I have been hanging on since my last contribution hoping to be able to report some real progress but, far from that, I have to report regress (i.e. retrogression). I have mentioned elsewhere my problem with arthritic fingers and the risk of hitting the wrong lever of the passing switches for the point motors, with the risk of damaging the motors. I replaced two damaged motors and, furthermore, installed pushbutton switches. These are supposed to give feedback information via leds but do not do so with Hornby motors among other mechanisms.

But far from improving matters, I now find that motors which previously did work now do not and one even overheats seriously. Also, one of the replacement motors, fixed in exactly the same place as the faulty one, forms an obstacle for one of my vehicles whereas the previous one did not. The motor is on the straight side of the point but immediately after a curve and my Electrotren double deck commuter train is low at the non-powered driver car end (it is a push-pull system) and just rubs the motor sufficiently to derail at speed.

Then a further disaster. I was giving my Hornby 2-6-4 Tank engine a run out when, at a place where there has never before been any problem and is just beyond a protective wall, it suddenly gave a jump, hit a higher lever track and fell to the floor. The tyre of one of the wheels of the pony truck had come loose (this is the second time) and, this time instead of taking it to my local shop (who is not a Hornby dealer), I decided to try and repair it myself. When trying to force the tyre back into place I saw that the wheel was coming off the axle, so I removed it completely. Since I could not get the tyre back in place, I put the wheel in the freezer (to shrink it) and after 20 minutes or so, I put the trye in boiling water (to expand it). The idea didn't work immediately but, suddenly while squeezing, the wheel clicked into place. I then started to reassemble the axle and got out my calipers to measure the back-to-back distance properly and, to my surprise, I discovered that one pair of the driving wheels was at 15 mm and not 14.2 like the rest and I don't think I have the skills to narrow the gap. Also, when I tested the locomotive again, it had trouble near where it jumped the track (a place where it had never previously had problems).

Trackwise the layout is complete. The work now is to sort out problems, since the only units that seem to perform reasonably well are my two DMUs. But, it seems, every time I think I have sorted out one problem, others arise. I am at a loss as to what to do.

Anyway, since there is a lot of scenic work still to be done, I painted a portion of road which had been relaid and I shall continue installing railings where I want them. But the intrinsic purpose of any layout, i.e. to play trains without problems, is still eluding me.