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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