ColinW

I saw the layout at Tolworth yesterday, and the layout looks great with the extension fitted. Colin

Having not done much on the layout for a variety of reasons, We managed to have a morning, doing some scenic work. Two boards were being worked on. The first board was planning for the platforms. Whilst this board was being worked on, I went back to working on the turntable, fitting the circular rail. This was done by using a spare off cut of Code 75 flexi track, with both rails and the chairs cut away from the sleepers and then connected using 2 fishplates and the rail trimmed down to make the correct size circle, before being glued in place. We can now progress with work on the table itself. Colin

Tonbridge MRC will be hosting their 40th model railway exhibition, on Saturday 19th February 2022. The exhibition will be held in the Angel Centre, Angel Lane, Tonbridge, TN9 1SF. Admission prices are as follows: Adults £6.00, Children (between 10 -16) £1.00, Children under 10 (if accompanied by an adult) FREE. Further information available from the club's website, WWW.tonbridgemrc.com. The following layouts, traders and societies are currently confirmed as attending. Layouts: Bear Creek N Bosun's Wharf OO Fintonagh O Gosfield Yard O Habbaniya Iraq 1941 Horsebridge Wharf EM Katharine Street Station OO Kingsnorth N Kinlochlaggen N Lambourn OO New Walmington Pier OO9 Norge HO Ospringe (St.Peter) & Water Lane N Priorsfield OO Shillingstone N Strood Dock O Upper Oreful Street OO Wickhambreux Road OO9 Wittenden O-16.5/O9 dual gauge. Traders: ACE Products C & L Finescale Carriage and Wagon models Coastal DCC David Wills Dingo Servo Mounts Doug's Model Trains and Tools DOW Scenics Golden Arrow Productions Harrison-Brown Models Heritage in Motion Invicta Model Rail Kent Garden Railways KS Laser Designs Layouts 4u Matthew Cousins (Artist, with O gauge Drive Thomas) Mick Jupp Mike Turner (Artist) Plus Daughters Rail Books Railroad Trading Ray Morris Simply Southern Squires Model & Craft Tools Supercast The Wagon Yard Societies: Spa Valley Railway Tonbridge Model Engineering Society This will be updated when more information is available. Colin

When Hornby brought out the 4 & 6 wheel coaches, I thought that pairing them with the new Terrier would be a great train pack. However I would have thought that doing an LBSCR, Southern mainland, Southern IoW or BR set, would have been better than a GWR set Colin

A good day at the show. Excellent layouts (as now the norm for the Uckfield show), all worth spending time to stand and watch, and good to catch up with some of the Uckfield members. Colin

Hi Fulton, Here are some photos I was able to take of Strood Dock this afternoon. It is an O gauge layout, with the scenic area being 10foot in length. It is due to be at Tonbridge in February. Colin

Hi Fulton, Will take camera with me tomorrow, and put some up on here. Colin

I will be making the short journey from Tonbridge on the Saturday. Its always a good show. Colin

I will be behind Strood Dock in the Channel Suite tomorrow. Colin

Having been able to put the layout up fully, I was hoping to be able to carry out the wiring work on the point motors. We were going to use DCC Concepts analogue motors, but after fitting them on the boards, sitting down to read the instructions, we discovered that we would need to have extra switches to operate them, and unfortunately this went beyond the capacity we had available in the control panel or underneath the boards . So we decided to remove those motors, and use a Megapoints board and servos. This is a system that we have used on a club layout and are happy with how it has worked on that for us. The Servo controller board fitted in the control panel Servos fitted on the central board of the layout The central board showing the majority of the servos fitted The servos wired into the under board panel for connecting to the control panel. Colin

Tonbridge MRC are happy to say that club nights have now resumed on Thursday nights, between 19:00 - 22:00, at a new venue. We are now meeting in Forsyth Hall (Age UK), 5 Bradford Street, Tonbridge, TN9 1DU Colin

Whilst I live in Tonbridge, so yes I know/knew of the direct service to Guildford, driving there takes about an hour, and I am obviously not tied down to return times. Will be going over tomorrow, so hopefully (for me) quiet in the shop, so can have a good look around and possibly a pub lunch from one of the pubs just down the road. Colin

Received the email from the shop in Guildford saying they had my order. A car journey will be made in the next couple of days to collect them. Colin

We used several pots of Railmatch 2406 acrylic sleeper grime on the sleepers, and it is very effective in dulling down the plastic used for the sleepers. Colin

This morning, the track circuit wiring was finished for the layout, the central board being the last board done. Having gotten that done, and with some favourable weather, we were able to put the layout up fully, for the first time since we started!! Some testing was also done. The next stage for us, will be to wire up the points and test them. Colin

Since we had the testing of the first two boards, another two boards have been wired up, although not tested yet. These are the board with the turntable and the goods yard area, leaving the central board as the last one to be wired up. We should then be in a position to do testing on all the boards, just to confirm everything still works correctly. Once we are happy about this wiring, we can start on the point motors. The wiring for the Goods yard area, that was done this morning. Whilst the wiring was being done, the weathering of the sleepers on all the boards has been completed, along with some of the missing sleepers being fitted back. The platform area has also been marked out on both boards where the station will be. Colin

Having wired up the first two boards, this morning they were put together, and connected to the control panel, and we put power into them. First of all using just one controller, then when happy increasing to two controllers, which proved to be successful. The rail sides can be painted now, and then platform edges put in position. Wiring on a third board has also started. Colin

With the majority of the work in the control panel done, a start was made on wiring up the first boards. These are the boards that the station platforms will be put on. The board at the end of the layout. The board leading onto the station throat. The next stage, will be to arrange for power to be put into the control panel, then we can look at doing a testing session with these two boards. Colin

So after a long time, the three of us involved with the layout were able to have a working morning on the baseboards. Whilst I fitted the final point motors on the central board, the other two began weathering the sleepers on the station boards. All the point motors in place on the central board Weathering duties on the sleepers begin. Colin

A bit more work done on the control panel, with the 25 way D sockets fitted at each end of the cover and main body. Inside the main body of the control panel. The cover for the control panel. The cover and the main body electrically connected using computer ribbons. The cover fitted onto the main body. I still have to do the point wiring, again using a 25 way D socket for the cover and main body and computer ribbon, and connect the hand held controller plugs, but will be done before we want to test run locos on the baseboards. Colin

Steve was an excellent demonstrator at exhibitions, scratch build locos & rolling stock in plasticard. He would greet people with a smile and a friendly insult, before inquiring as to how people were, and how the club was. Unfortunately he had been unwell in recent years but still wanted to do demos at a show, latterly with his wife, who drove him. He will definitely be missed at shows, and on behalf of Tonbridge MRC, we send our condolences to his wife Sally. Colin

As I do about 20+ shows a year, it's very hard to pick, but here goes 1. Uckfield - Good selection of layouts 2. Ally Pally - normally turns into a club outing, great day out 3. RailEx - Great layouts and traders. Others that I should mention : Tonbridge (club show), Epsom & Ewell, Basingstoke, South Hants MRC (Portsmouth), Scaleforum, Farnham, High Wycombe. Colin

Whilst we are happy to get back on to the baseboards, work has continued with the wiring in the control panel. Hopefully the control panel should be ready for when we want to do testing on the layout. Colin

With the government's restrictions being eased, this morning allowed us to go back to working on the baseboards. This was to fit the first 4 point motors onto the baseboards. We are using the cobalt motors that we had fitted to Avon Junction, and are relatively new. We will be looking at getting the other 8 motors fitted in the near future, and then wiring can begin. In between being able to work on the baseboards, the wiring in the control panel continues. Colin

Managed to get the next part of the control panel done over the weekend. This included laminating an A3 copy of the track plan, trimming it to size and fixing it to the cover of the panel, then drilling the holes for the section and isolation switches and push buttons for the point controls. Due to the thickness of the cover, the back of it had to be countersunk around the holes to allow the switches and buttons to sit deep enough to give enough thread poking through to fit the locking nut on. The switches without caps are DPDT centre off (on-off-on) and will be wired so that either controller will be able to operate the section, whilst those with caps on are SPST switches for the isolation areas in the sections. The next step will be to start wiring up the switches, hopefully before the end of the month. This is so that should the government's road map out the pandemic work, we can look at working on the boards again (more wiring!!) Colin