Kensington Olympia in n scale

[Calnefoxile]

3 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Layout all set up at the NRM…….a few niggly faults which I hope we can solve tomorrow before opening.

My two operators, brother in law Neil and long time friend Chris both arrived safely. Thanks to Mick for getting us there in his van. We have a view over the ECML to distract us too.

 

 

Looking good Andy, will see you in the morning. Looking forward to seeing the layout, finally!!

 

Regards

 

Neal.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, acg5324 said:

Layout all set up at the NRM…….a few niggly faults which I hope we can solve tomorrow before opening.

My two operators, brother in law Neil and long time friend Chris both arrived safely. Thanks to Mick for getting us there in his van. We have a view over the ECML to distract us too.

 

Have a great weekend and say hello to Neil for me.

[grahame]

You haven't drawn the right hand curtain. ;-)

 

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the show. I was planning on a first class day trip by train but the strikes have kiboshed that. It's not just London to York but the local train company to get me up to London are also on strike and have issued warnings not to try to travel unless absolutely necessary.

 

But I hope all goes well for your debut exhibiting.

 

[03060]

I should be there this afternoon, I'm really looking forward to seeing this and will try and make myself known if it's not too busy.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[03060]

Had a good afternoon at the show and very impressed with Kensington Olympia in the flesh and nice to finally be able to put a face to a name so thankyou for postponing your 'last orders' coffee run in order to spend a few minutes chatting.

 

I really enjoyed seeing all of the subject builds that you've shown us on here from rolling stock to vehicles to buildings and cameo scenes, including the top floor ...erm ...err ... movie making scene !! 😅😉

 

One piece of rolling stock that did catch my eye after you'd set off for your coffee was the Inter-frigo van, which were seen briefly on my beloved West Highland Line and wondered what the models origins are, please ? (Sorry if this has already been covered in the thread.)

 

Kind regards,

Ian.

Edited May 14, 2023 by 03060

[03060]

I also forgot to mention how impressed I was with the sound fitted 08, I'd previously dismissed sound for my N gauge but I did think that that came across well even with the noise of the exhibition to contend with.

 

Cheers,

Ian.

[acg5324]

20 hours ago, 03060 said:

Had a good afternoon at the show and very impressed with Kensington Olympia in the flesh and nice to finally be able to put a face to a name so thankyou for postponing your 'last orders' coffee run in order to spend a few minutes chatting.

 

I really enjoyed seeing all of the subject builds that you've shown us on here from rolling stock to vehicles to buildings and cameo scenes, including the top floor ...erm ...err ... movie making scene !! 😅😉

 

One piece of rolling stock that did catch my eye after you'd set off for your coffee was the Inter-frigo van, which were seen briefly on my beloved West Highland Line and wondered what the models origins are, please ? (Sorry if this has already been covered in the thread.)

 

Kind regards,

Ian.

I can’t remember what the chassis is, I’ll check, probably Roco or Fleischmann the body is totally scratch built from plasticard and brass.

[acg5324]

3 hours ago, 03060 said:

I also forgot to mention how impressed I was with the sound fitted 08, I'd previously dismissed sound for my N gauge but I did think that that came across well even with the noise of the exhibition to contend with.

 

Cheers,

Ian.

The 08 was having its first outing too, not even run it, it performed well.

[acg5324]

The layout behaved itself again today……and we won something too!

[Ighten]

Caught this for the first time yesterday. Beautiful capture of the atmosphere of the Edwardian townhouses peering into the railway. Is that a nod to call the midwife 🙂 I mentioned it in the other thread lol?. And pink Floyd what more could you want 

[Steven B]

Congratulations on getting "Best in Show" - well deserved. I wonder if you can do the York double at the Race Course next Easter?!

 

Steven B.

[acg5324]

20 minutes ago, Ighten said:

Caught this for the first time yesterday. Beautiful capture of the atmosphere of the Edwardian townhouses peering into the railway. Is that a nod to call the midwife 🙂 I mentioned it in the other thread lol?. And pink Floyd what more could you want 

Thank you …….…well……I managed to get quite a lot of figures from the Modelshop in Shanklin and they included a pack of nuns…..so there are quite a few on the layout….mainly going into pubs plus one in the Bond Bug.

[acg5324]

The exhibition gave me the opportunity to run / try various things and combinations for the first time……with mixed results. 
Hunt magnetic couplers didn’t perform very well. The last carflat always derailed it’s leading bogie on the curve entering the fiddle yard, not on a point, and retailed leaving. The Brighton - Manchester Mk1 set derailed so much that the couplings were pulled out and replaced with Rapidos. Several snapped off when being removed.

I had bought a DCC Concepts track rubber…….very poor left loads of rubber debris all over the track….reverted to 800 grade wet and dry paper……Their mains CDU however was well worth the investment.

Rolling stock in general all ran well. Locomotives were generally all OK with only one c47 causing some issues coming to a stand on curved plain track at the same place…..but only with a train in tow. LE it was fine! One of the Cromptons needs looking at as on Sunday it kept randomly slowing down and stopping then set off again a few seconds later. The Dapol c73 ran very well amazingly.

 

Lots to ponder but overall very pleased with how the layout performed…and my two operators who had never used it before.

 

Thank you to all the people who came up and introduced themselves…some not for the first time. We were packed up and out the door at the NRM dead on 5pm after closing at 4.

[St Enodoc]

20 hours ago, acg5324 said:

I had bought a DCC Concepts track rubber…….very poor left loads of rubber debris all over the track….reverted to 800 grade wet and dry paper……

I use graphite (from an art shop) applied to the rail heads. I now never need to use an abrasive or liquid to clean the track.

Edited May 17, 2023 by St Enodoc
speling

[stevea]

Hi, Andy

    Good to meet you again and chat at York. Despite the general high quality at what was a great show, I was pleased to read that you received the thoroughly-deserved 'Best in Show' award. Thank you for taking the trouble to bring Kensington Olympia to the show

Regards

Steve

[Chris M]

I'm glad you enjoyed your show. Hopefully you will go to other exhibitions and I will get the chance to see your layout "in the flesh".

 

I find my 47s run very well through points and curves so long all the pick ups from the wheels are clean. I de-gunge mine before an exhibition. Others have added extra pickups but I haven't found this to be necessary.

 

I have seen someone at our club having a derail issue with Hunt couplings. They were fine on quite a few running sessions and then one day derails started. Sorry but we have no idea why as nothing had changed. I use Hunt couplings on my HSTs, mk1s and Mk2s at home and find them to be excellent; I especially like the close coupling I get using the short shank version. I must take my mk1s up to the club and see what happens. I'm sure I have run them on that club layout before without any issues. One problem that especially applies to N gauge is that little things such as a change in temperature or maybe even a change in humidity can cause something that worked perfectly to suddenly not work so well. It doesn't take much movement of the track or even the boards for strange things to start happening.

[Steven B]

It's worth checking that the close coupling mechanism is working correctly - the Hunt magnetic coupling results in a solid link between them. Without the slack in a standard rapido it's quite possible that problems may occur if one coupling has been knocked out of alignment during transport to the show.

 

I'll be interested to hear what you found at the YAG meeting this Saturday.

 

Steven B

[Andy_C]

On 16/05/2023 at 08:00, acg5324 said:

The exhibition

I may have missed it, but where are you planning on exhibiting this year? Would like to come along and take a close look at your layout.

 

Cheers in advance,

 

Andy.

[Stuart A]

Enjoyed seeing it in the flesh on Saturday - it looks even better in real life.

I especially like the international ferry wagons rake

[acg5324]

10 hours ago, Andy_C said:

I may have missed it, but where are you planning on exhibiting this year? Would like to come along and take a close look at your layout.

 

Cheers in advance,

 

Andy.

That was it for this year. York Racecourse Easter 2024 is it’s next outing.

[acg5324]

A nice relaxing day at the Yorkshire NGS meeting. I took along the three Hastings DEMU coach bodies to start fitting them to the donor 4CEP. As expected the frames needed some substantial trimming to fit. The unpowered DMBS has been fitted OK and the TFK is nearly done too. I’ve made a start on dismantling the 4CEP power car……I might not need to trim the motor housing after all. 
I’ll post some photos tomorrow.

 

Whilst it’s a long shot I’m going to contact Bachmann and see if they have any spare 4CEP bogies both trailers and powered types so that they can replace the B1s that’ll be present on the other two donor coaches.

[acg5324]

2B or not 2B…….that is the question……6B eventually.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, acg5324 said:

2B or not 2B…….that is the question……6B eventually.

Looking good. Where's it going to run - on the next layout?

[acg5324]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Looking good. Where's it going to run - on the next layout?

They were certainly used on Merrymakers up from the south coast, we went to Derby then coach trip to Riber castle and also Leicester for Rutland……and I’ve always had a soft spot for them. I do have a photo or two of them on the WLL.
I can always do a layout in a suitable location to run them on the Brighton - Exeter service!

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

I can always do a layout in a suitable location to run them on the Brighton - Exeter service!

Hove would be interesting!