Since railex Taunton we've been enjoying a few weeks of running and enjoying the fruits of our labours. this week saw things move forward to the late 60s and early 70s as Steve went nuts with his stock selection of 10 Westerns and numerous other early diesel classes...
Somehow it seemed to look right though...maybe an idea for future exhibitions....
We we managed to do the whole exhibition weekend with only few minor niggles, most of which we sorted on the day but a few things will be taken back and redone to make sure that our next venture out runs more smoothly.
The weekend was great. Lots of learning for the operating team, most of whom have had no more than an hours practice prior to the weekend and some have never operated DCC before. We have a list of things we need to deal with over the winter but on the plus side we met some great
Well a few minor glitches on Saturday morning but on the whole it ran well and seems to be liked by most people. We have a few things to tweak this morning but otherwise we're happy with it
Ben got the signals in place on Saturday morning and Steve added the speed signs...so all in all about as complete as we ever dared hope for our first outing.
So here we go on day two..
Well this is it. Railex Taunton is on and with it comes our first opportunity to show Oake station on the exhibition circuit.
It's been 8 months of hard intensive work. Although the layout started about 3 years back a combination of the groups family and work commitments meant that progress was steady. 8 months back it was confirmed we had this weekend as our debut show so things stepped up a notch and a majority of what you see in the photos has been done in this time.
I'd like to pass my
Well a week today and Oake starts its exhibition debut. We always intended it to be an exhibition layout as well as a club running layout, but the day we actually took it out always seemed a distant dream. But a week today, on Saturday 24th we ate at running at the Taunton exhibition
We still have things to do. Ben is frantically putting the signals together and we hope to install them before we start running. The stock's been sorted but as some of the guys haven't had more than an hour runn
With a week to the first show the task of taking the 12 boards for Oake down and ready to transport began. We've made shelf units for the boards to slide into to keep them upright and easy to stack for the van. I've done this on my smaller layouts in the past but this is the biggest layout we've exhibited for a long time.
One more evening to finish off and then it's Railex Taunton on the weekend of the 24th and 25th of this month at Taunton school.
If you do come along please feel free to say
Like most people I have a mobile phone that does about 1000 things, only ten of which I'll ever use. The camera I do use so imagine my surprise when I found "panoramic" settings and looked at the layout. How hard could this be...
Well it's not perfect but look at the gallery and I've attached a panorama of all 18 feet of Oake station.
With a smidgen over2 weeks until we go public were using all the time we can to make sure everything's running well. Evenings and afternoons all add to getting the final bits done.
This weeks been running in. A lot of stock hasn't run for a few years so getting locks smooth and putting coach rakes together all takes time...but it gives a brilliant chance to take photos. We've uploaded a few of our favourites so hope you enjoy
Why is it the closer you get to a deadline the faster time goes and the more seems to need doing? We had a good night last night. A few small additions to the scenics in the form of mileposts and an electricity pole feeding the station were added. The wing boards were put up and painted and photos of the line addsed for a bit of interest to people wanting to see the original line we based it on.
The rest of the evening was test running and ensuring all loco's have different DCC codes. Something
Ok so last night was an evening of sorting out a few electrical niggles that have cropped up and setting up the lighting rig. The original one was built for us but when tried wasn't sturdy enough so Ian's been adapting it with new fixings.mthen a lick of paint and we're starting to look like a real layout...
Minor butterflies that we may have overlooked something and the realisation we'd Iike more time to test run everything has set in but the feeling is positive and looking forward to going li
So we're now down to less than 4 weeks till Taunton railway exhibition and while we're getting there we still have a lot to do.
Scenically most is done but with electrical niggles and yet to get it broken down ready to go the tension is rising...
Here's a few photos taken this week
Steve added more photos to our Facebook page this week. Type "oake model railway" in and you'll get to see the latest news and a bit more information on the exhibition
After a few weeks of waiting for the parts to be made by one of the club members the guys finally got the rig up and running last night.
Only a few weeks of work left before test runs and packing for railex Taunton on the last weekend of October so it really is getting hectic on working nights now...
Wednesday night saw a flurry of activity as more of the small jobs were being worked on. All ofnthenteam have a part to play and no one is holding back with the deadline getting closer and we have yet to have some running in nights...
