'S T U F F'
Concerning the etheriality of 'stuff'
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Trains and buttered toast (Betjeman)
There's something fascinating about working with model railways, difficult to put into words. It works for me on so many levels, from the technical to the artistic, everything is here! To be able to create or imitate reality in miniature, with all it's detail & intricacy, as I say, difficult to express in mere words!
I seem to have an eye for all this railway stuff, and I find that I need to work quickly (when I get the inspiration!), an idea just comes to me, and I grab the materials and attempt to fashion them into something meaningful, something that has a realism, but doesn't need to imitate life particularly, just maybe hint at it? It's all about striking a chord for me.
I can't ever imagine it being finished, I think it'll be a lifes work. I've managed to integrate technology into the layout, and there are many different options for this. I elected to use the JMRI open source interface, which is compatible with most proprietary DCC systems around today. I have to say, I think DCC is a superb invention, and has been implemented from the start in a very positive and logical way, ensuring compatibility to the pre-ratified DCC standard, set up originaly by the NMRA.
My DCC hardware simply comprises a NCR Powercab connected to my iMac via a USB interface. I also use the 'Wii Throttle' app to enable four simultaneous cabs from my iPad.
My favourite aspect of modelling is the weathering. I never tire of adding detail this way. It's only when you start to look at stuff on your travels that you realise just how much dirt & grime there is in the real world (talk to my wife about that!). I guess the secret is knowing when to stop! I do have an air brush, had it some years, but it still remains unused, another thing on the 'to-do' list.
Here's my one attempt at a scratchbuild. Loosely based on the tunnels that lay on the old LNWR railway line at Gt Oxendon Northants. It's not a scale replica or anything, just something hewn from memory, based on my time spent clambering over it some years ago. The actual Oxendon tunnels or 'rat holes' as they were known, are seperated by an embankment, which rises up to the level of the parapit. It's more akin to a WW2 fortification as it happens. The down tunnel is navigable on foot, but the up tunnel has been sealed off, incidentaly, this tunnel was curved, and so is darker than it's twin. years ago, and after the tracks were long gone, we used to ride our motorcycles through this tunnel, the engines roaring & echoing in our ears, fun, fun, fun!
It's a simple construction of card & brick papers, and fronts the twin tunnels which are made from 50mm waste pipe. Not much clearance there!
Adding the detail...
Luckily, there are nowadays, several sources of model constructors materials available online, thanks to the world wide web (otherwise know as the 'What did We do Without'?)
'Scalescenes' make an ever increasing range of 'print your own' card kits, as do 'Smart models'. I love making them, and now have half a dozen or more, dotted around the layout. I've managed to install led lighting in a few of them, some more successfully than others, I hasten to add. On the right, is my latest addition, the splendid garage kit (complete with hydraulic lift inside, and obligatory 'Snap-On-Tools' chests at rear.
I think the lighting works particularly well here, just makes it look 'operational'.
This is what it looked like before I added several decades worth of W&T and grime...
Here are the cottages up on 'The Bank'. Just a small amount of 'light bleed' here, I'm sure I could fix that without too much grief.
Problem is with lights, once you've added a couple here and there, you have to keep adding them, not a great problem, but yet another 'consumable' to order!
My lighting so far, has all come from Micro Miniatures
Looking at the picture, I'm reminded that I need to add some chimney pots!
Of course, a casual observer may surmise that the layout depicted a scene from the 60's blockbuster film 'The Satan Bug', or possibly a fictional occurance of an England home World Cup final underway perhaps...? I really must add some people! Just one of those things really, something I always attribute to a 'finished' layout, can't think why? I think it's my nemesis, I'm quite happy with positioning of buildings and rail furniture in the main, but people? Where do you put them? On the streets? Platforms? Where do you stop?
I will give them a go soon, I promise!