One new development that I introduced for narrow Gauge North was a better system of communication between each end of the layout. What I would ideally like is a big old telephone that you have to wind up to make ring and then then have to talk in a terribly terribly BBC 1930's accent. Well the last bit is highly unlikely to happen as is the first actually! So compromise is some walkie talkies and these Baofeng units off Ebay fitted the bill perfectly;

They fit nicely in your hand or can be stowed away with the belt clip. The range on them is superb - I tested then with the help of one little girl on the local common (she didn't need much encouragement!), I my nerve gave out long before the range did as little Iz had disappeared out of sight and was still chatting away! Anyway, off to Leeds and they did work pretty well and the fact that Simon and I managed to communicate almost telepathically really spooked several visitors! There was just one problem though, which I did put down to Simon's beard muffling the sound (but he was having none of it!), he could hear me clearly but I was having trouble hearing him. The obvious suspect 9apart from the beard), was the rather flimsy earpieces that came with the (terribly well priced), radios.

Cue a search for alternatives. There turned out to be three and only course of action was to get one of each to try. The first fits outside your ear and seems to have a much bigger speaker which has to be a good thing;

Next one up is a real secret agent one where the speaker is attached to a tube which fits in your ear and actually seems to work really well;

Last one is the biggest and seems to be the loudest but is far from discreet which is not so good;

I do know where the proof of the pudding is going to be though - Chuch Stretton next Saturday! UTL will be at the local clubs show and the new technology will be tested and the best option decided on. As a bit of a teaser and some small discouragement there mat well also be a new little something I have been working on running - come and say hello if you can make it! If you can't make it there though, you really do need to get to Tracks to the Trenches2 at Apedale May 13th - 15th, it is looking like it is going to be even better than last time!