Time is such that I found myself reading a blog post earlier and caught myself muttering what a ‘bell end’ the chap sounded, only for it to slowly dawn on me that I was in fact reading myself from 2017.
There cannot be many media in life where you can be actively caught out by a younger version of yourself like in some Hollywood movie gone wrong.
This got me thinking about the passage of time, life, love, trains, cat memes and also my modelling ideas and aspirations from then until now (Ed, we’re going in deep then)
I had a natural assumption back in 2017 that my modelling would be better in 2025, with my skills vastly improving. In fact delving into the archive it hasn’t improved much at all, in fact time and life have probably done less for my modelling than in my mid twenties. I found a post where I used Archer’s rivets successfully for god’s sake and on something not that obvious – I must have been on drugs.
The posts were filled with hopes of putting an etched chassis together for the first time or getting the airbrush out more often, in the preceding years both dreams have never been anywhere near fulfilled and ultimately I have probably given up on both.
Looking back in particular to 2017 (the one I accidentally stumbled upon) was like talking to a different human, two marriages, one divorce, four odd house moves and a ridiculous amount of career moves, let alone the bloody kids.
There was also stuff back in 2017 I assumed I would have covered by 2025, I’d be able to stick with a layout idea for more than 67 seconds, I would not buy the locos before I’d built a baseboard, I would settle on one wife – all stuff that hasn’t happened and all of which cost me a frightening amount of money.
But I am still modelling. I definitely model more in times of need or great pressure, the layouts that pop out are mirrors of my personal life. Grey, grim Cumbrian colliery set during 1970s industrial strife – first divorce.
A layout has just come out of stasis as I started it during a particularly part of my life and placed it into hibernation when those feelings abated, now it’s back out to finish as those feelings have reared their head through work. Don’t fret – I don’t need an intervention – just my work is short peaks and increasingly longer troughs of shite and the modelling helps get through the throughs.
It’s an odd hobby, it can be deeply personal and artistic or it can be a track mat and Smokey Joe – it covers all bases to all people.
What is more pissing annoying though about looking back on the blog is all the models I’ve subsequently sold and ended up rebuying some years later (for more money).
Having just read ‘Wild Men’ (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/13/the-wild-men-by-david-torrance-review-inside-labours-first-cabinet) – yeah I am that sort of twat now – there was a sentence in there copied from Mark Twain that really sums up my modelling “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes’
So the blog post I was reading from 2017 – a ‘review of the Hornby class 71’ – totally forgot I’d even ever owned one. And why had I stumbled across it? I was googling something about class 71s only to find I knew the answer in 2017.
We have ‘relaunched’ our instagram page, when I say ‘relaunched’ I mean it never really launched in the first instance but I talk like that now, ok? That can be found at https://www.instagram.com/otcm_railway_modelling?igsh=bWx6MzM4cWNvZTNt&utm_source=qr
Chris is also super keen to do more on YouTube but this is a lot of effort and in my career I am not always sure these videos help if discovered. Much like a school teacher doing OnlyFans, I may wear a balaclava.
Chris and I are out at Tonbridge this weekend with the much revered ‘Cessy’ by Chris Baker. Our Chris wants to change all the couplings on Friday night so they work and I want to drink pints, so we will see who wins out on Saturday morning when we’re hungover and cannot uncouple anything.
And if you’re ever interested in what I have to do on the 1:1 scale railway – I head up the digital signalling programme at the UK’s biggest train operator – you can find all that here.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-11Syv2fsjTVdOLoRmFc–BO-7Dyk8Hx&si=9Yn8mipSnWgy3naE
(Doing complex digital signalling on the east coast mainline also doesn’t mean you know how to work an EcOs either)
Speak soon,
Oly
