When is enough, enough?

[josefstadt]

So - WHEN is enough "enough"?

 

When she who must be obeyed tells you it is! Which is usually very early in the process.

[David Holman]

Have followed this with an interest & at times a feeling of smugness [petard already being hoisted!]. When I returned to modelling [early I'm married life having done my bit in pushing up the value of brewery shares and chasing women], for some reason [perhaps to impress my wife] I decided I was not going to become a box collector, but would aim to work at my modelling.

Hence started in EM gauge, where there was nothing RTR & any new model came from a kit or needed adapting. Somehow managed to avoid collecting unmade kits too. Generally I'm happy buying something to build, so I have very little unmade, cluttering up drawers. Collections of raw materials are another matter, mind. Tools likewise.

Moving into 7mm narrow gauge initially cleared out the spares box as was into a freelance phase and this scale enables all sorts of fancies. 7mm standard gauge soon limits your buying as a single wagon will cost 30 quid minimum and a loco kit soon passes £500 when wheels, motor gears are included.

So, you make haste slowly and as it is [or at least was] more of a builder's scale rather than an operator's one 7mm can naturally rein in the spending. Or it used to. Those new Ixion and Dapol locos are endlessly tempting, but at shows I keep going back to my old maxim of 'needs or wants'. I may WANT that model, but do I actually NEED it? So far, that has helped me avoid buying a G Scale three truck shay, Heljan Deltic, the latest J15, D16, Black motor, Dukedog, etc etc in 4mm.

Nemisis looms in the Alphagraphix catalogue and the new Ragstone Models Clogher Valley loco kit. These are not necessarily things that will always be available, though the Branchlines coach kits for the CVR are still there over 20 years since first introduced... Then advancing years brings disposable income [no mortgage or loans] and more spare time to do stuff. Arigna town is finished, so a new project is always on the horizon. Am sure you can see where I'll being going.

So, guess that brings me full circle & my smugness at not having 'too much' has evaporated. Yes, not piles of RTR boxes, but drawers full of plastic sheet, card, metal strip, scenic stuff, tools etc etc AND a small, but growing number of 7mm NG kits for a certain CVR...

[Riversuir226]

Think i ve reached it loco wise although i admit there ll be a few that ll sneak past , (currently avoiding pics of 233 like the plague) Im trying to concentrate on building up a few rakes of wagons and finish off a few existing projects. The reason why i model that era is simple, its what i grew up with, memories of spotting days at Abbey junction (Bell liners lined up, endless rakes of beet, New Ross ferts, the odd grain special heading into the mills, winding up the odd bus gricer and all that before we hopped on our bikes to catch rail deliveries at North Wharf or out to New Rath to catch the rest of the freight & passenger movements in the area. There was also endless happy days of hanging around various spots in the Cork area to catch the ammonias, liners etc.

We are currently been spoiled for choice, yes theres significant gaps in every era of Irish railways but with time they ll be filled in and hopefully keep the visa card/wallet busy well into the future .

Edited November 10, 2015 by Riversuir226

[Weshty]

memories of spotting days at Abbey junction (Bell liners lined up, endless rakes of beet, New Ross ferts, the odd grain special heading into the mills)

 

 

Oh be still my beating heart. I didn't appreciate Mallow in the mid '80s half enough.

 

Beets, Ammonias, Bells, Killarney Cravens and a 141 going round to bring it back. And a busy GANTRY crane!!

[jhb171achill]

Go back to the black'n'tan era, and we have a typical mixed goods working with everything in the same train. H vans, opens with just about anything in them, flats with cars or tractors on them, four wheel container flats, a few wagons of beet, a tar wagon and a couple of bubbles!

[Noel]

Go back to the black'n'tan era, and we have a typical mixed goods working with everything in the same train. H vans, opens with just about anything in them, flats with cars or tractors on them, four wheel container flats, a few wagons of beet, a tar wagon and a couple of bubbles!

 

Now your cooking! B&T loose coupled mixed freight - yum. I remember a few pax trains in my child hood that had a few freight wagons tagged on at the back, and trains that used to split halfway, and you had to be sure to be sitting in the correct end of the train for your destination.

 

RS is right, its whatever era one grew up with or saw the most of that lures us back.