Trying to keep up with this slot, as its a good time for philosophising.
First up, and one of my least favorite topics, an obituary.
Last weekend marked the sudden passing of Greytrainz. I never had the opportunity to meet Graham, or even talk to him on the phone, so we only had email exchanges. Graham was a true enthusiast for the scale, and did a fair bit of work on his own to further things with his own modeling as well as providing models for others.His keenness will be missed, and I extend my/our condolences to his family.
Though it feels a bit odd just to carry on to the next topic, nevertheless....
I've been having a few thoughts on exhibition displays. Reading through the British exhibition threads it is common (standard?) to run the layout to a timetable, or at least to a sequence of moves. the standard here is to leave a train running until the operators get bored with it then swap. Unofficial comments from some members of the One track minds group suggest that this is not quite enough operationally. I must admit that I am inspired by the European Freemo groups in their get together's with an actual timetable to operate to. I just can't remember if I have ever seen anything like this at a New Zealand exhibition.
Oh, and its 4 weeks till the convention and counting. Can anyone give an indication if they are going or not? Will it be worth having a special interest meeting at all? or can we just hold it in a hallway cupboard?
((nd that reminds me, I must actually write the talk and workshop I'm giving. Does anyone have any areas that they would like reviewed in trackmaking? I won't be touching on other methods, only the ones I use. maybe a bit on laying out yards etc?)
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3 comments:
Will catchup with you in Wellington. Thats 2 in the cupboard!
I did a few shows running a train along a single track, stopping at a passing loop, another train would then take off and go around the circuit and stop, and then the first would go around again. It was prototypical - and spectators were rewarded with trains coming along the layout in alternating directions.
It was a simple operation, even including a few points to change each time. But by the end of a show I was mentally shattered.
It was also too much sustained concentration for my operating partner. He just let one train go around one way for ten or so minutes, then give the other one a go the opposite way.
We do that all the time now; we don't try to alternate the visible trains any more - just keep trains going while the punters watch. If one stops running to do prototypical shunting, punters walk off and no-one sees the shunting.
I had the opposite shunting experience once with teh Otago layout. I spent 5 minutes rearanging wagons in the yard, and held 10-15 people in the palm of my hand. It sticks in my memory as the only time its happened.
One thing I had considered is to have a 1/2-1 hour of intense operation followed by a 1 hr break where the operators could have a break and do something else. it would break up the monotony. Paekakariki is set up to do this, so I'll either be proved right or wrong.
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