Read This

 No, not this post, but the one it links to.

Several of us, notably James Hilton, have tried to be brutally honest about the link between model railways and mental health in recent years.

In my own case, and a few others I know, the link isn't always positive. Yet another failed project hitting the WPB doesn't help your sense of self-worth.

However, there is a link, and it can be helpful. Many of us need help, even when we don't recognise it. In fact, I wonder how many people the hobby has saved without them even realising it.

It isn't just about white men of a certain age, who can feel marginalised and isolated. 

It can be those who struggle to find their own people - and those who, frankly, don't need people.

https://uk.hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/news/hornby-unplugged-are-traditional-hobbies-antidote-digital-overload?

Further CorrugatioNs

 First of all, a massive thank you to Mark for suggesting the use of coffee jar lids to impress corrugations into aluminium foil. I'll try it just as soon as I can find some suitable lids.

In the meantime, I've been sorting out the office/workshop to try to separate the things I need to refurbish Flemish Quay and those I need to move forward with the N-gauge projects. And, even, possibly to build something akin to my original APA layout.

Being a member, as you might expect, of a FB group dedicated to corrugated iron, I was aware that different sheet sizes and pitches of corrugation were used for different types of buildings.

I was about to put a pack of Ambis / Eastwell Iron 4mm CI into the Apa Valley box, when I spotted the magic wording "Domestic Pattern" on the label.

Gears clicked. 

It turns out to have about the same pitch as the Ratio N gauge sheet, though the profile isn't quite as good. 

So I think I have my solution for now, though I'll try and get some HO scale sheet as well.

Or rather solutions. I'll use the ratio sheet where the thickness doesn't matter, and I'll use the Redutex and Scalescenes products for non-railway buildings and those in the background.

CorrugatioNs

Issy is in Goa, with a friend, so I'm on caring duties for the poodles and mum.

I was planning to get lots of things done, but a close shave with a surprisingly sharp mandolin in the kitchen has stopped any thought of modelling. until my fingertip heals...

I've also been really busy writing what is called Thought Leadership. Or, as I call it, giving away all my best material for free.

Did I say the accident was responsible for my modelling hiatus? 

Actually, it is my struggles with corrugated iron in N gauge.

Bear in mind that, on both of my current projects, CI is at the front and centre. The Cambrian loved CI.

I had a real breakthrough in 4mm when I realised, whilst making the doors of an OO9 loco shed, that I could use Wills transparent corrugated sheet to capture the thinness of the real thing. and i could combine it, as here, with the thick structural sheet.

In N, I am really struggling. There are a lot of products on the market, but none match my need. Often the corrugations are more box section than corrugations, or the sheets are too small, or the material too thick.

If it was just a small building at the back of a wide baseboard, I could use Scalescenes, but it doesn't work when it is a big building at the front of a layout.

An idea I'm considering is embossing aluminium tape using a bolt. It is promising, but I'm still a long way from an effective solution

Bournville Heritage Day

For something like eighteen years, our family lived in Bournville, running one and later, two newsagents on MaryVale Road.

They were very mixed years for me, more bad than good, but I'm still friends with some people from those days and there were some good times. A lot of those involved my garden railway!

And crewing on Pat Ireland's The Lady Disdain

But there was also a lot of feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, feeling very alone, and having a complete nervous collapse.

I always have mixed feelings about going back, but Mum still has friends there, and I guess I have unfinished business with the place. So we trotted off to this year's Bournville Heritage Day. 

We had a number of reasons to go. I wanted to view the frescoes by Mary Sargant Florence that decorated my old primary school's hall, and to go inside two landmark buildings that were inaccessible when I was young. Mum wanted to visit our old parish church. Keith, the vicar, was a wonderful, much-missed man, and we spent many happy Friday nights playing Badminton and Table Tennis in the youth club. We both wanted to meet up with Libby, one of our ex-papergirls, whom we hadn't seen for 45 or more years.

George Cadbury: A Great Man. 

Donald Healey was a friend of my father. His wife thought I was a rather beautiful toddler. I feel the same about his cars

Detail on the old bus. I believe JOJ533 holds the record for being the longest serving Birmingham bus.

I used to go to school on this!

Walking across the display of vintage and classic cars on The Green, Mum mentioned how much she would love to see an A40 Sports, the car my father had when they met. It isn't often wishes come true.

Garden railways are still alive and well in Bournville, even in the church!

The sort of detail that passes you by as a child.

My old schools. Needless to say, both built by the Cadburys.

Although these were the main reason I wanted to revisit my school, it really isn't practical to take photographs of them.

    

The Quaker Meeting House. I'd never been in before, and it was only a few years ago I learned that George Cadbury's ashes were interred here.

I don't remember the bus seats looking so classy

Selly Manor. The first time I'd been inside since I was about 10

The Carillion was playing a selection of light music.

The Serbian church. My other big reason to visit..

A Touch of the Hiltons

 Look, I know most of the wheels aren't on the rails...

I just plonked it there. 

What you can't see is that, sat at my desk, the module and loco are glimpsed from the side of my eye, at the very limit of my peripheral vision.

I can't see the shadow detail the photo shows, and sat here, the wall behind it has a luminous glow that is 3D.

It wasn't the purpose of the Kato module; it was just an experiment in creating a windblown riverbank. 

But it is making me think. It is taking me back to Saturday mornings at Victor's, with my ex-CPO, as a new world of modelling opened up in front of me

An Instant Railway

Well, sort of. I think I've mentioned that Issy had half a plastic pallet and some artificial grass left over from building a poodle washing station. These were sequestered away with the intention to build a quick layout for the grandchilren

There were two problems, though. The resulting baseboard was too narrow to fit in a circuit of Faller track, and there was nowhere in the garden where it could be safely set up away from those poodles.

Then, over eighteen months after we moved here, and as we began to tackle the seriously overgrown borders, I realised there was a ready-built raised bed running alongside one of the garden walls.. In the long term, this will become a proper 16mm line of some sort. It just happens to be the same width as the half-pallet, and there is a suitable access point that is wide enough to get it in and out of place.

That left the issue of track, solved by using Loco Remote's printed Jubilee track.

As always, the service from Chris was excellent, and I even had an old station building to hand that was already ageing in the garden (In other words, I'd forgotten it was there)

It is there if you look very closely!

So, an instant railway!


Well, not quite. The track isn't intended as a play item, so I need some form of trackbed it can be attached to. I thought I had something stashed in the garage, but I think that made a trip to the recycling depot. And I need to build the PS Models stock that I bought two years ago....

A 40th BIrthday

 Not mine, that was a long time ago, celebrated in Bristol, and like most of my birthdays was a bit of a disaster.

No, this weekend was the 40th birthday of the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway, and I never really need an excuse to visit it.. Especially as it was a chance to see many locos from the line's past. As always, it was a fun day. Sadly, I lost a lot of valuable time because Issy insisted that the poodles, and my mother came to, and that she needed a bacon bap before we did anything else. The Station Cafe does do quite a good one. 

The result was I only got ninety minutes to take photos, and to chase trains.