Chris M

Interesting discussion and something I have recently been musing over. The weekend before last I took my layout to an exhibition with no barriers and had absolutely no problem at all. Everyone stood at a reasonable distance and just one or two youngsters touched the static grass. This set me thinking. Over the past 12 years or so I have taken various layouts to around 40 exhibitions, some with barriers and some without. At just one show without barriers I had to ask someone to not lean on the layout. The only slight damage to just one layout from a visitor was when a youngster made a grab for some fencing and there were barriers at that exhibition. In my experience barriers do move towards the layout because people lean on them. I recall moving them back a number of times at most exhibitions with barriers. Last weekend, where there were no barriers, I noticed that everyone was automatically keeping a reasonable distance from the layout despite being two or three deep at times. This set me thinking that maybe barriers are the problem. Without them people exercise self restraint and there are no problems. With barriers visitors lean over the layout as the barrier slowly moves closer and closer to the layout. I reckon people will usually be further away from the layout when there aren't barriers than when there are. I know I will be a lone voice on this one but I am very happy to not have barriers at an exhibition; in my experience it just isn't a problem.

I do, regularly….and with my Time Machine.

From what the experts say, while the actual top speed of City of Truro was probably exaggerated a little, there is little doubt that she did hit 100mph.

I have just read an article in the June 1960 edition of Trains Illustrated titled "the Gresley class A3 Pacifics". Flying Scotsmen was so unimportant in those days that it does not get any mention at all in the article. It was just another ordinary member of a class of useful but average express locos. It only became iconic when Mr Pegler hyped it up to an importance it never had in actual service. The Flying Scotsman express train was iconic but the Flying Scotsman loco appears to have been rather mundane and was certainly no flagship once the A4s had appeared. The first conversion from A1 to A3 happened in 1928 but the Flying Scotsman loco didn't get upgraded from A1 to A3 until 1947. I think this just shows how iconic this loco really was when it was part of the LNER fleet. It seems the general public will happily lap up any old tales they are told, and part with good money for tat.

I do N gauge and have had a few pins break when trying to insert them. They are what they are. They work well and provide very good close coupling. Once fitted mine have proved to be 100% reliable in service, something which can’t be said about certain brands of Rapido couplings which sometimes come undone. It would be nice if the magnetic couplings were moulded rather than 3D printed but 3D printing is what West Hill do. Some batches seem to be better than others. I’m sure there is nothing stopping others making moulded magnetic couplings. Although not a perfect product I still say thank you to West Hill for the Hunt coupling range. Nearly all of my coaches are fitted with them. You can be almost certain that someone from West Hill will have read this. Like many manufacturers I expect they read what is written here but choose not to reply as any response might well lead to things going rapidly downhill.

Its also said that Hitler made the trains run on time but then we don't know how he achieved this.

My favourite named loco was in the USA - Rock Island Line 4345 "Ivan the Terrible".

I think its a shame that nowadays people spend so much time looking for faults with figures from the past. Oliver Cromwell would not have been controversial back in the 1950s because, even though we all knew there were a lot of issues with his time in power, he was still a very significant figure in English history and he was respected as such. These days it seems that when a famous figure is found to have done some bad things they sort of get deleted which is a shame.

I don't live at Worlds End but I am less than a mile away which is quite scary really. California is only a mile away from Worlds End in the other direction. Quinton is a strange place to live.

Well that's just stupid. There's no way there would be a conical water tower so close to a water tower; it would obviously just be a water crane.

As a layout exhibitor at this show I would like to say a big thankyou to all the Statfold Barn staff and volunteers. What a wonderful group of happy helpful people who looked after us exhibitors very well, also a fantastic venue. I had a most enjoyable weekend. Special thanks to Joey and Tony who did all the hard work to make this exhibition happen.

The end of the line from the plan above. It is a current project so not much to see but it shows how things fit. A single track line on a 7 inch board in N does allow reasonable scenic development. The single track boards are not complete but they are coming along. I don’t think they look too bad considering the very restricted depth.

I am building a skinny shelf layout in N. It is 12ft long but only 7 inches deep. The station at the end doesn't allow for much scenic development but it fits and allows plenty of shunting. The track is all laid but I haven't really started scenic work on the terminus yet.

I don't think Chris adds smoke nowadays.

With all due respect to others who are very good, Chris Nevard is my favourite model railway photographer. I treasure the photos he has taken of my layouts.

Testing to check all was good for Statfold mostly went very well….

All my stock is packed ready for transportation on Friday and the van is booked. I’m loooking forward to a great weekend playing trains and having a few rides on the narrow gauge. Here are a few photos taken during testing. This will be the only outing for Dawlish Warren this year.

There is actually a dam at Frankley

Agreed. I enjoyed the exhibition last so much that I asked if I could bring my layout this year. They said yes. it really is a lovely venue and was a very good quality exhibition last year. I’m very much looking forward to be part of it this year and hoping to have chance to get a few train rides in.

I always print my track plan out full size from Anyrail before starting to build. Just printing it out full size and putting a train on it will usually cause me to make changes.

If you want to represent a main line I would say 4 coach trains is nowhere near enough. The rule of thumb in 00 of 11 inches per coach plus 12 inches for a loco works so if you only want to run 4 coach trains a 5 foot platform length would be fine. One reason I love N gauge is that I can and do run 10 & 11 coach trains on my main line. Now I am used to that a 5 coach train trying to be a mainline express just doesn't do it for me. Yes I know there are some 5 or even 4 coach trains on the mainline but it is the exception rather than normal.

I would either go to your local club or go to a few exhibitions and ask the question. There are no any different approaches all of which are valid. I always use a diode matrix and a flippin big CDU. Unfortunately I couldn’t write about all the options here.

Looking at it another way,maybe it was the existence of Accurascale and their 00 models was a significant factor that helped to push Hornby to go to TT:120.

If Accurascale brought out a TT:120 loco Hornby would not be happy at all. It wouldn't surprise me if Accurascale were quietly working on some TT:120 items; there is more space for new models there than anywhere else.