2996 Victor
Western Thunderer
Hi Nick,Hello Mark,
I'm very sorry. I didn't realise there had been a reply recently!
In a word: no! When I planned the layout, I was trying hard to reclaim a bit of a life again, having been a senior leader in a multi-academy trust comprising several primary schools. So the workload steadily increased, and all modelling went totally on the back-burned.
Eventually, I burnt out. The final straw was in 2021. During the second national lockdown, my gallbladder nearly burst. My parents took me to the hospital, and I spent 10 days there. I was in a real pickle; several stones were trapped in the cystic duct, and another had gone into the liver. I had jaundice and a raging infection in the wall of the stomach, and a broader infection in my colon. When I spoke to work from the hospital bed, I was greeted with, 'So, has the planning been done for next term? This is really inconvenient for us.'
Needless to say, that was the straw! I'd already decided while I was off to leave teaching, but I quit after my phased return was not honoured when I returned to work in early September 2021, having never had any serious time off in the past 12 years. I joined GWR as a conductor in March of last year - the best decision I've ever made, even if I did pass out 2 weeks before the first wave of industrial action! Really being ill was the best thing that could happen to me as I realised that teaching had totally consumed my life.
Anyway, back to the model! At present, a few issues hold me back from the scheme. The first is that the core members of the locomotive fleet don't perform as well as I had hoped they would! The O2s aren't too bad, but the Well Tanks are, to put it kindly, unreliable. The second issue is that I currently lack space for a 9ft model. Forget the fiddle yards. The last, and probably most important component, is that two of the three boards were nicked for a small GWR scheme, which ultimately had to be dumped when a water pipe burst where I was storing them.
So has anything come from it? Not yet. Might something come? Still trying to figure it out!
I particularly like the former LSWR lines in North Devon and Cornwall and the GWR lines in South Devon (Horrabridge station on the GWR Launceston Branch being my ultimate goal). But, realistically, to make a finescale scheme, I cannot do both, and I need to decide what to get on with, stick with it, and do something productive! The running quality of the Kernow stock pushes me quite firmly back to the GWR (at least I know I can fit after-market chassis to Bachmann models).
While that is all going on, I'm also having a bit of a 'gauge crisis' about how my modelling should progress in my newfound freedom (as Captain Kernow and Sheep Bloke know only too well)!
For the first time ever, I have 'free time', something I haven't had in the past 13-plus years. I'm a member of the team aiding Rod Cameron and John Farmer's P4 Ouse Valley Empire and have produced a significant amount of BR-era P4 freight stock for the project. At present, I don't want to make a P4 layout myself - it is too fiddly and time-consuming. Also, I don't think I want to model the BR era; I favour the romantic thirties as hinted to above.
I am very tempted to stick with 00; however, as so many RTR locomotives don't run smoothly enough in my book, they will require replacement chassis. This is where the 'niggle' comes in, and I think, well, if you are going to replace the chassis, you might as well model a more realistic gauge, and the EM Crisis unfolds!
This is currently the most 'stressful' issue in my life...So, once I've sorted out where I'm going, I'll post something on this thread. Who knows, St. Breward might get built after all. Is anyone producing an etched chassis for a Well Tank yet?
Best wishes,
Nick.
many thanks for your reply and in turn my apologies for not having responded sooner - I'm concentrating on aeroplaney things over on Britmodeller ATM!
So sorry to hear about your health trials and tribulations, they sound dreadful, but glad to hear all have been sorted out successfully. And the new career sounds like a huge step in the right direction.
Good to know that the ghost of St Breward Junction is still around, I do think it would make a superb model, and what's wrong with the romantic '30s?
Now, as far as track gauge is concerned, I feel your pain. I've been down that "if I need to build a new chassis, then why not EM rather than OO?" rabbit hole. My current two standard gauge micros started out with the express intention of being EM. Stock was being built with EM wheelsets and I'd got the EMGS track ready to lay. Then I saw PECO's new Code 75 bullhead OO. It looks good! And it occurred to me that I could run the locos I've got out-of-box if I wanted to, no messing about. So I took the plunge; Newton Lane is almost ready to test, while Great Bunbury has been waiting for the medium radius points. I'd still have to build the ruddy locos before I could test the track if I'd stuck to EM
Don't get me wrong, EM/P4/S4 guys, fine-scale trackwork can and does look superb, but I decided that I've got too many interests and life is too short. The new PECO bullhead does look good (not like the old Code 100 Streamline - eugh!) and that's good enough for my purposes. Just my tuppence-worth, of course!
Anyway, Nick, good to hear you're in fine fettle and this idea is still alive.
All the best,
Mark