Hello again my little Corkette chums. I hope you are all well and enjoying yourselves. I'm back with more nonsense from the world of the Corkscrew Lines. You'll all be itching no doubt to find out what decisions I've made regarding my recent mid-life gauge crisis! More of that later....what a tease eh?....Dreadful!
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| A Hymek with its cub - how sweet! |
New Arrivals on the Corkscrew-Lines
As you can see from the image below, I am a firm believer in letting the wagons roll. A recent delivery from Hattons of Liverpool added another 22 wagons to the Corkscrew-Lines roster. Mrs Corky is always reminding me I need to think seriously about having more fruit. I congratulated myself on purchasing a couple of bargain packs of 4 wheel fruit wagons...16 in total...Hellfire! She'll be so proud of me don't you think? At just over £5.00 a wagon they are excellent value and if you are modelling the 1960's railway scene then you simply cannot have too many bauxite coloured 4 wheel box vans. You'll also note a few more exotic wagons including a couple of Conflats, a horse-box and yet another brake van. Alright, I'll admit it, I have a problem with brake vans. I just can't resist them. It's a weakness and I'm not proud of it!
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| Corkscrew-Lines goodies |
Other items of interest are the mobile fish & chip trailer, a GWR Signal Box, a bottle of liquid-lead for adding additional weight to some of the wagon fleet and a fine tip lubricator for loco mechanisms. Finally, another couple of the 1960's British Army armoured cars which I've been stockpiling ready for the introduction of my military train at some point in the future. I now have 8 kits but no sign of the train to convey them. Oh well, it's the thought that counts! Anyway, as any modeller worth his salt will confirm, stockpiling kits for that proverbial rainy day is all part of the fun of this fantastic hobby...Dreadful!
Visiting Corkettes
As you'll know from reading previous entries...you have read the previous entries haven't you? I am currently working away from home pulling levers in signal boxes in Hampshire and Surrey. Therefore, I don't get the opportunity to see as many Corkettes as I'd like. However, a couple of weeks back, Lord and Lady Dowsby dropped by for some afternoon tiffin and as has now become customary, Lord Dowsby carried out an inspection of progress on the line.
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| Keep up the good work! |
Alton Station - Mid Hants Railway
Although living away from home for the majority of my time isn't much fun, there are a few occasional advantages. One is being so close to a genuine part of the ex LSWR network which is preserved as it was during the 1960's. I wandered down to Alton on the Watercress Line, or Mid Hants Railway to use its formal title, and took a few shots of the station furniture and signage which I found absolutely fascinating...yet another weakness of mine I'm afraid! I timed it perfectly because just as I arrived a Hampshire Unit or "Thumper", as they are affectionately known by the anorak wearing fraternity, was departing for the Hampshire Alps. I vividly remember laying in my bed at night in Basingstoke as a boy and listening to the glorious percussive symphony produced by a hard working Thumper as it headed under Battledown flyover on its way to Salisbury. Oh, happy days, I'm starting to well-up...Oh My Lords!
Incidentally, I have a couple of model Thumpers just like the one in the photo on pre-order from Kernow Models so I can recreate such childhood memories on the Corkscrew-Lines someday soon.
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
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| Alton - Mid Hants Railway |
Rooster's Railway!
Last weekend, Mrs Corky and myself were invited to an opening ceremony to mark the arrival of the Rooster's new outbuilding, the new home for his latest modelling project - Cambridge Heights. As you'll have seen from the last update, I assisted Rooster in producing the first couple of baseboards and I'll be knocking up a matching board for the fiddle yard in the next few days...hopefully! Very generously, Rooster asked me to cut the ribbon and say a few words in front of the assembled crowds. Obviously as the "Corkmeister" and head of the Corkette whoop I acknowledge these types of event will frequently come around but I always enjoy them. Anyway, as you'll see in the shots below, Rooster may find he is competing with other house-mates when trying to access his new shed!
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| The opening ceremony |
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| The opening ceremony |
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| The baseboards in situ - waiting for high level shelves |
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| The opening ceremony |
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| The opening ceremony - Blue enjoying the new shed! |
"To N or not to N - That is the question!"
Right, it's time to put you out of your misery. Will I be changing scales or not? Well, to be honest I don't know for sure yet...sorry! As things currently stand we do not know for sure whether we will have to sell Corky-Towers and if we do, we don't know when we'll have to do it. Therefore, until we know for sure, I have made a decision to continue with the Corkscrew-Lines as they currently stand and stick with OO until I am forced to think otherwise. So there you have it...the Corkscrew-Lines continues as it is.
As you can see from the shots below, in the meantime, I have assembled a small collection of research N-Gauge rolling stock including a Dapol Q1 and Hymek in both powered and dummy forms and another smattering of brake vans. Train running in N-Gauge with modern locos has improved enormously since I last dabbled with it and I can see huge advantages in N when trying to portray the train in the landscape approach. Indeed, when considering the multi-level helix based layouts I prefer, N would be fantastic. A 2ft deep baseboard equates to 4ft in OO and the prospect of filling a single garage sized room with N is mouthwatering. But, the running qualities of OO are still superior and DCC sound is difficult, expensive and far less impressive in N-Gauge.
I suppose in summary, I'm going to bury my head in the sand to a certain extent until a decision has to be made and I will continue to naively hope that if we do have to move I can find a new structure which will accommodate the current layout without too many issues. Last week I had 6 trains running together all circling the layout and climbing and descending the helix quite happily. I don't want to give this all up unless I absolutely have to. However, if it does become obvious that the current Corkscrew-Lines have to be closed then my basic experiments with N-Gauge so far have proven I could quite happily make the change and in all probability have a layout which is just as interesting to operate only with different priorities.
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| N-Gauge Research |
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| N-Gauge Research |
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| OO gauge parents with their N-Gauge babies! |
Corkscrew-Lines track-laying begins again!
Yes my friends, I'm working on the layout again and if all goes according to plan, in the next few days I'll be track laying again. I have removed the temporary connection to the "Turbo-Banjo" (see earlier entries) at the top of the helix and have started work on the first section of scenic modelling on level 2A. Hopefully I'll make rapid progress and I can get another few yards of track quickly laid and then reinstall the "Turbo Banjo" back to the new end of the line and recommence continuous running again. You can see from the photos I have cleared the area of the peninsula and cut the trackbed and risers ready for the track which emerges from the first section of the helix from storage to level 2 boards. The photos give the general idea which I'll cover in much greater depth next time. The tunnel mouths and signal boxes at this stage are just temporary to get a feel for what works and what doesn't.
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| Peninsula cleared ready for track-laying |
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| Peninsula track-laying. Mocking up possible ideas. |
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| Peninsula track-laying action. Temporary sectional track being used. |
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| Peninsula track-laying action. There's always time for a cuppa! |
So there you have it my friends, you are all up to speed with developments on the line and my latest thinking regarding the "should I or shouldn't I" keep to OO or go to N-Gauge debate. I'm sticking with OO for now and hopefully this will become a permanent choice eventually. The good news is N-Gauge as a back up plan would also be enormous fun and assembling a helix would be much simpler. All in all, it's all good!
Take care my lovely little Corkettes and I'll be back to bother you all again soon,
Corky
