An excess of water

A week ago I awoke to a slow drip of water landing on my pillow. I did wake a couple of time in the night noticing a damp pillow, only to past it off to a bad case of the night time dribbles. On rushing downstairs to grab a set of step ladder to check what was happening in the roof I walked into a small stream in the hallway. This was not coming through the ceiling but the front door...

This was surprising as we are not next to a river or stream. I suppose still being half awake, it was still dark and not thinking through what the consequences might be, I open the front door. A small wall of water greeted me and I very sharply slammed the door shut. The door seals were doing an excellent job of holding most of the water back. On looking out I could see that the water was above floor level of the log cabin that is my Man Cave/Railway room.

The water had drain away by mid-morning but left us mopping up in the house and surveying the damage to the Man Cave. The carpet in the Man Cave was like a sponge, and anything that was on the floor and not in a plastic box was also sodden. During the next couple of days, a neighbour and I emptied the contents of the Man Cave into the neighbour's shed. We removed the sodden carpet. I bought a dehumidifier, set it up, and then left it running all week, emptying plenty of water each day. I'll be keeping it running all winter.

All now seems relatively dry so I've started to move stuff back into the log cabin. On the plus-side I'm taking the chance to sort thought and decide what needs selling or throwing away and luckily, nothing of great value has been damaged. On the downside I have lost valuable time on the Rospeath Lane build. 

Oh well I've still just over nine months to catch up...

All trackwork laid

At last, all track laid in place, with turnout wiring installed and a start made on installing power droppers to the rest of the track. The only section not fully in place is the coaling road approach to the turntable. My thought is to lay this in place once the turntable is working to help get the track aligned correctly with the turntable's rotational steps (if that makes sense?).

That said I've also been working on a design for the Shed Offices. A little off-the-cuff design with an attempt to come up with a building that looks and feels along with complementing the Timber Tracks Buildings. In discussions its construction there has been a suggestion that it is laser cut rather than built using plasticard. A laser cut building should be a better fit with the other buildings.

Initial design 

I've not drawn a plan of a building before let alone one for laser cutting so have much to learn. On another duplicate drawing I've started to create a brick pattern and colour the cut lines blue and etch lines red. The windows have been drawn to match the etched windows available from London Road Models. At the moment I'm unsure whether to etched windows or use laser cut ones but will have the option to use either.

The whole layout was being built on top of some Ikea Ivar shelving units which were also being used for storage. While this has been convenient I started to think this is was not ideal especially as there was no convenient access underneath the layout without moving the boards elsewhere. Thinking it would be better to complete the build on its own support structure I spent last weekend reorganising the 'Man Cave. Rospeath Lane is now self-supporting, giving access underneath. This should also help with ironing out any issues with the supports as far as stability and construction.

Rospeath Lane's current state

What helped in the reorganising of the Man Cave is my decision to scrap Heath End, the roundy-roundy P4 layout that I acquired. In re-evaluating what would be involved correcting baseboard alignments, improving the wiring and bring the scenic areas up to a standard I would be happy with,it would distract me from what I'd really like to achieve over the next few years. On top of that it did fill one end of the Man Cave making it a tad awkward to access and making the room look untidy.

What do I want to achieve in the next few years?

The primary objective is of course completeing Rospeath Lane. 

In hindsight I might have been a litttle hasty thinking about scrapping Tredethy Wharf. I’ve had many comments that I should not scrap Tredethy Wharf. Including a a lady who went out of her way to let me know she'd voted it best in show at Scalefour Crewe 2024. Having it out on display with give me the opportunity to evaluate my feelings for the layout and where I can improve the scenic area. Before I can exhibited it again there will have to be new cassette boards along with transport case and lighting boxes in the same style as those built for Rospeath Lane.

Tredethy Wharf now on top of the Ivar shelving units

I purchased the EM gauge Fiddlers Wharf layout from Paul Gregory earlier in this year. It’s a slight twist on the Inglenook Sidings Shunting Puzzle track plan. Having really enjoyed operating Gordon Luck's P4 Dock Road layout at a number of  exhibitions I can envisge getting the same enjoyment out of this layout. It is a layout that can bring hours of quiet enjoyment at home but also at exhibitions for the public to operate solving the puzzle. My intention is to, again, construct an enclosed transport, lighting box along with converting it to being operated from the front. Having this layout on display will help with these tasks.

Fiddlers Wharf also on Ivar shelving units

Finally I come to what will possible be my final project, Boscarne Junction.The desire is still there to build this layout. Whether it will be permanently fix in the ‘Man Cave’ or exhibitable remains to be seen.

I'm a little behind schedule with Rospeath Lane but should still have locos moving around the shed by Christmas...

The new "Man Cave" build

In a previous post I did mention that the jigsaw of pieces for the new "Man Cave" had arrived. As we thought it did take 5 days to construct, though I have the lean to shed which goes on the end of the log cabin still to build.

The start of putting the walls together

All roofing boards installed

Almost finished so time for a mug of tea, toast and jam

Unfortunately while we are in full renovation mode on the house the new "Man Cave" is being used as a store for a lot of our furniture.

Current state of our kitchen

Current state of our Living Room

We're hoping these two rooms will be finished by Christmas... Well that is the time scale we've been discussing with builders, electricians, plumbers and kitchen installers. Not much to go wrong then...

One off the bucket list

After years of traveling up and down the A34 for work, passing Abingdon and knowing Pendon Museum and Didcot Railway Centre were only a stone’s throw away I was only recently able to visit Pendon for the first time.

Over the years I’d read many articles about Pendon and recently acquired a couple of books of Roye England’s poems, one of which also had a brief biographical content so was very enlightening and evocative. All this though did not prepare me for the sheer scale and quality what I saw.

Firstly there is the Madder Valley Railway exhibit. From an early age I’ve read articles about John Ahern’s Madder Valley Railway and recently seen YouTube videos of the model. Seeing in the flesh is a different experience. Yes it is a model of its time, looking a little tired around the edges and not of today's quality of modelling, but what a project. As they state at the Museum John Ahern was possibly the first person to build a model railway and place it in a believable, though fictious, scenic location. It was an inspirational layout to many including my young self.

As I walked into the next room I was greeted with the Dartmoor scene and its wooden truss viaduct. I must have stood there for over 30 minutes watching the procession of trains travel across the viaduct before moving on to look over Pen Tor Road junction station. The volunteers in attendance were keen to share their knowledge and give insights into the history of the exhibit to all who asked and showed an interest in the scene, myself included.

It was then onto the Vale Scene. On reaching the top of the stairs…Wow… the sheer scale of the scene is impressive. Words, video or photographs cannot do it justice, it has to be seen in the flesh to fully appreciate. In fact I was that impressed that I went back the next day to soak up more of the scenes.

When leaving the museum on the second day I purchased the book “In search of a dream”. This book is about Roye England’s life and his commitment to creating the museum with all the sacrifices he had to make. After reading the book I’m even more impressed by what has been achieved at Long Whittenham. It’s well worth a read…

Iain Rice

I've only just found out about the passing of one of the motivation figures of railway modelling. With many books and articles to his name there cannot be another person who has probably been read by almost all railway modellers. Although I did see Iain Rice at a few shows I never had the opportunity to meet him but do understand from people who did that he was a true gentleman.

A great loss to our hobby but is legacy in books and articles with continue to inspire and keep his memory alive for many years to come.

RIP Iain Rice

The future is now bright for Rospeath Lane

Well, after 6 months of no progress with this project there is a sniff in the air that things might be about to change. I have currently four house renovation projects on the go and one will have a huge bearing on Rospeath Lane's future.

During the last six months what little spare time I had was spent mulling over the direction I’d have to go without a dedicated area for constructing a layout. A lot of modelling could be done at the kitchen table but continuing with Rospeath Lane would require a large dedicated space which, within the house, there was nowhere appropriate.

Thinking that Rospeath Lane was dead in the water, I'd been putting plans together for building a small branch line terminus  A small layout might have been manageable by working on sub-sections that could have been packed away somewhere in the house. I'd even started on building a few wagons for such a layout. But then one of our renovation projects grew the proverbial 'arms and legs'. What started out as a relatively small task of installing a multi fuel stove in the fireplace in the lounge resulted removing two fireplaces that had been built infront of the original 300+ year old sandstone Jambs and Lintel. This made us think further about what we'd like to achieve with the room. The result being the lounge will possibly be out of commission for a couple of months. The extra work we're planning is; install a new doorway, removing the cosmetic beams in the ceiling (which now means pulling down the ceiling as it's in such a poor state, knock blown plaster off the walls, see if the random damp patches halfway up part of the walls can be cured and then replaster. Whether the ceiling will be replaced is one decision we will make once the state of the floor above is ascertained along with dealing with any exposed electrical cabling.

So how does this affect Rospeath Lane? After some hearty discussions we've decided the solution is... purchasing a 7m x 3m log cabin which will become my 'Man Cave'. The base has been prepared, the jigsaw of components have arrived, and it looks like it will take a week to build if the weather holds out. I'll be able to move most of my modelling items in straight away but Rospeath Lane may have to wait as we will also be using the ‘Man Cave’ to temporarily store some furniture while the Lounge, Dining room and Kitchen are being renovated.

What a result! ...Long live Rospeath Lane (it may even get extended slightly)...