Introduction

 

"Pagosa Junction" - a name that came on some dry rub decals with a whitemetal kit for a diminutive HO Scale Depot that I've built.  A whitemetal kit was something new for me to try.  It was a bit different, perhaps a little off-beat or even quirky, but it was fun to make - and turned out better than I thought I'd be able to do.  I guess that sums up my modelling philosophy.  So no, there's no connection with the abandoned Denver and Rio Grande Station of the same name, except perhaps in the imagination...but there are tales to tell, so let's head down to the Depot and see what's going on....

 

Background

 

This is the third in a series of reflective RMweb Blogs I've written.  I've been encouraged to continue by the positive and helpful responses to my previous offerings, and I hope to offer something of interest as my journey continues.  I'm open to ideas, thoughts and comments of course, and suggestions of places (ideas) I might want to visit along the way.

 

Getting started

 

We moved house at the end of June, giving me a fresh start - but no dedicated modelling space.  While there is still much to do as we settle in, space in a spare bedroom I can use when the family aren't visiting has been identified and agreed, and that's where I begin.  A tentative plan for a movable workbench and a 2.0m x 0.6m HO Narrow Gauge Layout resting on IKEA tables was drawn up when we moved:

 

 

We've not yet cleared space for three tables, but two are in place (the sliding wardrobe doors have full-height mirrors):

 

 

It's enabled me to move in the stuff I brought with me, and to make a start on a couple of simple Metcalfe Card Kits I bought for exactly this purpose: so I could get going with some relaxing, largely odour-free modelling I know I enjoy:

 

 

 

A quick audit of what I've kept in the crates I brought with me: no surprise that structure kits make up a lot of it:

 

 

What about my plans for the space?  I've previously noted that a workbench is my first priority - I need somewhere to build these kits after all.  Having taken advantage of the space that has become available, I must admit it's rather nice sitting beneath the window while I build.  The light is good, windows are close by (for ventilation) and the ergonomics of the room setup work.  I think I've found the perfect place for my workbench.  Where does that leave my plans for a layout?

 

I made a preliminary start on a baseboard frame while the sun was shining, working in the garden just as I did at our previous house, and reusing some of the wood I also brought with with me:

 

 

 

But I've not got too far to stop for a re-think: I enjoy making baseboards anyway, as anyone who followed my earlier attempts to build a layout will already know.  It's good exercise even if nothing else.  So it's Okay to pause for a while:

 

Waiting for a train

 

Alongside a bit of gentle modelling, I've had an enjoyable summer of reading in my spare time too:

 

 

Having feasted on @James Hilton's trio of White Swan Publications, where inspiration drips from each page like creamy butter from warm toast, I'm now reading through CJ Riley's work on ways to achieve "Realistic Layout" designs.  I'm not suggesting for a moment I'll ever be able to model to these standards - but I'm an enthusiast: I enjoy reading about them.

 

Authors like Hilton and friends, Riley and others take me to another level, helping me to think in new ways about how we can get even more than we realise from our wonderful hobby, even when just thinking about ideas or planning.  Yet Riley's book doesn't contain any track plans, not even in the first chapter on "Planning a Realistic Model Railroad."  In a similar vein perhaps, Lance Mindheim's book on "How to Design a Model Railroad" doesn't start with a list of layout space or track plan requirements.

 

Instead, Mindheim starts with a question.  But it is one which, even after all this time in and around the hobby, has me stumped.  You'll have to buy the book for the exact wording used of course, but in essence Mindheim takes a strategic start point and asks the fundamental question, which is basically (in my words): 

 

Why do you want to build a layout?  What do you want it for?

 

I read that (not the first time I've read the book), and I stopped, and I thought, and I had to be honest with myself:

 

I'm not sure I know!!!  Since I was about eight years old, I've wanted to have a model railway

 

Then I thought - that's really not a very good answer, for a hobby I spend hundreds of pounds on, and which gives me great enjoyment.  Am I actually telling myself I don't know why I'm doing it?  Or what I want to get from it?

 

To help answer the question, Mindheim goes on to give some examples, possible answers.  For some people, it's about re-creating memories from their youth.  But I grew up by a suburban commuter line out of Birmingham in the 70s and 80s, seeing the same Tyseley-based shunter (08 647) every time I took a DMU into Moor Street.  Not that inspiring (for me).

 

What did inspire me most of all were the stories I would see and read in my Dad's American Model Railroader magazines.  He had an archive from the 1960s and early 1970s that I would pore over, time and time again.  When the £:$ exchange rate was particularly favourable he took out a new subscription, and the fantasy continued.  As I've said before, I grew up not ever thinking I wouldn't one day have a basement-sized (or at least room-sized) empire like those I read about.  Where does that leave me now?

 

I've done what others might in these circumstances - I've returned to the source.  I still have a copy of Frank Ellison's 1944 series on "The Art of Model Railroading" (although I think I first read later reprints from the 1960s and 1970s):

 

 

Ellison worked in the theatre, and for him the art in model railroading came from planning and executing detailed and exciting operations.  He writes about the drama of action railroading in miniature, and goes on to explain how train charts and timetables (using speeded-up time) can bring it all to life.  It was that which got the junior me hooked.

 

Although I've cleared out quite a few of my collection of books (donated to the local Model Railway Club), I wouldn't part with one of my favourites: "58 Track Planning Ideas from Model Railroader".  First published in 1981, the contents date from across the 1970s and back to the 1960s.  Many of the ideas are for freelance model railroads, and the accompanying stories the authors make up to go with the track plans are just as exciting to me as the plans themselves (often more so).

Three years ago I posted on RMweb the track plan for the first layout I had - an unfinished N-Gauge table top layout.  It really was a plan of it's time, inspired by a John Armstrong layout in Kalmbach's 1950's "101 Track Plans":

 

 

It's not what I'd think of building now.  But as I've been re-reading my original sources of inspiration, the excitement is still there.  It seem I’m not most excited by a certain prototype (although I do like German trains), an era, a model, or a place, but by an old style of model railroading.

 

The hobby has changed (hugely) and so in many ways have I, so I've not yet worked out what to so with this (re)-discovery.  But heck, I'm having fun, and I've plenty of other things to do in my spare time too.

 

Perhaps I'll make something small, just for now.  But I'm also at the age (mid-50s) where it's not unusual for thoughts to turn towards a last great project (see @Woody C's YouTube channel for an example).  What could I start now that would still keep me just as interested when I retire?  Should I be thinking ahead too?  After all the fun I've had, where will my unfulfilled dreams take me? ( @ian's recent re-design of Die Ercallbahn may not have been motivated by the same consideration, but it's made me think). 

 

A ticket to ride

 

Over the past four years, I've played with a number of project ideas.  It's been great fun, if not entirely productive.  Looking back, one thing I've noticed is that those projects where I moved on to a suggested track plan inspired by a layout design from a Kalmbach publication got further than those without.  Perhaps only GWR branch lines (also popular in the 1970s) come close, but even then I’ve used Kalmbach plans as a start point on occasions.

 

I quickly developed a number of ideas for American HO Layouts when I first considered them, all of which at least referenced Kalmbach track plans.  A second attempt, when I started with an open space, floundered around for a year without settling on a plan before I called time on it.  I had fun, but I'd forgotten about my vital spark.

 

What do I mean?  I'll finish by sharing what appears to go on in the deepest recesses of my mind when I plan a layout project...

 

I've been thinking about a narrow gauge HOn30 / H0e / 009 layout in 2m x 0.6m.  I hunted around until found a Kalmbach plan for an 8' x 4' Canadian layout - one with a simple track plan, plenty of room for scenery, and a run-round intentionally quite short - it's not a passing loop.  This is how I've re-drawn it in the original 8' x 4' HO shape:

 

 

Staging is off to the top right.  Translate that into my space with 9mm gauge track:

 

 

Then play around with it:

 

 

Voila!  Except I now want to use the right hand half of this space for a workbench, and my mind has been re-opened to the grand plans of my youth.  But, apart from that, a plan I could build.  Or maybe not.

 

I don't get so much modelling done in the winter months (the opposite to how the modelling year works for many).  So I don't know how long I'll have to wait for a train, but I'm sure I'll keep reading, dreaming, kit building and writing.  For now, I'm going to take a seat in the small waiting room at Pagosa Junction, and settle down with a good Kalmbach book.  Until next time, thank you for reading, Keith.