Gerald Road - Learning more about myself...
Small steps can be part of big changes. This weekend I've managed to find a little time to become distracted by Gerald Road and in those moments I've built a few more structures, played with composition and added a 'stand in' back scene...
That might sound like a lot of work - but bitten off in small enjoyable chunks around normal family life it hasn't seemed like anything of the sort. Yet in the past few weeks they have each played a small part in completely transforming the layout - and so, today, you're getting a photo led update - because I'm so excited to see this beginning to come to life.
You see this scene, above (click and view it larger) is the whole layout. It may have evolved beyond my initial 're-draw' of the scheme with the addition of the warehouse (stage left - our right) but as I gaze upon my little blue 03, moving my eye around the scene, squinting and gazing through restricted and framed viewing angles, imagining how exciting it will be to operate AND photograph this layout, to share it with you all - this itself becomes fuel, motivation to continue.
As I mentioned yesterday, and have reflected previously, inspiration (those wonderful photos of the Avonside Wharf branch with the blue 03) kicked things off on this journey last year... building a layout led to Gerald Road mk1 yet it didn't feel right... I lost something on the way... simply lost something in the larger space or perhaps was just overwhelmed. Now, back to a familiar footprint this second version has become an iterative and enjoyable process of small steps forwards. In each, finding new excitement and energy, motivation, to continue.
So that building this model railway is less about the nuts and bolts, or the craft - which has become 'second nature'. No, this model railway (as with Denton Road) is about taking that initial inspiration and re-connecting with that through the model, through the modelmaking, recreating enough of the same feeling in the small steps forward that it tops up the tank to continue. Continue the model, but also, you know what, it makes me feel better in myself too, I'm proud of the work and I enjoy sharing it.
So Gerald Road is teaching me more about myself and I wonder, perhaps prompting you to interrogate your own relationship with model trains? Until next time, more soon...
Support my work
I love writing and creating material for the blog. If you enjoy what you read and engage with I would be appreciative of any donation, large or small, to help me keep it advert and restriction free. Alternatively, feel free to buy me a coffee.
As the current custodian of Gerald Rd Mk1 it is hard to convey that it continues to feel large and overwhelming whilst still being a very small cameo layout by normal standards. As you know, it has taken me nearly a year to come up with a composition that feels right. That year has larlgly been taken up with mindfully looking and not looking at the bare layout, and continuing to immerse myself in a protoype that I've been studying for forty years and modelling for nearly twenty.
ReplyDeleteMuch though I loved your original design there is no doubt your current version suits ther Bristol location much better. Which highlights that micro hi fi layouts should be thought of as a compromise low space solution, but as the answer to modelling certain locations.
Presume you mean “Which highlights that micro hi fi layouts should not be thought of as a compromise low space solution, but as the answer to modelling certain locations”…
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is the vertical height of the models themselves.
On a flat base they very quickly become lost in the wider space. Gerald Road mk1 worked from a scale perspective, but the structures felt too spread out, it wasn’t dense enough… it is the density that feels important. The smaller size makes that easier to achieve. I think your plans for the layout will work because of the physical mass of the structures on the right, and I presume, some scale size trees on the left?
Yes, I missed out the "not".
DeleteSpot on in terms of why the design didn't work in Mk1 guise.
Verrtical height has been part of my struggle. I wish the track was even just 3mm above the baseboard. I need to disrupt the foreground just enough for it to feel natural. There is also something missing in the middle foreground. In your current scheme the house achieves that bridge - and I do find myself thnking in musical analogies. There is a theme and variations and rythmn to a succesful layout.
Yes I'm thinking trees on the left , but then they need to be balanced on the right by other verticals, like buttresses to the limekilns. The more I think about music, the more relevant it seems. There is a tension that needs to be resolved by the passage of a train. An empty siding in anticipation of a train is different form an empty siding after the train has gone.
Density is a good term. Very different layouts can handle density in a way that is hard to define. Like Borchester and Pendon.One is dense, one is sparse, but both are balanced, and the balance suits the model.
DeleteI look forward to seeing how it develops. Obviously the danger of re-purposing an existing baseboard (no matter how well the track is laid etc etc) for a different plan.
DeleteI guessed when you were dissatisfied with Mk1 that it was more suited to my my prototype than Bristol, but I now realise that "unlocking" it as a scheme actually needed me to think of it as two joined up cameos. Even the section with concrete sleepers has worked well in my reimagining, as the limit of passenger services.. I do now wonder if I've mounted it too far up the wall, especially after my latest move around, but it is the righ height whn I'm standing up
Delete