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Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 12:48 pm
by ge_rik
Excellent article from Peter in the August edition of RM describing his railway - with a wonderful set of photos. Congratulations, Peter. I'm sure this will tempt many to venture out into the garden.

Thanks also for the honorable mention. The RC Trains Tx22 shown in the photo is of special significance - it was the very first RC Trains transmitter off the production line.

Rik

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 2:41 pm
by Peter Butler
Thank you Rik, I am so pleased with the article, particularly as a garden railway has managed 'Railway of the Month' status in the magazine.
The fact that RM has such a broad reader audience might just help to promote garden railways as an alternative. Now that detailing of infrastructure has become possible it opens up many possibilities for creative modellers.
The RC Trains controller is an essential piece of equipment on my railway and deserves to be recognised and promoted.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 3:34 pm
by SimonWood
Right - I'm off to my nearest newsagent to track down a copy!

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:07 am
by FWLR
Just read your article Peter and I must say what a difference in style to other magazines. It was a great read and so much more information without the "Look at what I have done" way it's portrayed in the other mags.
The photos are actually very good and the one of you somehow just suits your line... :lol: :lol:
You have hopefully given some of the other scale modellers a good insight into our scale and given them something to enjoy just as we do.
After reading your article, I was a little bit dismayed at how unlike the real thing the other article about the Project of the Month was....It paled in comparison to yours by a long way. The other thing about RM I think is a bit of a let down, is how far you needed to go before you got to your article. Too many pages (38) on traders before we got to get to read it. :roll:

Still I bet you are very proud to have been given the opportunity to write and appear in such a magazine that will hopefully bring more people to our scale.
I am over the moon for you mate...

WELL DONE...... :thumbright: :thumbright:

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 6:54 pm
by philipy
Just got my hands on a copy of the mag. Excellent write up Peter, well done.

First time I've bought or even read the Todeller since sometime in the 80's, I think. It has changed hasn't it! So has the price of small scale RTR stuff, Wow it's Eye-watering these days.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 3:26 pm
by SimonWood
Wonderful write-up and the pictures are superb, I assume the models were static so he could get that long focal length & huge depth of field making the most of the realism of your models! As I was sat in the cafe reading it over breakfast, I had to show it to the cafe owner - he was amazed at how realistic everything in each scene looked. I think the way you emphasised your journey from indoor modeller (Umbridge station) to the outdoors should give RM's readers some encouragement to make the same journey - and since there are rather a lot of them, surely a fair few will come outdoors and join us! I'm sure a great many will have been inspired.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:30 am
by pandsrowe
It's a good number of years since I last read a copy of Railway Modeller, primarily because I thought that somehow the magazine had lost it's way and there were just too many adverts. Reading here about Peter's article I thought I had better put my bias aside and buy a copy, I'm very impressed by the article and I feel that it will do wonders for the perception of garden railways amongst the railway modelling fraternity. However my opinion of the magazine has not changed, l do wonder how the other modelling magazines manage to strike the right balance between articles and advertisements, I'll be very interested to hear the opinions of others on this forum.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:17 am
by tom_tom_go
I don't understand why magazines exist anymore.

The environmental impact of their production and disposal should be justification enough to stop them being made.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:32 am
by philipy
tom_tom_go wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:17 am I don't understand why magazines exist anymore.

Because trying to read the online versions is painful, to put it politely. Nothing quite as satisfiying as flicking through the pages of a mag whereas trying to scroll back and forth and getting a pdf page to fit the screen simply doesn't compare.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:46 am
by ge_rik
Personally, I don't mind the ads. They're fore and aft of the main stories and so it's easy to skip over them. Though I usually browse through them to see what new developments there are. I still have an 00 indoor railway so am always on the look-out for GER related releases. I'm pleased to say the GER is having a much greater presence these days than it used to.

Rik

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 11:41 am
by BorisSpencer
I haven't bought Railway Modeller more than occasionally since the 70s.

I used to read it from cover to cover and then tear out all the adverts and file the remainder, it was surprising how little room they took up, iirc they used to publish an index of articles from time to time.

I still have some selected articles that interested me. I always had a hankering for a small, possibly modular, 009 layout.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:31 pm
by Peter Butler
Thank you all for your comments, I haven't been able to respond earlier due to router failure but now back on-line.
The pictures are outstanding and were so carefully posed by RM's own photographer. When I discovered he was also a railway modelmaker for RM I let him position the stock himself and handed him the controller. I believe the professionals know best what their readership wants and just gave him a free hand in selecting from my stock with no interference from me.
As already noted, I believe the greater coverage of the RM, compare to other specialist magazines, will show a wider audience how accessible garden railways have become and readers might make a giant leap of their own?
The comment about printing paper copies is out of touch with the readership who like the tactile qualities and convenience of magazines. The paper is recyclable too! Moreover, there is something special about being able to study in close detail and share with others over meaningful discussions. I have often compared the use of digital cameras with film cameras.... what will happen in the future when no 'hard copies' of pictures are printed and uploaded images lost somewhere in the cloud? Already VHS machines have been superseded and so many video tapes become obsolete and impossible to view.
I have a collection of my favourite and other useful books which I can hold at any time and not have to search out on-line, the best thing is that they are mine and not shared with millions of others.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 6:42 am
by philipy
We have a friend who is not a railway, or any other sort of modeller and who has no computer or smart phone. He is however an ex-London cabbie and a former loco fireman from the last days of steam, working out of Kings Cross. We see him maybe every 2 or 3 months for an afternoon visit and as soon as they arrive he always wants to know what I've been doing on my railway. They came yesterday and my copy of RM was lying around, he spotted it and read it from cover to cover, including the adverts, because he recognised the beauty of the modelling ( including BURPS, Peter, which he recognised instantly from pictures I had shown him on previous visits), and because he recognised and had stories of many of the loco types.
My computer was here and switched on but he wouldn't have known what to do with it, if I had only had a digital copy of RM.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 7:28 am
by FWLR
Think Peter has mentioned also that soon there won't be any photos printed and they will only be accessible in digital format, granted they maybe in the cloud, but most are now on your computers.

I have many books and magazines, I subscribe to both the magazine and digital version of the Garden Rail, which I incidentally received Tuesday, also had loads of adverts before you got to read any article. I understand that without ad's they would all struggle to keep the magazines going and wether will like them or not, they are part and parcel of running a mag.

If your friend Phillip wouldn't know how to use your computer, you could have shown him how easy it is to use, you only need to hold the mouse on the icon and click it.......... :lol:

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:16 am
by Andrew
Sorry, only just catching up, haven't been online much lately, but a belated congratulations on a fantastic article. The pictures were superb, particularly the full-page shot showing the whole layout. The combination of your article and the wonderful one by Andrew Crookall last month will indeed do wonders to show just how good modern garden railway modelling can be.

I should confess that the lack of garden railway content means that I can't justify the cost of buying RM each month, I read the articles while shopping in Asda (!!!), but I do have a big soft spot for the magazine, which I was flicking through before I could read. It was looking forward to the traditional August garden railway slot that first got me interested in going outdoors, so I'm delighted that you got the gig this year Peter!

All the best,

Andrew.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:57 am
by philipy
FWLR wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 7:28 am

If your friend Phillip wouldn't know how to use your computer, you could have shown him how easy it is to use, you only need to hold the mouse on the icon and click it.......... :lol:
He simply isn't interested in computers.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 10:05 am
by tom_tom_go
Neither am I but it's my job.

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 1:28 pm
by FWLR
I think we need to concentrate on Peter's article and not another debate on the use or not of computers.

Now that Peter is back online.....

FLIPPING WELL DONE PETER........ :sunny: :sunny: :sunny:

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 1:30 pm
by FWLR
Andrew wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:16 am Sorry, only just catching up, haven't been online much lately, but a belated congratulations on a fantastic article. The pictures were superb, particularly the full-page shot showing the whole layout. The combination of your article and the wonderful one by Andrew Crookall last month will indeed do wonders to show just how good modern garden railway modelling can be.

I should confess that the lack of garden railway content means that I can't justify the cost of buying RM each month, I read the articles while shopping in Asda (!!!), but I do have a big soft spot for the magazine, which I was flicking through before I could read. It was looking forward to the traditional August garden railway slot that first got me interested in going outdoors, so I'm delighted that you got the gig this year Peter!

All the best,

Andrew.

:thumbright: :thumbright: :thumbright:

Re: Railway Modeller - Brockhampton & Umbridge

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:34 am
by ge_rik
Andrew wrote: Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:16 am I should confess that the lack of garden railway content means that I can't justify the cost of buying RM each month, I read the articles while shopping in Asda (!!!), but I do have a big soft spot for the magazine, which I was flicking through before I could read. It was looking forward to the traditional August garden railway slot that first got me interested in going outdoors, so I'm delighted that you got the gig this year Peter!
Same here. I click through it in Smith's each month and only buy it when I feel it's worth it - which of course this month it was. I first subscribed to RM in 1965 and kept my sub until 1985 when marriage and a daughter changed my priorities. I too was lured into the garden by articles such as Peter Denny's Trepolpen Light Railway.

I subscribe to Garden Rail but get it as an electronic edition. My rationale at the time was that it gave me access to five years' back issues which could be searched through. Unfortunately, when they switched from Exact Editions to PocketMags access to all the back issues was lost. If I'd had hard copies I would now still have them.... :cry:

Sorry, back to Peter's wonderful railway. I'm still hoping to get down there sometime to take some video.

Rik