Time For Mark Four

I haven't posted since January. That was 11 months ago.

January was great! I couldn't have asked for a better January. I spent 11 days in the United Kingdom riding trains.

I first had the idea a couple of years ago when Qantas advertised cheap fares during the Australian Open. My wife has been known to head to Melbourne for the event so she wouldn't miss me. It didn't happen. Nor the next year. This year it did.

I was spurred on by the withdrawal of HST sets form the GWR and LNER networks. I have spent a lot of hours on these trains over the years. I wanted one more ride.

I also wanted to ride on a Pacer - just to find out how bad they were.

Of course as the time drew nearer, a fair amount of planning had to take place. I wanted to make sure that I could see as much as I could as well as catch up with family and friends. 

I travelled on a Britrail Pass. It gives you unlimited travel for the duration of the pass. I bought a first class pass. You get free drinks and snacks and depending upon the service, a full English breakfast or a fancy dinner.

It was expensive but on my first day I travelled from London to Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, London and finished on the overnight train to Penzance. (I did have to pay for a sleeping berth though.)

You also get access to the First Class Lounges. The Great Western First Class Lounge at Paddington is my favourite. The Avanti West Coast Lounge at Liverpool is pretty funky with a Beatles theme.

Here's a photo from the first day. I had just caught this HST from London St Pancras to Leicester. I took a lot of video too. I should do something with that.

February was very different. If January was great, then February just kicked us in the guts.

Remember that storm on the 8th - 9th of February? It flooded the train room on the Sunday. It also damaged our kitchen but it was the shed that concerned me more. It came up from the floor and soaked the carpet and ruined furniture. The legs of the layout seemed okay.

However, what could was brought inside and the insurance company called. A couple of old department shelves rescued from the skip bin would need some surgery but the old Ikea stuff was... well stuffed.

Lots of plastic boxes were then bought.

We lost a couple of people in quick succession from February too.

If February kicked us in the guts, March delivered the knock out punch.

The shed was drying out. Fans had been going for a while and the musty smell had all but gone. Then we had a couple of hot days around the 19th and 20th March. The musty smell came back and the layout was covered in mould.

A green fuzz covered a lot of bare timber. I cleaned off what I could but I kept finding more. I was also on the bottom of the plywood in areas that I couldn't reach with a spray bottle full of vinegar. Some of my trains had a dusting of spores on the top of them. This was terminal. There was no way that I could make sure the mould would be gone.

The hours of work put into the layout, the hours of joy that it had brought, the hours of fun it would bring. This was the ultimate layout that I could build. It should have seen me good for the next fifteen years.

Everything was packed away into those plastic box that I had bought.

I started to work out a strategy to deal with the problem but with the world starting to fall apart, I'm going to be honest, things were getting to me. Not to mention that I suddenly had to re-invent what I do for work with as little time as possible.

It was time for a break and a venture into a new hobby.

LEGO is a great modelling medium these days. It's a lot different from when I was a kid.

But it's not the same as building a model railway.

For some reason, all the walls in the train room needed to be re-gyprocked so the old layout was in trouble anyway. This was all done by the insurance company. Over a weekend, I went from this...

...to an empty space.

As soon as the money came through for the damaged contents, carpet was put down and timber bought.

After a couple of weeks it now looks like this...

So that the timber doesn't go mouldy again, everything is being painted. The colour of choice was supposed to be a green. However, when I bought the paint in March the store couldn't do that particular colour (I can't remember why.) and gave me other options. When I saw Indian Red on the colour chart, I didn't think that I could pick anything else.

The benefit of having a few months off modelling was that I couldn't do anything so that I had time to think about the new plan and chat with some mates about ideas. After talking to one friend, he went home and came up with a plan. With a little tweaking, it's almost settled. The mainlines and main features are planned with a couple of small industries to place.

The fourth version of the Sapphire Coast Line is firmly underway.

Until next time.