Sunday, September 09, 2007
In the Summertime...
You tend to go on Holiday - and I have, just back from a very good week in the New Forest.
It wasn't an entirely rail-orientated holiday, but I did find time for a trip to Swanage - another preserved line to cross off the list (and 33 Haulage to boot!) - and a trip down to Lymington, typically the day after a faliure meant that the service was 73 hauled!
A few photos from the week can be found at http://stuart672.fotopic.net/c1365498.html - the weather was very kind, and we didn't have a drop of rain all week.
Up in the loft, Loch Faioleag is coming along very nicely - today the (almost) finishing touches were applied to the hateful job of ballasting, and also the exit from the platform to the Sector Plate looks a lot better.
Also on the loft front - Space. As I spend another evening planning my long-dreamed of loft layout, only to tear up the virtual paper and chuck it in the recycle bin, I'm sitting here listening to Virgin Radio and thinking about what it is I actually want. And it's space - obviously. But not as in 'space for loco + 12 Mk2s' or 'scale length rake of Intermodals' - but the look of space, the feeling that you aren't cramming everything that you want in.
Of course, in the end, it has to be a compromise, but it's hard to know what to leave in and what to take out. I know what I want on my layout, I can visualise it in my mind (and it's in P4, so that's not going to happen for a start! ) - but when it comes to it, things just don't seem to fit as you imagine.
I want a decent length of mainline run, I want an EMU depot, I want a backdrop of grotty warehouses, with their accompanying fire exits, grubby-looking alleyways, health and safety signage - and I want it all in an L Shape of 12' x 2' x 8'...
Oh well. Back to the drawing board...
It wasn't an entirely rail-orientated holiday, but I did find time for a trip to Swanage - another preserved line to cross off the list (and 33 Haulage to boot!) - and a trip down to Lymington, typically the day after a faliure meant that the service was 73 hauled!
A few photos from the week can be found at http://stuart672.fotopic.net/c1365498.html - the weather was very kind, and we didn't have a drop of rain all week.
Up in the loft, Loch Faioleag is coming along very nicely - today the (almost) finishing touches were applied to the hateful job of ballasting, and also the exit from the platform to the Sector Plate looks a lot better.
Also on the loft front - Space. As I spend another evening planning my long-dreamed of loft layout, only to tear up the virtual paper and chuck it in the recycle bin, I'm sitting here listening to Virgin Radio and thinking about what it is I actually want. And it's space - obviously. But not as in 'space for loco + 12 Mk2s' or 'scale length rake of Intermodals' - but the look of space, the feeling that you aren't cramming everything that you want in.
Of course, in the end, it has to be a compromise, but it's hard to know what to leave in and what to take out. I know what I want on my layout, I can visualise it in my mind (and it's in P4, so that's not going to happen for a start! ) - but when it comes to it, things just don't seem to fit as you imagine.
I want a decent length of mainline run, I want an EMU depot, I want a backdrop of grotty warehouses, with their accompanying fire exits, grubby-looking alleyways, health and safety signage - and I want it all in an L Shape of 12' x 2' x 8'...
Oh well. Back to the drawing board...
