Knobs

How do you like to twiddle yours?

The Piko starter set I was sent for review comes with it's own transformer and controller tailored to the voltage and current demands of what is a far bigger and heavier model than the 4mm scale stuff I'm used to. The controller is of the centre off variety, turning the knob one way or the other from twelve o'clock changes direction as well as speed. Though my first train set controller, dating back to the sixties, has this arrangement, it's 'feel' was a bit alien to me. For the last thirty or more years I've used a series of controllers that have a switch to change direction, the rotation of the knob solely governing speed.

It seemed till recently that the centre off pattern of controllers were synonymous with train sets; I began to wonder why this might be. I doubt that there's more than pennies to be saved over the separate reversing switch, but maybe with one controller used in a range of trainsets and remaining in production for many years those savings were well worth having. Perhaps it was thought easier for young minds to understand, turn it one way it goes that way, turn it the other and off it goes in reverse.

The direction switch model should give finer control, having double the distance to sweep from off the maximum speed. I'm sure that this is why the serious enthusiast has adopted this pattern so wholeheartedly. But as ever there are exceptions, Bachmann bundle a very nice direction switch controller in with their trainsets and conversely some of those who supply what's thought of as the enthusiast market do or did centre off models.

An unexpected turn of events.

Early this week I had an unexpected e-mail asking if I would be interested in reviewing train sets. The communique was from Tommy George of Idealo UK (more about them later) who seemed to be pleasantly surprised at the level of interest and comment there is in the UK model railway scene; an area his company are expanding into. 

For a variety of reasons I chose the Piko G scale starter set to take a look at. It's a complete start from scratch set, comprising loco, a DB BR80 0-6-0 tank engine, a couple of bogie hopper wagons, circle of track, transformer, controller, and all the wires to hook the power supply up to the track. Here's what it all looks like.

As the set came from a German supplier the transformer was fitted with a two pin euro-plug. Not having a suitable adaptor I cut it off and replaced it with a UK standard three pin jobbie, all of five minutes work. Another five minutes clipping the track into a circle, and connecting transformer to controller to track and I was in business. Putting the loco on the track the first thing I noticed was how heavy it was, being more used to the mass of 4mm to the foot scale models. Come to that the track is pretty hefty too. The mass certainly tells once loco and wagons are on the move. The motor is pretty quiet which allows the clickerty-clack as the wheels pass over the rail joints to be appreciated to the full. I tested the set indoors, but I feel that its real setting should be in the garden where it could occupy the middle ground between model of a real railway and a small real railway in its own right. It has a chunky robust quality that should fit it for the harsher environment of the great outdoors.

Now what of Idealo? Well it's a price comparison site or service, they don't supply the products directly, but point you in the direction of retailers who will. As far as I can tell it works on the same or similar basis to those car insurance comparison sites but without amusing meerkats or annoying opera singers. Though it wasn't part of my brief to review Idealo I thought I should at least see if it gave credible results. I'm pleased to say on my test against Google's shopping results and a search on e-bay it came up with a keener price for the Piko starter set.

Here's a link to the expanding selection of model railway items on the Idealo website.

Now it won't replace the local model shop, with it's supplies of small items, materials, glues and paints, but I could see it being a worthwhile port of call, an alternative to Google shopping, e-bay or the big mail order houses as the range expands.

Unexpected Gem

If you asked a railway enthusiast what their favourite publisher was you would get a range of responses. I'm pretty sure that the likes of Oakwood Press, Wild Swan, OPC and Ian Allan would figure prominently. Many of the smaller, more niche, book houses would also be represented; perhaps in dribs and drabs, but a predictable presence. I very much doubt though, that the non-specialist press would get a look in, certainly not the likes of WH Smith or M&S. Don't they just cynically churn out Christmas books aimed at well meaning aunties who reason that because he likes trains and because it has lots of colour pictures of steam engines it's the present to choose. Six months later and they're gathering dust on the bookshelves of a charity shop. I suppose that socks are preferable to most of them, but they may be worth a closer look. Here's one plucked from the shelves of a charity shop.

Doesn't look too promising does it. However open it up and it's better than you might expect. Sure there aren't drawings, trackplans or even exhaustive histories of specific lines (yawn ... zzzzzz). It's quite generalised, to cover the world in one hundred and twenty pages it has to be, but there are some pluses It has some cracking photography doesn't aim just at the obvious and well known. Some are like the cover, 3/4 action shots, but many/most set the railway within the landscape and make it easy to home in on the essential atmosphere of a particular scene. A few are sublime works of art. Here's my favourite, the line between Shantipur and Krishnanagar in India, taken in 1981 by John Hunt.

In the strangest of places

I realise that it looks as though I'm drifting away from Rushby's Railways and towards Neil's Review of Books. I'm not so sure that's necessarily a bad thing; reading has been a joy since my childhood and is the way that we interact with most interweb content. Mrs R was very pleased last week to pick up this Indian cookery book from a charity shop last week. I'm very pleased too as I love Indian food.

 However I'm also pleased because in between the recipes, there are some stunning images of India and just like the food I'm rather partial to the railways of the sub-continent and so pictures of the country serve to get the creative imagination fired up. Better yet one of the photos, and a double page stunner at that, shows rails down the middle of the street, an irresistible scenario.

Attack of the clones?

A change from book reviews as something else has shown up on my radar. Over on RMweb, but strangely not on their own website Dapol's forthcoming O gauge program has been announced. For some time we've known of the 08 diesel shunter, now it appears that a terrier tank will follow on its heels, along with a few  wagons.  So what's new, there's been a growing quantity of modern rtr O gauge for some time now. For me it's the price; Lieverpool's favourite box shifter has the 08 to pre order at £169 (I believe the early birds did even better). Previously 7mm rtr had been either big, expensive or both, now we are to be offered models of size and cost compatible with the average home and budget. Surely a good thing? Well I'm not so sure; modellers, at least the significant section that get a bit exited at the prospect of having the latest toys, will I believe, be beating a path to the shops once these models make it from CAD files into the seductive reality of injection moulded plastic. I'm equally certain that it'll herald a surge of 7mm scale micro layouts, but I'd be willing to bet that almost all will lack the originality of this little beauty from the talented and innovative Marc Smith. Now while it's required some effort and commitment to tackle a similar project Marc's work has remained refreshingly original; once it becomes relatively cheap and easy I worry that the magazines, exhibitions and internet will be awash with pallid clones of the original. I've no doubt that the terrier will see a rash of Colonel Stephens light railway look-a-likes too. Our hobby just got a little duller.

In praise of Bradford Barton

We've all seen them, those uniformly square format, photo albums with the colour coded spines. Most second hand booksellers will have a few on their shelves. Over the years I've built up a small collection of the blue labelled diesel series. It's tempting to dismiss them as lightweight when compared to the scholarly output from publishers like Wild Swan. They make a very for a pleasant browse, a small size, railway themed, coffee table book; but is there more to them than that? Obviously I think that there is; here's one I picked up from my friend and book seller Nick Lowe.

It's a little way away from my usual interests, but it's helped me to see the value in these predominately pictorial publications. The photos are of use in sorting out the nuts and bolts of what we choose to model, though the coverage isn't as full as a detailed profile, but where they really score is the conveyance of atmosphere, that hard to quantify attribute that separates the truly great from the technically competent. Take a look at an image from Industrial Steam.

It would not be a particularly difficult scene to model, the austerity tank is available in a variety of scales, but the photo guides one beyond the infrastructure, there's the effect of the weather in the puddles and the pale grey silhouette of the head gear. I've also picked up on the human intervention in the new putty to the window of the lean to building and the tin of grease or paint left on the sill.

Start you search for these inspirational volumes here.

The end; loss, sadness, joy and beauty 2

On Sunday a friend who knows that I have a weakness for such things gave me this slim book.

Like North East Focus it's more of a booklet than book, but the quality of the images more than makes up for their number. It's a fabulous thing that has become an instant favourite. Here's a sample of what lies within.

It's well worth keeping an eye out for; I doubt you'll be disappointed.