Banbury in N scale - A great time at the Abingdon in March 2024

[roundhouse]

Another good day at the Uckfield show on Sunday.

 

As we had a full crew that day a little bit more stock was put out including the Revolution KUA's. However, we didnt load the fiddleyard up to the usual levels and I think that this works better as less time is spent shuffling up the trains which reduces operator errors and keeps more running out the front.

 

Also I took some of the failed locos and Farish Voyager home to check over. Not sure why the Voyager was playing up as it wouldnt stop evn pressing the stop button on the throttle in the scenic area but would do do so in the fiddleyard. I have never had anything act like this before on any layout. So I gave it yet naother clean and factory reset the decoder. After that, it worked fine on Sunday.

 

Strangley we had a few visitors comment that the layout doesnt look like Banbury but they may not have looked at the photos and blurb on the fiddleyard as the layout was modelled on how it looked in 2011 and a lot has changed since then. Its scary to think where has the 12 years gone since the layouts first show.

 

A couple of faults to sort out such as a dry joint by the South box that we jerry rigged on Saturday morning and solenoid failure in the fiddleyard towards the end of the show on Sunday.

EDIT  -solenoid repaired not long after posting this. Just requires refitting.

Edited October 23, 2023 by roundhouse

[pwr]

Saw this at Uckfield and my overriding impression was how well it runs.

 

Well done to all involved

 

Paul R

[roundhouse]

3 hours ago, pwr said:

Saw this at Uckfield and my overriding impression was how well it runs.

 

Well done to all involved

 

Paul R

Paul

 

Thanks. The layout does have its moments but mostly thats down to us making mistakes.

 

The two faults on the layout have now been resolved this morning and its ready for its next show  which will be Abingdon in March 2024.

[roundhouse]

So far Banbury has just one show this year. In a few weeks time we will be taking it to the Abingdon show.

 

After the Tonbridge show with a different layout, it will be Banburys turn to be checked over plus to fix in place these four Royal Mail vehicles into the sorting office car park.

[roundhouse]

I have been going through the rolling stock checking pickups etc on locos.

 

One particular loco , 73202 'Graham Stenning' named after our late friend who used to help operate the layout, has been in the not too well group for the last few shows.

 

So yesterday I took it apart and turns out that the commutator was emitting smoke after minute or two . Its not quite a sealed motor but not easy to get to he commutator so I cut away part of the motor mounting plastic case and managed to get electric switch cleaner in and left to dry out overnight. This morning it was still emitting smoke so I managed to get some IPA into the commutator. The motor then worked fine after leaving it running for some minutes at half speed. 

 

The loco is now back together and the decoder stop speed limited to 50%. All seams to be fine so fingers crossed the loco will be given a few runs during the show  to commemorate ten years since our friend took ill and the show in Abingdon was the last time that he operated the layout.

Edited February 28 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

As of early this morning all sock stock is checked and fingers crossed will be alright on the night Day🙂.

 

The additional Royal Mail vehicles have now been fixed onto the layout and a little bit of weathering improvements carried out to the parking area and also to the canopies on the station.

 

The show this weekend may well be the layouts only show this year. A number of other N scale layouts will be at AbRail including Hinksey Yard, so if you are into N scale then the show will probably be well worth attending.

 

 

Edited February 29 by roundhouse

[GWRPhil]

3 hours ago, roundhouse said:

As of early this morning all sock is checked.........

its really important to make sure all clothes are packed for a trip. lol

[roundhouse]

Just before I boxed the two centre boards up for loading, I remembered that the DMU's moving across a turnout in one of the carriage sidings often stalled so I decided to check the wiring to the frog. urns out hat the wire to the frog was never connected  properly as I could see the solder but the wire came up from under the board the next sleeper spacing over. All these turnouts were ' tested' when the layout was built 13 years ago so I can only guess that whatever I ran through this turnout didn't stall at the time. Its also one of the least used tracks but glad Its now sorted.

 

The touch screen PC's are currently doing any updates ready for the trip tomorrow.

[roundhouse]

Seeing double

 

 

To commemorate ten years since our friend Graham Stenning last helped operate Banbury before he took ill, two of us put our Dapol 73202 locos together to run an a railtour through Banbury on Sunday.

 

The show that he last helped at was Abingdon in 2014 and is the only show so far, that he layout has been to twice.

[roundhouse]

A few more photos from the Abingdon show. We had a whole classroom to ourselves so we thought that it would not be all that busy. I commented that we could have plenty of oprating space as the viewing area would be enough if it would unlikely be three deep. It was three or four deep most of the day inlcuding at times on the Sunday.

 

The layout performed superbly well with only two or three locos giving any issues, so mainly us operators making errors.

 

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend. We did get one potential invite but we are already attending that show htis year with a different layout but does mean that we will probably have at least a couple of shows next year.

 

The one loco that had pick up issues is one that I checked before the show but didnt think it required cleaning as it worked on the test track and its harldy run since it was purchased. Its now been cleaned and checked over. We have a couple of Farish Voyagers that worked but not as well as they should so I think that they require new motors as they have been used a lot on the layout.

 

The first photo shows the KUA nuclear container wagons by revolution with recently remotored class 47 'Rail Express' at the head end. The first time that it has been in action on the layout for some years.

 

 

Once the show cloesd on Sunday we had a bus repalcemtn service notice 🙂

 

[roundhouse]

At the show we did late last year we heard a few viewers comment that the layout doesn't look anything like Banbury station. I guess that it has changed a lot since it was modelled in 2011 especially with the multi story carpark and the resignalling etc.

 

So I decided to add an information board to the front to explain what has changed and why.

 

Edited March 6 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Early this morning I serviced the two Farish XC Voyagers that started playing up during the show.

One ran fine but often would not stiwhen the throttle was put to zero. Tried on two different systems today and it responded fine, so nothing to fix.

 

The other one just stopped running at the show and did the same this morning. Took it apart, sprayed electrical switch cleaner in to the motor, left it to dry and now it work. Would rather get a new motor but Mon showing on the usual websites, so hopefully it will be be OK at the next show which is next year at present.