Friday, 7 July 2017

What's happening then?

Well, after the Lincoln Show not a lot, that is on the modelling creation side anyway. What I have been up to is tackling the mess in the "Man Cave" after Tredethy Wharf was dumped after the show before we left for New Zealand. Then, on our return home while tidying the "Man Cave", I  also decided to sort though the accumulated "stuff" from both hobbies (railways and wargaming) with a view to raising funds for future hobby projects, oh and a set of golf clubs! This exercise has been very successful, golf clubs have been purchased along with more rolling stock for Grogley/Polbrock. There is much more stuff to eBay so sorting and selling will contine for a few more months. The aim being that space and finances have to be made available for the construction of Polbrock Engine Shed...

There is a problem though, is not that always the case? Apart from the big project of Grogley Junction and Polbrock, there have, and I suppose still are, other dreams. One being a Welsh Colliery layout based in the Taff Valley, the other (a long held desire) to build a small GWR Branch Line Terminus. Oh no, not another one I hear you all shouting, have there not been enough built! Why not build a Caledonian BLT or some other obscure project?

Let me try to explain...
  • While sorting through all the boxes, items I've collected have risen to the surface for the above two projects. While I can easily give up the Welsh Colliery layout the GWR BLT is much harder. The itch of a GWR BLT has not been fully quelled by Grogley Junction.
  • It all probably started from reading many magazine articles in the late 1960s early 1970s, warming to the attempts at picturesque layouts rather than the industrial scene others were using to mask baseboard edges. I've always been a country bumpkin at heart.
  • Then I was fully indoctrinated into the GWR by a good friend when the Mablethorpe and District Model Railway Club was formed in the 70s. This introduced me to Bodmin and its railway environs, and hence why I've ended up with Grogley Junction.
  • My early holiday memories are of time spent in Devon and Cornwall. Unfortunately, in the 1960s, we never travelled there by train but later in life I've had many visits to Paignton, Buckfastleigh and Bodmin railways along with Didcot and the Severn Valley.
  • Tredethy Wharf has fulfilled a purpose, that being to get me started in P4 and now tentatively introducing me to exhibiting. While I have enjoyed the two exhibitions I've attended with Tredethy Wharf, the end result is it is a very simple layout to operate. 
  • Grogley Junction with Polbrock Engine Shed will, in essence, not be exhibition layouts. So if I'm to continue to have something to exhibit would it be possible for me to scratch the itch of a  GWR BLT? Maybe, maybe not, but I'll still keep the project in my thoughts. Therefore I'll be  storing all I've collected for this project until it becomes fully evident it will not be possible to build it.
So the Welsh Colliery project items are marked up to be auctioned off. While doing so I have the list of "show outcomes", mentioned in the previous blog, to tackle before the Polbrock project is embarked upon. At some point I might post my thoughts on this GWR BLT project but for the moment I'll get back to creating more eBay auctions... Blimey just heard the "till ring" on my phone so I must have sold some more stuff, better get that in the post.

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