Rushcliffe revisited…
It seems barely yesterday that Rushcliffe was here with me, now it is being enjoyed elsewhere, as it should be. A curious feeling, every commission has a piece of me with it, that makes looking back more than just an instructive experience, it has a sunny nostalgia…
Rushcliffe’s blend of British Rail and industrial allowed me to give my own OO gauge industrial models a stretch of their legs and it was particularly enjoyable to remember just how successful my own no-solder Pi chassis was under the Planet. This diminutive model with huge buffers always felt like the perfect industrial shunter (perhaps we should investigate alternative wheel-sets as that is all that is holding up another batch) scuttling around a yard and here it reminded me of why I had been so proud of it. I would love to know where the first batch got to and how people have got on with the kit, do let me know if you own one of the last batch with this chassis rather than the previous Tenshodo!
Is there anywhere that Victory, crawling along with real mass, real presence, doesn’t look good? My own red example (with me on board) reminds me of dreams for a OO gauge coal based layout, shunting on Rushcliffe was a real tonic.
We recently cleared the last of the Victory stock to Rails and I know there are those of you curious and supportive of a further RTR project. Whilst we have research in hand we have no immediate plans and are preparing a statement at the moment. Victory was a great experience but didn’t quite generate enough momentum for a second. Fears of a crowded marketplace and limited exposure leading to further slow sales put a sense of realism on our plans. We’d do it all again and learnt enough to improve things further next time, and we’ve not closed any doors, but for now, nothing to report.
In the meantime, enjoy these monochrome shots of Rushcliffe and perhaps remind yourself of long lost industrial experiences. I’d love to hear any reminisces, often rabbit holes for more layout designs! Until then, more soon…
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A couple of lovely atmospheric photos James. Particularly the top photo.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom
DeleteI have one of your original Planet kits with the Tenshodo chassis James. I was kicking myself that I hadn't held out for the mark 2 version but never mind. I'm afraid it's still on the to-do list with a lot of other kits I've bought when they were available so as not to miss out!
ReplyDeleteThat’s great Chris, we discontinued that version when we sold out of the supply of Tenshodo we had bought in. I was always very proud of the custom one that followed though, it would be nice to make them available again.
DeleteI have one of the originals. It went together nicely and actually runs quite well on the Spud chassis. It gets exercised occasionally but it really needs a dedicated shunting layout to inhabit (along with the other small shunting engines filling my stock box).
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat, it’s good to hear you’re getting reasonably good performance from the scalded cat version! I did re motor one with a Sven motor in a cradle and it was better but I didn’t think it was worth the extra cost compared to the chassis I designed which worked out a similar price.
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteI also thought the photos of the Hibberd at Rushcliffe was atmospheric and felt like scenes I had photo graphed in the past. It is a shame I could not justify one for a railroad project. I guess I did not really see enough in the wild to make me think when they were available. In fact looking quickly through my files only Barrington Cement, Chatham Dockyard, Samuel Williams dock and Cunis rubbish shoot seem to have Hibberds like yours and be captured by my camera
Best regards
Alan
Hi Alan, thank you, I think I’ve seen a few of these already when you’ve kindly shared them in he past!
Delete