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Sad news that Ted Flintoft has passed away. A excellent railway modeller and well respected by us all at Darlington Model Railway Club along with his many friends throughout the modelling fraternity. RIP Ted!

Not too much to report on the layout as it's in storage awaiting Derby with little work required barring a couple of faults with points at one end of the fiddle yard that will need attention in the next few weeks! Lots of work is ongoing to increase stock levels and enhancing our current stock- today's work involved adding some details to a departmental Brill I finished a few years ago. a YAA Brill bogie wagon with scrap rails has received some load straps from Scale model scenery as a finishing touch.

Some images on a previous thread here might help-

A close up of one of the TTA tanks in the yard for all the 'wagon spotters' out there!

Just before we exhibited at Doncaster I had an attempt at a timetable for Up & Dn services, it ended up more as a service guide as operating smoothly to a timetable on its first outing wasn't really practical. Most services have had to be ' what ifs' although the likes of the Portsmouth Harbour - York are easier to identify. I have attached the Down line service list and the keen eyed will observe that yes there are a few that I drew a blank that still need destinations!

The passengers at Charwelton waiting for the next stopping service to Banbury seem oblivious to the Salmon, Walrus, Grampus, Crab & Tunny languishing in the departmental sidings.

A quiet moment between trains in the cutting just north of Charwelton station.

Just a quick post to say we had a great time at the show over the weekend and thankfully it all went well considering it was our first exhibition. Thanks for all the folk who came and chatted and apologies if we missed anyone (concentration levels were maxed out at times as it's not the easiest layout to operate 1st time out). onward to Derby and a few lessons learned over the weekend that will hopefully further enhance the operation side of things.

Well all packed and ready for the 'big push' tomorrow morning! As always please come and say hello and we're all looking forward to debuting Charwelton in its new guise!

Not long to go now until Doncaster!! Thought I had better finish my carflats! PS- The offending camper van has been removed just to make sure that we're back within loading gauge!

Passengers await the arrival of a stopping service through to Oxford. Meanwhile Woodford allocated 08 419 idles in the departmental yard.

Charwelton yard on a Saturday afternoon sees preparations for an engineers train destined for work that evening.

More work on stock this weekend with a MK2 4 coach DMU replacement set finished, which will add a much needed and frequently used service during the 80's! Ps There should be a good variety of motive power (any requests) appearing on this one if you see it at the show!

The thought had crossed my mind but looking at the photo below from Paul Bartletts site if a car was on the top deck of the Cartic then it looks like it would be higher than the roof of the standard height Transit on the flat! Wonder if there is a 'max headroom' measurement in existence for carflats??

After a Christmas break work on completing the stock ready for Doncaster has resumed, the railtour rake is completed, a start on the Motorail service and various freight stock that needs final touches.