Reintroduced to railway modelling after a break of about 40 years!

Not really a break of 40 years. I have never modelled in the way I am now.

  Watching my vintage Hornby Dublo go round and round to the point it self-destructed (wore out!).

  I still have my, late brother’s, then, my, November 1948 Hornby Dublo “train” sets with their blue boxes.
  They are on the shelf in front of me even now. All restored to working order since I retired.
  For those in the know: the original chassis were completely worn out, the “horseshoe” magnets were next to useless, the axle bearings had so much slack the connecting rods locked up! They now have the next generation chassis with replaceable magnets currently with neodymium magnets which enable slow running where so many Dublo layouts only seem to run at totally inappropriate speeds possibly because that is the only way they will run consistently. Mine quite happily sidle from one end of a six foot track to the other, noisily but smoothly using my H&M Duette controller on pure DC.

  The photos I have uploaded to the Gallery show my more recent attempts at railway modelling. Bailey Gate on the S&DJR near Blandford in Dorset England. I, of course am much too young to have experienced this location in operation, however this is my interpretation… Too busy, too complicated, to much stock, too many locos; where have we heard that before?

My next attempt, thank goodness I have a wife who encourages me, will be a shelf or plank layout on a strip of 19mm ply that was my next door neighbour’s porch!

  

Hi Clive,

Welcome. Great set of initial photos so looking forward to you starting up a topic on your current work,

Colin

Hey, welcome to the forum. Nice set of photos in the gallery as well. 

Hi Clive and welcome. What a wonderful collection of classic stock you have and so beautifully restored to give even more pleasure than could have been imagined all those many decades ago. Well done!

Your gallery photos further show how your stock can easily provide much pleasure to the model enthusiast. I hope you get the chance to share your layout with the wider public at a local exhibition before too long, as it should be very well received, particularly as you seem to have overcome the slow running issue.
 
Also congratulations to your neighbour in sacrificing his porch in order to provide the foundation for your upcoming plank. Top man!

I have many happy memories of Winchester and much enjoyed the view from my office  dest overlooking the minster.

Following with interest,

Best,

Bill

Thank you for your kind remarks. Soon after retiring and doing our sums I realized that I was never going to be able to buy new cameras or model trains! My resolution was to buy "Spares and Repairs" off eBay and double my challenge and fun. 
My current layout soon to be archived is "vintage" OO, code 100, the only new stuff being the odd Peco point the Scalescenes buildings, lichens and static grass, the components to make the controllers (from Amazon) and the Kadee couplings. 
Everything else is recycled: the base board is cut down pallets, the surface, used to be the back of a wardrobe, the rolling stock is a mixture of Dapol assembled painted and un-painted, Dapol/Airfix kits, stuff out of bargain bins, etc. Even the polystyrene and Celotex came out of a neighbour's skip (with their permission, the neighbours porch that provided the 19mm marine ply for my shelf/plank layout has now been rebuilt in a different style). 
The card for the Scalescene buildings is photo mount off cuts, cereal pack and glazing is obsolete Lazer print OHP sheets, much of the Scalescene PDFs are printed on self adhesive labels that were ordered wrong! But check how sticky they are before printing, even they HP colour laser printer came out of a factories WEEE bin, I do have to get the toner cartridges from Amazon about £60  for all 4 colours. 

The locos are two Bachmann, an LMS 7F, a BR Jinty, both modified, the 7F was "pre-owned" not even run in, the Jinty was a poor runner until I removed the resistance pack. An Airfix 4F re-motored with a Chinese micro-motor / gearbox, similarly a Mainline LMS maroon 2P (too low geared at present), a battered Triang Jinty (the remotoring test bed) it's been opened and closed more often than a public bar door! A Hornby Pug which is too short to run decently without "live frog" points, despite frequent fettling. A Hornby BR Standard Class 5, remotored and geared with a DVD motor kit, a new gear train, and additional pickups on the driving wheels.  And still a challenge a split chassis Mainline Standard 4. Some of the parts had to be new but as little as possible.

Pre-owned semaphore signals seem to be in short supply, which ia an additional challenge.

Painting Dapol little people is the current task! I always wonder where they lived, where they are going/coming from. The first coach on the layout now has 5 passengers! Possibly more than a typical S&D train of the 60s! The Signal Box has Signal Man, who has pulled off the route from Blandford to Broadstone.

If anyone shows any interest I will continue and if I'm doing it wrong please let know.
For those who are interested our website is carichardson.co.uk/index.html we don't charge for use of our images but appreciate a request by email and an acknowledgment.  

Welcome Clive

Anyone keeping the S&DJR alive is welcome!!!!

Barry

Hi Clive and welcome to the club. :Welcome

Clive,
Welcome from just down the Road in Chandlers Ford.
I hope our paths will cross at local shows.
Fareham this weekend.

[user=2284]cricha7418[/user] wrote:

Thank you for your kind remarks. Soon after retiring and doing our sums I realized that I was never going to be able to buy new cameras or model trains! My resolution was to buy "Spares and Repairs" off eBay and double my challenge and fun.

….. even they HP colour laser printer came out of a factories WEEE bin, I do have to get the toner cartridges from Amazon about £60  for all 4 colours. 

 
Pre-owned semaphore signals seem to be in short supply, which is an additional challenge.

I echo your spirit regarding repurposing old items. I'll have some further examples shortly on my layout topic. As to your other points above which I've picked out ,

1) can't speak for your printer but others might advise where to get colour laser toner of the generic sort in the UK. I got an entire 5 cartridge set (2 * Black) for my Brother laser for around 38 AUD or ~24 of your GB Pounds.

2) Semaphores: I've bought a very reasonable Ratio Kit (#466 for lower Quadrant GWR) and while I've not yet done anything (to gasps of surprise from sidelines) they do come with very good reports and are amenable to various sorts of tweaks to further improve them. It may well be the one item where new beats old.

Hello Clive. Belated welcome to the club.  Hope to see more of your work.
Terry   :hi