Pointing the way to a first public appearence!
Entry posted by andyram
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Due to a heavy work load since February, progress on Skaleby West has rather resembled that of a steam age freight train – slow, plodding progress interrupted by lots of signal checked periods of inactivity. As I left school on the Friday evening at the start of the Easter break I felt like I was receiving clear signals onto the fast line. This was the chance to speed up progress during the two weeks away from work.
Things started very well too. During the first week the layout was moved from its home in the small, spare bedroom and taken outdoors to have the backboard painted. A coat of grey / blue matt emulsion left over from a previous decorating job gave a reasonable impression of a clear sky. Not that the Easter skies in Derby looked like that very often. Before the paint was dry I was swiftly moving the layout back inside as the latest wave of dark, black clouds rolled in. I only just got the layout back under cover before the latest April shower was deposited on us.
When my very understanding wife arrived home that evening, she only raised a slight eyebrow at the sight of Skaleby West, residing on a pair of kitchen stools across the front of the French doors in our lounge. And she has not raised the slightest complaint that the layout has remained there for the subsequent three weeks! During this time I did undertake some test running. A Bachmann “Jinty†was used to shunt a small collection of wagons. I was pleased to see that everything ran smoothly, with none of the stalling issues of the previous test sessions.
The poor Easter weather meant that it was another week before I found a dry window to take the layout back outside again. This time, with the help of my father, we drilled the holes for, and fitted, the four Hornby point motors to the underside of the board. I had chosen to use the under-board motors with the extended arm attached. Unfortunately these seem to give me a lot of trouble. It took a lot of “playing around†before the motors were aligned correctly, and even then the arm seemed rather fragile and kept “popping out†of the joining piece. I have super-glued all and hope that this solves the problem. Three of the four motors have now been treated in such a way, with arms also cut down to size and track pinned down. The points change fully when the motor is operated by hand, so fingers crossed it will work just as well when they are wired to the power switches. I just have one more point motor to sort out and the final pieces of track to pin down before I can move onto the ballasting of the track.
In the meantime the layout has made an unexpected first public appearance. As mentioned in previous blog entries, I am constructing Skaleby West for display at the model railway show which I am organising at my school on November 10th. This event is part of the school’s fifth birthday year of fundraising. The weekend just passed has seen the official fifth birthday date and was celebrated with a Saturday open day. This featured various stalls and displays including, at the headteacher’s request, Skaleby West. The layout acted as publicity for the event complete with posters and leaflets.
With no scenery, no fiddle yard and hand operated points things were very much “work in progressâ€. But it seemed to be well received and provoked some interest in the event. Once again the layout ran smoothly with no stalling issues. The Jinty once again deployed on shunting a few wagons and provided my first experience of operating the layout from the rear! Just a shame a left the uncoupling hook at home! But at least the event proved I could fit it in the car!
The show itself has seen very little progress since my last entry. But that may have been down to some signal problems, namely a phone line fault that led to a fortnight without the internet. A visit to the Belper show did allow me to confirm the possible attendance of someone to provide some scenic demonstrations. A recent toy fair visit has also seen another trade stand booking. I have produced some posters and leaflets which were displayed at the school event, but these will need to be altered for the wider public as I need to add directions to the school. That will probably be my next job.
Until next time…..
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