Bagpuss

Just 2 days to the show. Layout descriptions have been posted on our website. The society's new O gauge layout Eyemouth will be making its debut at the show. If you're feeling a bit less serious, how about the whimsical Emett inspired layout by Ray Clasper? Not forgetting North Landing, a depiction of the never built Flamborough Head Tramway by our President John Farline.

There's a topic under Club & Society info but it might be easier to find here. Less than 2 weeks to the 60th Wakefield show, featuring 18 layouts and 13 traders. There are 100 free parking spaces on site and refreshments will be available to purchase. Full details at https://www.wakefieldrms.org/exhibition/

That's definitely an MP15AC with side intakes for the radiator. MP15DCs have the classic EMD switcher front radiator.

Nice car and good spot about the number. I'd say both colours are appropriate for WC. The MTH car is good for new paint but WC maroon faded to orange, particularly on earlier cars like your Atlas one. http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3057361 It does look like the reflective strips are on top of the graffiti - and faded paint.

So, did you win it? Was it the one I think it was? And no, I didn't bid on it.

It's gone for good apparently. Replaced by "The unofficial Wisconsin Central modeler group" on Facebook. If you message Bob Menzies via the group, he should be able to link you up with the WC2Scale photo archives. Martin.

Come and see its debut at Wakefield show on 8th and 9th October. https://www.wakefieldrms.org/exhibition/

308 was an RS-20 rebuilt from an RS-3 in 1974 by the Green Bay & Western with a 2000hp 251 and a chopped nose. It was sold to the KBS in 1995 along with RS-11 309. It's now at the Monticello Railway Museum and, hopefully, will be repainted into GBW livery one day.

Shame. It was a nice layout.

Thanks Mike. That's very interesting. We opened the Wakefield clubrooms last month. Given the restrictions of our premises, we've chosen to limit attendance to 6 members in the building. The society has always had a strong social side with many members just wanting to chat. In the current circumstances, this isn't easy so many have chosen not to attend so far, leaving just a few to restart work on the layouts in the clubrooms. We're looking forward to being able to meet more normally and catch up with friends we haven't seen since March last year.

I'm honoured that you've named your layout after me but a bit worried about the falling part. Do I need to start drinking?

In the same way that your hand laid O scale track looks much better than Peco O gauge track. The short answer is code 70/83 looks much better than 75/100. The question is can you live with the appearance of 75/100.

If you can find code 83, it looks a lot more like US track than code 75/100. The smaller, closer spaced ties and moulded spikes look much better than the chaired flat bottom Frankenstein that is code 75/100. My experience is that it runs better than code 75/100 too. The raised flangeways in the frog area prevent wheel drop.

Agreed. My 2005 and 2010 editions of the Locomotive Rosters both show CSX 4420 as an ex-Conrail GP40-2. The loco in the video looks more like a GP40 than a GP35 - 3 full size fans.

The school are not currently accepting external bookings or allowing anybody but staff and pupils on site so we were unable to start preparations for the new venue. Given this and the uncertainties about how the coronavirus pandemic will progress, we felt it was unrealistic to commit to an exhibition and took the difficult decision to cancel.

Bit late to this one but I have bitter experience of the Peco SmartFrog. After many fruitless hours trying to get them to work, I gave up and went with a much simpler solution. I swapped the single pole switch used to operate the servo for a double pole switch and use the second pair of contacts to change the frog polarity. It needs a few more more wires to the panel but it's much cheaper and, importantly, totally reliable. The SmartFrog appears to be a relay that uses an input from the servo controller to determine which way the point is set and changes the frog polarity appropriately. This makes it DC compatible as well as DCC. After connecting the many wires (7 for each SmartFrog), I tested the installation with a meter and verified that it was changing the frog polarity correctly when the point was thrown. However, a loco running through the point would stall. After much head scratching the penny dropped when I realised I could hear the SmartFrog clicking when the loco hit the frog. Testing with a meter verified that when the loco hit the frog, the SmartFrog changed the frog from the correct polarity to the opposite! Cue much cursing. Temporarily replacing the SmartFrogs with a Frog Juicer got everything running beautifully and with a lot less wires. I wanted DC compatibility as well as DCC so I've fitted auxiliary switches as described above. I would have used micro switches but the servos are buried in 2 inch deep foam. I tried reaching out to Peco for help but all I got was the wiring diagram supplied with the SmartFrog. I did wonder whether it could have been a power supply issue. The Peco instructions only specify the supply voltage not the required power capacity. I didn't have time to test that theory. On reflection though the SmartFrog appears to be an expensive and unreliable solution to frog switching. Other solutions are more elegant, more reliable, simpler and usually cheaper. Anybody want 6 barely used SmartFrogs? Apologies for the rant. It caused a lot of tearing of hair at the time. Hope you managed to solve your problem.

Another vote here for Peco code 83. It looks like US track with smaller ties spaced closer and prototypical geometry. Runs really well. Go for it if you can.

Some of the buses listed above go down Dewsbury Road requiring a longer walk from Westgate End. The buses that go down Horbury Road past the Sports Centre gates are 116, 120, 126, 127, 231 and 232.

That looks rather good. Just like the real thing.

There should be a daily train using restored Schindlers until the end of September.https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en/how-to-travel/For-leisure/Nature-and-Culture/miradouro

A couple of prototype photos showing the look we trying to achieve. They were taken from a 2014 post on a Michigan Railroad History forum by an engineer who switched the plant for CN (GTW) a few years ago. Unfortunately the post no longer exists so I can't link to it.

Track plan is below. The layout is 20' x 2' 3 on 5 4' boards. The track at the upper right will disappear behind the building to form a connection to the rest of the plant, allowing cuts of 3 cars to enter and exit the scene. The genesis of the idea was an article in Model Railroad Planning 2014. This Google maps link https://goo.gl/maps/jZF1cbJogvk should give an idea of the feel we're looking to create. Lots of large industrial buildings.

Surely not. Mike is very shy about his interest in American O scale and would never engage anybody in conversation about it.

Is it a Proto F3? If so, is it a QSI chip having problems like those described in this thread? http ://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121741-problem-with-atlas-0-scale-gp7/