The return of Half Acre

With the delivery of a small 009 layout to Devon came the return of a previous build. Half Acre was a mess right from the beginning; started during lockdown when the world and his wife were buying track and the factory couldn't keep up. My initial plan went out of the window due to the shortages and this was the result. It's been hawked about on the Peco stand a few times, but has spent most of its time in one or other of the storage sheds from where it was rescued a week ago. I must admit that when it was offered I was slightly taken aback. Nigel has stock for it, but what would it do?

An afternoon was spent putting it through its paces and clearing the dust and spiders. All appears well and apart from a bent lamp post there is no obvious damage. While the testing may have gone well there was a reluctance in the air. Would we use it? The answer, almost unsaid, was no. Therefore the best thing to do is to move it on to someone who would make good use of a 7' x 1' total size N gauge exhibition layout that just needs stock and a controller.
 Wood End and Beyond: Half Acre (unnycoombelala.blogspot.com)

Rhiw 2 in RM

...and all back together again. A simple enough job, but one that was possibly overdue. Clearances are tight along the edge , but even with the lengthy Sprinter coaches, all seems well. 

I did forget to mention this. Rhiw 2 gets six pages in RM this month; all the thrills and spills that you would expect and the Sprinter still on its way to York. In Smiths now.

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New point for the Rhiw/Svanda fiddle yard

This must be one of the most tweaked fiddle yards in existence. Originally built in 2009 for Rhiw 1, adapted for Svanda, readapted for Rhiw 2 and now..

The pre show set/test for Svanda's showing at Eastbourne last week threw a curveball in a broken tie-bar spring on the No.1 point, i.e. the important one. No time to fix it, and as this would have possibly introduced a load more last minute issues, the decision was taken to do the show with the point being held over by a critically positioned lump of Blu-tak. Never let it be said that I over-think or over-engineer anything. However that was a quick fix and something needed to be done. This comes in two parts: co-incidentally I was due to drop off the 009 layout at Peco, so easy enough to pop next door to the exhibition and blag a replacement spring off of Andrew (he who makes Pecorama run smoothly). 

I'd  found a new Y point so decided to use this, relay tracks 1-4, and do the spring replacement on the bench. This also gave the excuse to replace the short sleeper-less length of track with something more substantial. Having said that, this has never given any trouble and proves that rails can work for at least two inches without sleepers under normal conditions. The track was removed as seen, and included pins, some UHU and still traces of the the Knightian staple gun repair carried out a decade ago at Global Rail.

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Svanda at Eastbourne

Another random appearance here, ostensibly to remind that the old lady of Norway; now in her 13th year, will be making the second of three 2024 showings at the metropolis of Eastbourne on Saturday. Confusingly this is the Pevensey club show which has wandered westward for the day. There is  information about other exhibits below including two favourites of mine. 10-4 at the top end of the 'old town'. Drop in and say hello and watch the temporary point fix in operation (the FY throat point spring expired yesterday).

Exhibitions | Members own Layouts (pevenseybaymodelrailwayclub.com)

 

Wave goodbye to the Seething Pigs

 Still quiet hereabouts and for good reason. The main is the finishing of the Peco epic (of which more later) but also for the finishing and testing of the arm-twist 009 layout Seething. This built purely to fulfil the wishes of Mrs. F. and thereby generating a weekend in sunny Suffolk. Another of my four point wonders and built mostly with stuff that was in stock at the predictable 45"x12" scenic. 

The post-match analysis proves that all went more or less according to plan; that is, one layout delivered to Beccles, a splendid day was had by all including Mrs. F who, in a delightful spot of karma got roped into catering duties. Old friends to chat to including a few that I could have stayed here for and not least 009 grandee Mr. Thornton who made the not inconsiderable trip from the western valleys. The final act in this three act play was someone (without name) who parted with hard cash and at 4pm loaded the layout into a car and moved swiftly toward Great Yarmouth.  Thus, my job is complete: Mrs. F. happy, exhibition manager happy, new owner happy and self a tiny bit richer. Now to get a final coat of paint on the layout's bigger brother and remove to Devon.

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