Just an update on my circumstances. I can’t get my point control desk to work properly. When mounted for the first time, after everything appeared to work O.K, I discovered that one turnout wasn’t working. This was due to a faulty contact between the capacitor and the point motor, easily solved by tightening up the screw. Then I discovered that another two motors weren’t working. Here it turned out that the fault was inside the box and there was no alternative than to undo all the connections, over 50 wires, and resolder the broken connections (three wires had come adrift). After making all the connections again, I found that a different motor isn’t working. Since it is one that can be changed by hand, I decided to leave it. But yesterday I found another motor that doesn’t work. This is on a siding and can also be changed by hand.

After nearly two years waiting, I finally came into some extra cash (an income tax refund) and purchased a new controller. After studying the advice kindly given to me by members on the forum and checking out the different makes, I was inclined to purchase the Lenz system. However, this would have cost me here the equivalent of GBP275 and the need to purchase a new transformer, so I finally opted for the Uhlenbrock Intellibox basic (cost GBP234) which also allows me to use my old transformer (made redundant by the change in the point motor control system). Yesterday, for the first time in the almost seven years I have spent on my layout I was able to sit down and play with the trains, with two running at the same time and carefully controlling their speeds to avoid collisions at the point where the tracks cross each other. However there is still a lot of work to be done yet. One of the turnouts is faulty and I am awaiting a replacement.

Around the middle of last year I proudly announced that I had successfully digitized an old Wrenn locomotive (39 years old but practically never out of its box). This was only partly true, since it only ran for a few centimetres and then stopped. Finally it blew two good (but insufficiently rated decoders). There was an exchange of comments on the forum and finally I had to get a replacement armature and a neo magnet. I also purchased a powerful Zimo decoder and the thing now works, although I think its performance could be improved.

I have a substantial amount of scenic supplements in the form of buses, cars and trucks, trees and buildings, but it suddenly occurred to me yesterday that my street scene is lacking a telephone kiosk. The thing is that I placed an order for material last week and it’s not worth ordering a phone kiosk on its own.