Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

There was a time in my life when I moved house on a regular basis and took it in my stride. So I've been bit taken a back by how stressful I've found this latest move, particularly since the move itself went without a hitch and we both adore living here.  Sometimes though even good changes generate stress. That is especially the case when one change sets in motion a domino effect in many aspects of life, which is what seems to be happening now.

To give just two apparently trivial examples, having moved somewhere flat I've exchanged one of my bikes, an old and much loved 21 gear hybrid, for a single-speed bike in a rather fetching shade of electric blue. It is radically altering my how approach to cycling and I'm loving every minute I spend riding it. The catch is that because of all the other pulls on my time I'm struggling to find the time to put in the miles I want to.

The same applies to photography. To be honest I've never been the most successful landscape photographer but even so I've been really struggling to get to grips with Fenland. It isn't that the scenery is unattractive and boring, far from it, but somehow I can't yet capture the images  that my mind is seeing.

On the bright side I get to practice  taking lots of sunset photos whilst leaning on the garden fence, and there are some great agricultural buildings around.

Meanwhile on the railway front I'm still focussed on the garden but after over tens years with hardly any garden at all I'm struggling to work out how to fit things in. I've worked out a location for the 16mm test track but it isn't a long term solution.

The 7 1/4" gauge line also needs a lot of thought, trying to balance avoiding it being too public or intruding on the garden too much whilst also doing a useful job of work.

New Beginnings

So the house move is completed. The dogs are having the time of their lives, as is one of the cats, though the other one is less certain, and the cycling is a dream.

And track laying has begun.....

End of the Line

So the long awaited house move is finally happening on Monday. 

The upside is obviously the prospect of a 7 1/4" gauge line at long last.

The downside is the short-term lack of space until I get a workshop built, and that means a hard decision had to be made.

Apa is no more 

Typically it was only after consigning it to the bin that I realised the last train photo was taken with the Sentinel's body sat skewiff. 

I did strip the layout of all the reusable things I could beforehand, although I'm not confident they will survive the move and an extended time in storage.

It had served the purpose for which it was built, and I'm looking forward to the next iteration

 

Modelling Narrow Gauge Railways in Small Scales

I got home from a rather wet day gricing Listers and their like at Lamport Hall  to discover my Amazon pre-order of Chris Ford's new book had arrived.

That's quite impressive considering Amazon aren't even showing it as being released yet.

So far I've only had a chance to skim through it but first impressions are of an excellent guide that takes you through pretty much everything you need to know to build your first OO9 layout, or, for that matter, your first layout in most scales, I particularly liked how balanced the content seemed with no undue emphasis on any one aspect. and also how it dives straight in to projects that presume the reader is going to build things for themselves.

I could see a definite opening for a similar approach to a book on finescale standard gauge modelling.

Well worth a more detailed read..

A Lucky Find

With the house move on the horizon I decided it was time to visit some of the local museums that I've not got around to going to nearly ten years.

The first, and most relevant here, is the Electric Railway Museum.

I never have worked out why it is located next to Coventry Airport rather than somewhere with strong historic links to electric railway. It also only opens sporadically, but fortunately last Saturday was one of their access days.

If this sounds familiar it is because Phil Parker, another local, also only fairly recently managed to make the same visit.

So there isn't much I can add to his observations. Except that in the on board shop I found an October 1959 Railway Modeller.

And in the back of it was this advert for my father's old shop.

Not only that but it also had a fascinating article by P.D. Hancock on building the trams for Craig, and by Doris Stokes on shop window displays.

More photos here and since it was only next door I also popped into the Midlands Air Museum.

Toy

For those of you who have been wondering about the prototype loco I mentioned  for the proposed 7 1/4" gauge line

Designed and built by Colin Edmondson to use an old Suffolk Punch engine, or the more modern Loncin.

To find out more have a look at the Minimal Gauge Railways group on Facebook

Go East Not So Young Man

So a  quick update on the house move situation. Things continue to move rather fast. Within twenty four hours of my last post we found a house we both fell in love with, our offer has been accepted, the mortgage is in place....and every finger and toe is currently crossed that nothing goes wrong.

Actually I'm sort of hoping one small thing goes wrong just so we can get it out of the way.

I'm not going to tempt fate by posting too many details yet, but the photo above gives a very strong clue about the approximate location, especially to a few of you who I know are reasonably local to the area. A pity this site wasn't for sale itself really.

What it currently lacks is an office and a proper workshop, but it has plenty of space for both that is currently occupied by kennels. Mind you with the poodles managing to be rather annoying this morning the idea of keeping the kennels has its own appeal.

As for the garden....

Well I think it makes a 7 1/4" gauge line pretty much compulsory. There is ample scope to start with something simple and then add in a more circuitous route at a later date. And in a remarkable coincidence the ideal loco for it has just been successfully tested before entering production.