A mixed bag to report today.

On a good note, I have parted with some cash, not only for the long awaited Dukedog (which still needs to be painted GWR Green with a shirtbutton), but also Star and 28xx with shirtbutton. My Bulldog has also been remotored. This is an old Ks kit which a friend of mine at the High Wycombe club (HWDMRS) finished off and painted for me. The old motor worked but was very noisy and far from smooth. I bought a new Mashima and Roxey gearbox and Stan very kindly fitted it. I have a lot to learn and remember from years gone by on motors and gearboxes. Unfortunately for him, it proved to be very fiddly to get to run smoothly due to the con rods wanting to do their own thing! Thanks Stan.

On another good note, I have worked out the wiring needed for the Station at Newton Purcell for the track feeds and also for the servos for the points and signals and have soldered it all up over a number of evenings.

The track feed switches are mounted on the track plan. The signal and points are set out in signal box lever frame style. There is an amount of interlocking and interplay between the two types of switches. The signals and points for the double junction are interlocked in as much as the signals will not clear if the points are set for the wrong road. Unfortunately the levers (switches) will throw, but the boards will not pull off. The distants will also not pull off unless the home, starter and advanced starter are not pulled off as well.

The advanced starter signals also act as cab control switches. Pulling off the advance starter switches control to the section in advance. Trains are controlled by the eventual arrival section on my layout. This means that if there is a non stop train from Buckingham West to Banbury, the Banbury (continuous circuit and return loops) controller takes control. This is done by Buckingham West ceding control to Newton Purcell by pulling off its Advance Starter and Newton Purcell ceding control to Banbury by pulling off its Advance starter as well. All of this of course is following a series of bell codes. The wiring for Buckingham West and Banbury is relatively straight forward but Newton Purcell is more complicated due to the passing nature of the station and particularly because it is a junction and the branch to Brackley Road is single track, so can be controlled by Brackley Road, Newton Purcell or Buckingham West depending upon the signalling.

More good news is that I have had all my MERG Servo 4 pics (the brain) reblown by a very kind MERG member. These are now on the latest (and more stable) firmware. I have put them back in to the SERVO 4 control boards that are fitted to the Newton Purcell baseboards and have so far managed to very easily reapply all the settings off a laptop. However, I have two SERVO 4 boards that need more attention and are not playing the game. Of course one is the only one that is not directly accessible!!! Why is that always the way. So I am going to relocate that one.

The bad news is that I am very unlikely to see the station up and running for quite a long time. We are moving house (hopefully) and so all the effort put into that station is going to be put on hold. It is not total bad news, because that part of the layout is in two halves and is transportable and reusable.

The really sad bit is that the continuous circuits and reversing loops are going to have to be dismantled and I do not know how much will be reusable. At least it has been a good learning curve and next time I will correct some errors.

Happily, the house we hope to move to will have a railway room. I intend to be moving out of the loft! Although my loft experience has not been as bad as many said it would be. I cannot hide my joy at the thought of a room (hopefully large integral garage which will be insulated and heated) for the railway. Vertical rear edges to the baseboards, allowing taller buildings and backscenes will be a joy. The principles of Buckingham West will be continued.

So there will not be much progress on the layout, but I hope to build some more building kits and to renumber update some locos. I will be adding extra pickups and painting some goods stock. I also hope to start some weathering, having bought some powders and an airbrush. Watch this space.

Thanks.

Rich