Big Macc

 So, the Macclesfield Show is over, and the embargo no longer applies...

...I should say that by the time of the show the organisers had toned the messaging down a lot. But it does raise a few questions in my mind about what the collective "We" think the right etiquette should be at exhibitions. A theme I might return to, or hijack Phil's Workbench for a guest blog. I haven't told him that yet.

The new venue is superb. I know a lot of us were envious of the pupils at the school. Trust me, we aren't talking about your traditional school hall show. Having all the exhibits in one hall made it feel a much more "grown-up" show.  I only had two small niggles about it. One was that, arriving early on the first free bus shuttle, the queue to get in was out the door. Added to which we were queuing in an area with a clear view of children using the swimming pool. My  Safeguarding nose was twitching a little. The other was the toilets. I think the gents were limited to just two cubicles and no urinals, unless there were facilities I wasn't aware of.

Somehow, I found myself near the front of the queue, partly because other people didn't realise where it was, so I had a great first twenty minutes where I was getting to layouts before anybody else. Later on it got VERY busy. Not quite as bad as Spalding, but not far off. By the time I left, my neurodiversity meant I was on the verge of breaching my stress threshold with the noise and press of bodies. Incidentally, I didn't see that many people using wheelchairs or mobility scooters. If there had been, congestion could have become critical.

I would like to think, and my initial impression is, the problem was that visitor numbers have jumped. I certainly saw a lot more family visitors with children. Not just an incremental increase, I can't remember the last time I saw a show with so many young children, and it was great to see.

As for the layouts, I don't think there was a single duff one. The standard was consistently high whilst appealing to a wide range of interests. I don't know if they were running a best-of-show competition, but I would have hated to be a judge if they were.

A quick note on photography. This time, I decided to trust my relatively new Google 10 Pro rather than a "real" camera. I'm glad I did, because the few people I saw using cameras did seem to be struggling a little and contorting themselves to get shots. The phone didn't do a bad job. I didn't save to RAW files, but I did shoot in 50Mp, although I think even that was overkill. I have used AI in a limited number of cases. On one photo I used it to remove an N gauge Landrover which was right at the back of the layout, I wouldn't have noticed except I was zooming in, but it was really not representative of the layout as a whole. In other cases, I've only used it to disguise a baseboard edge, or to extend a backscene upwards.

Penmaenpool

This was the headline layout for me. Not built as an exhibition line, so I never expected to see it in the flesh. It totally lived up to my expectations as a model of a place I once knew well.

Bred Albin

Only one photo because although it is a great layout, there are only so many photos you can take of it, and I've already taken most of them at other shows.

Brettell Road

An interesting one, being displayed in night-time mode, which is always a challenge in an exhibition hall. It was very hard to take decent photos of it because my phone was more in control than me, and kept trying to capture detail across the full exposure. I could have over-ridden it, but that is quite hard and unintuitive. Perhaps I should have switched RAW on for this one layout. 

It goes without saying that the modelling was superb.

Tamerton Foliot

A modern take on the old fashioned quirky and charming freelance OO9 layout. when you looked closely you realised how well done individual elements were modelled.

Nine Spires East

An interesting layout, updated from its original 1930's incarnation to represent the London I knew when I first lived and worked there. It grew on me more every time I walked past it

BTW, at this point the curse of the Macclesfield show guide has struck, with the map of the exhibition hall bearing only the slightest connection to where the layouts actually were...

Woodside Depot

I found this hard to photograph,which is unfortunate, because I liked it.

It is the type of layout I think some people would go home thinking they could build a layout to combine operation with display. 

Noware in Particular 

No photos because this was the 'drive a train' layout for children. I couldn't get near it because it was achieving its stated purpose so well, and I wouldn't have felt comfortable taking photos anyway. See earlier Safeguarding comment.

But a layout that many shows could do with it. It was obviously very well thought out.

Nicola Landing 

One of those layouts I feel I've seen more times than I probably have. But still lots to love and reminiscent of an idea I had for a layout many years ago, when I was a regular visitor to Victor's. I've used AI to extend the "water" in a couple of shots 

Blandings Parva

If I could halve the length, I guess this is the O gauge model I would build.  I'll come back to backscenes later.

 

Wedmore

A good case of "not my cup of tea" but clearly very popular and well deserving of being in the show. I was particularly taken with the NG locos, Upnor Castle being a favourite in the real world until it got Ffestiniongged.

Modbury

The layout I came back to, time after time. Utterly delightful FS 2mm. If I had to criticise anything, it would be the lack of a scenic foreground, but that allowed you to see the stock and station in forensic detail.

Exchange Sidings

It might be small, not much might happen, but I love seeing this every time I come across it.

Bluish Moor

Here is where my images might have got mixed up between the 3mm layouts. This is the only one I'm sure is Bluish Moor. I'm a sucker for a TransPennine DMU.

Winter Overcoats.

"So, Mr Insley, we meet again!"

Every time I see Charles he seems to be showing a different layout. This is one of his earlier ones.  I really liked the overall track plan as something a bit different. I've filed away a few ideas based on it.

Staroleko Wielkopolski 

Yes, I did have to copy and paste that. 

I never realised Polish rolling stock was so charismatic. I'm kicking myself, I didn't get better photos.

Although I'm now more than halfway round the hall, that it is a good point to end Part 1, because there is a lot to come in part 2.

I did say it was a big show

Astrid: Murder in Paris

Some of you will know where I'm going with this. If not, bear with me and I promise the title will, hopefully, make sense well before the end of the blog.

Easter weekend has been quiet here, allowing me to crack on with revision for the five exams I've got coming up. When I was a lecturer, I had a reputation for getting students through their exams, but I've never been good, myself, at revising using conventional techniques. What works for me is something more akin to how I rehearse my conference speeches. I can't remember things by rote; I need to build a story that lets me reconstruct things in context by pulling them from my unconscious mind. The downside is that I never managed to learn the alphabet from A-Z or multiplication tables. The upside is that when I learn something, it is by applying it in the real world in the context of other things I know.

One day, I'll accept that. In the same way that I need to accept that my modelling projects often follow the same pattern. The long, fallow periods when I'm not actually modelling and feel guilty about being the archetypal Armchair Modeller are more productive than they appear, both to others and to me.

Collecting and hoarding ideas and bits and pieces without doing anything with them hides another process that even I'm not party to. 

This struck me this morning, reading an article about procrastination as a creative process. 

One thing my wife and I have found time to do over Easter, is to start watching Astrid: Murder in Paris on Channel 4. This is actually a Franco-Belgium detective show, originally called Astrid et Raphaëlle. You might have seen Patience, the British remake of it.

Essentially, it is the story of how a detective,with undiagnosed AuADHD, though that is not made explicit, and an autistic archivist work together to solve puzzling crimes. Personally, I think the original is better than the remake, which is, itself, very good. The reason I think it is better is that it makes Astrid's lived experience more central to how she solves issues. That lived experience is also a lot more painful and overwhelming. At times, it isn't easy to watch, especially if it resonates with you.

One thing Astrid does is to physically make a pictorial collage of archive material on the floor of a room, that to others might look like a complete mess. And it can even look like a confusing and overwhelming mess to her until something happens that provides a catalyst for the underlying meaning she has unconsciously been exploring by mapping it, making it crystal clear. She can also hyper-focus on something that to others seems irrelevant, and sometimes is, in the short term, but not in the long term.

Whilst I was diagnosed as dyspraxic as a child, I know many around me suspect I also have some ADHD characteristics. That isn't surprising, because we know neural diversity has several dimensions. Perhaps that is why the interactions between the two characters makes so much sense to me.

From a modelling perspective, it means my sudden bursts of creativity and action are often preceded by long periods of chaos and procrastination, along with shifts in focus.

Take the Cadeby based projects.

The recent Apedale event reminded me that it is now forty years ago that Teddy died. Meanwhile, my original, quickly built, Cadeby micro has been sat on a shelf since the house move, unused and with the stock in a box somewhere in the attic. My thinking since the move has been taken up with the future of my 7 1/4" assets and the N gauge projects.

At least, my conscious thinking has been.

But the micro has always been there, denuded of trees to fit in a space it wasn't built to fill.

It might have been very simple, built on a free baseboard from Tim Horn, and designed to work using a shuttle module, with a non-functional turnout leading to a siding to display locos. But I'm emotionally attached to it. There has always been one downside to it, To fit the small baseboard, I scratchbuilt a pastiche of the ex-army prefab that housed Teddy's 4mm layout. It was a quick build, using Redutex woodsiding, partly as an experiment to see how it worked. In my own eyes, it didn't, with massive gaps between planks and proving hard to get sharp corners.

I bought a resin replacement from a wargame supplier, but then Hornby brought out their version, which was a lot better, but at a stupidly high price point.

Earlier this week, I found it for sale at an equally ridiculous discount.

You can see the difference in size between the sheds.

So I'm now back to considering ideas for the long-shelved (groan) bigger version of the micro. There are a couple of key design issues. One is that Iwant to use the Peco OO9 starter trackset, the other is that I need somewhere to put it. That is a real challenge because of the width. This is the only idea I have, but a shelf layout above a door, only viewable from halfway up the loft ladder, is hardly ideal.

Finally, a reminder that this weekend is the Macclesfield show.

I'm planning to go on the Saturday morning. There are some great layouts booked, but...

The big "but" for me is their published policy about photography and SocMed over the weekend.

Like many recent shows, they are applying a blanket embargo on photos from the show until it is over. An embargo I intend to comply with.

The argument, which makes sense on paper, is that people won't bother to go if they've already seen photos.

But my experience is the opposite. If I see photos that make the show look better than I expected, then I am more likely to make the effort to go in person. Either the next day, or next year.

They are also claiming ownership of the copyright for all images taken at the show. I don't think that would stand up in court. It isn't on public property, which has some bearing, but it isn't their property.  The National Trust, for example, recognises that it does not own the copyright of images taken on its properties, but does, legitimately, own the rights to the commercial use of images.

That makes sense,  I have heard of issues from other shows about 'Influencers' causing issues by making long videos that have been intrusive on exhibitors, traders and visitors, but I haven't seen that myself. I do see how that could be a problem.

I've no doubt this will be a great show, perhaps with a few teething issues from being at a new venue, but what if it wasn't? What if people went on day one and realised a show was a rip-off? Outside of the model railway world, thankfully, we can all think of examples of that.

For my own part, I've always tried to give shows reviews that are positive but fair. I felt bad posting some of my views on the Manchester show, but I still felt it was reasonable to say that there were two, quite large, layouts, where I didn't see a single train move.

Anyway, for what it is worth, before I get banned from the exhibition for life, here is my review of last year's show. The list of this year's layouts looks even mouth-watering.

Lost Weekend

I had such wonderful plans for this weekend, though they were somewhat incompatible with one another.

Last year, I promised myself I would go to the Glasgow show and make a weekend of it. Then Apedale announced their Cadeby event, and Billy Bragg reminded me of a certain march taking place in London. On top of which, I had exam revision to do.

What I hadn't planned for was a week working combined UK and US East Coast hours, managing to average four hours of sleep a night, and catching a nasty bug at the previous week's conference. A bug which I now suspect might have been the current strain of COVID.

So I spent this weekend in bed, shivering, dizzy and struggling to breathe.

At least I missed most of the fallout from the Heljan announcement.

My personal view is that there is a lot of hot air being generated by people who only know part of the story. I've been in a lot of Mergers, Acquisitions and Disinvestments over the years. There is a reason why we use the acronym MAD. Outsiders, and many on the inside, rarely know anything approaching the truth. What is certainly true is that a lot of people seem to have convinced themselves they are supporting local model shops when actually it is the big box shifters they are buying from. It is like those people who blame the death of the High Street on Amazon, and then do all their food shopping in a big supermarket. I also suspect some of those frothing at the mouth are the sort you see sprinting in at the start of a big show to pick up the RTR bargains.

Meanwhile, and I don't know if the end of the financial year is a factor, I've had a glut of pre-orders get fulfilled this week. After waiting six months to a year for a product, it would be nice if the sellers could give you a week's notice that they are going to take payment, and what it is for. I had one large unexpected payment go out that nearly had me contacting my bank to see if it was fraud.

The first arrival was this:

With a Minories based layout somewhere in my backlog, I was keen to finally get my hands on a TT:120 loco. Seen here perched on an N gauge module.


I haven't had a chance to run it yet, and the livery is a little too modern for my purposes, but first impressions are good.

I really like the size.

When I first saw a model in this scale, I was taken aback by how small it was compared to 3mm. It certainly feels a lot closer to N than to 4mm. The quality of the detail looks very good; I can't yet vouch for the accuracy. Arguably, the GraFar Gronk is as good for all practical purposes* above the footplate, but below the footplate, this wins hands down. In fact, I'm slightly worried the coupling rods are too fine for long-term use. My photo does the model a disservice because I lit part of the cab interior that is effectively invisible in the flesh. I'm actually impressed with the glazing, there is hardly any prismatic distortion when seen with the eyeball.

I'm still not sure about the standard TT coupling. From an appearance perspective I like that is mounted low down, though that might cause issues for the toy train enthusiasts. But I'm tempted to look at Kadees or DGs as replacements.

Does it make me want to scrap the N gauge layouts? No, it is back to horses for courses, especially given what is available on the market, at least currently.

But it does make me want to build a TT120 layout. 

What would that be?

Well, Minories is obviously on the list, since it was originally conceived as a 3mm layout. Given that TT120 is appreciably smaller, it raises the option of either the original plan built to a smaller footprint, or using the original dimensions and handling slightly longer trains.

Building TAoC in this scale, but again, keeping the original footprint, could produce something much more usable and easier to balance trackwork against scenery. It doesn't appeal to me, but it is an idea.

A version of Shell Island would make a great cameo.

Swirling around somewhere, in my still slightly befuddled brain, is an exhibition layout to promote the scale. And I mean exhibition in two senses: a layout to take to shows but also a layout to promote the scale. A layout that the average modeller thinks both "I could do that" and "I have the space for that"
I guess I'm thinking something akin to Bredon, but rationalised in BR days. Effectively, a combination of the trainset oval and an inglenook capable of being operated independently.

Just a thought.

I'll leave you with this. I have two abiding memories of Gronks. One was a night in Carlisle hotel room I shared with my father on the return leg of a road trip focused on Yorkshire but with a trip over the border. The hotel was built on the site of an old gibbet, and guests claimed it was haunted by the sound of clanking chains.

I can assure you, they were hearing an 08 shunting. The experience of being woken up in that way, a loco going about its rather noisy mundane work whilst a big city slept, didn't come back to me until year's later in Vegas.

The other is this. The New Street station pilot in the 80's.

*This was the punchline of an old, no longer tellable, joke  about the difference between mathematicians, accountants and statisticians.

A Little Something for the Weekend

 Life continues to be difficult.

In the last couple of weeks, we've said final goodbyes to my mother-in-law, two of our oldest dogs and our 19-year-old cat.

The upside is that my new contract has finally been signed, a very long time after negotiations began. All I have to do now is pass a lot more exams, so that I can start writing new exams and the supporting textbook.

Next week I'm speaking at another IT conference, which might give me a chance to revisit old haunts in Birmingham, and tomorrow we are heading back to Dilwyn so Mum can clean Dad's grave.

I was trying to think how many garden lines I built at Dilwyn over the twenty-plus years we lived there.

This was the first, and probably most successful:

It was a simple line around the rhubarb patch. There were at least two other less successful lines and a 7/8ths line of a sort. There were times when I considered shoehorning in a 5" line as well.

My grand plan, had it not been thwarted by an evil ex, was to build the Weobley & Leominster Light Railway with a distinct Welshpool and Llanfair vibe. I even surveyed the fictional route in some detail.

When I get a few free moments, this is the next project:

My concern, as usual with N gauge, is whether the different approach to corrugated iron will work together. I suspect I won't know until it is finished.

I'm at least hopeful that the Modelu guttering components are going to work on the 4mm Wisbech and Upwell office, but I'm not looking forward to such a fiddly job.

Out in the garden, apart from creating a pet cemetery, we've finally got rid of the remaining concrete fenceposts, so once the weather improves I can start thinking about building the permanent  7/8ths line.

 
I'm still pondering the 16mm line for the grandchildren. Cutting down the trees has opened up some possibilities, but I'm beginning to think about it in the long term. I had been thinking about using very tight radius track so that small people could reach the whole layout, but then that would exclude my own 32mm stock from running. I really need some sunny weather to get out and play around with the choices.

Wren will I learn?

 I have a soft spot for the KS Wrens. 

There was Lorna Doone in the much-missed Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry, now living a few miles away from us at Amerton. Here she is with the piratical Thomas Eivers, of Endon Valley Custom Decals on the footplate.

Then there was Peter Pan at Leighton Buzzard, the non-working replica that Peter Jones built in his garden, and, thanks to Matt Acton, my 7/8ths tribute to Peter 

Oh and then there was Dryw Bach at Bala

I've got a OO9 Wren somewhere as well.

Where is this heading? 

Although the Eaugate Light Railway closed two years ago, I still own the locos and the coach. But my chances if ever using them are limited. Tug now only gets used for indoor events, and Teddy isn't powerful enough to be useful at Foxfield.


I'm beginning to wonder whether selling them to fun one of the new Maxitrack 5" gauge Wrens might be viable

I'm not yet fully committed to the idea, but if it stops raining this weekend, I might get the 5" gauge jubilee track out to play around with ideas