Also instead of this I should be fixing Cessy’s fiddle yard, otherwise Chris is going to get angry at Railex.
See you soon, Oly
Layout Update – Photo Dump
Time flies (when you’re having fun)
Time is such that I found myself reading a blog post earlier and caught myself muttering what a ‘bell end’ the chap sounded, only for it to slowly dawn on me that I was in fact reading myself from 2017.
There cannot be many media in life where you can be actively caught out by a younger version of yourself like in some Hollywood movie gone wrong.
This got me thinking about the passage of time, life, love, trains, cat memes and also my modelling ideas and aspirations from then until now (Ed, we’re going in deep then)
I had a natural assumption back in 2017 that my modelling would be better in 2025, with my skills vastly improving. In fact delving into the archive it hasn’t improved much at all, in fact time and life have probably done less for my modelling than in my mid twenties. I found a post where I used Archer’s rivets successfully for god’s sake and on something not that obvious – I must have been on drugs.
The posts were filled with hopes of putting an etched chassis together for the first time or getting the airbrush out more often, in the preceding years both dreams have never been anywhere near fulfilled and ultimately I have probably given up on both.
Looking back in particular to 2017 (the one I accidentally stumbled upon) was like talking to a different human, two marriages, one divorce, four odd house moves and a ridiculous amount of career moves, let alone the bloody kids.
There was also stuff back in 2017 I assumed I would have covered by 2025, I’d be able to stick with a layout idea for more than 67 seconds, I would not buy the locos before I’d built a baseboard, I would settle on one wife – all stuff that hasn’t happened and all of which cost me a frightening amount of money.
But I am still modelling. I definitely model more in times of need or great pressure, the layouts that pop out are mirrors of my personal life. Grey, grim Cumbrian colliery set during 1970s industrial strife – first divorce.
A layout has just come out of stasis as I started it during a particularly part of my life and placed it into hibernation when those feelings abated, now it’s back out to finish as those feelings have reared their head through work. Don’t fret – I don’t need an intervention – just my work is short peaks and increasingly longer troughs of shite and the modelling helps get through the throughs.
It’s an odd hobby, it can be deeply personal and artistic or it can be a track mat and Smokey Joe – it covers all bases to all people.
What is more pissing annoying though about looking back on the blog is all the models I’ve subsequently sold and ended up rebuying some years later (for more money).
Having just read ‘Wild Men’ (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/13/the-wild-men-by-david-torrance-review-inside-labours-first-cabinet) – yeah I am that sort of twat now – there was a sentence in there copied from Mark Twain that really sums up my modelling “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes’
So the blog post I was reading from 2017 – a ‘review of the Hornby class 71’ – totally forgot I’d even ever owned one. And why had I stumbled across it? I was googling something about class 71s only to find I knew the answer in 2017.
We have ‘relaunched’ our instagram page, when I say ‘relaunched’ I mean it never really launched in the first instance but I talk like that now, ok? That can be found at https://www.instagram.com/otcm_railway_modelling?igsh=bWx6MzM4cWNvZTNt&utm_source=qr
Chris is also super keen to do more on YouTube but this is a lot of effort and in my career I am not always sure these videos help if discovered. Much like a school teacher doing OnlyFans, I may wear a balaclava.
Chris and I are out at Tonbridge this weekend with the much revered ‘Cessy’ by Chris Baker. Our Chris wants to change all the couplings on Friday night so they work and I want to drink pints, so we will see who wins out on Saturday morning when we’re hungover and cannot uncouple anything.
And if you’re ever interested in what I have to do on the 1:1 scale railway – I head up the digital signalling programme at the UK’s biggest train operator – you can find all that here.
(Doing complex digital signalling on the east coast mainline also doesn’t mean you know how to work an EcOs either)
Speak soon,
Oly
Victory at last?
It has been a while, right?
There is a consensus out there that you stop modelling as a teenager and then pick it up again later in life. However I am finding my mid thirties to be the point where modelling has been squeezed out of my life like a toddler eating baked beans with their hands.
I know I like the hobby and I know I like exhibiting and it is frustrating that I struggle to do the hobby that I enjoy because the minute I get free time I am either asleep or trying to be a functioning adult. Both of which I continually run out of time to do a very good job at.
But much like a model railway, when you’ve finished the wiring and tested the track you can move onto scenery, in such life changes and moves on. Hopefully in life I’ve now done the metaphorical baseboards and the track sort of works, so now I can get back to the nice stuff. The scenery of life if you like, enjoying time with the wife, having fun with the kids and more importantly than anything getting back to the hobby and playing with tiny trains.
I won’t wax lyrical about mental health and hobbies as enough has been written across print and the web to stretch to Mars and back, but it is worth noting I missed the balance the hobby gave me. I am glad to have it back.
When Chris and I brought ‘Cessy’ it was a major milestone for us as we said we would never buy someone else’s work. I love the layout but actually it has never sat easy with me saying ‘oh we didn’t build it’. Maybe thats an insecurity, but I like putting something in and getting something back. Owning something is nowhere near the same internal warmth as building something.
So actually buying Cessy inspired me to get back into the hobby and build something. However I had moved so far away from the hobby I could not take a big bite, for all the same reasons the world is full of armchair modellers, I needed something cheap and small that gave little excuse to procrastinate and not bother.
While I was beating myself up about my inability to do any modelling, when I had been able to get out and ‘do’ something ourselves and Old Parrock had been following each other around the country at various exhibitions and I deeply fell in love with the layout. I adore the size, the detail, the whole loveliness of it.
(Go here to have a look at it https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/old-parrock.6209/page-14 )
Then it happened, with the inspiration of Old Parrock, a Colonel Stephens planned East Kent Railway extension to Deal, a Planet Industrial’s Victory sat in a box and a Boxing Day pint at the Zetland Arms in Kingsdown I thought – Bollocks lets build a model railway (again).
Planning permission was sought, which was not easy to obtain, so it was agreed the new layout had to be stored somewhere and it had to be small. What better idea than an IKEA Lack floating shelf that stays as a shelf – and costs absolutely f*ck all, especially when the Mrs is buying whatever IKEA have in stock at the same time.
A 110cm length was very small though, so instead of going traditional cameo I kept the whole thing nearly completely open, this way at a show more people could look at it at the same time (albeit while taking photos of each other’s heads or moobs)
I also wanted to exhibit it high, I had built it high and it sort of made sense to keep it high (a whooping 148cm high)
So with some peco bullhead track and some dodgy carpentry ‘The Victory’ was born. Loosely based on Kingsdown in Kent and focussed on a now long gone pub, you have to imagine the rough sea hitting the pebbles as the Walmer and Kingsdown light railway ekes out it’s final days a few years after the end of World War 2.
It felt odd not exhibiting at Uckfield for the first show and this was not because Adrian wouldn’t have it – in fact he’s nagged me about what we’ve been doing – the thing is I wasn’t actually sure if I liked it, or it even worked for an exhibition. I took it very local because I wanted to see what reaction it would get and if I cared enough about it to show it for a weekend. I have actually changed my mind on it, I quite like it, it works for a start and works well (even if I say so myself) it’s a nice little thing and I have a much better ‘feel’ for it.
I hope you like it too. See you soon, Oly.
And that was that….
…. No, not this blog, although I’d more than understand you jumping to that conclusion given it’s been almost 18 months since we last posted, but it is time to say goodbye to another OTCM layout.
While I can’t replicate the drama associated with the demise of Six Quarters something very un-OTCM has happened to BWS – see our respective lofts provide a convalescence for retired OTCM exhibition layouts with Stoating Bank sitting gathering dust in mine while Six Quarters does the same in Oly’s. However for BWS, fate took a slightly different shape….
The layout made its scheduled last appearance at the Abingdon ‘Abrail’ exhibition at the start of March – which was an incredible show by the way – and rapidly moved into a component recovery phase that would have made EWS proud at Springs Branch…..
To mark the end of the show, a brake van special was run hauled by a class 24, which departed the layout at closing time with a compliment of horns:
Things then immediately started feeling final as Mark and Pete managed to rip the bus wire out removing a fiddle yard!!
Once stripped of parts, the scene took on a very 1980’s look, the impact of Thatcherite Policies clearly hitting the former sidings as hard as most of the surrounding area around the prototype:
So why has BWS met such a sudden end? Well there are a couple of reasons, the most significant one being that I wanted to pinch a few bits off the layout to build into the new project, given the two are based on the same prototype. I now have a box of scenic items waiting for their second life on A Dreary Tuesday…
Secondly, the layout wasn’t without its issues! I always intended it to be a testbed for skills and ideas ahead of something larger being built, but as I’d had various ‘good ideas’ since it was conceived, certain parts of the layout were becoming disjointed. For instance:
-the mk2 cassette system didn’t fit on the fiddle yard board properly, so always felt a bit dicey. It also resulted in a couple of very short bits of track either side of the baseboard joint which wasn’t ideal for strength or alignment.
-the layout was originally designed to operate from the front, but the mk2 fiddle yards worked from the back meaning you needed people at both. Lifting a train in a cassette over the cantilever wire occasionally felt a bit sketchy!!
-the extra fiddle yard I added at the back never worked properly and just became an extra bit of wood to lump round.
Above all else though, the death knell was signed by how bloody intense to operate the layout was. I’d be fairly sure it’s more relaxing to operate some of the most complex layouts out there, you never had more than 30 seconds to take your eye off the ball! The combinations of tight curves and points also meant you never quite trusted a train to make it across the layout without derailing!
While I’m sure some of my regular operators would agree with the above (and moan about the couplings because and the switches…. But they do that about every layout they operate!) don’t get the idea the layout was a total disaster! There were some good bits too:
-the suspended fiddle yards worked brilliantly until I ruined them, but saving 2 sets of legs was a winner for a quick departure at the end of a show.
-it looked pretty decent, and the winter scene definitely drew people in even if they didn’t get the prototype.
-it showed me electric locos are ridiculously popular amongst exhibition visitors! The wires were only added as something a bit different for the occasional move but we ended up running far more electric trains than was ever envisioned.
-using EZ line for the OHLE was a winner for track cleaning etc, and will definitely be used again.
So there we have it, the layout probably had it’s exhibition career cut short by missing out on the shows planned for 2020 and 2021 but it did it’s job, taught me a lot both in terms of what to do and what not to do. The last couple of shows also gave me plenty of ideas for things to include in the new layout (more interactivity with the public for a start) and reminded me that hacking across the country in a van to spend the weekend playing trains, drinking beer and eating curry with your mates (while also receiving endless abuse) is good fun and worth all the stress leading up to it!
So it’s onward with the next project after a year of it being paused while I’ve been busy with a huge wave of DIY projects on the house. We are all excited by the prospect of running trains round in circles and not having to stop them every 3 feet…!!
Chris
2022 – A Quiet Year?
Before writing this, I was thinking that 2022 had been a bit dull in OTCM terms, however trying to find a few photos to illustrate this made me think that maybe that was a bit unfair.
The start of the year was actually mega productive, the C word meant thee was a lot of time in the shed working on various rolling stock projects, as well as the new fiddle yard for the layout. Much of this was documented through a series of YouTube videos which I really need to carry on with, but have been far more popular than I ever expected.
In the real world both of us have been mega busy with big trains, and various projects we are involved in – this looks set to be much the same in 2023. However in the parallel universe of baby trains, we purchased a RTR layout, on a very different theme to anything that has gone before – Cessy-en-Bois which is an absolute masterpiece.
2023 should, all being well, provide the opportunity to get this out on the exhibition circuit. The most shocking thing is that, despite having the thing in his spare room for 5 months, Oly is still yet to write a post or do a video about it!!!!
Summer also saw some great weather, which was a bit of a distraction from modelling, but the steam bans imposed by most preserved lines did provide the opportunity for a bit of diesel bashing, blended in with drinking trips.
Bottom Works Sidings was also photographed by Mike Wild from Hornby Magazine, and then featured in the magazine during the Autumn, ahead of appearing at the Great Electric Train Show in Milton Keynes, and the South Hants exhibition in Portsmouth – boy was it good to get out exhibiting again after 3 years, despite the effort involved making me question the point a few times.
Mods made to the layout shifted the primary control position to the rear, and introduced a need to stand on a box to assume the Commander in Chief position – this provides an excellent overview of the show, even if you are a bit exposed to any wind at such altitudes, which given some of the clientele at a show can be a bit dangerous!
To round the year out, and nothing to do with trains, we managed a trip to Belgium in December, where significant quantities of beer were consumed
And that’s about that for 2022 – we are still here and ticking over modelling wise, YouTube is doing well (get subscribed if you haven’t already) and the blog continues to attract attention – hopefully the same will happen in 2023, but let’s see!
All the best for the new year, and we we will see you in the new year!
Chris and Oly, or Oly and Chris (depending on which way you look at it)
D
It’s Show Time
When we put BWS away in February 2020, after the Tonbridge show, I wasn’t quite expecting it to be October 2022 before we exhibited again…..!
Still, here we are, and next weekend, the 8th and 9th October, we are out on the road once more, at Hornby Magazine’s Great Electric Train Show in Milton Keynes.
Going back to working on BWS to get the old girl exhibition ready has been a nice interlude to work on the big layout, and I’ve delivered a series of (hopeful) improvements as well as fixing a few bits of damage that had occurred.
Now obviously, with 30 months to do this, in true OTCM style everything has been massively rushed in the last 3 weeks, but where is the fun in being organised, when you can spend the run up to a show running round like a deer that’s just realised there is a lion eying it up for dinner….!?
Anyway, I’ve put together a little video showing the work that has been done:
Full details of the show can be found at https://www.keymodelworld.com/greatelectrictrainshow
If you are visiting the show feel free to stop by and say hello – it’s actually quite unusual for us both to be at a show with one of our layouts, so if you’re really unlucky you’ll get to see both of us.
For any Southerner not prepared to venture north of Watford, the layout will be out again on the 19th November in Portsmouth at the South Hants show – I’ll post details of that a bit closer to the time.
Chris
Staying Alive….
Firstly, I’m sure you’ll all enjoy the Beegees fuelled ear worm this post title has created…. Yeah, sorry about that.
A couple of years ago (I might be being kind to myself here, it’s probably more like 5) I picked up a couple of the then new Hornby 0-4-0 Sentinel shunters and repainted them to fit in with the rest of my British Steel fleet. Following a weathering session I was very pleased with how these came out.
I fitted the standard Hornby chips to these and they ran fine on the workbench. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said when I put them on the layout. For some reason, even though I keep the railhead clean, the weathering powder used in preparing the trackbed and blending it in did not suit a very short wheelbase 0-4-0!
I’m currently working through my collection of industrial locos and upgrading them with better quality chips, as well as fitting stay alives – the difference being remarkable. As part of this project I thought I’d dig the Sentinels out the ‘don’t know what to do with them’ draw and see if a stay alive could be squeezed in – below is how I did it!
First up, remove the cab and the long bonnet module so we can see the insides – this is going to be a squeeze so the Hornby 4 pin connector also needs to go – with this snipped off, trim the motor and pickup wires to a sensible length and strip the ends.
Next up, we need to make some space in the moulded cab interior to fit everything. Here I’ve hacked open a much wider slot than originally existed. The handbrake wheel is also sacrificed in the name of reliable running.
With space created, it’s time to deploy the new kit… a DCC Concepts Zen Micro 8 pin chip with the plug cut off and the wires cut back is perfect for the job here. This is coupled to a decent size Lais DCC stay alive (budgets and all that). Remember to pop some heat shrink around all the soldered joints!
There is just enough space within the short bonnet and under the cab floor to squeeze the stay alive and decoder sat next to each other. The wiring can then be tucked into the space previously occupied by the Hornby 4 pin plug. (yes I know the masking job I did on the motor when respraying the chassis is a bit ‘rudimentary’)
Finally, the cab floor can be clipped back into place and the loco put back together.
Fitting the new decoders and the stay alives has completely transformed the locos, and they are now smooth runners even over my dodgy (weathering powder covered) trackwork. As such they will be making an appearance at future shows…. All in all a successful side project!
Chris
A Dreary Tuesday… Part 4
The fourth update on the new layout focusses on finishing the wiring job for the fiddle yard. As this was filmed a little while ago I’ve been able to make a little further progress and am in discussions to get a custom fiddle yard control panel engraved… very fancy!
Work on the layout has slowed a bit of late. Given the intensity of the fiddle yard build it has been nice to take a step back and work on some rolling stock projects (more of that in a future post) and to enjoy the summer weather.
The next layout update should cover pointwork as I am nearing the end of construction of this, at which point wiring will commence – before long it should be possible to run trains round the whole layout!
At the same time, I need to do some work on BWS to bring it up to standards for it’s exhibition appearances this Autumn – we will be out on the road at the below events in 2022:
Great Electric Train Show, Milton Keynes, 8th and 9th October
South Hants MRC show, Portsmouth, 19th November
Chris
A Dreary Tuesday… Part 3
Work continues apace on the new layout – as I’m posting videos slightly in delay of actual progress, the latest charts the first stages of construction of the fiddle yard, while in reality I’ve just finished building points for the scenic section…. Keep up at the back!
As such, here is part 3 of the video series on building the layout:
Chris
Another New Layout: Part 2
I’ll be the first to admit it, I am running a bit behind when it comes to putting posts on here of how construction is progressing with the new layout – I can’t even blame the fact I have been busy modelling, as things have slowed down over the last few weeks due to other commitments.
Fortunately I already had a backlog of stuff I had video’d last year that just needed pulling together, so I can make it look like I’ve been consistently busy, and as such part 2 of the series of videos on constructing the new layout is done.
This one covers the construction of the baseboards, which I have done in the same way as I successfully used for BWS – ply baseboard tops glued and pinned to 9mm ply frames, this seems to result in strong yet relatively lightweight baseboards, which work for me!
With all the baseboards built I am currently working through the various ancillary parts that are also needed to make it into an exhibition layout – lighting pelmets, supports for the lighting pelmets, legs etc… I don’t actually have anywhere to set the whole layout up at home, so need to hire a hall for a morning at some point to put the whole lot together and check that what I have put together works in reality. I seem to be putting this off at the moment, either through fear or just being busy, but I look forward to the day we can do that and get a train running!
The other important update for this post is that the layout now has a name! After much pondering and indecisiveness, I’ve chosen to go with something a bit unusual, as you would expect for one of our layouts… As such, the layout will, in future, change it’s name from ‘Another New Layout’ to ‘A Dreary Tuesday…’ with a subheading of ‘….in the Dearne Valley’ – this will, I hope, convey a certain image to potential spectators before they reach the layout, while also being something a bit different to the usual layout names.
Until Next time….
Chris
The Model Railways of Oly Turner and Chris Matthews 