores and later weekend work endured to wait with anticipation for the next magazine. Had I known of the existence of MRJ back in the 80s I would have happily sold my grand mother..
Again like the journal, not every thing was to my taste. But that did not stop me enjoying it and learning from many accomplished modellers. But the spread of topics was a good mixture of old and new and the more in-depth look at topics helps focus ones mind on the subject. I have relatively recently come round to the idea of using techniques from other modelling scales and genres. There is a lot to be gained from understanding how others approach common issues that we all face such as weathering and land forms amongst others. I have recently been on a bit of a spree watching military, marine and air craft modellers. All of which have unique takes on tasks we carry out on the railway. This is a bit of a digression from the Review but there I leant of S is for Small and white metal soldering..
I really liked the more in-depth format that covered subjects usually glanced at by popular press and Bob Barlow and team certainly had the direction of the magazine mapped out from the beginning. I would have grown into a firm favourite had it continued. I’m a little bit sorry to be passing these on but I think building something out of them and making memories is a big part of why I started getting rid of the hoard before it was too late. Better to build now than browse tomorrow.. or something like that.
Just a short messive from the 15minute modelling headquarters. Attempting to help other departments the authorities have decreed that funds must be found and in looking through the draughty back room store house my collection of Finescale Railway Modelling Review magazines peeked out of a pile. Now normally I would in the good family traditions not think twice about relinquishing some thing from the hoard, specially not something so seemingly valuable. But needs must when the devil rides and so it has come to pass that I am going to pass on these excellent three issues and short lived production run to another soul.
Just in case you fancied a peek you can find them here
Whist sitting at my desk thinking about all things modelling and also the complexity of creating things to put out on the world wide web my attention was distracted by a book peeking out of my bookshelf. Yet another one of those great ideas at the time that didn’t follow through to an actual product. Then my thoughts drifted to what else was in the bookshelf and what have I not looked at in some time, well in reality a long time.
I know it might just be me but I rarely “just get” books out of my shelf, but that’s changed now with the lock down. In this age of digital media I realised that I have long moved away from the printed word. I remember the days that I would look forward to getting the latest edition of Railway Modeller from our local newsagents on the Saturday after it came out, as this was the time I could make it to the town that stocked the magazine. But the joy in getting home and disappearing off to my bedroom to lose myself in little imaginary worlds for a brief moment in time has been forgotten, at least for me. I am sure there are many out there who have the contrary view and spend significant amounts of time and money building their collections. But for me part of the process is getting something for the immediate joy of reading. Then follows the putting in a place on a shelf and the distancing from the mind, probably, possibly for years.
The fact that I haven’t had this opportunity since I was that yoof sitting in his bedroom, sitting in front of these books now brings back the joy of that moment. Each book and magazine has a memory attached, sometimes it was the getting of it or sometimes the memory of reading it.
I could have way more books, way way more books in these shelves, but I have managed to keep my choices to things that are in my core interests. For me it would be way too easy to load up on a whole range of subjects that would keep me busy probably for the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong its not that I don’t go down other paths elsewhere but on the whole this is all digital and takes up no physical space. In this age of pretty much everything being in some form on line, with a large amount of it not being or never having been in publication. With also the possibility of asking questions on related forums, there really is no stone that can’t be unturned.
As someone who has spent the majority of there life in motion, and with few places where I had time or space to spread these physical roots it has been both a blessing and a curse. But now I am actually happy I hadn’t accumulated a huge library as most of it would probably have been jettisoned anyway. What’s more of interest to me is distilling my knowledge of the particular subject I’m interested in. Building up archives that I have access to anywhere is more important to me now than having an impressive bookshelf(s). I now circulate books brought on a whim that either don’t fit with my core interests or that replicates information. On the whole I have managed to train out random compulsive purchasing, but occasionally one gets through! I have to say that the Wild Swan Modelling Series is my Achilles keel and have pretty much brought every book in this series, even if it doesn’t necessarily fit my modelling influences and skills.
Speaking of Wild Swan I received the last issue, which after some (fomo?) I couldnt remember when my subscription ran out and like a fool when the mag turned up did my civic duty and bunged the envelope into the recycle. Unbeknownst to me the final edition is printed on the label, who knew?! I kind of admire their complete lack of desire to enter the 21st century and the operations dept is an endless source of amusement for many. But in this time of seclusion I opted for the patience approach and crossed fingers that it would turn up at some point. Thankfully that is what happened and I am now signed up for another four issues, which is all they are offering at this current time. But four is better than non of this wonderful publication.
These mags are the only I buy now. Apart from an occasional purchase of other mainstream mags this is the only one I actively collect. Also the only one that I don’t slash n scan pretty much after purchasing. I have been known to occasionally leaf through one in a idle moment. I have recently started building an index of the mags I have, yes I know there is already one out there, but I like to have something that I have access to at all times and can quickly look for something of interest.
So for the time being I am revisiting some old paper friends and pondering if there are more I need or want to add to them.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Whilst at the Seven Valley Railway yesterday I popped back into their 
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.
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