Hi.

I guess it's about time to look at further layouts I have constructed. After the Windermere boats and the two layouts that came to nothing I came up with the Idea for Semerdale. I'm not sure how the idea for the layout came about ..As mentioned in the Railway Modeller article of May 1998 I was looking for a few "tweaks" in the scale/gauge. Also, for what ever reason I built it as an exhibition layout and as mentioned in the above article I am more of a constructor than an operator. Most of the photos of the layout have appeared in the above article and two other articles in the Railway Modeller. See " Log Loading in 009" April 2001 and "Additions to Semerdale". March 2002. Somewhere in the production of the log loading article things did not come out as I had written them and it finished somewhat abruptly..If you didn't understand it ,neither did I. But, that's water under the bridge. My late wife Maudie took charge of the log loading operation and would invite children to come round the back and have a go. After all the (understandable) do not touch notices parents were pleasantly surprised at this chance of a hands on approach invite to their children. Back to photos. If you haven't seen it yet,Semmerdale is featured on the wwwngrail.co.uk site which is a virtual narrow gauge exhibition Click on to Hall 1. In real life the layout did 22 exhibitions between 1997 and 2001. Somewhere around the latter year I decided it was time for the line to find a permanent home. This home was built into the garage and was eight feet square. The enevitable happened and when half the track for the other terminal was laid it didn't gel and it was sold on as seen. Both Maudie and myself had enjoyed it at exhibitions. I quite enjoyed the building of the layout and stock. in particular the two bogie locos Semerdale and Semerwater. They ran very well as indeed did the two four wheelers and the railcars. Loco number 1 DAN was the test build to see if the scale/gauge would work. You may notice a likeness in DAN to the AVR loco number 2 Anne. I made my own couplings which were a little over scale. They were single ended with a hinged loop at one end and fixed hook at the other. At the hook end there was a hinged latch which prevented recoupling after passing over an uncoupling magnet. Big headed I know but these worked very well along with the sweet running of all four locos. Think that's it for now. Couple of photos attached which I don't think have been published.

Cheers. Derek.