Railways Blog

On the subject of British trains, and the modelling potential thereof, Electric Nose talks of times of transition.

Contrary to popular opinion, I firmly believe we’ve just lived through one of the most interesting and modellable transition eras in the history of diesel and electric traction. The influx of new GM motive power has sat alongside an ample selection of old favourites. New super-wagons have rubbed shoulders with the staple fare of previous generations, such as 4 wheel tanks and MGR hoppers. A bewildering array of modern multiple units are only just ousting the vestiges of their first generation ancestors. Liveries in particular are at their peak, from the point of view of variety – I’ve always been enamoured of the juxtaposition of Virgin and Intercity Swallow colours on the WCML, and the celebrity repaint trend has enhanced things further.

Sometimes you don’t recognise a golden age until you’re nearing the end of it. I wonder if we’re ever going to see anything approaching the bewildering variety of liveries again. On my recent trip to Dawlish I saw class 158 DMUs in no fewer than eight different colour schemes (and that’s just two train operating companies!). 158s were once the most boring units on the network. And then there was the sight of an EWS class 67 hauling a long train of elderly Mk2 coaches in the old BR Intercity colours on a summer Saturday extra; surely the present-day equivalent of a shiny new diesel hauling elderly ‘big four’ coaches in the sixties. Not to mention the 40+ year old class 31 diesel I saw at Bristol on the way home painted in Wessex Trains pink.

Oh, and best wishes to Electric Nose in taking up the hotseat again as moderator for Demodellers.

Electric Nose was right! I had been abducted by aliens and whisked away in a red-and-silver flying saucer. Only it was far too small for me and my 300-odd fellow abductees, and there was no space to put all our luggage!

The alien planet did have this view from the balcony, though.

Or not, if you’re a British railway modeller who doesn’t think the universe ended in 1968. Electric Nose‘s observations explain what it is that really attracted me to Swiss outline modelling. And it’s not the better running qualities of the locos.

Cold Spring Shops reminds us of one flaw about steam locomotives that some of us forget, those cinders in the eyes.

I still remember travelling on the 2′ gauge Vale of Rheidol in Wales when I was about 13, back in the days when it was still coal-fired, and a very painful cinder in the eye on the return trip, which didn’t budge until that evening.

My best train memories of that holiday aren’t of the narrow gauge steam lines at all, but the traffic on the Cambrian main line which ran right past the holiday cottage the family rented for the week. There was the class 24 spluttering up the Dovey valley on the evening Aberystwyth to York mail, a couple of Mk1s and a string of grubby parcels vans including several four-wheelers. Then there was the ‘daily freight’ along the coast line with its mix of 16t minerals, vanfits and the distinctive metal bodied gunpowder vans. And the two 24s double-heading the Saturdays only loco-hauled string of Mk1s to Pwllheli.

More recently, the last couple of times I’ve visited my nearest preserved railway, the East Lancashire, was during their diesel galas. Hymeks and Warships and Westerns, oh my….

I just had to quote this; it comes from the editorial of Model Railway Journal

As has often been observed, the dress sense of many modellers leaves much to be desired. In 7mm circles especially, tweed jackets unravelling at the cuffs and egg-stained society ties still appear to be de rigueur, decades after they vanished from the greater world at large. How refreshing, then, to encounter the Goth-fixated ladies and gentlemen of Diesel and Electric Modellers United (DEMU). Amid a welter of black leather, red fishnet and multiple body piercings, some seriously good modelling appears to be going on. Admire their display at an exhibition near you – visit www.demu.co.uk or catch the DEMU Showcase Event at Burton on Trent on the 5th June.

Quoted by Alan Monk (serious Closterkeller fan) on the Demodellers mailing list.

I went to the DEMU Showcase, and it was true! It seems I run into more Goths at model railway shows than I do at RPG conventions. There’s even the lady who wants to build a layout in a coffin.

Update: Some of those individuals here.

Christian Wolmar isn’t impressed with the government’s latest rail review.

Like the original privatisation Bill, the draft of the rail review has all the hallmarks of a document cobbled together in a rush by bright civil servants with little knowledge of the workings of the rail industry. The imperative this time round is to cut the soaring costs to the taxpayer rather than collect a lot of money and watch the industry slide into decline, although like all of the reviews since privatisation it tinkers at the edges rather than addressing the real issues.

The document highlights the extent to which the Labour government has been unable to get a grip on an industry whose privatisation ministers now accept was “botched” but which they steadfastly refuse to reverse in its entirety. Instead, the review will result in yet another attempt to impose new rules on a system that was, is and will remain unworkable.

I hope somebody’s going to nail the myth that all the problems of the railways will end if you just close a few unprofitable branch lines. To make a significant dent in the subsidy it’s not just a few remote rural lines that will go,. It would have to be wholesale closures cutting entire regions off the railway map.

The money lost by rural branch lines is peanuts compared with the money wasted by the cumbersome and unworkable fragmentation of the core parts of the network. Can someone explain why rail users in Cornwall should lose their rail services to pay for mismanagement of the West Coast Main Line modernisation?

Update: Patrick Crozier isn’t impressed either.

Some evocative photos of the Woodhead line, which closed in 1981. The Woodhead line, running across the Pennines from Sheffield to Manchester was one of those unique lines, with it’s non-standard electrification and distinctive captive fleet of locomotives.

I regret never seeing the line in operation; although I did have a couple of family holidays in the area in the mid 70s, I couldn’t persuade my parents to let me spend enough time next to the lineside to actually see a train! It never occurred to me that the line would close just a few years later.

Electric Nose certainly thinks so. And he has all of his marbles.

I’m thinking about layout ideas again.

I’ve decided I’m unlikely ever to build a American-style basement-busting permanent layout. My current lifestyle as an IT consultant looks like it’s likely to revolve around frequent relocations. Therefore the only kind of layout I can build that would have a decent life expectancy are portable sectional ones that I can take with me when I move.

My present 12′x 2′ layout is very much a temporary affair. I’m not totally happy about the quality of the benchwork, and the 2′ width means I’ve got both sharp curves (8½” on the inner circuit), and room for only six roads in the fiddle yard. Because of these limitations I’ve never developed much scenery apart from a few buildings which can be reused on future layouts.

So what next? So far I’ve got three schemes under consideration. One long-term plan might be to build all three, with one or possibly two set up at any one time. All three are based on real locations, but aren’t intended to be exact models. I don’t really have the time or commitment to build a scale model of a real location as a solo project. Such a layout would involve scratchbuilding all the structures, as well as taking up more space than is ever likely to be available to me, even in N!. So I plan to use the basic trackplan and prototype train formations, but to to use some ‘selective compression’ in order to fit things into a suitable space, and to use or adapt commercially available structure kits for the buildings.

All three of these schemes are for double track mainlines, fed by enough storage roads for a representative selection of trains. I’m afraid ‘shunting planks’ just don’t do it for me. Call it a glorified trainset if you want, but I want to capture the experience of standing by a busy main line. All are intended as home layouts, but will be built with exhibitions in mind, which means nicely ballasted Peco Code 55 trackwork rather than sectional Kato Unitrack!

Wöminsee III
This one’s Swiss outline, based on a typical small passing station on the BLS main line. My plan is a cross between Blausee-Mitholz on the north ramp, and Ausserberg on the south ramp. A 10’4″ x 2’8″ board will just about fit in my living room, which will give me enough width to fit in ten storage roads at the back, and enough length to fit in nine coach trains of 85′ long coaches. Hopefully this will be the first to see the light of day.

Restormel
Back to British outline this time; I love the running qualities of Fleischmann and Kato locos, but British prototypes are in the blood. It’s based on Lostwithiel in Cornwall, although how much of it I can model depends on how much space I have to play with. I’ve sketched a plan to fit a drastically cut down version in a 6′x 9′ wedge-shaped layout that I could just about fit in my second bedroom. But I’m not sure I can cut things down so radically and still retain the flavour of the real life location. I may have to put this one on the back burner until I’ve got a little bit more space.

Marine Parade
Another British scheme. At about 9′x 3′ or thereabouts, this is the smallest scheme; but in terms of structures, the most ambitious. Based on the section of the sea wall at Dawlish, from the west end of the station to Kennaway tunnel. I’ve seen several models of the sea wall further along the coast, with the red cliffs and the tunnels, but never an attempt to model part of the town itself. I’ve been investigating the catalogues of various continental kit makers for suitable buildings.

An excellent show! Demu Showcase is the annual exhibition put on by Diesel and Electric Modellers United, intended to showcase layouts and models built by those that believe the universe didn’t end with the end of steam in 1968.

It’s ironic that the first locomotive I saw when I walked through the door was a k*ttl*, in the shape of an O gauge model of a preserved rebuild Bullied pacific.

All the layouts were of excellent quality, ranging from tiny “shunting planks” to big multi-track main lines. They also represented a range of eras. We had a couple of layouts from the increasingly popular years immediately following the demise of steam traction, featuring those unsuccessful and short-lived locomotive classes that were soon to follow steam power into history; the Scottish class 17s and 29s, or the Western 14s and 22s. In contrast we had layouts representing the present-day post-privatisation scene.

My preferred scale, N gauge was represented by the soon-to-be-retired Acton Mainline, one of the best examples of modern day urban modelling I’ve seen in any scale, with intensive operation on the four track mainline out of London Paddington back in 1989 when a lot of commuter trains were still loco-hauled.

The other star layout was the magnificent Mostyn, just about the only big 4mm finescale layout on the exhibition circuit. Like Acton Mainline, it’s an accurate model of a real location, on the north Wales coast main line. This one goes further back, to 1977, the days of class 24s, 25s and 40s.

Pengwynn Crossing has always been a favourite of mine, based as it is on Cornish china clay operations in the 80s, with nice models of some of the distinctive and unique wagons used for this traffic. The N Gauge Society might even be releasing a kit of the Traffic Services Polybulk.

There were lots of familiar faces present, and it’s easy to spend as much time chatting as watching the layouts. Among others I chatted with Martyn Read, Alan Monk, Steve Grantham, Pete Shaw, Niggle Spate, Ben Ando, Bryn Davies and the infamous Roechard Wibb, some of them regular commenters on this weblog.

Finally, I have to remark that I got there and back on trains that ran on time, including two Virgin Voyagers that weren’t overcrowded for once. The only problem was the wretched Stockport blockade, which meant a rail replacement bus and a detour to Manchester Piccadilly, adding quite a bit to the overall journey time.