| A BEGINNER'S TALE John Rich Photos by the Author |
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It all began rather slowly for me some
years ago. I wandered innocently into what was then the Tracks shop
in Sawbridgeworth with a view to disposing of some unwanted HO American
stock. I was given a price that I thought was very reasonable and
decided that before I left clutching the readies I would have a quick
browse around the shop; this was a big mistake. Sitting in a display
cabinet were some very nice O Gauge kit-built models for sale. The
only model I could afford from the selection available was a very
pretty 14XX 0-4-2T in BR lined green livery, which I was very taken
with. The run up and down the yard of test track in the shop convinced
me that I could not live without this model (boys and their toys,
eh!). Needless to say, the journey home to deepest West Sussex had
me clutching my new aquisition, wondering why on earth I had purchased
it. The next couple of weeks saw the purchase of a vast amount of
track to run my loco on, two yards to be precise; and the 14XX paraded
up and down running very smoothly. It then went back in the box ‘until
I had the chance to build a small layout for it’. Shortly afterwards I purchased a couple of the wonderful Parkside wagon kits and constructed these with no problems. I have been modelling in various guises for a long time and plastic wagon kits held no fear. These trotted up and down my two yards of track together with the loco 'until I had the chance to build a small layout for them'. With the 7mm stock back in its boxes and out of sight, I came to the conclusion after some thought that it would not be a good idea moving to the larger scale as I did not have the ability to build all of those lovely-looking kits of Pacifics and heavy freight locos I saw in the magazines (not that I had room for the East Coast main line anyway), so I stuck with 4mm. Over the next couple of years I drifted from one prototype to another, steam to diesel, North American articulateds to pannier tanks, but still could not get any inspiration. At every exhibition I attended, I always ended up gawking at the 7mm layouts thinking "I gotta do this", and coming home having talked myself out of it for one reason or another. The worm finally turned after a visit to the Reading Trade Show. This was it; I was fed up with drifting aimlessly in the railway modelling world. It was time to cast all other scales aside and go for it. I purchased an etched wagon kit (living dangerously on the edge this was). It went together very well, although I have to say the mysteries of Churchward brakegear kind of lost me somewhere along the line and my barren spares box began to fill up with small bits of brakegear. This is not a comment on the kit, just my own inadequacies. Anyway, the painted and weathered item looked very nice despite the missing bits of undercarriage, and I thought, OK, let’s build that 9F I saw at Reading… Only joking! At last I was fired up and the construction of a simple terminus to fiddle yard layout is now underway. Yes I know Great Western branch lines went out with the ark, but I am just an old fashioned guy at heart and I wanted to do something that I could reasonably expect to complete. With this started, I commissioned Home of 'O' Gauge to build me a Malcolm Mitchell 45XX to go with my lonely 14XX. Of course they did a fabulous job with it and I look forward to getting them to build another loco for me when my bank balance has recovered slightly. During this time the nagging feeling crept over me that if I was going to model in 7mm seriously I really ought to have a crack at a loco myself, and surely it can’t be that difficult. After chatting to various helpful traders and exhibitors at exhibitions, I decided that a good starter kit would be the Meteor Models SECR/SR/BR P Class tank loco (yes I know it’s not Great Western). I work as a volunteer at the Bluebell Railway in the Carriage & Wagon Department, and one of the advantages of this is that there are an awful lot of model railway enthusiasts floating around. One thing you can say about model railway enthusiasts is that they are always willing to help and advise. Fortunately, one of the guys working on the wagons with me has a vast experience in kit building for himself and commission-builds for others. He offered to help me out if I got stuck on anything. So with all of this encouragement and advice I purchased said item together with the usual wheels, motor and gearbox supplied separately. So there I was, faced with a flat-pack loco together with soldering irons, flux, solder and other sundry items with which to wreck a perfectly good kit. Now those of you who have been in this game for a long time have probably forgotten that even the most obvious is not necessarily obvious to us beginners and so I constructed the chassis to the rolling stage, so far so good. The chassis rolled, the motor turned when I applied power, now all I had to do was attach the gearbox, the motor and the chassis so that it all turned and rolled effortlessly down the track at the same time, but it didn’t. I made a phone call and entered the world of shimming and fettling and opening out of the coupling rod holes. This I did and the loco staggered off down the track, not exactly gliding silently as I had anticipated, but at least it was moving; well that’s a result then. Whilst sitting drinking tea in the messroom at the Bluebell C&W department and boring my workmates with my chassis that wouldn’t run as well as I had hoped, the comment was jokingly made "you’ve quartered the wheels and not halved them haven’t you". I laughed nervously, "even I wouldn’t make that basic error" I replied with a nagging doubt beginning to settle in my mind. I arrived home and rushed up to the workshop, whoops! My chassis worked a whole lot better now (see what I mean about the most obvious not always being obvious to us loco kit virgins). Oh well, on to the bodywork. Now I have to say that having been modelling for a long time, I was not as concerned about this stage of the process; the kit and its design is in my humble opinion ideal for a beginner although there were a few moments when my inexperience led to some silly mistakes which fortunately were easily corrected. The conversations with the experts at the Bluebell generally went along the lines of: "Now don’t do that…Yep done that! You should do this that way…Nope, didn’t do that!… Whatever you do, don’t do that…Yep, done that"! But, no real harm done, and it is all a learning exercise. At the time of writing my diminutive little P Class is now nearly complete, with a few detail items to add and painting to be completed. I have to say that as a first effort I am quite proud of my little loco and it is acceptable to me as a first effort. It won’t be winning any trophies but it does at least run, and it has, shall we say, character. The moral of all this drivel is that if you are a beginner in 7mm you have:- 1. Certainly chosen the best scale to work in. 2. Don’t ever give up on your early projects. Even a failure is teaching you something important. 3. If you are an experienced 7mm man bear with those of us who are just starting out. Even the obvious is not always so to us learners. I should also add that any problems encountered with the Meteor Models P Class loco are only of my own making and do not in any way reflect on this kit, which is very nice. I shall be returning as a satisfied customer. Well that’s the end of my little tale for the moment, and I hope it has not bored you too much. Now, where’s Martin Finney’s telephone number…? |
