Another routine DRAG meeting last night, with both TT1 in use and work continuing on the trackwork on TT2. Here it looks like we've left CK on his own (not true, others were busy threading rail into trackbases etc )

But meanwhile, John (Re6/6) had just taken delivery of his new Noch Grassmaster for Matford, and gave us a quick demo. The following pictures speak for themselves really, although it is difficult to convey the 3D effect on a 2D image.

Now that's all very well as a basic demo of how it works, but it's a particularly bright green set of fibres with no (not yet) additional texture.

John also showed us a demo board he had done earlier, but starting from a position of existing basic ground cover (which could be hanging basket liner, lint, carpet underlay or whatever). This next picture is the initial groundcover:

Then with the Noch fibres added:

And finally (after the PVA has set) after a good suck with the vacuum cleaner:

Which gives a good base of rough ground for further detailing.

Update from The Captain, Tuesday 27/10/09

A few of my own photos from last night (apologies for quality, taken on camera phone).

Brain Harrap (right) seemingly caught in mid-ballad.... Clearly, something doesn't seem quite right in this photo...

Re6/6 had brought in a recent acquisition for us to admire, but someone forgot to remind him that we were only laying P4 and OO track that night....

Mr F. Adder made a surprise but welcome appearance, and was immediately put to work on slave labour the important task of threading rail onto track bases. As usual, he did his modelling on his feet....

This was clearly a source of some amusement....

Peter Archard brought in his scratchbuilt 16XX pannier for a spin. We ran it on TT1 first, then laid a bit of spare track on TT2 as well.