LAYOUT CLUB

This is another of those structures that, despite not being for a layout, just called out to be modelled. It's actually always been fairly local to me, and I'd driven past countless times without paying much attention. A recent change of living arrangements meant I started walking past it in the evenings when the summer weather was nice, and I instantly wondered why I'd not noticed it before! My model is not an exact replica in terms of dimensions or construction. My building is a standalone structure, the real thing has an adjoining building. This meant that I had to guess at one of the ends and the back - as there's no public access to the rear. Built using good, old-fashioned, card and embossed plastic sheet, As an aside, working with card is so pleasant and nostalgic. The real thing also has a breeze-blocked up window, a feature I was keen to copy. Everything, including the windows, is scratchbuilt and made using various off-cuts and bits and pieces. There's sti...

Or perhaps not… for whilst in jest it may feel that way I am proud of bringing this group of us together under the ‘Layout Club’ umbrella, and recognise the sentiment from all involved… A few months on from those first tentative steps the concept has matured. Regulars and occasional alike bring an honest and heart felt open approach to writing, describing and sharing their work, their thoughts, their worries, fears and humble success. Layout Club, then, has become a place to indulge my passion for model railways beyond the craft of ‘the hobby’. Amongst the writing I find an energy in my fellow bloggers that fuels my own work, dreams and ideas. Whilst the Indian narrow gauge may be a new entry the Northern Alberta GP9 is next on my bench - both keeping me safely from the etched Class 01 kit in the ‘bottom drawer’… thinking about, more than that, getting consumed by these ideas and the possibilities they hold is a wonderful balm to the messy world we navigate - here, on Layout Club, like...

In the kindest possible way, James is a bad influence on me! After years of skittish flitting from one project to another, only briefly interrupted by a single successful exhibition layout, recent workings towards Butley Creek (or whatever it's called) seemed to represent a period of relative calm. However, bubbling away beneath the surface was a perverse desire to model something American , which I have been battling to suppress since I first came across Coalbridge Street.  It is perhaps a relief that the usual EMD GP-whatever and 500 boxcars does little for me, given my current living situations. However, there was something about that little GE 44t that crawled underneath my skin. Larkrail, my first in-person encounter with the layout, was poison enough (especially as I gazed over at James - cool, collected, and relaxed, as I battled to untangle a chain of hapless wagons from the end of my pen torch). Uckfield, my first hands-on experience of the genre, proved the final straw! T...

James commented on my last post that he'd like to see a locomotive. Well, surprisingly enough, locos are not my forte... model ones that is, as strange as it sounds for a railway modeller! I've always enjoyed building the wagons and structures rather than the things that pull the trains. A couple of years ago I had designs on building a micro clay works layout...needless to say it never really got off the ground. As part of those plans, I was detailing my old Bachmann Class 08. As is usual for me, I decided to make life difficult and replace all of the handrails - just because I thought they looked too heavy out of the box. I also decided to apply a heavily faded, rusted and weathered loco - based on some prototype photos online. Once the transfers were applied, I decided to go one step further and replace the coupling rods. The visual difference this makes is stark - I have no idea why Bachmann represented the rods like they did. And this is how this loco still looks, several ...

James very kindly suggested I might write something for Layout Club. I was, of course, thrown into doubt (not to say a blind panic) because I've spent the last few months not getting on with things. While reading about things that haven't been attended to might sound rather counter-productive, it will at least shame me into action. So here goes.  The first thing I've not done, and it really is fundamental, is sort out the alignment between the scenic 'board' and the fiddleyard 'board' of my cameo layout, Brookfield. I put 'board' in quotes, because the whole thing was constructed with foam board, which is hardly board at all. I had my reasons, chiefly that when I started my partner, Lisa, and I were living in a flat and had no access to outdoor spaces. Woodwork in the front room - in any room, tbh - was frowned upon, but cutting foam board on the dining table (carefully, with a too small cutting board) was just about acceptable.  Only when we had got...

In recent weeks I've often found myself drawn to my burgeoning collection of old MRJs. I rarely actually read them cover to cover, but I enjoy the tone and sense of vigorous enthusiasm. The words within have a real buzz, and excitement for a growing, and increasingly "cool", professional approach to modelling (even if it was all-to-often tied up with an almost cult-like obsession with P4)  It feels like a stark contrast to the more downbeat mood (perhaps linked to the growing volume of obituaries!) and impersonal content that we've grown used to from the modelling press. I suppose a longing for a fresh approach was what I was so keen for James to launch Layout Club, but that's enough pontificating for one post. It was whilst flicking through one such tome that I came across a picture which stirred the modelling spirits in a perhaps surprising way. An image from the lesser spotted "Real Atmosphere" feature - the specimen in question, a humble coal merchan...

Railway modelling seems to be more railway collecting these days. Why build a wagon or coach when you can just wait for one of the RTR manufacturers to make it for you?  I accept that a lot of these new, super detailed models are fantastic, and light years ahead of the Lima and Hornby models of old, but they're also very expensive. As I've touched on before, most of my modelling revolves around scratchbuilding, kitbuilding and modifying. There's nothing I like more than taking an old model, and giving it a new lease of life - a bit like the Queen Mary brakevan . I've always had an interest in parcel vans and, luckily for me, my future layout will allow me to run some parcels stock - both the BR Mk1 and plywood sided varieties. Now, Bachmann produce the Mk1 version, and I'm sure it's very nice [although the handrails are rather overscale] but there's actually nothing wrong with the far older Lima version - especially if you're prepared to do some work to ...

I accept I have a limited attention span with my modelmaking and from afar the latest distraction, especially if the interest isn’t shared by the observer, could just be seen as another frustrating delay…  “James stop messing around with XXXX and finish off YYYY” - meanwhile I’m probably on to ZZZZ! However, that said these meanderings are often just how long it takes to work out a problem or stumbling block with a particular scheme or prototype I feel inclined to interpret in model form. The wrestling of ideas, a balance of space and reality - this means long held interests can resurface and distract without much warning, whilst others languish unfinished, incomplete. Wonderful N scale ScaleTrains Rio Grande GP30 posed on the latest Mosslanda blank canvas, provisionally titled ‘ Defiance ’… Rather than worry why I’m not able to come up with a plan, a scheme or even specific prototype for my Canadian adventure I’ve written about here recently, I choose to embrace my imagination; I...

Some modellers are focussed and directional. I could be better described as meandering and listless! Imagine a bumper car, attempting to circumnavigate its corral of chaos, but spending more time heading in the wrong direction than the right one (presumably to the chagrin of the screaming attendant - in this analogy, they could represent my wallet!) The first entry on this blog concerned the village store for Butley Creek, what was supposed to be my first (and likely only) venture into EM gauge. However, as discussed in that piece, “The Creek” remains a pretty vaguely defined, ethereal concept. With a growing roster of EM-converted wagons (predominantly kit-built), a few Rustons, and my prized RT Models Sentinel, I felt I really ought to build something to test them on. Enter that baseboard I had dumped in the corner, originally intended for an N gauge micro, and I began to form some dangerous ideas. I felt an irrational yearning to model some really bland, unremarkable, and downright ...

Although the vast majority of my modelling is for myself, very occasionally I get the opportunity to build things for someone else. Not to the same extent as Mr Hilton - there's no layout construction here - but once in a while I get asked to build things [usually small] for other people's layouts. This little weighbridge is one such project. I was sent some rudimentary drawings and one photo to work from - you can actually view both of these by visiting this website: Oswestry Borderland Heritage - Tanat Valley Light Railway Construction was simple - plastic sheet walls clad in embossed brick sheet. I probably could have included an interior, but it didn't seem worth it. Paint scheme was an unknown, however brown seemed appropriate. I simulated an open window to bring a bit of life to the model - but that was a purely artistic touch. A nice, fun little project to break up my own aimless modelling! 

‘Things I don’t need nor have space for’ is a fair description of most of this Canadian distraction, rather I’d prefer to say adventure. Why then am I always chasing rabbits down deep holes? That is what a logical assessment might ask - but then my model making isn’t rational or scientific, it comes from the heart - not in a Hallmark card  sense, but from inside of me, the results then a physical manifestation of that process, and hence of  myself … So I could describe the feelings of child like wonder for these small models, or I could describe my memories of a Canadian holiday as a child - I could perhaps even mention craft and meditation… but none of these concepts really explain what is happening on my bench.  I make sense of the world - and more accurately, my feelings and my place in it through craft. My chosen ‘intense interest’ happens to be model railways but in the past I’ve painted and in my teens wrote mediocre indie music. Replacing the brush and guitar with ...

Reading Matt’s post provoked mixed feelings. Exceptional modelling as ever, with his trademark dedication to craft and detail. However, it also made me painfully aware that I have little to show for recent efforts. Obviously it’s only a few weeks since my last post, but that feels like an eternity in the modelling cycle of someone with an attention span as short as mine.  Juggling two conflicting inspirations - the masterful Tollesbury Quay by Martin Stringer, and Rye Town by Stephen Hannington I find myself stuck between two rocks, and my enthusiasm is in a hard place. On one side is Coursehorn, on the other Butley Creek. Both are layouts derived from prototypes to which I am immensely fond, and which I am very keen to see complete. However, I find myself paralysed by two opposing dilemmas.  Coursehorn is far advanced and looks from a glance to be coming together. However, I find myself dissatisfied with the basic composition and form of the layout. The Kent and East Sussex p...

In my last post about Grain Crossing Box, I mentioned that from time to time inspiration strikes when least expected. I try hard not to go down these modelling rabbit holes, but sometimes they're very hard to resist! I do like a brake van, but those with 4 wheels meet all of my current and future layout needs. Several years ago I picked up a rather battered Bachmann Queen Mary with no real intention of doing anything with it. The model was in poor shape with missing buffers and questionable "weathering". It sat, entirely forgotten about, in a box in the attic for many, many months and it was only by chance that I came across it - while looking for something else. I'm one of those modellers who much prefers the process and I'd much rather build something - and expend ridiculous effort in the process - even when it's something I don't technically need. Once that inspiration strikes, I get carried away. The Bachmann model was released in 1996 [I think] and is...

I was walking to work in Glasgow when something began to feel slightly odd.  The streets had different names. The signs looked American.  Red fire hydrants had appeared where there had never been fire hydrants before.   A Gotham City parking sign in the middle of Glasgow And then there was the snow...  Snow on the ground, in Glasgow, in August. A snowy "Lacey's" at Christmas, or a vacant Glasgow building in August? It took me a little while to realise that these streets, so familiar to me, had been transformed into Gotham City  for the filming of The Batman Part II .  Perhaps because I spend a rather unhealthy amount of my time thinking about and making a fictional place of my own, I became fascinated.  This was, in effect, a diorama. Just a very large one. I build Chandwell at 1:148. This was being built at 1:1. Apart from the size, the budget and the rather larger workforce, the differences were not quite as great as I might have expected. Buildings ...