And Breathe!

Is it only two weeks since my last post?

I've lost track of what day of the week it is, working across multiple time zones, usually until 11pm every night, to turn around the second draft of the book, ready for publication at the end of the month. Even before publication, the beta draft has been read by well over 300 people, which is quite scary.

Suddenly, all those modelling projects I keep putting off seem very attractive distractions, which is an all too familiar pattern.

I have high hopes of next week, though. I want to at least get some baseboards built and some half-built projects into primer.

A penny has also dropped about a possible use for the Tim Horn cameo baseboard, and following my own advice that sometimes a smaller space suits a larger scale.

The baseboard kits for the East Coast based light railway have also arrived. The next thing I need to do is to search out the manual point motors I bought with TAoC in mind. That, needless to say, frees up the baseboards that I originally had in mind for it for another project, possibly even a return to Apa.

Then there are other distractions.

I have one set of bookshelves that are groaning under the weight of books about the smaller vessels of the Royal Navy in WW2, those most associated with the RNVR and the RNR. It is years since I (tried) to build one of the Airfix 1/600th scale kits, but I find myself being drawn to 1/350 scale. This is a cheap and cheerful model of HMS Swale, a  River class frigate. There are much more detailed ones available, but this one is primarily intended for wargaming. Even so, it is enlightening to see how much detail is moulded/printed in. In theory it should be a quick build, though I do want to add a few enhancements.

Why this ship? Well, whilst HMS Compass Rose is a well known fictional corvette, Nicholas Monserrat's last two real life commands were a River class and an American-built version, the Colony-class HMS Perim.

Ten Days

 It all started so well.

Somehow I got the first draft of my new book on AI Governance out the door, and everybody seemed pleased with it, although it isn't the book I would have written given a free hand.

And Steph gave birth to our fifth grandchild.

I cracked open a bottle of fizz...prematurely.

Poor Teddy ended up in intensive care with an infection, but was home by the weekend.

I spent the weekend helping to run a training course in the USA, based on the book I'd only finished on the Friday...

We finished the course at 10pm on Sunday, just as Issy returned from her church group.

Then she got the phone call.


Steph was in hospital with two defective heart valves and a suspected blood clot.


The last week has been Hell.


Unless you are a parent, you probably can't imagine the emotions, the pain, the feelings of hopelessness.


Issy and I barely slept all week, I certainly lost all focus on the second draft of the book, though fortunately my second family in the company, spread across London, Greece and India, couldn't have been more supportive.

Steph should be discharged by the weekend. It is too risky to operate, but they think the heart issues were caused during labour, when she also managed to split a tooth. They think the valves will heal in time, but her blood pressure is still fluctuating wildly.


Meanwhile, my copy of the new edition of Cameo Layouts arrived, a much more interesting read than my book, and I picked up this bargain from Dapol.

It is making me hanker after a return to a pastiche of the Tanat Valley, although I don't think the moguls ever ran on it.. I have a vague idea in mind, based on a concept from many years ago.

I've also been doing more playing around with TT:120. An option I'm kicking around is a version of TAoC, or possibly two, beginning with it reimagined as a BR blue SLT.

This weekend, if nothing else goes wrong, I'm hoping to begin painting various models, including the Gubbin Box Caldon tramway stock. I'm still not sure what I'll do with it, but as a minimum I might make a display box featuring Hettys

Buxton or Bust Part 2.

When I arrived at the show there were no signs to the second room, and a lot people were still expecting to see stands on the stage in the pavilion, which has alway been used before.

Fortunately, that had all been dealt with by the time I went in search of the extra display space.

There were some excellent layouts in it, and a lot of other layouts.

In S gauge, Emswell was very attractive.

Dent reminded me of  a Railway Modeller cover from April 1970, of David Jenkinson's Garsdale Road.

Middleton Top was a stunning model of a location I know on the Cromford and Highpeak

And, perhaps my favourite layout of the show was Bessie Bulls. Not least, because of how well the canal was modelled.

And that was it. Nothing else appealed to me, although the other layouts did have people taking an avid interest in them, so perhaps it is just me.

I was in a hurry, because Issy was sat outside with the dogs, but I was in and out in under an hour.

Was it a good show? On balance yes, because of the layouts that were very impressive, though possibly over-exposed in some cases.

What I'm a lot less sure of is whether it was worth spending £15 to get in, and, in contrast to Macclesfield, whether best use was made of the extra space this year.

Buxton or Bust

With everything going on at the moment, getting to Railex Buxton 26 was far from a certainty. The final decision was made just before setting off.

Not only has the show got bigger, but so had the queue to get in. One person taking both cash and card was never going to be quick.

Although bigger, it is never going to be one of the "big" shows, but it does attract a lot of high-quality layouts to justify the £15 entrance fee.

Having said which, for once, I didn't bother going around for a second time. I might have done, had I taken a camera with me, as well as the phone. a phone that once again underperformed, I suspect partly because of the humidity

Evercreech Junction. A good example of N, built as a home layout, not for exhibition.

Farringdon Street is always impressive

This scene leads neatly on to...

...Minories

A very difficult layout to take photos of

Westmoor Junction

Purgatory Peak

I can't remember the name of the layout.

Cherry Willingham reminded me of life in Lincolnshire.

Trellisic  made use of an idea I've thought about. "Bitsa Boats" rather than a whole ship

Not really my thing, but I did like this loco on Kaninchenbau 

Charles was showing his generic colonial layout

Rockport had some nice house backs.

Karlisle had a lot of interesting ideas, like the theatrical use of a black backscene

Always good to see Chipping Norton

Leicester Junction had some nice urban grot 

In Part 2 I'll finish off the layouts in the main room, and move on to some gems in the additional hall 

Severn Valley Sunday

Staying in the local area, Paul and I had planned to spend Sunday morning at the Etruria Canals Festival.
A glance outside the window and at the weather forecast for Stoke made the idea less enticing.

Paul suggested the Telford Steam Railway.

Unfortunately some navigational challenges meant we arrived too late to catch the only convenient service on the standard gauge line, and the tramway was shut whilst the tram was prepared for the upcoming gala.

I was quite impressed with their miniature line, though. There is something about ground level mainline 5" gauge.

There was also a total absence of steam, so we decided to press on to Bridgnorth. Whilst Issy and I visit quite often, it was years since Paul's last visit, and he was suitably impressed with the town.

He was also impressed with the Joules pub where we had lunch after a trip on the cliff railway.

Actually, we stayed longer than planned in the pub, because there was a minor delay in the food service. That meant we couldn't catch the service to Kidderminster and get back. TBH we even had to hurry to catch the next train to Highley and the Engine House.


Once again we were out of luck as far as steam was concerned. The 33 did, though, take us back to our university days in Southampton

 

It was our first time visiting the Engine House. Whilst some might dislike the modern architecture, I thought it worked really well as an exhibition space. Just sad that several of the locos now on display were the ones I knew in the early days - including the only standard gauge loco I've ever driven.

Hopes of steam haulage back to Bridgnorth were dashed by the sound of another diesel, but I was still excited to see it was a Teddy Bear.

All in all it turned out to be a good day out, though a tiring one.

Nick and I had one more outing together, early in the week, to say farewell to the outgoing CO of our Sea Cadet unit. , who also happens to be  Tom's dad.