Finishing the Job

No, not a layout, though with this weather, I hope to get some jobs done that are best performed outdoors.

Back in 1986, which was a pretty dreadful year for me thanks to a workplace bully*, one of the few highlights was a canal trip on the Leeds & Liverpool with friends from university.

It was very different from the other canals we were all used to, and had some memorable moments, including that moment from films when strangers walk into a bar, and everybody goes quiet.

Other than that, it was great fun, but we ran out of time to reach our planned destination, the Bingley Five Rise.

So, forty years later, we decided to put that right with a weekend cruise.

Most of us had interesting train trips to our starting point in Silsden, thanks to various delays, but it is amazing how a pub lunch can restore spirits. Which was just as well, because the boatyard advised us that it was impossible to do the Five Rise and return in a weekend.

So we did a lot of re-planning, which wasn't helped by differing definitions of "up" and "down".

The result was that we spent Friday night re-visiting Skipton, which has changed a lot since we were last there. The bonus was that after a meal in the aptly named Narrowboat, we ended up at the excellent Skipton Beer Festival.

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We couldn't stay long, because a plan was coming together.

On the dot of 8am we winded the boats and headed back to Silsden to pick up our last crew member.

And, eating lunch on the move, we headed to Bingley to try our luck.

For once, the Gods of the Inland Waterways smiled on us, though at a cost.

The incredibly hardworking volunteer lockkeepers  took a pragmatic approach to following the published schedule, but we still had to wait over two hours until the locks were set for our descent. A wait enlivened by a Dakota flypast. The dangers inherent in working such a large flight of staircase locks mean you can only transit them with the lockkeepers in charge. And it isn't quick. They did welcome our help, though. And most importantly, they were flexible enough to agree to us returning within the 25 hour time limit that would otherwise have left us stranded with no way to return the boats on time.

As well as the Five Rise the lockkeepers also control the Bingley Three Rise, so it was late in the day when we began the final cruise to Saltaire, and the next blog.

*Four years later, I had the great pleasure of insisting she call me Sir, which is probably the only time in my career when I pulled rank.

And this is me...

 ... as Mike Yarwood used to say at the end of his shows.

For those who don't know, this is me in the day job.

https://youtu.be/t4IJADnGFa8?si=xwLFbJTe4zd5U5mM

That Time of Year

My year is driven by odd, out-of-sync calendars.

The syncopated rhythm of family birthdays, anniversaries, model railway shows, committee meetings, parades, and conferences.

This was another conference week. and an odd one, because for the first time in the 30 years that I can remember going to it, the weather was dreadful in London.

Which is rather like the ExCel Centre where it is held. At least the Elizabeth line has made it more accessible, but visiting still involves walking miles and struggling to find food and drink without suffering massive queues, dreadful acoustics, and hotel prices that are incredible.

At least I no longer have to go to the accountancy show held next door.

Of course, there is a plus side. I got to meet lots of people, many from outside the UK, whom I rarely see. Some of them even said nice things about me.

A very real positive is that we are relaunching the old IT industry podcast I used to co-host, with 33k listeners per episode. Which is about a thousand times wider than my average post here.

And I ended the week by learning I'd passed an exam I hated taking.

Anyway, here are some photos.

Yes, that is me, yes Ai was involved, and yes, I pointed out why that was an issue.

Drury's in Covent Garden is one of my truly happy places

I seem ridiculously lucky in catching strange workings passing through Stoke

The Demise of Flemish Quay

Having dug out the unbuilt Tim Horn baseboard with Cadeby in mind - I changed my plans.

It just didn't feel like it was the Goldilocks size for the plan.

So now I'm back to building a custom board to fit in the Ikea unit, whilst still giving me the height to include trees and somehow light it.  I'm leaning towards Kato track for simplicity.

Since I want to rebuild Flemish Quay anyway, it makes sense to use the Tim Horn board for that.

The great thing would be making more of a feature of the lifting bridge, but I can see other advantages. The problem at the moment is the lack of HOf track. If I can't find any, I'll cut my losses and build it as an OO9 layout.

As for the scenic board that Flemish Quay was in...

Cadeby Reborn

I have previous form for finding baseboards that I'd forgotten about, and the reason why I bought them.

This week, we are having various disasters with the plumbing in the house. All of the expensive kind .
The silver lining is I had to access the furthest corner of my office - where I found a Tim Horn kit for a 2ft by 18" photo plank, still in its packaging.

I suspect I bought it back at the cottage ready to build the next version of my Cadeby-based, layout. It seemed a timely discovery, given that I'd  just bought the Hornby wooden barracks block. And James Hilton produced a great build of a Fourdees Bagnall kit

Whilst on mute in a particularly boring ISO meeting, I began to explore a way forward.

It is not as straightforward as I thought. 

The extra space is useful, but is it enough?

My original plan was to change from an end-to-end layout with an automated shuttle module to a continuous run. On top of which, I wanted to have a building to sit where what was then the new Rectory, without being quite as ugly. 

I'm not sure that is feasible. The barracks building is surprisingly large.

I could, I suppose, build a pastiche of the layout room, about two-thirds of the size, and use the Hornby one on a pure photo plank.

The only way I believe I can fit a continuous run is to use a relatively extreme radius for the fictional section. Does that matter if the motive power is all going to be small 0-4-0s or the little Simplex and Ruston?

The Rectory will have to go. The downside is that it would have made a good scenic disguise for how short the track is. Could I replace it with something? Even just a line of preserved road vehicles?

The original micro was designed from the outset to be viewable from any side. The Tim Horn baseboard is only viewable from the front. Should I put the platform and the stock sidings at the front, or the back?

I thought it was obvious to put them at the front, so even if nothing was moving, people could see the stock. But I'm having second thoughts. It isn't how visitors could see the line, and the wooden fence separating it from the New Rectory was part of so many photos of the railway.

And one of my favourite views of the layout was standing on the road outside, watching , very briefly, a train, glimpsed through the trees. I think I'm persuading myself to go in that direction. 

The last issue is The Dell, where Sgt. Murphy rested, and I used to play on his footplate.

You'll have to imagine the intervening trees, they don't fit in its current bookshelf niche

Well, that and my actual plan for this weekend was sketching out a TT120 IoW Central layout based on Wootton Station, that I could call The Wight Lines.

Out and about

Life remains busy, I'm spending the bank holiday reviewing a spreadsheet, because the client doesn't recognise English holidays...

I did get to go to a conference in Manchester last week. As well as some good sessions on AI, it was a chance to meet up with some friends in the industry.

I rounded the week off with a quick dash to London to have dinner with friends and a meeting on Friday morning, followed by lunch for one at a little Italian restaurant around the corner from Euston.

Busy Bee

Spring finally feels like it here, though the bumble bees have already been about for a few weeks.

Not that I'm getting much chance to enjoy it, since I'm sitting an endless stream of exams - eight so far with more to come, all to renew a qualification I first earned in 1992. It is not something I was expecting to be doing in my mid-sixties. 

So why am I doing it?

It is a classic case of the unintended consequences of a sensible regulation. Because the exam papers are highly controlled, the only way I can review them, and the textbooks they are based on, is by taking the exams myself.

I also found myself delivering a webinar to the biggest audience I've ever had, over 2,600 people. No pressure at all!

I've got a tight deadline to write a book, whose publication date has been announced without anyone asking me whether it was feasible. It will involve trips to Athens, so it isn't all bad news.

Oddly, the busier I am, the more likely I am to get on with some model making. Don't ask me how that works.

I've been making another attempt to clear some space in the office/workshop. I'm hoping it will let me get on with the three existing projects in sync, which is how I like to work. 

Meanwhile, I'm still dipping my toes into the sometimes murky world of TT:120. It is a strange place. It still feels like a toy train world rather than a serious modelling scale, but it is early days.

I used an Easter discount to get the Branchline set.

The B4 is actually better than I expected. Obviously, it could be better below the footplate, and the printing of the name is abysmal.

It is seen here alongside the excellent Caldon Low Tramway TT:120n9 (Is that right?) loco and wagon from Gubbin Box Models . The tramway ran a few miles a way from here, to the wharf at what is now the end of the Caldon Canal, and home to a rather wonderful tea shop.

Needless to say, the scene was much more industrial back in those days.

Whilst I do have Tusgawa chassis that it is designed to fit, I can't see much scope for an operating layout, but I have a small box somewhere that I could fit a diorama into.

Normally today I would be at the 16mm AGM, but despite the date being in the family calendar for nearly a year, my wife decided it would be a good weekend to meet up with her friend in Wales. So I'm sat at home, looking after Mum and our last two dogs, listening to our old, rotten conservatory being demolished, and charging my e-bike in the hope of an early-morning ride tomorrow.

Oh yes, and I have two beds to build by Monday as well.