railsquid's 2014 European tour

[Bealman]

All cool stuff! 

[railsquid]

Also cool is seeing loco-hauled (or at least pushed) trains once again, like in the good old days:


Not sure about the loco itself, I presume the regular cab designer was on holiday so they just cut an angle off and slapped in whatever piece of rectangular glass they can find.

Or maybe the architect of this piece of butt-ugliness (the central library) was moonlighting in the rail industry:

Somewhere I read it had been replaced by a new building, but that must be somewhere else; the old one looks somewhat disused, so I guess they just haven't found a contractor able to nuke it from low orbit yet.

But joking aside, this place played a crucial role in railsquid's early intellectual life, as it was there I first browsed through some ancient tomes on the Chinese language, which put me on the trajectory which eventually led me to Japan (no doubt those books have long been cast out as old-fashioned and obsolete and replaced by some sort of multi-media "learning hub").

Anyway, out with the old, in with the new, OMG WTF a tram line???!?!!



And talking of "new", the station named after the eponymous thoroughfare is undergoing some long-overdue renovation:



though it really should be nuked from low orbit and a proper two-level station built in its place, e.g. with local lines on the lower level to reduce the number of conflicting movements (which IMHO is the kind of boring stuff which HS2 money could be better spent on).

[OwL]

If your in Birmingham for a while, check out the wonderful world of planes and trains. A new attraction which has opened not far from St Pauls Square near to the snow hill station.

Also Birmingham has an Ian Allan store with more N Gauge upstairs.
This is located within spitting distance of New Street Stn.

Links here:

http://wonderfulworldtrainsplanes.co.uk


http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/our-shops.htm


Enjoy!

[MikeDunn]

If you had gone to the old Library & then through the Conference Centre to the other side, you'd have seen the new award-winning (?) one.

As to Moor Street - about a year ago, they owners took back the old steamer that was on an unused track ... shame, it gave some character to the place.  Let's hope it's in for a restoration !

Mike

[Bealman]

Awesome stuff, though it makes me realise how I was probably better off growing up in the NE.....

Said he, waiting for the reports to flood in.... 

[railsquid]

If your in Birmingham for a while, check out the wonderful world of planes and trains. A new attraction which has opened not far from St Pauls Square near to the snow hill station.

Also Birmingham has an Ian Allan store with more N Gauge upstairs.
This is located within spitting distance of New Street Stn.

Links here:

http://wonderfulworldtrainsplanes.co.uk


http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/our-shops.htm


Enjoy!

Per my previous post, "I had about 90 minutes before my onwards train to Hereford"... but I did manage to zip into the Ian Allan shop (that was one reason for the Birmingham re-routing). While they had a wider (Bachman/Grafar-only) N-gauge range than the London shop, they didn't actually have anything I particularly wanted, alas, so I comforted myself with some magazines and a copy of the latest Platform 5 locomotive trainspotting book (which is a sad wimpy thing compared to the ones I was buying back when there were 500+ class 47s).

[MikeDunn]

You didn't miss anything in Planes&Trains ... while interesting to see what's going on, it won't really be worth a regular visit until they get more done (unless the shop has something you want) or there is a specific event on (like last Sunday)

[railsquid]

Thanks, good to know... BTW these reports are somewhat delayed - I'm in Madrid right now - so it's safe to assume I'm no longer in the location being mentioned.

[Newportnobby]

Thank goodness for that
I thought you were using some kind of teleporter

[railsquid]

Meanwhile, thanks to the power of teleportation and / or budget airlines, I am no longer in Madrid, while the narrative is still at Birmingham New Street. Where I was shortly to board this DMU:



which is presumably one of these new-fangled TurboElectroPacerStars or something. Anyway, while I've noticed that train operators no longer weather the exteriors of their 1:1 models as often as they used to, as they've transferred their energies to the interiors.




Presumably due to some kind of timetabling accident it departed on time, taking me along the Cross City line, which together with adjactent areas played quite a significant role in my younger life - though I must stress I never actually lived in Birmingham but somewhere far worse, the southern terminus of aforementioned line. Fortunately the train, bound for Hereford as it was, failed to take a left at Barnt Green and plunged down the Lickey Incline, passing through Bromsgrove (which has a much more substantial station than I remember) and Droitwich Spa (where I also lived for a couple of years) before rejoining my planned route at Worcester Foregate Street. I would have liked to to have taken a break there and look around, but time was of the essence and on to Hereford I went.


A station sign, as viewed from a train.


Cider country, although I do wonder why they insist on labelling stuff in Welsh - surely Polish would be more appropriate?

Leaving the station, and after finding a short cut through the Morrisons car park of which I was previously unaware, I stumbled by freaky coincidence on an establishment called "Hereford Model Centre", which was not, as I originally thought, some sort of support establishment for those plying their business as photographic subjects, but a retailer of tiny little trains, and I thought it would be impolite to leave without helping to stablize their shelving units.

[Newportnobby]

Never mind the pics - I'm loving the narrative.
TurboElectroPacerStar made me laugh out loud

[railsquid]

Still running two countries behind here... Anyway at this point we leave urbane downtown Hereford for the sheep'n'bracken-infested wilds of Wales, although being literally just on the other side of Offa's Dyke the Welshness extends to misspelling the made-up Welsh version of the clearly English village name on road signs (though I believe this was corrected as soon as the shipment of additional "L"s arrived).




Tragically, the nefarious plans of the infamous Dr. B had long since removed any chance of seeing real trains in the vicinity, but this had not prevented the Royal Mail from delivering a shipment from Liverpool to the parental homestead consisting of a green steamy thing (BR standard class 5MT if you must know) and a couple of crimson and cream coaches, which may seem somewhat out of character but it is an attempt to replicate my first OO trainset and the 5MT was on offer and I also picked up an industrial-size vat of Rule 1 Lotion to apply to my layout so nehneh (sticks tongue out).

It also turned out that I wasn't the only N-gauge modeller in the village, so introductions were made and I spent a pleasant hour or two talking gibberish (at least that's how it was described by outsiders) to a nice bloke who had not long moved there and was just starting out on his layout. I did receive a short practical introduction to the world of DCC, and I fear I may have to go down that route.

The rest of this report was eaten by sheep so the narrative will resume in sunnier climes.

[Bealman]

Wonderful stuff. 

[railsquid]

From wet and woolly Wales our protagonist is swept southwards by aerodynamic forces to warmer climes... Which involved a re-acquaintance with the kind of airline which paints its domain name in big bright bold letters on the fuselages of its aircrafts, and which I had not used for a number of years, leading me to forget just how blatantly one is treated as "Self-Loading Freight". It does seem some sanity has prevailed - seat numbers are now pre-allocated, reducing boarding chaos, but on-board baggage restrictions have been dialled up to "Fascist" and I was bluntly ordered to squeeze the sturdy plastic bag I was carrying (full of delicate choo-choos) into my rucksack (full of delicate computer bits). It was tight, but by skilfully draping my coat over my laptop bag I was able to smuggle everything on board without further sanctions. (In the meantime I've acquired a cabin-baggage-sized suitcase as for some reason - heat expansion? - my collection will no longer fit into the rucksack; it's probably to the detriment of the airline in question as by having two smaller bags than a large-ish suitcase I'd use the available space more efficiently, but hey, their plane, their rules).

And now back to a proper mode of transport.



Purpose of my trip to Madrid was a work-related conference (and a most successful one it was; the company I work for is small but globally distributed, and it was also an excellent chance to meet many of my co-workers, many of whom had not met each other in person before. Nice bunch of people). But there was some time for some sightseeing:



and some souvenirs:


which I acquired from this little shop:



(location here). Nice little shop, split 50/50 between trains and car models. A fair selection of N, mainly European with some American and a bunch of Kato Shinkansen packs. The young lady who assisted me quickly realised I my selection was random Spanish-looking wagons which got me a nice smile. I was going to go for a locomotive as well, but alas in contrast to pounds, Euros are something very real to me and the prices were not doing my nervous system any good. As it is, I'm still trying to work out how a single wagon can cost 50DM in old money (total damage was 75 Euros, which is over 10,000 yen in real money, even though two of the wagons were on special offer). Still, you only live once, and all that.

Unfortunately my railway-related activities were restricted to that and a few trips on the metro, which is quite nice and reliable but all the trains in all the stations on all the lines seem to look pretty much the same, so nothing much to report there.