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.