Eurotrack model railway exhibition

A quite exhausting weekend at what used to be called Eurotrack (but this year wasn't). Compounded by having to toddle off to work afterwards. Svanda behaved impeccably with only mainly self not changing points or flicking switches causing any problems. I'm continually surprised by the amount of interest it gains for what I considered to be the quite minority subject of Norwegian State Railways in the 1980s. Two invites were gained which surprises me further.

The above is the workstation of the New Forest club. I'd seen this before when they were next to us at Salisbury, and here they were again. It's 3' long and 2'6" high and is effectively a short fat paste table with fold-up legs triangulated on the other side. Note the permanent test track at the back, the two gang power socket on the right and the din connector for the controller RH end. Great idea,no more scrabbling around for a flat surface to clean wheels and do minor repairs as well as a handy mug stand. I suspect that at some point it may have been destined for use as a baseboard and that again may be worth considering - no stands, no trestles, no fuss.

The five year (model railway) plan

It's is the nature of a blog that it must be kept short and sweet; people don't want to read reams and reams of stuff. The trouble is I have too much to say.
This caught my eye at Eastliegh a week or two back. 'Holcombe'. Built by Tim Ticknell I believe and shown by the Burnham club. 8'x 2' of O gauge . Why is this relevant? Well, I suppose this is the target point. Not one that's un-achieved as I did it with NLW (see sidebar), but for those that remember my comments on how many layouts do we have left, it is the end of the process.

Nigel and I have joked about the five year plan. It's impossible to build a layout a year of course... for most people that is. But I think I've probably got about five/six layouts left. I've also said that Rhiw would be the last exhibition piece.... we'll see.

There have been discussions in the last couple of weeks about what could be built using the already constructed Rhiw FY and trestles. The possibilities are: Norwegian freight yard, Southern Region Terminus, American Terminus, GWR Terminus. These four because all or some of the stock is available. There are others that the FY is not suitable for: 7mm NG, O. The pattern and reasons are obvious. Despite unusually buying a lottery ticket for this evening I'm using what I have (the O excepting). And those of you out there that are good with numbers will spot that there are six. The wildcard would be something light in EM. Which there is also stock for.

So this is actually a twenty five year plan. Time will tell.

Eurotrack model railway exhibition

Cracking weekend at Eastleigh. Garn behaved very well, which always surprises me, and was flooded with exhibition enquiries. Good company in our corner of the hall with John Thorne providing help and Red-ex, and Keith Harcourt providing entertainment and P4. Nigel was on hand through most of the weekend (as pictured here) even though he was supposed to be wearing his Scandinavian Railway Society chairman's hat.

Only purchases of the weekend were pizzas and a non-DCC Bachmann Class 25 for Rhiw. I just checked on its suitability... only just... 25 054 - withdrawn 1985. Lucky. I know if it was wrong by a couple of years some spotty little oik with a hat full of badges would make a point of telling me so.

Garn at Eurotrack

This coming weekend (26/27) Garn will be appearing at Eurotrack at Eastleigh in Hampshire. If you're in the area do come and say hello. As I'm half an operator short, you may well get the controller pressed into your hand for half an hour.