mike knowles

Yeah agree. Had an excellent day there. No suggestion the hobby is dying out based on what I saw!

Just driven over to Harrogate from Hull. No problems, all roads clear. Going to the show tomorrow, looking forward to seeing HLJ again.

Really grateful to Cavalex for letting me run the 56 on my Boston Frodsham layout. Only downside was having to hand it back at the end of the day!

Stunning work.

Quick heads up for the show this weekend. I'll be there with my Boston Frodsham layout.

Seems like it's a dog friendly show too!

Been flying the P4 flag with my Boston Frodsham layout. Very enjoyable day, looking forward to tomorrow. (Once I've had a sleep!) A couple of quick photos.

This would seem to confirm your comment about the cab door handle.

I notice there's no mention of DC Kits/Legoman in the list of traders attending.

Visited today. Awesome, a joy to watch.

Further to the reported problems converting to P4, I received my wheels from Alan Gibson this morning (very prompt service) so set about doing my three MDV wagons. Firstly some comparative measurements done with my digital calipers. Accurascale; axle length 25.35mm, axle diameter 1.5mm, wheel diameter 11.8mm. Alan Gibson; axle length 25.90mm, axle diameter 2.0mm, wheel diameter 12.3mm. With the brake gear removed I found that on my wagons at least the new wheelsets ran quite freely with no adjustments needed. In fact I was surprised how easy they went in considering the longer axle length. However fitting the alternative brake gear did cause some binding issues. Partly with the brake shoes rubbing on the wheel treads (possibly due to the larger wheel diameter) but I think mainly due to the link joining the two yokes together. This link passes over the top of the axle and as supplied just about clears the 1.5mm diameter axle but binds quite severely on the 2.0mm diameter Alan Gibson axle. A bit of work with a file on this link plus the faces of the brake shoes soon provided the necessary clearance to allow the wheels to turn freely again. Maybe I've been lucky with mine I don't know, I'll see if my three Coil A wagons turn out the same. I do wonder if Accurascale actually tried fitting some EM/P4 wheels during the development stage but hope they take note of these comments and make due allowances on future models. Some comment/feedback from them here would also be appreciated.

That's brilliant, many thanks. Pack C ordered.

Will they be suitable for conversion to P4?

Many thanks. As the saying goes, every little helps!

Excellent photos. I'm looking at building a layout based on Queensborough Rolling Mill. If you have any more photos I'd love to see them.

I would like to record my thanks on here to Andy York for letting me include in the show the video of the interview he recorded with me when I exhibited Boston Frodsham at the Festival of British Railway Modelling at Doncaster last February. It may contain too many views of my ugly mug and Hull accent but it was still way better than any video that I could have produced!

Many thanks Steve, glad you liked it.

Thanks John. As the signals I built for our previous layout were ER that's probably where I got the idea they were black. The ones I'm currently building for our new layout are a mix of ex Highland Railway and LMS so probably looks like I need to repaint them!

I notice the back blinders on these signals are painted white. I always assumed they were black but some photos of prototype signals I've looked at recently also show white ones. Any idea whether white was always used or could they be either colour.

I'll be there with Boston Frodsham. A couple of photos below to hopefully tempt you even more!

So if manual handling regulations restrict a person to lifting a maximum of 25kg then you'll need five people just to carry the ballast when you're setting up the layout at a show!

If it was loaded with concrete we'd ring the fire brigade to come and flush it out before it went hard!

Cheers Steve. On behalf of Hessle MRG I'd like to offer our sincere thanks to all the exhibitors and traders who turned out to support us. Also to the people who visited the show, in numbers far greater than we had hoped, particularly given the weather conditions early in the day. The day was a great success which everyone appeared to enjoy immensly. Thank you all again.

Cheers Steve. As he says it's tomorrow from 10.00 to 16.00. Don't miss it!