I've just had a really enjoyable weekend in the company of the Airthey Park & Warren Lane crews who were kind enough to let me join them on the other side of the 'stage' and then socially afterwards. Experience of driving my sound-fitted locos in an exhibition environment allows me to optimise the chips for exhibitor's needs as well as everyone else's, so public thanks to everyone concerned. Apologies to Alan for driving my 86's into a non-electrified road on Warren Lane - doah!

With the 20 completed, the Class 26 project is now back on the workbench. This was an early v4 beneficiary which is now being upgraded in the light of experience gained in recent weeks with other projects. The main thrust of the work is to add two more 'thrash from stationary' options, and to reduce response time if the throttle is re-opened whilst the loco is still spooling down.

The 26 shouldn't take too long and I'm wondering what should replace it on the workbench. The 73 is a possibility, also the 156 which is a hot topic over on the DEMU forum just now. I've also got a steadily increasing list of minor tweaks to existing projects which need addressing and a number of recording leads to follow up from Stafford.