Am now in the last few days before the layouts second outing (Weston on Trent on Saturday), and compared to the mad panic and VERY late nights before the first one, things are positively serene here! I guess I have not been completely idle in the last two months and most of the niggles have been sorted but have finally got down to sorting out some of the loco issues. Simple one today was to tidy up the sound installation in the second open 40hp Simplex which was long overdue. Sorry not managed a pic of this one! A slightly thornier one was the Dick Kerr issue. I have two of these built from the Worsley works etches with home made - sorry - hand built chassis. Only problem is they have never really worked properly. I really must bite the bullet one day and make a proper gear train for them but until then a motor and gearbox for each axle has to do. Only trouble is, the two motors just will not run at the same speed.

At this stage I would like to show you a couple of pics but they are still uploading so suspect a bit of a problem is going on so a thousand words will have to do instead! My solution was to build a completely new chassis with a lot more care but still the same problem. Now for the heavy handed approach - I just wired the motors up clamped them in a vice and let them run in for what turned out to be a whole day as I forgot about them. Result - worked a treat! Both motors are now running silky smooth and together. So not wanting to stop there I have the original chassis running in down in the cellar right now. And, it has company. After this success I turned back to the Nigel Lawton 20HP Simplex that caused me so much trouble with the pick ups in the Summer. Well, a fresh head and bit of time saw a solution - maybe not too elegant, but effective - quickly in place and now the first one is running in quite nicely on the old Duet (will chip them later), with the Dick Kerr down in the cellar. Why stop at one Simplex though? Applied the same solution to the other one and that is now running away right in front of me. Next job will be to get as much weight as is physically possible into what there is of a body on them. This has already meant that I have drilled out a drivers bottom (ouch!), and filled it with lead shot as it is heavier than white metal.

In amongst all this, I also managed to sort out one of the Hunslet 4-6-0s that had been causing problems. A bit of adjustment to the front bogie to ensure that the wheels actually went around was a big help, as was shaving some off the re-railing bar at the front and insulating the the remains. A couple of simple things that just required the time to look at them carefully and work out what was causing the problem.

Think I still have a problem with the upload but hopefully I will have a stronger than ever loco turnout for Saturday.