Here is my pitch from my Patreon Page. If you want to know more, click the link at the bottom.
The Story so far.......
I began to build the model railway as a film set around fifteen years ago. The project is a one man effort, everything has been designed, built and operated by me.
It took ten years to complete the original set to an operational standard, capable of producing the videos.
The cost of the materials for the initial build was around £100,000.
The model is a re-creation of what I saw, just around the corner from where I grew up, a snapshot in time when I was nine years old.
The time is 1962 and the place is heavily industrialised Teesside in the North East of England.
The videos produced are uniquely from the perspective of a nine year old child, standing by the track side, or, riding on board the trains, recorded using high quality miniature cameras.
This carefully thought out model allows the viewer to experience what it was like to see the complexity of an operational railway at the end of steam and the beginning of the Diesel Electric era.
There has been more than 300 videos released up to now, all available free of charge on my YouTube Channel. This part of the project in known as Trenholme Junction.
Future plans are to build another junction (working name 'Ingleby Junction') and link both the junctions together, by building intermediate layouts (sets). There has been modifications made to Trenholme Junction recently adding tunnels to give access to the intermediate layouts. The next stage is to build three intermediate layouts, one scenic and two station based to give added length to the journeys. Each of the intermediate sets will have access tunnels to the new Ingleby Junction.
Who am I....
I am a 63 year man who lives and works in beautiful North Yorkshire. Electrically trained, I spent most of my professional life in heavy engineering mainly in the oil or oil related industries. Semi retired now, I have a wife, four children and nine grandchildren.
Release Frequency
New videos are produced every other week, released usually at 8:30 GMT on Sundays. I usually choose the subject matter, but have produced many based on the requests of others.
There has been over 350 videos produced on Trenholme Junction, the fictitious name for place which this is set. Each week an average of 20,000 watch the videos, with nearly 1.5 million views in total so far.
All the videos are available on YouTube, free of charge.
Each minute of video takes one hour to make. It's a labour of love.
There is a detailed blog which is regularly updated. Usually the subjects are a full explanation of the matters which arise from the comments posted on the videos on YouTube. The blog has been read over 43,000 times.
Why use Patreon?
Patreon is an ideal way to raise funds on a regular basis to give a predicable, deliverable, fulfillment of the project.
A lot of people subscribe to the YouTube Channel (dougattrenholmebar) and even more watch the videos on a regular basis, a small donation, even of around a pound a month ($2), could make a very big difference to the future development. The current viewer base has had free access to the videos for the last five years and will continue to do so.
Why I need your help.
When I started this project around 15 years ago I had a business, financial resources to fund the build, and time to carry out the work. On approaching retirement, I have the time and the inclination to expand current set and continue to produce more videos, but need the financial resources to fund the building of it.
Assuming sufficient patrons are forthcoming, the majority of the funds will be used to build the new sets, but any surplus will be used to replace the cameras with 4K specifications and upgrade the software to produce future films in 4K format.
For further information, use the link below.
http://www.patreon.com/dougattrenholmebar
Doug Wilson
