I'm such a Luddite...

I have now read through the latest copy of Scalefour News.
DCC operation of Alex Jackson couplers. Mind boggling.
Blimey Charlie! I haven't even got around to the installing of AJ's on my stock let alone DCC operation of my locomotives yet.
DCC. Technology marches on. I suppose I should at least try it out somewhere.
But why should I fork out an extra $100 for a locomotive just because it has a computer chip in it (then lets not forget a new controller for another $150) when my straight DC loco's work fine as it is. You should have seen my FDT trackmobile on my US outline layout at the weekend. Ran to a perfect crawl. Same with my Athearn Genesis MP15-AC. So I just don't see the need currently. (Was there a pun there? Sorry)
What about other features like digital sound? Someone will chime in.
What about it? Say I. Surely the sound coming from our 4mm scale locomotives should be 1:72 scale too.
How loud is a class 31 throttling up? 90 decibels?
What's 1:72 of 90? 1.25 decibels. How loud is 1.25 decibels? Would you even hear it?
Just a thought from a Luddite. I'm sure that the subject has been hacked to death somewhere already.
Ironically the one DCC feature that interests me the most is the one that boggles my mind the most. DCC operation of couplers...

Thought for the day (2)

This is one of those off the wall sort of things so bear with me...
Christmas is coming (I'm sure I'll ramble more on that at some point) and in order to prepare the front room for our magnificent tree things have to be moved out into the basement. Including the exercise ball that I do a brief regimen of crunches and sit ups on in a morning as part of my marathon training. (You really are wondering where the heck this is going aren't you) So this is now in the basement and as luck would have it it is placed directly in front of the "mock up" of the Haven layout. So every time I come up from a sit up I get a marvellous eye level view of the layout. I have to say it still looks good. The Chapel appears to be perfectly placed and the goods yard looks pretty natural. So I'm still feeling pretty good about the whole concept. Perhaps I will get started in the new year after all.
See? It all comes together in the end....

Thought for the day

Where is my latest copy of Scalefour News? It can't be far away.
I'm really in the mood for a good P4 read...

Get off yer backside and do something!

It's tempting. The 2010 RMWeb challenge has been announced. The competition is to build a layout in 2010 square inches by 20th October 2010. 2010 square inches is just under 14 square feet. Way way more than what I have planned for the Haven layout. But it might just be the catalyst to get me going on the scheme at long last. I have plenty of stock waiting to be converted all the track I need. But (and this is a pretty big but) no baseboard. Have to see if I can get around to building a baseboard after Christmas.

I always seem to end up building baseboards in January, one of the coldest months of the year when its flippin' freezing in the garage. Haven't quite worked out why it seems to end up that way. You'd think I'd learn my lesson after all these years...

No news is not bad news...

I feel the pages of this blog are long overdue for and update.
So what has happenned in the last month to this layout?
Well not a lot really. I'm encouraged to see that Ultrascale charged my credit card for the Class 08 conversion unit I ordered a few months ago. Perhaps that will be here soon and I can get a locomotive running that would really fire things up.
I have started assembling various wagon kits as well as the Wills Chapel that will grace the layout. I had forgotten how well made Wills kits were and how easily they go together, it's such a long time since I had one.
The piece of wood referenced in an earlier post ended up getting used on a totally different project. Something totally off the wall and diametrically opposed to the P4 layout in so many ways. But it was great fun though a part of me wishes I'd built that in P87.
One final thing I got my wish in the end and wasn't accepted for the London Marathon so perhaps next year I can time my visit back home with a visit to Scaleforum...

Mystery Baseboard

Sometimes something just hits me. This offcut of 1/4 ply has been lying around unnoticed in my garage for a long time. Yet today when I came back from a 15 mile run (should have been 20 but it got too hot for me) and saw it there I was struck by the curved edge.

"You know what? That looks like a riverbank" I thought to myself. Immediately I started to think about if this was a possible baseboard for the Haven layout. No matter that I was totally jiggered from running 15 miles in upper 70'sF heat. I had to think about it. Deliriium perhaps. The wood is 5' long x 12" deep at the deepest point. I'm not saying that this would be the baseboard for the layout. But its certainly useable for part of the quayside I think. Anyway I've not posted for a while so I thought I'd just throw this out there. Just to show I'm still actively engaged in this project even though there are other things on my plate.

Mail call

Blimey. Jeepers. Golly.

Scalefour News arrived today.

I have to admit I was rather puzzled when I picked up the brown envelope. There was something different. It was thicker. More robust.

"What's this?" I thought. "Something's going on here." I wasn't even sure that it was the News for a moment.

However that fear was dispelled as soon as I opened the envelope. It was a double bumper issue! Not only a copy of the News but also a nice thick Scaleforum 2009 guide. Full colour and everything. Just awesome. Showing me exactly what I'm missing by not being there.

Just what am I missing? Only some of the (personally) most influential P4 layouts going. Bodmin, Hepton Wharf, Llanastr. It's just not fair! I would kill to see all these layouts under one roof. OK perhaps not literally but you get the idea. The selection of layouts looks outstanding and a longer list of traders there to boot.

It makes me actually hope that I don't get accepted for the 2010 London Marathon so that we can time next years visit home with Scaleforum 2010.

Huge compliments to the producers of the guide and I hope that Scaleforum 2009 is a huge success.