Express Daisy Sidings - Anshurst - an Inglenook

[brightspark]

So thanks for the suggestions. Please keep them coming.

 

But to look at what we have.

 

PaulRhB

nice idea. But I have found that AJ's need free movement and I suspect that the extra springing of the flap might resist the coupling dropping properly.

 

Pauls 3 link couplings.

I did think of replacing the iron wire with iron chain. But I was reminded that this is also a test track for my AJ's. 

[it was said in the hope that it would encourage me to set them up properly, so that work correctly - which they do now.]

 

I am a fan of 3 links but not for this application. 

 

Now the grill idea.

 

Have a look at this screen shot from the 1954 Express Dairy film.

 

 

But first I shall measure up how much depth I have between the rails.

I might have to go to a ballast mix.

 

Andy (I got a great idea lads)

[brightspark]

OK, I have walked away so I can think about what I want to do here.

 

But what I find really annoying is that Gordon Gravett managed to  do it on Arun Quay. 

See 6 minutes in on this video. 

 

 

I know that it is the senior scale, but still annoying.

 

Andy

ps this is now down as a layout on the Southampton Show in January. So I had better get a wiggle on.

 

 

[brightspark]

So time out taken and the clock is counting down to Soton.

My time out, by the way, was spent on an E-bay purchase, a rather nice King Arthur already made to EM. 

It needed some tidying up and a few repairs. But is now a good'un and ready for the next test test day for Swaynton. That will be prep for Ally Pally. So another dead line. Which I find rather refreshing and I am looking forward to all of these shows. So fingers crossed that they can go ahead.

Right back onto this deadline.

 

So I now have some LED light strips but as yet no drivers. I was warned that it is not a good idea to use the 12volt output from a controller.  So I await a call from Toolstation. Hopefully I have a compatible unit as it's the only type they sell.

Today I took a trip to Kernow  in Guildford to purchase some PECO backscene. (Kernow being the closest shop that stocks it). Luckily that is all I came out with. There are so many tempting goodies in there.

 

I was a little unsure about using Peco as the photo papers are very good and are the correct height. But decided that this was the way forward as the backscene has to curve around three sides and would have to be modified. I don't think that the photo scene would be that friendly. 

However before purchase I thought that I would practice on some very old PECO backscene to see what I could achieve. I am encouraged by the result.

 

(oops I thought that I had taken another picture here showing more of the scene. But you get the idea.)

 

The main area for modification is the left hand end were the level crossing is. After crossing the road I imagine the line leading into a goods yard and station that has been built on a curve like Billingshurst. The line disappearing to the left and out of site. In this view the line is curving away and off into the background.

 

At the other end...

 

 

...the concrete has come up. The area in front of the dock will be cinder and ballast.

 

Before I did this drastic surgery, I did experiment with a paper flap between the tracks as suggested by Paul RhB on page 3. Sadly I couldn't get it to work.  The paper offers too much resistance to the spring in the coupler wire.

Still a great suggestion. Keep them coming.

St.Merryn has a similar problem in front of the cattle dock. But they fixed this with gully running down the centre-line of the track which doesn't look out of place.

 

A thought has occurred to me that there is space inside and behind this building for the umbilical connections. So I plan to cut a hole in the rear board and install a panel to which the various plug sockets can be installed.

 

I am also pondering as to the best way to finish this end. 

The carboard strip represents a wall. Is this to go the whole way or should there be a gate?

The gap between the wall and the end of the  dairy dock building is also a problem. I have stuck a Wills wooden garage end in there for the moment. Can i get away with that?

Or is there an alternative to a wall?

 

While I was thinking about that it also occurred to me that some thought should be given as to how to move this layout to and from the car and exhibition hall/ storage area. 

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on this?

 

Andy

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by brightspark
reapply photos

[brightspark]

When posting the last missive, I thought that I had taken a couple more shots of the left hand side, but alas.

 

To make up for the shortfall, here is an offering of the level crossing. Now more or less complete with the mocked up backscene in place.

 

 

You will just have to imagine the trees in the foreground.

 

Unfortunately, last weekend, I found myself having to isolate as I had caught the dreaded lurgy.  SWMBO had a cold when I cam home from work on Thursday. So having heard the article on the PM program [R4] I suggested that she did a LFT. It came back with a positive result immediately so we booked a PCR test for the next day. Of interest on the Friday morning, I took another LFT and it still showed negative. But the PCR in the afternoon eventually came back positive.

 

This means that to progress I have to use what is around me. Which is great because the Devil (procrastination) had held up progress while I pondered the next stage. With no means of getting down to the builders merchants I decided to use up part of the pile of wood in my SABLE and started to make progress.

 

So I present, the lid.

 

 

This is the lid and lighting panel ,made from hardboard. 

The strips of wood are to provide a less flexible base for the light strips.

I had just enough white paint to cover the inside. (The last tin in the back of the garage)

 

Fortunately, just before I had to isolate, I managed to obtain some LED lights and a driver.

My choice is from Toolstation. I based this on price, adaptability and locality, no other connection.

The LED strips are made by Green lighting.

I selected 2400mm Warm White and 1200mm Cool white with the intention of good colour balance. 

These are 12v powered strips with a lead1800mm (6ft) ending in a plug.

 

I was warned off using the 12v DC fixed out put on the back of the controller as it may not provide sufficient power. The required rating being 4.8 watts per meter.

So I also purchased a driver from the same supplier. This is a Sensio Low-profile driver unit. I got the 30w to make sure I had enough power.

This unit is intended to screw onto a panel. 

The sockets fit the LED plugs very well, ensuring that they don't fall out and have the correct polarity.

It looks like these are a standard fitting across the industry. So any driver should fit any LED strip. 

(unless someone knows different)

The only complaint that I have is that the mains lead connection to the driver is not as good.  There being no positive lock, in fact the connection feels quite loose, and if holding the driver up the mains lead will fall out under its own weight.

 

So this means that some thinking will have to go into how this is mounted. Ideally I want all the mains stuff on the floor.

 

Andy

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by brightspark
reapply photos

[brightspark]

Happy New Year everyone and here is the latest progress report.

 

First the sad news that the Southampton show has been cancelled. 

I had an email from the organiser before Christmas advising the cancellation. It's a shame but understandable in these difficult times.

 

Next the lights are all installed and working.

I decided on warm white arranged in two rows with cool white at every third section.

 

The photos hopefully shows the arrangement.

 

 

 

The front row of lights (top of the pictures) sits inside the lighting pelmet. The intention being to throw light onto the front of the layout and to provide sufficient illumination to see the wagon numbers.

 

The lower photo shows the arrangement of jumper wires between the two rows and between the cool white LED strips.

There is a handy cut line printed onto the strip. The strips are protected by a layer of silicone that has to be cut back to expose the terminal points.

I took the precaution of adding solder to these as soon as I removed the protective layer before any surface corrosion/ tarnishing set in.

 

With the lighting in place I could then start to concentrate on the back scene and the ground cover.

Nothing much unusual about the ground cover. But the backscene has not gone well.

 

 

The idea was to show the main line entering from stage left and disappearing into the distance on the back wall. 

Never mind, I will keep trying until I get it right. At the same time I will also try to make the Peco backscene look a little less like Devon. 

I must also consider the road that the gates protect. Where does it go?

 

 

Finally, disaster!

Today the little Hornby 48DS  made a horrible grinding noise, gave a flash from the wheels and overloaded the controller. Removal of the body and a second attempt at applying power saw smoke coming from the small circuit board. 

Further stripping down finally found the fault within the motor. Something has come adrift in there, possibly a brush, causing a nasty grinding noise, short circuiting and a lot of heat.

I have written to Hornby and await their reply.

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by brightspark
reapply photos

[Gordon A]

On 14/11/2021 at 23:15, brightspark said:

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, having infilled the track and given it a quick coat of concrete paint.

 

 

Yes, that is exactly what I was after.

 

A little bit of cleaning up as I had to get the paint off the rails. The little 48DS doesn't like having any interruptions on the rail front. 

 

Then it was time to have a quick play...errr run through an operating sequence.

 

And this is where I realised that the design had a flaw.

 

Mr Ruston had asked about seeing the sleepers and baseboard being visible, I have that covered.

I was concerned that there may be tightness of the back to back clearance, also covered and ready to some adjustments.

 

But what I had not considered was the space required for the AJ coupling.

 

For those who are not familiar with this and for people like me who thought that they were...

 

The AJ coupling can be described as a wire that protrudes out of the end of the wagon with a bent end that hooks onto the next coupling. The other end being fixed at some point further along the wagon. Hanging down from it is a 1mm iron armature located behind the wheel nearest to the coupled end. When this runs over a magnet it pulls the coupling down and causes it to uncouple.

 

The armature must be 1mm to 1.5mm above rail height and when pulling the coupling down will move 3mm.

 

If some fool has infilled the track flush with the top of the rails then the stock won't uncouple as the armature hits the infill.

 

As a short term remedy, I have cut  a slot in the middle of the 4' to clear this. The coupler now works.

 

 

I will also have to do the middle road and rethink the scheme of the infill.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

I have pinched Gordon Gravett's method of shortening the AJ droppers and position the magnets so the ends are flush with the top of the infill.

[brightspark]

On 01/01/2022 at 20:44, Gordon A said:

I have pinched Gordon Gravett's method of shortening the AJ droppers and position the magnets so the ends are flush with the top of the infill.

Ah-ha that's how he did it!

Thanks Gordon.

[brightspark]

So with the Southampton show being cancelled, the 48DS blowing its motor, I have parked the project so I can concentrate on getting stock ready for Alli-Palli in March. So far this month I have converted a set of Bulleid 59' coaches, a GBL and tidied up an N15 purchased from e-bay.

 

The good news about the 48DS is that Hornby came straight back to me and offered a free repair. But then had to decline this offer when I told them that I had converted it to EM. They then sent me a new motor to fit myself.

So now it whizzes up and down quite happily. 

I removed the little circuit board, as one of the components had burnt out, and wired the motor directly to the pickups. 

 

So a big thank you to Hornby.

It also shows that just because you mess around with the model that all warranties are not automatically voided.

 

 

I will return to Daisy sidings in a few weeks. 

Edited September 22, 2022 by brightspark
reapply photos

[Guest Jack Benson]

Hi,

 

Sorry to butt in however a recent gift of a micro-layout baseboard has triggered a flurry of activity. The new board is just 42”x9” and just wondering if you used an additional board for ‘off scene’ activity or was everything restricted to the 48” board?
I cannot imagine any other track layout than a inglenook and your sweeping curves are pure eye candy, they will be copied.

Thanks and StaySafe
 

 

[brightspark]

On 18/02/2022 at 20:50, Jack Benson said:

Hi,

 

Sorry to butt in however a recent gift of a micro-layout baseboard has triggered a flurry of activity. The new board is just 42”x9” and just wondering if you used an additional board for ‘off scene’ activity or was everything restricted to the 48” board?
I cannot imagine any other track layout than a inglenook and your sweeping curves are pure eye candy, they will be copied.

Thanks and StaySafe
 

 

Hello Jack,

I just caught up with your post.

First thanks for the kind comment.

To answer your question it is all on one board. The gate at the end being closed and the reason why the shunting restriction is in place.

As it such a small space I had to use A5 turnouts, which is the tightest that you want to go for in EM. Of course if you are doing this OO you will have plenty of space. 

Andy

[brightspark]

I'm here again!

 

So when the Southampton show was cancelled in January I moved onto some other projects that suddenly took a priority.

 

These were...

 

This        

 

    that               

 

              there                                      

 

and also this                      

 

to run on this at Scaleforum. 

 

 

With that all out of the way and the Southampton show booked for January 2023, there is just enough time to get this little layout in a more complete state.

That is if I get a wiggle on.

 

Daisy sidings has not been idle. I have been operating it and improving its presentation as well as preparing various items ready to complete the scene.

 

The last update on the actual layout saw the installation of LED lights fitted to a roof or lid of the box. During the fine weather I gave the box a coat of primer and a top coat of Oxford Blue. I like blue and this closely matches the Express Dairy blue.

This amused my neighbours who showed great interest in what I was doing, so it gave me a chance to test out if I had the height right.

 

It seems that I had misjudged this with the viewing portal or letterbox too small in height. So that shorter people couldn't see anything while those who were taller had to stoop down.

So after some experimentation, my neighbours were very patient, we worked out that lowering the layout and raising the height of the lid improved the visibility. 

 

Here is a photo showing the 4" extension installed and being painted.

The lid is open here and you can see how the lighting arrangement is set out.

 

I spent a while thinking about how to keep the structure stable, but it has resulted in the whole thing getting heavier and of course a little larger.

My idea was to be able to carry this into the exhibition hall under one arm, that is now becoming less practical. 

Still this is a learning curve. Next time I will have a better idea of size and would not be using 2x1 timber.

 

The loose tangle of wires sitting in the box are the leads that will go to the power pack. This will sit on the floor under the layout. The leads go to the lights on the lid and to the controller socket. The latter is a DIN plug mounted to the front left hand side of the layout. The cables will store inside the dairy building and will leave their storage area through a trap door cut into the back panel where they will drop down the floor. 

I am rather pleased with that solution as it is very neat.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by brightspark

[brightspark]

A couple of work colleagues have been following my progress with some interest. One in particular, Paul, has really taken to the idea of a shunting layout. For all of you who think that shunting layouts like Daisy Sidings, with its restricted head shunt and short siding are un-prototypical. Well, he disagrees and says that this is just like the real thing. For he used to shunt train on the big railway but his goal was to get as many units into a depot as he could and still be able to get trains out when ready. Now Paul is our electrical engineer and I was picking his brains for a solution to an enhancement that had occurred to me.

 

That is, that as the idea of an inglenook is to do as few moves as possible it seemed a good idea to have a means of counting how many moves occur.

 

The thinking is to have some sort of detection for the train and rig this up to a counter. We looked at the MERG site for inspiration and found what looked like a couple of ideas for the train detection.

As the Farnham show was on that weekend, I decided to see what MERG had on the stand that was in attendance.

Although they had a number of units on their display/ demonstration stand, we could not work out any particular method of detection that met the requirement. Proposed methods included infra-red sensors, detectors for power to the track, some clever detection for track circuits and even bar code readers. Paul had initially suggested reed switches, and in the end, I came to the conclusion that this was the most practical method.

Paul had also identified a rather nice counter that is more in keeping with the layout than the many digital displays available. The MERG guys couldn’t imagine how this would work and suggested that a digital readout was more practical (they understood that) and probably cheaper. I get the impression that they are only aware of the latest technology so do not understand anything pre-micro-chip.

Perhaps I am being unfair.

 

Ignoring their advice, I proceeded with plan A and soon this box arrived.

 

That contained this.

 

It is an electro-mechanical counter. You put a pulse of 12volts DC across the terminals and it counts plus 1 with a satisfying klunk-gnnnngggg.

 

The reed switches came from Squires along with some small magnets.

My first plan was to install one reed switch at the start of the headshunt. But this would miss any movement with short trains in the two short sidings. So, a reed switch had to go there as well.

 

Ideally the reed switches should be buried under the track, but I thought that it would be a good idea to check how close a magnet had to be to work the switch. I quickly found out that the magnets that I had purchased were not up to the job and would only just activate the switch when right up against it and then not every time.

So, I had to learn a bit about reed switches and magnets.

 

Magnets and Reed Switches.

 

The Reed Switch

To start let us look at a reed switch. This is made up of two ferrous strips that almost touch and are held in a vacuum within a glass vial. When a magnet is near, they get excited, are attracted and make a connection.

Note that there are some switches that can do the reverse, i.e., break a circuit.

I found that mounting the switch with the bulb central to the track was not as successful as setting it to one side. I got a better reaction with the magnet passing over the leg. You can see how I mounted them in the photos.

 

 

 

 

The Magnet

 

You can get these very powerful small magnets but before I go on a word of warning.

MAGNETS ARE DANGEROUS AND CAN CAUSE FATAL INJURIES.

The obvious risk is don’t put them near computers etc as they can wipe electronic memories.

There is a risk of trapping your finger or even limbs if two larger magnets trap them. But the biggest risk is swallowing them. Having one in the digestive tract is not a problem, but two or more is, as they will clamp to each other and will cause infection, bleeding etc and will require surgery to remove. So, KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND ANIMALS. If you think that one may have been ingested, get medical help and count how many magnets you have left in case more than one was swallowed. Mine are in a sealed box with a note advising how many there are.

With the warning over I can now share my scant knowledge about what I learnt about magnets. (Feel free to correct me or add more)

There are two things that are important to us for this exercise. The first is the power of the magnet, that is how strong is it. The second is the range, how far will it reach. In this case the reed switch will be under the rails with the magnet flush to the bottom of the chassis on the loco and as far away from the motor as possible.

As I said before, the magnets that I had initially purchased were 3mm diameter by 1mm thick and were well short of what I required as they would only just activate the reed switch when in direct contact.

Now it seems that the strength is based on the ratio of the diameter of the magnet to its depth.

So, a Ø3mm x 1mm magnet has the same strength as a Ø6mm x 2mm magnet. But you can increase the strength by having a longer magnet. You can do this by either buying a longer magnet or joining magnets together in a string. As I had another Ø3mm x 1mm magnet I put them together to make a Ø3mm x 2mm and it was noticeably stronger causing the reed switch to work every time but I still needed to have the magnet in contact.

 

Having worked out that I needed a longer magnet I still had to consider increasing the range as I wanted to maintain daylight under the loco. The answer to this it seems is to have a bigger magnet.

So, if Ø3mm x 1mm isn’t strong enough and Ø3mm x 2mm doesn’t have the range…so I purchased some Ø5mm x 4mm magnets.

 

I choose this because I could get the 4mm depth into the 48DS’s plastic chassis cover and Ø 5mm seemed about right.

Tests gave a positive result in that as the loco passes over the switch I get a klunk-gnnnngggg from the counter.

 

However, I think that the magnets may be a bit too strong as the loco stalls over the permanent magnets when they are in the uncouple position. The loco will pull over them but won’t push. Perhaps I should have gone for a slightly smaller size. I don’t know what would happen if I was using steel track!

 

So, there you have it, the little chugs up and down and each time is does a move klunk-gnnnngggg and the counter has added it to the score.

 

klunk-gnnnngggg

[brightspark]

Merry Christmas All,

 

with the operational side sorted, it is time to do some scenery. 

This is the bit where you gum up all the bit that make it work.

So here is the update as to progress over the last month.

 

With the higher frontage I needed to have more sky. Now this is a problem that I had no considered with the original plan. I had looked at the photo back scenes and decided that I didn't need the height (oh how wrong was I) but also I couldn't find a suitable background.

With the higher sky, I revisited the photo papers but still could not find what I wanted. My problem being that the backscene curves so I couldn't have the line going into the back of a house. At best I could try and edit the picture, but I really couldn't see how to that without making a pigs ear of the whole thing.

 

So back to plan A and continue to use the Peco backscenes. These would have been high enough on the original design but I now need to extend the sky.

I did have some plain sky sheets and thought that I could just add them to the top. Unfortunately the colour is not quite the same and the nearest match I could get was to use these upside down.

I then made a dog's breakfast of the whole thing by fixing each sheet onto the layout. I did these individually and in hindsight I think that I should have joined them first. I also thought that I had sufficant support behind them, especially at the corners. For some reason the whole thing had some horrible wrinkles and there were gaps and overlaps where the sheets joined.  Also the colour difference now looked even worse.

 

Rework- I teased off some of the sheets to improve the wrinkles and ease the curves in the corners. It isn't perfect, but serves the function. The sheets that had overlapped were cut back flush and some plaster filler and light sanding was done to fill the gaps. 

This was brushed over with a sky blue to match the Peco artwork. This mix is blue, white and a touch of yellow.

Over this I painted on some clouds. These are quite yellow at the back and become whiter nearer the front. 

Using this technique I was able to overcome the gaps and colour mismatch. The results seem to be OK and I get to keep my original touched up scenes that includes the painted on road and rail link.

 

 

 

I thought that the whole scene had looked a little unbalanced and that there should also be a chimney somewhere. 

For this I used a Scalescenes boiler house, modifying it so that it is half relief and without the slopping wall.

 

The brickwork is slightly different to the rest of buildings suggesting an older structure. It also juts out towards the track. Or is that the track skims past it on an alignment that was added when the site became a dairy?

 

 

The Southampton show is just a month away, so I think that I have just enough time for a complete(ish) layout.

 

Andy

 

 

[brightspark]

Happy New Year all.

 

So after the Christmas break I managed to get the layout to a state of acceptable completeness.

There are a few details to go on it, but the milestone has been reached.

Buildings are stuck down, the sky is blue the trees are green and everything is working.

 

I am now playing trains testing the layout and stock to debug any issues, writing up the manual and converting some milk tanks. More of the latter in a later post. 

 

With just a few weeks away from the Southampton show, I am ready to go. So now I just need to improve the layout with a few minor details. 

It has occurred to me that I should acquire a spare loco in case the Hornby 48DS throws it works out again.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to what that should be?

 

Meanwhile, here are some photos of Daisy Sidings with the 48DS busily doing sorting out the next dispatch of wagons.

 

 

 

 

 

ps. my worst score is 60 moves. My best is 30. 

 

Andy

[Karhedron]

On 02/01/2023 at 21:27, brightspark said:

It has occurred to me that I should acquire a spare loco in case the Hornby 48DS throws it works out again.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to what that should be?

 

You could justify almost anything as it was not uncommon for the train loco to shunt the milk sidings as many dairies did not have their own dedicated shunter. Hemyock saw everything from class 03 shunters to class 25s and 35s. Express Dairies at Morden was sometimes shunted by Q1s, BR Standard 4 4-6-0s and class 33s even though it had its own shunters. St Erth was often shunted by big engines including Westerns and Class 50s in its later years.

 

Can you refresh my memory on where your layout is set? Given that it is a pretty compact layout, a smallish shunter seems like a good idea to me. Here is a class 03 shunting the milk at Hemyock in 1967.

[brightspark]

Hi Mr Karhedron,

I imagined this to be on the Surrey Sussex border, but to be honest it could be anywhere.

As the headshunt is so short getting anything from the mainline in there is out of the question.

 

Perhaps I should have built it with a fiddle yard.

 

However I do have an old Mainline 03 that I purchased new many years ago, I wonder if it will fit.

It would need converting to EM.

 

I also have an old Triang/Hornby Dock Shunter. I wonder if I should....?

 

PS. I like the photo.

Edited January 10, 2023 by brightspark
add the ps.

[Barclay]

Ultrascale do drop in EM wheelsets for the Triang Dock Authority Shunter, so I say go for it !

[brightspark]

Hmmm, order placed.

 

Thanks for the tip off Mr Barclay.

🙂

 

 

[Barclay]

They are a 'modest' improvement over the Tri-ang wheels...

 

 

[brightspark]

Thanks for the photo. I just have to wait for the wheels to arrive.

I am sure that the little Triang shunter can be made to look quite attractive with not much work. The other thread on here with the shunter adverts is inspirational in that the Triang effort looks like it has little of each of them in its design.

 

I have offered up both the Dock shunter and the 03. The former may just work, but the latter is just a little too long to fit it and 3 milk tanks into the headshunt. So for that I will either swap out some tankers or see if the challenge can still be done.

 

I found the conversion sheet in the EMGS manual (also on the EMGS website in members area) for the 03. The conversion looks challenging but not impossible. However the closing note advises that it may be easier and more reliable to scratch build a chassis (or use a kit) than using either of the 2 methods described. So I think that a visit to the High Level website may be a good idea.

For the Sotton show at the end of the month, where Express Daisy Sidings gets its public debut, I do have a spare loco. This is an elderly Johnson half cab converted from a Hornby Jinty. Hopefully it won't need to come out if the 48DS behaves itself.

 

Of course, if there happens to be any visitors to the show who wish to try out their industrial locos on the layout, I have no objection to letting them have a run.  

Just remember it is EM and if you want to shunt it uses AJ's although you can bring along your own stock.

 

Andy

 

[brightspark]

Last week I hosted the local EMGS meeting and it was a chance to try out Daisy Sidings with guest operators.

A Mr Bixley (Sgt retired) decided to have a go and got a score of 45.

He did struggle a bit, but said to the excited onlookers that he doesn't operate layouts very often and the giggling was putting him off.

The giggling seemed to be caused by the noise of the counter and the operator saying I've almost got this and what is the score.

 

Another loco was placed onto the layout to see how it negotiated the trackwork. 

 

 

Brought along by Nick Ridgeway it is an on-line purchase and will require some work.

Nick was inspired by Daisy Sidings and has built his own Inglenook. Readers of EMGS newsletter will have seen pictures of his progress.

 

We also had this visitor from Essex, built by Nigel, but as it is DCC it couldn't be run. 

 

 

Andy

[brightspark]

All packed for the Southampton show this weekend. 

 

Before packing away though, here are a couple of photos. I now have some people hard at work.

 

 

 

If you are at the Southampton show. Do say hello and you can have a go at some shunting.

 

Andy

[PaulRhB]

Looked great and you were busy chatting or supervising play when I passed both times 😀

[bodmin16]

3 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Looked great and you were busy chatting or supervising play when I passed both times 😀

I was one of those who took an opportunity to play, it is an absolute delight!

[brightspark]

Hi All,

well I had an excellent but exhausting weekend at Southampton. Daisy Sidings got a better reception than I thought it would and it certainly had a big crowd around it most of the weekend. 

Doors opened before I had a chance to grab a cuppa and a bacon sarnie and the next thing it was half past one and a quick call to be relieved so I could get lunch. 

Catering at Southampton is very good.

Saturday went very well but around lunchtime on Sunday the stretcher bars on point 1 failed. This was quickly fixed with a bit of solder. Although it still worked the repair wasn't quite good enough for very reliable running.

The delight for me was get other people have a go at the shunting puzzle. 

To all those that had a go, thank you for making my day. By the smile on their faces it looked they had fun no matter if they completed the challenge or not.

Scores were interesting from 14 moves as the best, done by a small boy with some help, to 86. But the latter was done with determination to complete the challenge having realised that they got it wrong. 

The most common failure was finding that the train had been made up in one of the back roads.

 

But everyone admitted that they were surprised at how challenging the inglenook puzzle is.

 

TTFN

 

Andy