Hand warming for Christmas.

 I while back I said no more 9mm track. Then I built a small 09 scale layout. Then there is this. There is link wiring to do and then there are questions. Will it be operated? Unlikely/only minimally. The 009 layout has been hawked about by young Burnham on a couple of occasions, but this would be regarded as unusual. The pointwork remains at this time manual, but I have considered using the Peco switches and switch stand thing with the 'new' smart switches as an almost retro-step. Remember this is theirs, not mine. I am just the instrument.

Some of the early feed wiring fell into the realm of 'entertaining'. I've not managed to this for a goodly number of years and ran a follows:

The brain has two applicable reactions in this situation. 1. grab something which is falling. 2. keep hand away from the business end of a soldering iron as it is likely to be warm. In the split second in question, my brain confused these two reactions and placed them in the wrong order. I now have less skin on my finger than I did before the moment in question. Don't let anyone tell you that half a century of experience makes you better at the job in question.

Saturday Ramble: Selling things on

There was a layout exhibited over the weekend; let's call it Duckling Ghyle. Well known, but for some reason I'd never seen it in the flesh, despite it having been around for decades. Disappointed? Most definitely. 

The modelling was superb; impossible to fault. The display and operation were frankly appalling; off the scale. Achingly slow and partial front operation meant that 3-link couplers were fiddled with in the view-line of the audience. I'm really not a fan of this. Either work at the front/end and go auto, or work from the back and lean over. I can accept the hand of God no problem, but I don't want someone's arse in my face with every single shunt move. 

The problem as I see it, isn't this directly, it's the selling on; and this from a modeller who sells everything on. The original builder has a concept in mind and if he/she is thinking about this properly, it will include an early idea of how the thing will be operated and from what position, even if it is a home layout. Selling on removes this mentally carried part of the concept. I have no doubt that the current owners were competent in many ways, but the slight alteration in display removed this initial operating/layout whole concept approach.  Result: total failure, despite the very high modelling quality. 

I suppose that what I am taking away from this is that if you buy something, you have to be careful that you think carefully about the operating concept as a whole, and don't just purchase the visual modelling. Any reflected glory that you are hoping to obtain will soon be wiped out in seconds if the original operating style is not adopted. 

What do you think?

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Thoughts on TT track

 

 

Deep into the ritual of track laying with the TT. 

There have been some hiccups. Well, more U-turns. OK, if I'm honest, it really wasn't working and I had to change my entire mindset. Was this a product fault? Obviously I cannot say that, but there are some changes which I have had to adapt to. 

Normal procedure is to lay track the same way that I have for years with a back up/operating lever in the form of a DPDT slide switch. This works really well with most of the Peco range. Things are changing. Now we are in to fully swayed toward DCC product design. Depending on your placement within this, this could be a good or a bad thing. Below is a medium radius TT point. It has a funny frog and compared to my standard brain level OO code 100 point it has lots of funny wires running crossways underneath. 

It is non-isolating. This is deal braker. It's totally live whichever way you set it. I tried by-passing this, but gave up, and also gave up on using the DPDT switches. I had to change my head around.

If you want say, the left hand road to be a dead siding, you have to create a new section with an isolating fishplate and a switch. If it's part of a loop, a whole new switched feed section. This for old head DC running.

However... if you assume in this case that it's a one engine in steam branch, you're laughing. No need to isolate anything except in the storage yard. Metal fishplates all the way around. So that's the way I've gone with it. The points are for the minute operated manually (or once a year) but slots have been cut so that motors could be retro fitted.

The plain track is also a new design; code 55 like the N gauge range. This is really code 80 with a different profile. The non-visible lower curve is moulded into the sleeper base rather than sitting in chairs on the top. This makes the whole thing quite chunky with close sleeper spacing. Compared to our old friend code 100 OO she makes for a much more robust beast altogether. This was another head shift as I couldn't visually use copper clad sleepers at the baseboard edges. The track is so robust that I think that the two pins and glue approach should be ample for all but the most violent use.

Conclusions: Different. Needs a new approach and certainly the most robust track I've ever used. Before I started this I did some web research to see what the TT 120 boys were doing. The vibe is definitely leaning toward trainsets, in that there is a lot of train set boxed stuff. This is largely very oval and mainline in practice. Also unsurprisingly there is a fair amount of entry level DCC. I get the feeling that it will take a while to move away from this to other places, a bit like rabbit warrens in 009 in the 70s. There is however a large groundswell, more than I expected. Certainly worth considering with the trade support rapidly growing.

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Normandy open day

This is becoming a regular trip. Across the wilds of the Surrey Hills where direct routes do not exist and yet your destination is moments from the Hog's Back. The Normandy O gaugers open up once or twice a year. OK I'll level: this is not the most exciting on exhibition terms; it's not meant to be. All bar one layout (which was physically replaced by Peter Harding with a table full of books) the 'exhibits' were exactly the same as last time. It's the club getting the toys out and letting people in. There is not one, but two roundy test tracks, a small amount of local trade (Roxey Mouldings, C&L et al) and some rummage stands. This last one as you may expect was where my focus lay. Purchases were a bag of DPDT slide switches for £4 and a scratch- built Rhymney Railway brake van for a whopping eight quid! There are some issues with the latter, but it's perfect for the infant O gauge layout which is bubbling under the TT. The catering, courtesy of the local WI, was as you may imagine top notch and heavy on the cake front.

These open day events are a poor relation not having the glamour of an exhibition with star layout visitors, but this is always well attended and is a great place to catch up with people and grab some bargains without the pressure to rush around and tick the layout viewings off. They're a vital part of the model railway structure so don't think that there is no value to be had in these softer low-key events.

Open day - 8

Parking 9 (the speed bumps are evil)

Catering 11

Rucksacks 5

 
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Underframe excitement

 ... well possibly more annoyance. Much of the Rhiw stock roster has grown quite organically, and even this has moved around date wise. The upshot is that the stock is stored in random boxes. Post Eastbourne some of this stock jumped out of the box. There was damage. This was a known known and it has sat motionless since the summer, while I plucked up the courage to investigate further.

Most was underframe damage and mostly those oh-so-delicate tie bars. I did scoot around Squires stand a couple of weeks back looking for some thin brass but to no avail. So it was plastic again reinforced where possible. I'm thinking that it will probably break again so there is little point making it so strong that the break point is extended elsewhere. Five of these needed attention and a buffer and some odd bits of brake gear. All done and painted now. have I reached the point where I'm in 'care and repair' mode rather than 'generate new'. In some ways that may be a good place and I've mooted the lifelong single project as the unreachable ideal many times here before. Somewhere where the movement is about maintaining what you have with the odd addition here and there. This opposed to the butterfly approach that I and many others have where a new project/new stock on repeat is the name of the game.

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Isle of Wight dreaming

 And  into the meat of the project. Unusually, I may put more up here about this one. Most of this is now a repeating cycle of build operations and I'm struggling to make any difference between the previous builds. Essentially I have a) a brief and b) a more or less fixed maximum of overall footprint. This is slightly different as it is the first prototype plan as opposed to a general might-have-been. The shape then is more or less as per Steve's plan in the September RM. For practical transport purposes I've had to jiggle the middle around to create an even split of 3'6" either way to pair the two scenic boards face to face. As with the 009 the curvy boards have pulled me away from baseboard kits so I've been able to go the full aircraft wing lightweight approach, rather than the bomb-proof commercial boards which I'm guessing are more designed for a home and non-exhibition environment.

The curvy front was going to be easy as I had a new sheet of bendy MDF in stock. This has not proved ideal as I found that it delaminates very easily and I've had to drown it in wood glue in and effort to stabilise. Hindsight says I would have been better off with 4mm ply, but it was to hand. This was from Wicks. I don't know whether this is typical of this stuff, but I would be unlikely to use it again.

The TT points too look to be problematic, in that the switch distance is very fine and I'm having to dance around my usual DPDT slide switch method somewhat. Of course the design of these is not intended for this method; I'm just being awkward. I'm sure that if you run them with the Peco point motors they work fine. Above, the wiring for the loco release point goes in. Note that these feel much more robust; more like Code 100 streamline and quite a difference from the uber-fragile Bullhead OO range which needs a lot of handling care.

Lastly, I ummed and ahhed about reintroducing ads on here. I'm not keen, but I need to eat, so do consider the coffee aspect below which makes me more likely to keep this all going.

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Farnham show 2025

 Let's start at the very beginning. There were known parking issues due to on-site works. There was an alternative car park with a mini bus service to the door. We didn't do this and adopted a gig approach. Perfect parking spot 50 yards from the gate. There were no toe-to-toe punch ups at the door like last week. One desk for cash, one for card. No queue. Sensible. A high end £12. Pretty much as expected, so here's what I wrote three years ago with a couple of tweaks in parenthesis 

There wasn't a bad layout in the entire show; the exhibition hits a middle audience, perhaps leaning toward the finescale, and was spread out over five rooms. (This year with a 2mm F/S dedicated room. They really are very clever.) This meant that the place didn't feel crowded. There were a lot of people to talk to and  a hook up with the chap that bought Unnycoombe and Dury's Gap, which are still going strong. The catering was friendly, well-stocked and slickly-served and there was a generally happy buzz around the place.(There were no target layouts, but Terry Tew's Scottish piece was probably the stand out and the revived O-16.5 really caught my imagination. Good to see NG layouts displayed a sensible table height). The day was very enjoyable. This really is the one to beat.

Only names have been changed which proves that consistency wins. 

Show: 9

Rucksacks: 2   I know people love this measure!

Parking 10 The club seemed to be making every effort to mitigate the problem.

Trade 7

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Scottish OO gauge layout in Railway Modeller

 And we're off! Regulars will have noted that there has been an RM layout based in the Highlands ticking away in the background which hasn't had much mention here for obvious reasons. This month the series commences with some baseboard butchering and my fight with some bullhead points. The whole project was not without its problems and there were endless supply issues, meaning that the construction window went from nearly a year, to about four and a half months. I'm hard to avoid in Smiths (or whatever it's called this week) with the Superquick goods shed build mentioned in earlier posts running in BRM. The Scottish (Caol) is destined for the Glasgow SEC show, though I doubt that I will be anywhere near it. As far as I know, this will be it's only public showing. With the baseboard kits shifting to a 9 and 10mm MDF construction, she's a weighty beast.

Note that though I've had bits of the cover before, this is a first. This will now be a regular occurrence and my next cover shot will be in 2050.

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A corner section in OO gauge

Ahh the Project 70. I mentioned this a year ago here the result was Drovers Brook which has has scant coverage here it seems despite being the current favourite and permanently set up. I mooted back then that there would be a round the room extension and there now exists the first part of this which has recently had track laid and a basic backscene fitted. The next section is going to be all sorts of fun to get in place due to the more than 90 degree angle of the walls my pre-war house. No matter. 

The board for this could politely be described as sub-offcut, and consists of a motley crew of MFD bits roughly fixed together at a size of a little over 3' x 18" . TBH it's carpentry at a high quality level. The track is Devon bullhead consisting of one offcut and a bit that I had to buy. That was a shock; I was still expecting to pay three shillings a yard. Instead I got asked for an amount that I feel would feed a family of four in one of the better bits of St Leonards (pause while all the Hastings and Bexhill bods make comments about St. Leonards).

Anyway, this is romping along at a fair old pace now with one board every 12 months and only falls to number four in the layout building register of the current time. Once I can get hold of some points from you know who, I can get cracking with the first in the queue. 

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Fareham Exhibition

Oh dear. There was a little niggle about this and I can't remember what. However after a bit of an exhibition visit dessert and a tie up with some other business, a trip was taken. Lets start with the positives: Good spread of layouts with only the European box left unticked. My stand out for obvious reasons was the above. This has been problematic in previous viewings, but yesterday was running very smoothly and felt like a busy urban station. I also wanted to take a look at Elbow Lane (below) which is a bit of an internet star. Everything else was mid-to-high quality and trade was the expected good mix.

The negatives: Appalling entry system done via very unpredictable computer and churning out festival-style wristbands. Total overkill for a single price arrangement and a queue to match. This mostly made up of gentlemen of the expected age holding the right amount of cash. Not a great start. Then the door guards to a single basketball court with one way in/out doors and, even fairly early in the weekend, a poor customer attitude. The price for all this was a high end £12. For that I want something fairly special on a regional local club show. 

Show: 4   Mostly down to the doors 

Rucksacks 1

Catering 2

Parking 9

 

Stalling: Designing an urban layout in OO

Things took a rapid turn for the worse yesterday.

Mr. Hill rocked up yesterday with the overall intention to attack some O gauge planning for his layout. This has become so successful, despite being hardly begun, that he was inundated by phone calls enquiring about it as an exhibit for shows next year. Such is the price of stardom.

In addition, attention turned to the card layout and possible development of, as there were several recently built applicable items lying around. The general thrust of this was to rebuild Hopwood (see tab above) but in reverse plan, with purely Superquick kits and with a more generous FY.

From a direct flipped plan, things were moved about on 6 x 1' of area, then it dawned that with the mainly pull-push Southern stock envisaged, the release pointwork at the platform end became largely redundant and the whole thing started leaning towards the bastard child of a Futer's Fork and Minories.

This would only require three points as above. The scenics would be a 1960s style card building base with a couple of vintage Airfix items tossed in where needed, i.e. the butchered footbridge. The one or two figures on the platform are cast items from Dinky thus completing the vibe. The feel of it in my head would appeal to 'gentlemen of a certain age' and would definitely be the anti-DCC/sound approach.

Early days, but this has got definite legs on it. The O gauge, well that's todays workload and don't even mention the TT.....

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Building a Superquick platform

 So there I was bowling along the South Coast as one does, and almost by accident found myself in Gaugemaster or The Engine Shed. Only it's not called that now and now goes by a name that is so memorable that I'd forgotten what it was by the time I'd got past the till. But I digress. 

There was a box of Superquick. Between you and me I don't think they are interested in selling this sort of thing now, but as I'm on a bit of a roll with things card this week I picked up the above and the signal box. The platform, I worked out, may well be an older version of the kit, which is a problem on one level, but a boon on another. It took me an hour and I was distracted at the same time by other stuff, so a good modeller would have taken half that. Goes together really easily with no glitches, the only mod' may be some extra support in the underside and I touched in the edges with some white paint. 

Still works for me and the card layout is one step nearer.

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Building copper clad O gauge points

  Not done one of these for a while, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Essentially complete here save the gapping of the copper. This is a pretty basic design that most people could get their heads around. Even the filing of the switch rails is not too onerous with this weight of rail. In this case 125 FB which was what was in stock. The length is a tad shorter than the standard Peco product at 16.5" and has a 1:5 angle.

I need two more of these for Mr. Hills layout and a possible one for the FY as it stands now. This is without name or final plan, though will probably be the usual four-point Gammon End design that is well worn on these pages.

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Painting O gauge figures

 Somebody gave me these - can't remember who. 

Anyway...

Slaters O gauge figures. Note not 7mm scale. Theses are famously underscale and closer to 6mm. Not only that, but compared to the worst whitemetal figures they are lousy and even more so compared to the latest 3D print offerings from Modelu et al. That notwithstanding they are fine to be seated in the gloom of a coach interior. So with a few days away, I loaded the car with a dozen and spent the cold dark nights furiously cleaning them up and painting with a fairly muted, limited palette.

They seem to be still on the market for around a tenner for a pack which considering the above is probably quite reasonable.

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O gauge point

 As always there are a couple of side projects to do while the glue is going off. The first is Mr. Hill's Gauge O project. In an idle moment I grabbed a point plan (blown up some years back from the EM gauge society stash). This was stuck to a bit of  chipboard, and before I noticed I was welding up a point V. The rail is some 125 FB that I bought cheap at a Guildex last century, and which has been lurking around at the back of the cupboard ever since. There's already a built one in hand and I need five. 

This makes the third scale this week and it's only Tuesday.

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TT120 Terrier and other considerations

Image: Steve Croucher/Peco studio

 A task is to hand. 

This month's Railway Modeller contains a fairly standard BLT plan of the month. You will all have obviously bought this so no need for me to expand on the reasoning behind said plan, and again obviously I'm not going to reproduce that here. However, there have been a couple of messages appearing on my phone vis-à-vis the hints here, and drawing conclusions. The task for me is to build it, but not in a familiar scale/gauge, but the relatively new TT:120. This was a surprise on lots of levels and I have questions, but there is wood to cut and a deadline; at the outside of the magazine print-run up to the Glasgow show.

The eagle-eyed will notice that in practical terms it's a funny shape and moreover the boards are split unevenly. So the already compressed plan/idea needs tweaking further to allow practical transportation.

Removing the Southern IOW angle throws up further possibilities: The first is to forgo the Terrier and head for the new J50 or the 08. and go GNR area. I'm thinking something like Horncastle and that photo in the Bradford Barton Brach line diesels book. The IOW buildings could be adapted and you are good to go. The other is to use all the Pacifics that are available and go Pickering NYMR during preservation. It would need stretching a little and to move the goods yard sidings to top right as an MPD. 5-coach trains would be possible in the same sort of space, though the fiddle yard is naturally longer than the planned 30" length needed here. 

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Peco TT120 lineside hut

 Continuing the process of getting my eye in. This was snuck out of the RM office. It's tiny. Not N gauge tiny, but the equivalent N gauge item is six bits and a chimney pot. This is three frets and layers of 1mm wood with jigsaw location. This later characteristic worried me with the roof ridge after the struggle with the WHR station frontage. Here some careful sanding did the job. There are no gutters or downpipes. so I fashioned some waste fret to do the job. The usual acrylics to finish.

I like.

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Setting the table (top)

 It had to happen sooner or later. I'd mooted it a couple of years back, thinking that it was the new big thing, but it got a negative response. However, all Tiger-like it was bounced at me, almost forcefully. The turn point it would seem is the Hornby Terrier and some forthcoming buildings. This month's RM holds all the answers that you may need. In the meantime I'm cutting MDF. 

I really should start taking commissions...

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Wills SS48 signal box

 Just about done here. Took a fair bit longer than I'd hoped. I should know this by now; signal boxes are time thieves. Despite going down the budget/minimalist approach to the interior, this and the painting sucked up a lot of bandwidth. Pretty much as the instructions, if I had bothered to read them. The windows blocked up, which despite this being a kit option, rarely is it seen on layouts. Safety bars added to the windows. Doorknobs and a spearpoint fencing lever frame. The figure is a Dapol workman with his lunchbox removed.

Now to see if the emails get answered.

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Wills signal box - the panels

 I thought that I'd better take a look at the instructions.

And it was at this point that I did. Possibly slightly arrogant, but the though of constructing this.... and then painting it seemed; well, making life hard for myself. So a day later I have four complete sides with windows and glazing all done and not a glance at the paperwork. All done 'in the flat' and without having to get the glazing in through the roof gynaecological style. If the next bit goes to plan then I've won big time. Incidentally, the green is Humbrol 78 acrylic (which has disappeared of the shelves) and Games Workshop 'Wraithbone' for the cream. Pretty perfect for faded Southern.

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Airfix Class 31 coupling fix

The Airfix 31 has been part of the Rhiw saga since early days. Dating back to the mid 1970s, it's now half a century old.. and this shows.

For those of a certain age this will be a familiar tale. It it basically past its sell by date on lots of levels, but remains on the roster as an emergency back up. Though quite honestly this is largely emotional rather than practical. Up against the Bachman fleet, which themselves are a 20 year old design it's pretty crude and noisy. That aside, there has been a coupling issue for a while and this is its last chance. 

Above, the existing, but unhelpful, Airfix coupling was reclipped into a bed of super glue and left overnight to cure.

The new fix is that ultimate bondmaster, the Peco track pin. A hole was drilled through the coupling and mount and the pin put through and fixed with lashings of super glue, before trimming the pointy bit.

 Finally a Dapol retainer was clipped over. This apes the Airfix part, but is just a fraction smaller, so is the best, but not perfect. Super glue is again the filler in the sandwich.

All crude stuff, but it seems to have worked; for the minute at least. While under the bonnet, another repair to the main frame was carried out. Nothing will stick to this so some brutal work with a soldering iron and some Wills sheet was the only way forward. The smell was...

And so the old girl limps on for another day.

Wills signal box

 A long, long time ago in the year 2018 BT, a magazine editor warned me off using the Wills signal box kit. 'Tricky'. So I went down the Dapol route. Now is my chance to find out. TBH the first impressions are good and it looks to be typical Wills fare, and possibly designed by Our Lord Rice. So either the afore mentioned gent had it mixed up with the Ratio box which is an absolute bitch in places, or something else. This is destined for print as well, but may either end up on the expanding round the room epic of on the much mooted Hopwood Southern. A long history entails. 

Some pre-construction painting continues...

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Saturday Ramble: Getting your eye in

 The humble British standard van, and the British standard model railway scale. Fairly obvious, but to clarify: we have a kit-built Ratio van in OO, a Lima in HO, a Hornby in TT:120, and a Peco in N. This was set up to take a look at how they compare; interestingly the middle two are more or less correct to gauge, while the outer pair are not. The significant jump out to many may be the smaller two and the difference in general size. On the right the N at 2 and 1/16mm scale (1/148) and left the TT at 2.54mm scale (1:120). Nominally 2mm and 2.5mm and yet visually quite a jump. At this point any 3mm scale modellers will be screaming about treachery and I do sympathise a little, but I admit that I think the new kid on the block definitely has something about it. I'm too invested in 4mm to change, but if I was coming at it cold as a newbie I would give it serious consideration. In trainset track terms the 'ideal' 2nd radius curves roughly equates to OO gauge 1st radius and all the RTR commercial stock is designed to take these as a minimum. So in broad terms you are turning 180 degrees in a bit over 2' width.

The reasoning behind this is purely commercial, but as above, the cold newbie would find quite a bit to like about the TT. 

Goods shed

 And done. This is more or less as per the instructions with some extra structural reinforcement added. Is it good? Well taking into consideration the age of the base kit design and the material, yes. Critics will bleat on about cliches and lack of detail, but that misses the point somewhat. I drew the line at adding loads of extra detail, but that could be done and lift it quite considerably. The other is the height, but that's a whole other set of questions.

As per the last post, I am minded that it creates a vibe, and a real period feel layout could be developed using the range, the only problem being the signal box which to my eyes doesn't fit with the rest of the railway 'A' series. Well, not like the original 1960s one did. I wonder if anyone has one on a shop shelf somewhere?

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Superquick time

Haven't done one of these for  a while.

If I could pinpoint a time when I shifted from trainset to railway modelling it would probably a Superquick kit; possibly even this one, the A07 goods shed. Only it isn't. At first glance you think it's the same, but the colours are slightly different; a distinct Southern green tinge rather than a GWR brown. There are also more platform bits included which I may omit for old times sake. The roof is just plonked at the moment and there is some light upgrading to do. Other than that, it's great fun and a real Saturday afternoon project.

Anyone for a complete Superquick branchline terminus layout?

Wills coal yard

 The Wills SS15 stuffed and mounted on a piece of stray MDF with lashings of coal and a few Merit bits from the very bottom of the scrapbox. Quite a bit more work than most people would want to put into it, but altogether a fun little project.

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Wills coal office build

 Back to the smaller projects for a moment. This for Warners, is a gentle upgrade of a Wills coal yard kit. I've done a few of these now, so fairly straightforward. Here with the full chimney, open door and rainwater goods. The paint and a stuff and mount to do.

The delivery man

 And there we have it. 'Caol', AKA The Scottish, delivered in crate form to the RM office. You may have got the impression that I'm glad to get rid of it, and that would be more or less accurate. Not though because it was a bad idea, but more that it has been plagued by delays and supply issues from the get go which has cause no small amount of hair-pulling here. I would consider doing this again with the research knowledge gained. However, I would definitely drop the period back to transition or Blue-Sectorisation mostly to increase the operation. The green would be favourite with 26 and 27s, though the later period would be an easy entry with the Rhiw stock as a base. It's not going to happen though. Caol will appear in RM from the late Autumn in the now usual serial format.

Looking forward; there are discussions afoot about something new. Hold onto your hats, it could be a choppy trip....

A new/old Hornby Terrier

 I picked this Mk1 ex-Dapol Hornby-badged Terrier up a couple of months ago off of Marketplace from a chap down the road for the princely sum of £25. He assured me it ran; which it did... after a fashion. Visuals suggested that the wheels could be the culprit; or rather the muck on the wheels. I decided on a full strip-down and service. These models are dead easy to work on and I finished the job in under 30 minutes. The treads were fibre-brushed to a shine as were the front wiper pick-ups. The drive train was totally dried up; I guessed an age of around 20 years old and it had obviously never been touched, so motor bearings oiled, gears greased, chassis bearing faces cleaned, wheelsets back in and a drop of oil . 

A run without the body looked hopeful and with the whole thing back together and up to weight she purrs along. Do I need another Terrier? No really, but at that price she's a good spare chassis for the existing pair, or I may get around to a full detail.

Svanda at Bredgar

 

 Svanda appeared yesterday at what its essentially the final exhibition. This is due to there being nothing else in the book. Really friendly show within the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway site, and organised by Kerry and Kevin of Invicta Models.

The layouts are not the main attraction, sharing the attention with the main railway and a brace of other steam power on the day. This means that the audience is high on the family scale and quite transient. This means that you don't really get an exhibition 'buzz', but you do get to put the hobby in front of people who are just out for the day. We did this last year and I'll repeat my comment from then - it's clean. No piles of 'we'll get around to that later' scrap, and areas full of sleepers and rusty rail. This is Pro with a capital P. Well worth a visit and just off the M20 Jct 8.

Broken Creek - and American HO layout.

 A quick nip down the road to the ever sunny Littlehampton to snap a layout for CM. Broken Creek is very much where my head is on layouts in general: one man build/operate, simple track plan, lots of detail without getting silly and sensibly researched.  It's off to the Uckfield show in October, so the rush was on to get something done for the previous month's CM; which is where I came in. 

The photos and article appear in the October 2025 issue of Continental Modeller.

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Saturday Ramble

 I don't do many show these days. Not sure why this is, but they do seem to be problematic at times particularly where the bump between entertainments happens. Anyway...

Rhiw2 appeared at Eastbourne for Pevensey MRC  to great applause, 'simplicity' seemed to be the key response and if conversations over the layout were an indication, there were many people inspired to build something with a similar approach. So job done there. Also good, was the real life response to the recent 009 layout-build series in RM which seems to have gone down well. Not bad for a circle of track and a siding. 

This brings me to a general question. The overall lack of invites, and/or the ability to attend if they do, is making me reassess slightly. I've been exhibiting since the early 1990s, so for a while, though this is by no means an intense lifestyle choice unlike some people I know who engineer to be out almost every weekend. That has never been for me. Couple this with a recent passing conversation with Mr. Hill and my brain asks, is it time to gently hang up the trestles? For me, at least this century, modelling has increasingly been about publishing, either in this medium off my own back, or via the press in a very fluid professional capacity. Neither of these two things have anything to do with exhibiting, excepting the blog's rather popular show reviews. Layout building of late has very much fallen into making things for other people to play with - in many cases the result is not something that I want to get anywhere near when it's finished. Is is sensible to switch gears completely, return to here much more and run with a publish-only mindset? 

Trees

 Almost ready for delivery. It's a pretty picture.

Non comfort

This is turning out to be an interesting project. The working title is Caol which was thought of in a hurry just to tag it, though I have casually looked up the Gaelic for camel to replace it. To save you looking it is... camel. Natch. The brief is/was to incorporate three types of track - I have dodged around this a little, but it does fulfil in using Bullhead, steel sleeper and ordinaire yellow pack code 75.  All that aside it is taking a ridiculous amount of time to get this all down possibly not helped by Mrs F being unwell and off work which slows things down somewhat.  The Accurascale 66 above is an on-loan review item, and while stunning in every way is just huge. This is the test and clearance loco as it would be the biggest item to logically be used and in this instance almost fits the bang up to date period. 

Above is Steve Croucher's Mk1 plan from my 5 min sketch, though this has been stretched somewhat. As is always the case, things get slightly altered as the build progresses. The eagle eyed will have noted that once again this is a Ford Gammon End four point plan with the siding to the left simply a trap line ending only just out of shot. The operation is basic even for me and is routed in 2024 period DMUs and some engineering traffic. But the reality is that that is what is currently there.

I have 3.5 months.

 

A hurried 09 layout

 Busy, with all sorts of stuff and no time to get it on here. 

The trackwork for the latest RM epic is driving me mad and is taking way too long for such a simple plan, but at the edge of that is the above. Built to get Mrs F away for a weekend and forcing a target point, I invited myself to the Norfolk and Suffolk 009 mob's member's day with a micro 09 layout just 28" x 8" + FY. Moving quickly on from that, things took a turn that I hadn't seen coming in the form of the recently announced RM small baseboard competition. I was 'approached' by the Ed' with an impossible request, so as an alternative suggestion, this was mentioned. Being almost the same size as the comp' boards it was quickly finished and should appear in next month's RM to illustrate. A case of the worlds aligning for once. Winding back, it will still appear at Beccles on the 3rd of May as planned, though I had anticipated running up to the wire with getting it done as an occasional side project, not the frantic white knuckle ride of a magazine deadline! 

Now, back to the Bullhead...

Steyning

A day out with your mates, is how I generally describe the Steyning exhibition. Yes it is public, but for some reason there is a high proportion of what I call proper modellers. Not in some sort of elitist way, more that they make things in the traditional sense. The good Reverend pictured seated behind Drovers Brook is a good case in point with very little of his 1:32 scale layout bought in.  Beyond (in his eyeline) is Alan Monk with the HO scale Dounreay, again, much proper modelling in evidence.

Drovers Brook performed almost faultlessly, which considering that it's not designed for exhibiting and the amount of lash-up to get it there. Not to mention the return of the low trestles, not seen since the AotC went out.

Lots of interested punters and a great deal of chat. A day out with your mates.

 

Where is March going?

What feels like a return to full-time model-type things, the pressure to keep moving is on. The first on the list this month was to get Drovers Brook more or less done for the Steyning exhibition. This is not really an exhibition beast, so lots of jerry rigging of lights and curtains was needed. Above; the pre-show test. In the end all went well and I'll pop a couple of photos up later.

While not really a very recent task, the disused chapel for the Scottish is complete. In fact the last few days seem to have been to working through the Peco catalogue, or so it seems, with brake vans, signal boxes and the like. Almost done is the Arisaig station building kit; my forth laser-cut item this year. Not sure about these yet, the jury is still out. The fit for all these is just about perfect, but the detail and final finish is less than the equivalent plastic kit. I note that we used to have plastic kits in carboard boxes, now we have wood kits in plastic boxes. Just an observation.