Model railway videos

Something i do like to do now and then is to record short videos of operation on my model railway. I only use my iPhone and it is usually a bit shakey (its not that easy to control a locomotive and hold a phone at the same time!) You can see the videos on my Youtube channel. One of the latest is below:

Pacer

The Pacer multiple-units (classes 142/3/4) are Britain's most controversial trains these days (unless you count railway lines yet to be built like HS2) with urging at the highest levels to withdraw these ageing units from service yet they continue to serve in places like South Wales and the North of England.

The Pacer concept was a development from Britain Rail's railbus ideas of the 1970s. This paired the Leyland National bus body with a rail chassis to produce a cheap unit for rural lines which would enable these lines which were under financial pressure to remain open. The problem with the Pacer however was the chassis, this was a development of a chassis designed for high speed freight in the 1960s. Hence the Pacer units have always suffered from poor rail riding with a rough ride and excessive squealing of the wheels especially over tightly curved track and points.

The Class 142 and 143 Pacers are (probably) on borrowed time now as new accessibility regulations will make operation of them illegal past 2020 unless they receive extensive (and expensive) modifications. It is unlikely there is the will or money to do that, especially as the continued use of the Pacer has become a political hot potato. However they will be over 30 years by then and so due for retirement anyway. Some of the class 144s may survive as work is being done on an improvement package however as electrification of Britain's railway network continues other newer diesel multiple-units are being made available to be cascaded elsewhere so there may no longer be a need to keep the Pacers going beyond the end of the decade.

One Pacer that may survive is the OO scale unit i bought in the late 80s! Although it hasn't run for about 20 years i do not intend to get rid of my OO scale railway stock...

Filming the freight train

I thought it was high time i made some videos of my model railway project, here 1099.013-3 takes a freight train around the layout.

A different angle on things

Recently i moved my model railway project Eskalon so i would have easier access to both sides of the layout. A happy by-product of this move was that it has made photography easier too. I took advantage of the pretty decent camera in the iPhone 5c to take this close in shot. Luckily the train is stationary otherwise my HO scale photographer could have been in danger! A full set of photos from Eskalon from the start of the project can be seen here.

Shell Petrol Garage

I have my own gas station, in HO scale that is. Project #058 is the latest building model for my Eskalon model railway layout and is a Shell petrol station. Its nearly complete, just needs a bit of painting and maybe some people added.

A new loco for Eskalon

Full coverage can be seen on the Project Eskalon blog but my model railway has had a new arrival in the form of this lovely diesel locomotive.

The train now standing at platform 1

Projects 052 and 053 were kits of a goods shed and station which i have built for my model railway. Now both projects have been completed i have augmented them with some HO scale people and added a bit of paint here and there. I think the two kits look better combined together into one bigger station what do you think?

Eskalon station done

My model railway layout now has that kit component, a station! A nice Piko kit, just needs some painting which i'll do later on.

Eskalon station

The latest model project, Project #053, was started today and it will be the station for my Eskalon model railway layout. Like with Project #052 it is a Piko building kit and indeed shares many of the same parts and design.

As for the goods shed that is now on the layout though has not been permanently laid down yet. When it gets a bit warmer in my model making area (a.k.a. the kitchen extension) i want to paint the building a bit to enhance it.

New model building season begins

As the Winter hasn't been that cold yet i've started the 2014 model building season a little earlier than originally planned. My first project of the year, Project #052, is for the Eskalon railway and is a goods shed.

2013 in review : Model making

As with the gardening model making was something else which i should have had a lot more time to do this year but in the event i only completed 10 kits this year compared to 16 last year. I admit some of this was down to a bit of "Airfix fatigue" as i found it harder to get kits that inspired me but also my model railway (of which more below) took up a lot of my time too.

Two models stood out for me this year, the SPAD XIII and HMS Tiger, both came out really well as did my Eurofighter Typhoon. I have plenty of kits stored up for the 2014 season which will resume in the early Spring.

After a gap of nearly 20 years i returned to the world of model railways. Project Eskalon is a still developing model railway loosely based on the modern Austrian narrow gauge scene. There is a lot of overlap between the worlds of model kits and model railways of course. One of the kits i did complete this year was a doctor's surgery...

From some angles...

My model railway project Eskalon is progressing well but has a long way to go before it can anything like considered finished (if any model railway can truly be finished?) From some angles though, carefully chosen naturally, photographs of the layout can look pretty good.

Freight train

Another video from my developing model railway layout, here D16 takes time out from her usual passenger haulage duties to take on some waggons.

Train video

I took a couple of videos of my model railway Project Eskalon yesterday. This ones shows that by using one of the industrial wagons as a match wagon little No.17 can work with my Liliput wagon. This is the Eskalon engineering train, rushing ballast to where it is needed.

Eskalon gains a loco

Full coverage on the dedicated blog to the Eskalon model railway project of course but Eskalon has now gained its second locomotive (and 10 more wagons). Now all we need is a station...

The doctor's surgery

Although its for my model railway layout as its a model kit it still counts as Project 050. Dr Lang's surgery and very nice it is too. I've also begun a warship kit.

Landscaping

You can see more on my model railway blog but i have finally begun the landscape and scenery on my model railway project Eskalon. Using gravel and grass mats i am starting to build up the landscape, using trees and bushes to hide the joins! Its starting to look pretty good too but i am intending a layered approach and will continue to refine whats there over the coming months and years.

HOe the way?

After planning my future return to model railways i did at least explore the possibility of an OO scale layout as in the past i have found N scale too fiddly (i am not blessed with dexterity or small fingers) however in the space available an OO scale layout is not really feasible unless i settle on an end-to-end layout and to be honest i've found them a bit dull to operate in the past.

But then reading Continental Modeller i had a revelation, why not narrow gauge? In particular HOe which uses HO stock (which is only a little bit smaller than OO) but with N gauge track! Is this the best of both worlds? Maybe. It does mean having a continental based layout though and i am thinking on one based on the Austrian Zillertalbahn but thats fine as a continental layout has always been an ambition of mine. Liliput make some lovely stock such as D13.

More research is needed but i think we might just have found the winning formula.

The continental question

The good thing about planning my return to railway modelling is that i can evaluate all of the options and alternatives, the bad thing is i have so many options and alternatives to evaluate. Reading the Continental Modeller magazine has led me to consider a mainland Europe layout. The railways of Germany, Switzerland and Austria for example look so interesting...

The problem with this of course is i have a lot less knowledge of these railways so it could easily go so wrong (but maybe thats part of the fun?). Its also rather more expensive than British layouts though not insurmountably. As nothing is set in stone yet i still have time to decide. At the moment a layout perhaps based on somewhere like Assmannshausen which i went to in the late 80s could be on the cards? Maybe this train set can start me off.

Designing my layout

At the weekend i bought some model railway layout design software to help me develop my future layout. RailModeller is a great tool which allows you to play around with layout designs using real track elements. I have not decided on what the overall theme of my layout will be yet though and have experimented with double and single loops, both with and without branch lines and shunting opportunities.

One current idea thats ticking the right boxes is a double loop mainline plus branch line layout similar to Hatton. What i plan to do is buy a trainset next month (maybe it can be my end-of-year treat) and this can help me get back into the groove. It will also help me visualise the layout i am planning especially when i build the boards. Then i shall get more track and more stock and see how we go from there.