kes

Looking good Paul.

We had a very enjoyable day exhibiting the layout at the Rotary Club Newton Aycliffe exhibition. It was very well organised, very friendly, and excellent food. The layout won the Hardaker Trophy for the best layout as voted for by the visiting public. It is astounding this little layout still causes such a reaction many years after I built it. Kevin.

A brilliant little show, well organised and we were well looked after. Cheers, Kev and Maggie.

As per my previous edited post Mickleover will NOT be at The York Show Easter 2024. This is due to an admin error which was not of my making, and I have only just found out. To anyone who was hoping to see Mickleover at this show I can only apologise. It will be out and about again in the future. Kevin.

A couple of shots of a quiet period on Badgers Bottom between trains.

The show went well and was very busy. There were a great selection of good layouts in all the popular gauges, and some good demonstrations of building going on. We were awarded the Richard J Dring trophy for the best layout as voted for by the members of the EBOR group. Thanks guys! We had a few guest operators over the weekend including Al, who is a REAL signalman, and thoroughly enjoyed all the working semaphores and ground signals. We are very tired, but very happy after an enjoyable show. Kevin.

The Bottom is now set up in the Hall at Heworth and everything works at the moment. Keeping fingers crossed for an enjoyable exhibition tomorrow and Sunday.

Hi John, yes it can be frightening when something goes wrong on setting up. I always carry duplicates of transformers, controllers, mains cables, servos, servo drivers, and a spare loco or two. The show must go on. The next set up will be easier now we know what we are doing. Kevin.

Next outing is at the EBOR show at Heworth ,York on Sat/Sun 17/18th Feb. Here we go again!

Just returned from the BRM Doncaster show where Badgers Bottom had its exhibition debut. Had a problem on Friday set up when I discovered one point servo not working. I traced this to the internal wiring being pulled out of the servo, so an interesting hour was spent under the board with a head torch replacing the servo. Later that night after dinner, I set to in the hotel room and opened up the servo to resolder the 3 wires and test it so I had a spare with me. For the rest of the weekend the layout worked perfectly, unlike the operators who kept having brain fade and jamming up the running lines!!! now we know how to drive it. The analogue sound unit created a lot of interest. I need to make a low-pass filter to get more woof into the chuff.

Voted for you and TMC.

Just had 3 hours of light weathering prior to the BRM Doncaster show next weekend. The stock is no longer shiny and looks like it might have worked on a railway rather than come out of a box.

No, nothing to worry about, I just remembered the photo of the 03 and a train of brake vans taking the demolition contractors along the line to value/bid for the assets. This is as close as I can get with my stock.

We had a great time at the Pontefract show - many thanks are due to Richard and his team for the organisation. Sandy Bay worked perfectly all weekend and was well received by the public. It was a busy show which was good to see. The last train of the day was the demolition contractors special! -quite appropriate.

I think I will be starting a new thread for the minimum radius lines within the shed once I have carried out some more testing.

Very useful photos. I might make some progress later this week.

For a rough comparison, the 70cm curve is 27" rad, which equates to 15 1/2" rad in oo - 1st radius. The 80cm curve is 31" rad, which equates to 17" rad in oo - 2nd radius. So it should be possible to get most things around these as long as you have enough side play in the wheel bearings.

And of course Marc at Pre-grouping Railways does the Flippem coupling, which is a more robust and wider-looped variation of the Dingham if you need more sideways movement. Just search for Flippem Couplings on RM Web. I should be laying the test line in the shed later this week, so I shall report on my findings and tweaks as they happen. Some of my stock is 3 link, so may need a longer 2nd link depending on the buffer compression. My trains on this line will only be 3 or 4 wagons or 2 or 3 four wheeled coaches so the loads are small. If I can get things around this 70cm radius curve, I should have no problems with the Rivarossi 80cm curves which will form a high level circuit.

Here are some photos of the Terrier with the wagon on the straight, entering the curve and on the curve, with the engine both ways around.

Here it is on the straight with the wagon attached, then as it enters the curve, then with both on the curve.

Hi Goldfish, it is early days and experimentation at the present, but here are some rough photos of my Terrier and 57xx both fitted with rigid Dinghams, i.e not sprung in the buffer beam. Both the locos and the wagons buffers are lightly sprung. I have used the longest rigid wagon I own, a 20T LNER plate wagon. The sideways movement withing the Dingham loop is at its maximum when one vehicle is on the straight and the other is entering the curve. In all my cases of trials the loop is not being bent sideways. I will be laying the curves so the radius is exact and continuous, so no kinks at fishplates and no gaps between the rail ends. It proves it can be done. This is the 57xx on the 70cm rad curve.

I have not posted anything for over a year to this thread. My shed is 15' 8" x 5' 8" internal dimensions, and experimenting with some Rivarossi set track curves, of 80cm radius, and Lima ones of 70cm radius shows I could get a continuous run in there. Even more remarkable is a trial run using locos and stock shows the following will run around them using 3 link or Dingham couplings:- Dapol 57xx, Dapol Terrier, Heljan 122, and GWR railcar, Minerva tank engines, Dapol 08, with four wheel wagons up to the 20 ton LNER plate wagon. My bogie coaches ( all Kirk kits) need a tiny amount removing from the inside of the solebars to stop the wheels rubbing. I will have NO reverse curves, so propelling is not a problem. I will let you know what I have to do as I go along.

Great work Paul. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one out and about.

Badgers Bottom is going to be out and about at the BRM Doncaster show and the EBOR show in Heworth, York, both in Feb 2024. First time out so will be a baptism of fire!

Hi Paul, very impressed with the way it is all coming together, it looks great. I have retreated onto the kitchen work surface (!) until the weather warms up, ( with Maggie's permission).