Tales from The Room of Doom. Dipping a toe in various bucolic backwaters.

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NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
Morning all,

Something of a modelling hiatus hereabouts as Ewe is prepped for a trip "down the road" to the Penarth show this coming weekend.

After that, there's a gap until it's outings in September.

One of these is here......

Railex2024Banner-1.jpg

WHEN: Friday 27th and Saturday 28th September 2024, 10am – 4:30pm

WHERE: The Market Hall, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 8LW
5 minutes walk from Maidstone West Railway Station.
Ample parking is available at the nearby (pay at machine or via RingGo app).
The Market Hall is a wheelchair-friendly venue.

It's a bit of a step for me from Welsh Wales but it does look like being rather good fun.

Rob
 
S

Simon H

Active Member
All things being equal we'll have moved by then, in which case it'll be nearly as big a trip for me as it is for you.
I went to a show (different organiser) in the Market Hall over the new year period, it's a nice venue and pretty convenient for public transport, but I remember the lighting not being great...very yellow with no external windows, though ISTR your layouts being well lit, so I'm sure it'll be fine. There was a live steam layout there at the other show and it got pretty fumey, hopefully this won't be the case in September.
Hope all goes well,
Simon.
 
NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
Evening all,

It's been a bit quiet on Sheep Dip as of late but tonight has seen a bit of playing.....ahem.....operating going on.


What is likely to be the first of the new Dapol Hawthorn Leslie 0.4.0STs has landed.



I give you, Spider.


1000001335.jpg






First impressions are that he is very well detailed, has an excellent level of finish and runs very nicely straight out of the box.



More to follow but very impressed. In fact, having bought a few RTR locos over the last twelve months this could well be the one I'm most satisfied with.



Rob.
 
PaulR

PaulR

Western Thunderer
NHY 581 said:
Morning all,

Something of a modelling hiatus hereabouts as Ewe is prepped for a trip "down the road" to the Penarth show this coming weekend.

After that, there's a gap until it's outings in September.

One of these is here......

View attachment 218799

WHEN: Friday 27th and Saturday 28th September 2024, 10am – 4:30pm

WHERE: The Market Hall, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 8LW
5 minutes walk from Maidstone West Railway Station.
Ample parking is available at the nearby (pay at machine or via RingGo app).
The Market Hall is a wheelchair-friendly venue.

It's a bit of a step for me from Welsh Wales but it does look like being rather good fun.

Rob
Click to expand...
Great that you're doing the Rapido show - we're there too and it should be good fun once we've got the M25 out of our system!
 
NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
PaulR said:
Great that you're doing the Rapido show - we're there too and it should be good fun once we've got the M25 out of our system!
Click to expand...

Morning Paul,

I agree. For me, there's no easy way coming from the West as it were. It essentially mirrors my run to Folkestone so 4 hours plus in any event. Should be good though.

Rob
 
NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
In other news, little is happening on the modelling front. There's now a gap in exhibiting but looking forward to going to Larkrail tomorrow, then Railwells in a couple of weeks...ish.

Incidentally, I'm still shown as exhibiting at Railwells with Lambsdown. I'm not but will hopefully be meeting up with a few chums on the Sunday.

In lieu of modelling, there's much plotting going on, and I suspect baseboards will be ordered in August............

Rob.
 
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NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
Well, Larkrail was a bit of a hoot. A lovely day out spent catching up with a lot of friends, old and new. Once again an excellent selection of top quality layouts had been assembled by Simon and Jerry and very enjoyable it was.

A must do event.


Rob.
 
NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
Well, with the current tranche of exhibitions done for now, I can relax for a bit. I'm going to concentrate on gathering bits and bobs for Flaxfield and the test piece build thing. I must admit my overall desire to do a bit of modelling is suffering at present but I am in the mood for a bit of woodwork.

As per my wittering on the Flaxfield thread, I intend to use Grainge and Hodder boards for Flaxfield itself and will order these once I come back from a holiday to the Czech Republic, mid August. They should then arrive around the end of September.
However, I'm going to knock up a board for the test build from 6mm ply as it's not worth buying one from G&H due to the fact it will be an odd size at 120cm x 30cm x 10cm. I just fancy doing it as a bit of an exercise really.

And on the subject of the Czech Republic, I'll hopefully take the opportunity to acquire a bit more stock for my long term plan to build a 1980s Czech layout. Going to Larkrail and seeing Geraint Hughes' delightful Danish layout, Obbekaer and Ribe Skibbroen got me thinking that a similar approach could suit a Czech branchline project. I have a few locos and a set of the essential M152 rail bus and trailers. See below.

RC7700010_960x.jpg


I have a passable station building from Faller but need to get some goods stock. To that end, we've added visits to a couple of favourite trainshops during our stay.

In particular, I fancy one of these.....

MTB411.jpg

Good Communist railcar. That and the M152 takes care of the passenger service requirements.

This is very much a slow burner. I bought the first loco about ten years ago during a previous visit but another half a dozen wagons would see the stock requirements just about done.

So something a bit different for a future project which will probably be a joint effort between myself and the Memsahib who can offer an expert eye to proceedings.

Rob.
 
John57sharp

John57sharp

Western Thunderer
I’
NHY 581 said:
Well, with the current tranche of exhibitions done for now, I can relax for a bit. I'm going to concentrate on gathering bits and bobs for Flaxfield and the test piece build thing. I must admit my overall desire to do a bit of modelling is suffering at present but I am in the mood for a bit of woodwork.

As per my wittering on the Flaxfield thread, I intend to use Grainge and Hodder boards for Flaxfield itself and will order these once I come back from a holiday to the Czech Republic, mid August. They should then arrive around the end of September.
However, I'm going to knock up a board for the test build from 6mm ply as it's not worth buying one from G&H due to the fact it will be an odd size at 120cm x 30cm x 10cm. I just fancy doing it as a bit of an exercise really.

And on the subject of the Czech Republic, I'll hopefully take the opportunity to acquire a bit more stock for my long term plan to build a 1980s Czech layout. Going to Larkrail and seeing Geraint Hughes' delightful Danish layout, Obbekaer and Ribe Skibbroen got me thinking that a similar approach could suit a Czech branchline project. I have a few locos and a set of the essential M152 rail bus and trailers. See below.

View attachment 219835


I have a passable station building from Faller but need to get some goods stock. To that end, we've added visits to a couple of favourite trainshops during our stay.

In particular, I fancy one of these.....

View attachment 219834

Good Communist railcar. That and the M152 takes care of the passenger service requirements.

This is very much a slow burner. I bought the first loco about ten years ago during a previous visit but another half a dozen wagons would see the stock requirements just about done.

So something a bit different for a future project which will probably be a joint effort between myself and the Memsahib who can offer an expert eye to proceedings.

Rob.
Click to expand...
I’m very much here for this …

And also this on the same subject James Hilton blog re Czech railways
John
 
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NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
John57sharp said:
I’

I’m very much here for this …

And also this on the same subject https://paxton-road.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-branchline-reprise.html
John
Click to expand...


Morning John.

That link doesn't seem to work but I went onto James' blog ( always worth a peek ) and found the entry. Wonderful bit of prose on there about the JHMD narrow gauge line which is sadly now closed, as of 2022. We would catch it at Obratan, a shared narrow gauge/standard gauge interchange and a short drive from where we stay. We've had trips along it and travelled in historic four wheel coaches, in railcars ( people think Pacers are rough ! ) and behind diesels. It is /was a great line and very sad that it appears to have closed for good or so it would seem.

My own Czech aspirations will be set between 1985-1989 and will feature a small though station. That's as far as I've got but as I say, we're a long way away from an actual model.

Rob.
 
John57sharp

John57sharp

Western Thunderer
Thanks Adrian.

Good afternoon Rob, what shame that such a delightful narrow gauge line has had to close. I’m glad you both managed to enjoy it in the past though. Is there any possibility of a tourist version opening? My knowledge of the country in zero I’m afraid.

I do harbour a vague plan to model Hungarian logging one day though….
John
 
NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
Morning John,

I think plans are afoot to try and do something but nothing so far. It's a lovely line and it seems unusual for a line to close like this in Czech. Most of the branches I've travelled on are pretty busy. Tickets are cheap and still used by the locals. The last run we had on the JHMD was well patronised in both directions and wasn't a special.
The state still invests in smaller lines though the JHMD was private of course. Our local branchline has just been upgraded to dual voltage and we're hoping it has reopened after the work so we can take a trip on it.

Here are a few images of our last run. 20220502_151335.jpg

20220502_150331.jpg

20220502_151141.jpg

20220502_150721.jpg

20220502_134210.jpg
 
Pencarrow

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
NHY 581 said:
Morning John,

I think plans are afoot to try and do something but nothing so far. It's a lovely line and it seems unusual for a line to close like this in Czech. Most of the branches I've travelled on are pretty busy. Tickets are cheap and still used by the locals. The last run we had on the JHMD was well patronised in both directions and wasn't a special.
The state still invests in smaller lines though the JHMD was private of course. Our local branchline has just been upgraded to dual voltage and we're hoping it has reopened after the work so we can take a trip on it.

Here are a few images of our last run. View attachment 220043

View attachment 220044

View attachment 220045

View attachment 220046

View attachment 220047
Click to expand...
Great how they have office accommodation above the loco. Makes commuting easier.
 
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