Brexit and model railways

Over at RMweb there has been much discussion regarding Hornby's financial situation. Perhaps too much I thought, with the risk of becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. If they are going through a difficult patch it seemed unhelpful to have so much speculation on the UK's most widely read web forum. I also offered the opinion that we should maybe give them a break particularly with the unsettling effects of the imminent European referendum. 

This got me thinking about the effects on our hobby if we left the EU. If there is the financial turmoil that the experts predict on leaving then I'd guess that hobby spending will shrink as enthusiasts up and down the UK concentrate on the necessities of life. Most of us will have kits and components put aside which would allow us to keep on pursuing our interests for a while. However the rtr chaps, cottage industries and retailers will all feel the pinch as Joe public reins in his spending.

What happens if  we don't experience a financial shock on exiting the EU, however unlikely this scenario is, will it be business as usual? Unfortunately I don't think it will; let me explain. Thanks to the internet and e-bay the world is our shop, we can buy from every continent. Over the past few years I've bought things for my model railway from Japan, China, Australia, America and various European countries as well as the UK. This could be said to lend weight to the leave campaign's  assertion that we trade with the world and that if we leave the single European market we will still be able to trade with Europe in the way that we trade with the rest of the world. However at the moment there is one crucial difference in buying from Europe compared to the rest of the world and that is import duty. Though HM Customs seem to ignore small value items, they are keen on collecting duty owed on medium and higher value purchases from outside the EU. This duty is compounded by the collection fee charged by the Royal Mail who collect duty for HM Customs. Purchases from the EU carry no duty and no fee from the Post Office as there's no duty to collect. The result of this is that I look to the UK and continental Europe for my modelling requirements, before I think of widening out my search. If duty was payable on EU imports I would buy less even if my total spend were to remain the same. Imagine the effect on the trade if this effect was repeated in every modellers budget.

Manufacturers like Heljan, based in Europe but with a significant UK market would see their prices raised by the duty payable on them, and by extrapolation fewer sales. Leaving the EU wouldn't make life easier for Hornby with its extensive range of European brands. Presumably duty on sales to the EU will similarly hinder companies selling to that market; while there may not be a big market for UK outline trains in Europe, the peripherals of track, control and accessories seem to have a reasonable market share.

I'll should put  my hand up as an instinctive 'remain' voter, but the above has helped me marshal my thoughts on trade and economics, albeit on a small scale.

My apologies for the lack of pretty pictures, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Dust to dust

Earlier this year I had cause to exhume Shell Island from it's coffin, a chipboard box with a screw fixed lid. I had problems with dust settling on Morfa, its size prohibiting any sensible form of covering, but I had hoped that Shell Island would be dust free. Not a bit of it though, while not as bad as Morfa there was still a thin layer all over the surface. Fortunately it didn't take long to clean up with a soft brush and vacuum cleaner. 

Lisbon

With the need to dismantle Morfa and a desire to keep my playroom reasonably tidy I can't say that I've done a lot of model making recently. Odds and ends have crossed my workbench, the latest being to motorise a couple of die cast Lisbon trams. Inspiration came from a trip to Lisbon last October. It's a beautiful city with fantastic architecture, agreeable climate and an exquisite tram system. Here's the real thing .....

 

 

 

.... and the models.

 

 

HO scale die cast Lisbon trams are sold widely in the city's tourist souvenir shops for about ten euros. They're a cut above the usual tourist tat and are easy to transform into a working model. After dismantling a suitably sized aperture has to cut in the brown underframe unit to accommodate a Kato 11-104 mechanism. The underside of the cream seat unit requires abrading away flush with the bottom of the seat squabs. Then its a case of careful reassembly and crafting a couple of chassis retaining lugs from plasticard. Total cost a touch under twenty quid and an hours work.

Coming to a halt

Events have caught up with the  recent reinvigoration of Morfa. A vague notion that we might at some future time decide to downsize from the rambling chapel which is our and Morfa's home has galloped very quickly into view with the result that estate agents have been instructed and work on Morfa has come to a halt. For the moment I'm continuing to enjoy running trains through the broad brush roughed out landscape. Further construction has stopped, and Morfa will develop no further. Here are a few photos of how it looks at the moment.

The stone embankment was created by spreading Heritage non clumping cat litter along the slope between the tracks and the lower ground and water levels. Once I was happy with how it looked I dropped on a pva and water mix with a pipette which set hard after a few days.

Mojo Risin'

It looks like my strategy of putting the layout blogs in suspended animation has worked, at least as far as Morfa is concerned. Also added into the mix was a dredged up memory of covering the basic landmass with dyed flannelette sheeting. This combined with the sticky balls has led to rapid progress, which has buoyed up my enthusiasm to the point where progress has been close to full tilt. Have a few photos.

The kiss of death

I don't know why it is but each time I've started a layout specific blog the project seems to splutter to an undignified halt. I've sort of made up my mind to try a new approach, and to post progress here rather than there. Of course it will somewhat spoil any continuity, but with luck at least there'll be something to read with some regularity in one place. So while I won't be taking down, Morfa, The Ganllwyd Tram and En Vacances, I also won't be adding to them.

By way of recompense here is one of the latest views on Morfa, showing the current scenic progress on the Abertafol curve. By choosing a careful angle I've managed to give an impression that matters are more advanced than they really are, but never mind it does hint at how things might be.

My resin casting blog/website Rushby's Resins bucks this trend and will be updated as and when new products emerge. Hopefully this month I'll have news of the latest resin kit as a start has been made on masters and moulds.

Not taking things seriously

Lately most of my model making has been focussed on the narrow gauge world. It's been skewed this way partly due to uncertainty about the long term future of Morfa, my big EM gauge trainset and partly because of the momentum that my resin casting business 'Rushby's Resins' has gained. I'm only now beginning to redress the balance by indulging in a bit of HO standard gauge modelling. Currently on my workbench is a representation of a Czechoslovakian diesel shunter, taking shape from the butchered remains of a cheap Piko train set loco. 

Here's what it looked like before I started.

Here's what it looks like now.

It's a way of being finished, but I'm already very happy with how it's shaping up. The whole point of this tale isn't about how well I've done, but what liberties I'm taking with the model. Comparing what I've done with what the real thing looks like reveals differences, which in the normal scheme of things there would be an expectation that I would address. The narrow gauge world is to a large extent very tolerant of models that look like a particular loco, wagon or carriage, but which aren't slavish copies. It's intrigued me why this should be so, and if it would be possible to apply similar practises to standard gauge models. If pressed to justify this methodology I point at paintings where much is left out or simplified, yet the essence of the subject is there, clear as day. It's difficult to judge whether this non-finescale approach will work, but if I look at my narrow gauge models then I believe that it can and should.