Article of the Month

Virtual Modelling

Any of you who are keeping a close eye on this website will know that standards have begun to slide a little in the last six months - even though there have been some obvious improvements like the trackplans and the beginning of the stock-plan index.
The basic excuse is that leading a normal life including learning new job-skills at work and at home, attending to many websites and computer projects, spending time with the wife and children, and generally having to fit 28 hours in every 24 means that some of the modelling projects have to proceed gradually.

Now how many of you can actually say that you can sit down most evenings with the latest kit and turn out your loco in a few weeks ...... if you're out there, please tell me how as I never manage to fit in the time. Admittingly, I only really get two evenings a week to achieve some modelling in, as my wife Elaine works nights at a care-home and for me to disappear into my 'den' every evening is unfair, so I only work on models on evenings when she is doing her needlework or is at the home - hence the slow process of advancement ...... but this is where Virtual Modelling can come in to play !

Most of us who still have to work (I just wish the lottery would come up - I would buy up a small country house and lay a complete 7 1/4" railway system in the grounds, then open up a railway theme-park so that loads of kiddies can enjoy the positive side of our hobby !!) have an hour in the middle of the day which is relatively useless as the sandwiches are gone in the first ten minutes, so what about the remaining fifty !!
You could always re-start work and please your boss (ha,ha - funny!!), or you could sort out some of those non-physical bits of modelling that you will need to do eventually for the layout to work.

Obvious question - like what !!

• So you're building a wonderful layout, do you have a timetable so that running is by a plan rather than sheer chance ? Didn't think you had !! I used to produce timetable files on a portable computer in my car at lunchtimes - it was an old Amstrad PPC640 twin- floppy system and I ran it from the cigarette lighter socket (I had to start the car whenever I needed to save to disk !!) Could have scribbled it down on paper but I'm a techno-crat - however you do it, the end result is the same, and the trains can run to time without resort to causality theory !!
• You're building the stock at home, but do you have a 3mm scaled plan to work from ? Most of the ones that I see come in 4mm size, and I find that the office copier always has the boss hovering whenever I wander close with something personal, and there is copyright to think of ........ someone has laboured to provide that drawing that you're about to copy - why not draw your own - copyright doesn't cover re-drawing, and you can add extra detail at the same time !!
• If you've got an understanding boss (or one who thinks that you're eccentric, like mine !), why not take one of the baseboards of your layout to work to sort out something on the scenery, or to wire up the trackwork - some of us are able to spend lunchtimes with the guys from maintenance building the controller circuits ..... bet you never thought of that one!! Some of these chaps would rather be doing this, than having to wander around the building bleeding radiators - use the expertise that they have hidden to the max ....... there are railway-enthusiasts hidden all over the place if you look hard enough !!

Are we all getting the point ? That dead time of the day can actually advance your personal modelling a great deal, and you actually make time further on in your life for your loved ones (and for those without loved ones, you've gained extra modelling time !!)
So can Virtual Modelling work for you ? I can't answer that one for you, but many of my online friends ask the question how I fit in websites, modelling, work and a personal life into 24 hours - you've got the secret there ...... make it work for you !! It won't solve all of your time-critical problems, but it will make excellent use of part of the wasted day in your life ......... that's 208 hours a year wasted (averaging 50 minutes over 5 days for 50 weeks a year)- what's your excuse (lazyness is not an option)!!

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January 2000