Saturday morning ramble

Well, I'm on my 3rd cuppa this morning and its time for my brain to have a bit of a wander again for the weekend.

This week a bootleg collection of articles on American modeling wandered unannounced into my inbox. Now, I'm not sure why, but US modeling just leaves me cold and uninspired. An endless parade of SD/GP-XX locos and box cars that all seem to be the same with different colours just bores me to tears. Its even the same with steam locos, which are basically a boiler with all the bits hung on the outside and the rest designed with a T square (the stream liners are a different kettle of fish, and are beautiful). It could just be because I and more interested in older period NZR that I'm more drawn to the British style. Its an open-ish sort of secret that I do have an interest in the GWR in Devon, though in the late 1880's and with a slightly wider gauge than 4'8". Its something that i seriously have to fight to keep in its dark box at the back of my brain. There's also an On30 layout in the same dusty corridor that threatens to get out, and if Eureka miniatures ever does Teddy bear civilians I may well be doomed. I'm not going to mention the New Zealand logging layout that also threatens to get built (and there is another loco in the pipeline for it if I can find the basis for a decent top)

There have also been a few questions on my plans to change the way that I make my point throw bars so I may have to venture out to the shed later today at great personal risk (I should be tidying the house) to take some photos showing what I mean. And I think that I might have come up with another option that could work but will be far more fiddly to do, so will probably die. In my experience (work and home) theory tends to get its ass handed to it in a bag by reality on a very regular basis.