The last four weeks have been busy, first there was the Ally Pally show, some purchases were made, but no "horrendous parchasing accidents", just some track, a Roco N DB 215 class, and a signal.

Next was a stag weekend in Bristol, a visit to the S.S. Great Britain and the Clifton suspension bridge included ( the joys of not staying up all night)...

Then NGS, even though I am a member of the 009 society, I decided to avoid the AGM and concentrate on the exhibits. Sorry guys, I know it has to happen but having driven 100 miles and having to be home by 5 I was going to make the most of the exhibits and traders.

That same weekend I went down to the Gaugemaster show on the Sunday with some friends (hence me having to be home by 5, as they were arriving sometime after five). I finally got something that I wanted to get a year ago: the stein lifting beer drinkers! A good price as the box was damaged...

Then this weekend the East Surrey N Gauge Society show. Just as well I didn't bring my chequebook! Too many things caught my eye! As it was I only got some silberlinge coaches to go with the 215 bought at Ally Pally... One more coach to go... I' won't mention the SNCF BB 15000 class for now...

Anyway, I'm a bit showed out for now!

So back to the Z21, last weekend the layout came back downstairs to sit on the dining table. It's very dusty and I've spent the week cleaning the track and massaging the points back into action. I have decided to electrify the point frogs (I know I should have done so from the start), to save me replacing all the point motors, I'm going to use some latching relays connected to the decoder... A new adventure begins!

This is the current state of the layout on the iPad:

Some of the points need reversing and the signals are in place, but not yet wired up. That requires some more decoders. In addition some of signals will be wired to switch with the points.

On the whole the Z21 is behaving itself, I would like to see the picture function improved though, big pain to use! The other quibble is that I can't hook it up to my own Wifi network, why not?