Jump to content
 

Once Upon a Time.... in the West

2ManySpams

By 2ManySpams,
in USA & Canadian Railroads

Recommended Posts

Old Gringo

Old Gringo

Posted
Posted

Apologies to anyone still clinging on to the current series of posts about the layout at the NEC show and wondering where the final instalment was.  Yesterday, I was down at Kidderminster Railway Museum, admiring the plans for the proposed extension to the archive areas.  I've been a once-a-week volunteer at the KRM for the last 12 years and how quickly did they go?

 

Anyway, back to the Warley show report, where by 10.35 on the Saturday the first train had travelled from Deming to Silver City via our little depot at Whitewater.  I think it was the sight of that first train running that suddenly made the last 100 days all worthwhile and from then on we could enjoy the weekend; - running trains and explaining to people what they were looking at, plus all the other improvements that were planned.

 

However, there was another 'unusual complication' over the weekend, which probably exasperated my friends, Andy & Damian as the day wore on. 

 

Eight years ago, I was very fortunate to be asked by the author, Chris Vine, to illustrate his series of children's books entitled, 'Peter's Railway'.  And from the first hard-back published in 2008, the series has grown to 5 hard-backs and 10 paper-backs: Books for kids who not only like trains but also those who want to know a bit more of how they work.  Chris also had a stand at the show, (D37) with his 7.25" gauge B1, 4-6-0 on display alongside the range of books, which he was also selling and signing.

 

Well, during the day, Chris had begun redirecting some kids and mums and dads to our stand, so that they could have their purchases signed by the illustrator too.  Quite a few appeared beside the layout and of course it's a real pleasure for me to introduce more people to the hobby of railways, both prototype and model.  However, this did interrupt operations a bit!

 

After the first train had run and we had worked out what was the best way to keep something moving as often as possible, we settled into an operating pattern, rather similar to that employed on Treneglos.  Four trains were generally in action, two passenger and two frieght with the following eight move sequence: up passenger train into station, down goods train into passing loop, up passenger train out of station, down goods train out of loop: repeat with next set of trains and after another four moves you were back to the start.

 

Occasionally, the switcher ran up and down the front yard, but as both the yard siding points had failed (probably due to me not replacing the Tortoise operating wires with the stronger stuff), it was impossible to shunt.  However, the continuous sequence movement appeared to prove popular with the visitors, who had the opportunity to see four different locomotives in action, plus the yard 'goat' and the ubiquitous 'American' 4-4-0 occasionally moving up and down the head-shunts of the yard and the bay.

 

After lunchtime, we decided to add the back-scene to the layout.  To hang the pvc print (7.5 M x 700mm), I had prefabricated a series of brackets, that needed attaching to a stripwood 'runner' upon which the back-drop could be attached by magnetic tape.  We had tried this method successfully on 'Black Country Blues' and the only difference here is that the brackets would hang from the free-standing steel canopy suspended above the layout.

 

Following consultation (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28773-once-upon-a-time-in-the-west/page-33&do=findComment&comment=2109300) Damian soon had the woodwork completed and around 3.30pm, Richard, Liam and Andy Y all helped Andy B, Damian and myself offer up the backdrop to the runner and 'hey presto' the next train was running through a giant desert scene!

 

About an hour later and the test lighting strip, using two rows of warm LEDs was up too. As I was unsure how this type and colour of lighting would look and perform, it was agreed that we would assess the section over the weekend, before adding any more.  I think it worked and you can see the difference in the quality of some of the close -up photos, so now we'll work out how to add the other sections before the next outing.

 

So, as Saturday drew to a close, the layout had progressed even closer to the target and I hope that those visitors who had a quick look on their way out could see the difference from earlier in the day and appreciate what we were hoping to achieve.

 

More next time, perhaps.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
avonside1563

avonside1563

Posted
Posted

That's my cup.

 

 

We did learn last night that John can't progress the layout further until he gets well plastered.

I can have my medical adviser obtain a quantity of plaster impregnated bandages if we think it might help?

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...