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
Sunday, 12 October 2025
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
Thursday, 9 October 2025
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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Tuesday, 7 October 2025
A corner section in OO gauge
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Sunday, 5 October 2025
Fareham Exhibition
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
Thursday, 2 October 2025
Stalling: Designing an urban layout in OO
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.
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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Wednesday, 1 October 2025
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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