andyram

Skaleby West is now safely back in position in the spare bedroom after its latest exhibition outing. This year it was displayed in the school corridor and at a slightly taller height. For ease of set up I had borrowed a few of our school's stage blocks and set them up on the Friday night. This meant that, when busy with organising the show, I was able to just place the layout on top of the blocks and set up took just five minutes. The layout ran smoothly straight from set up with the trusty Jinty (47279) running light engine over all the track. Throughout the morning the layout ran well with my weathered Standard 4 (80120) hauling the passenger trains. A weathered Standard 3 (82001) worked the van train and a weathered Ivatt tank (41250) worked the coal train. With room for only one fiddle yard, Skaleby West regressed to its first exhibition format as a terminus on a truncated branch. The Standard 4 opened the show with the passenger train, shunting the parcels van into the good yard before returning. The three trains then worked in turns with the freight wagons swapped over each time. Unfortunately the parcels van had lost its rear coupling and so was confined to the yard for much of the day until a spare could be refitted during a quiet time. The layout worked well until lunch time. Then the heat in the school started to take effect and some of the point blades stopped making accurate contacts, making shunting the goods yard difficult. The Ivatt 2 tank seemed to struggle and was taken out of service with the Jinty replacing it. Fellow RMWeb member, Andy Sharpe, took over operating duties for part of the morning and the son of a church friend ran it for most of the afternoon. It was quite nice to see the layout from a visitors point of view. I am pleased with how it has developed over the first five years of its life. It is my first attempt so I know I have made mistakes. The scenery received plenty of positive comments with the ballasting and the blend of the modelling to the backscene being particularly praised. I know there are parts that are a bit rough. The more natural light picked out some longer strands of hanging basket liner that had not been trimmed back on the grassed areas, the rock face remains unfinished and I am still unconvinced by the grave yard above the tunnel. The river area also needs completing. Perhaps this is why it failed to receive a vote in the best in show poll. Against more established models it just does not compete. This, and the lack of lighting, count against it and is probably why it attracted no interest from the assorted exhibition managers who visited yesterday. Despite all of this I am happy enough with the progress thus far. Even with the one fiddle yard it was enjoyable to operate. The gremlins disappeared in the latter part of the afternoon and the goods yard worked fine again. A loco change kept things interesting with my second Ivatt tank (41324) taking over some of the freight duties and the passenger train was handled by my purchase from the show, Ivatt 4 (43018). An enjoyable day has reignited my motivation for the layout. Hopefully I can continue to improve it. I have plenty of photos to download from my camera and will share them at some point. For now, here is an IPad shot of the Standard 3 shunting the yard early in the day.

Solicitors are useless at times. Think I did half the work for mine when we moved three years ago because I had lived on the street I was leaving for most of my life. My father in law is finding similar problems with his solicitor. You pay inflated fees and you expect value for money. Returning to the topic of conversation, perhaps some of the houses will be purchased by railway enthusiasts. Just think - looking out of your bedroom window on a GCR gala day, what a grandstand view that would be.

Morning all. I hope this morning finds you well and that those recovering from excess alcohol consumption recover quickly. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes regarding the show. Those of you who have read the show thread will already know the outcome, but for those who haven't, I am pleased to report all proved to be a great success. We had a good turn out of visitors, lots of positive comments and raised £972 for school funds. That total is approximately £10 up on last year. Thank you to those who issued their advice. Unfortunately it is impossible for me to hand over the organising reigns. The show is probably unique in the sense that it is not organised by members of a model railway club. There is no club at the school. In fact there is no other model railway enthusiast amongst the staff. Therefore if I do not do the job there is no show. Today we are due to attend the local church for the Rememberance Day service. However Armber's cold seems to have got worse so I think I will be staying in to look after her. Hopefully she will feel better this afternoon because I have promised to take Sarah out for a pub lunch as a small thank you for putting up with me during the busy lead up to the show. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Well anyone thinking of buying such a property will surely have a pair of eyes to actually see the large steam locomotives running just the other side of the wall! They, therefore, should have no reason to complain!

A cracking layout Ben. It looked superb. Thank you for your support. See you again next year.

Thanks for your support again Dava. Great to see you both. The layouts looked great. My apologies for forgetting to bring along the 009 loco.

Morning all. Definitely an early riser this morning. I was up at 5am and am just contemplating breakfast before loading the car up for the short journey into school ready for today's show. It was raining when I got up. Hope it eases off so the layouts can be unloaded at the school in the dry. I seem to have caught Amber's cold as my nose is steaming right now and I feel grotty although the latter could be a touch of pre-show nerves. Right now I feel like one of those project managers on The Apprentice, especially knowing that the kitchen team massively underestimated their financial outlay. They will need to sell a lot of bacon this morning! Hopefully all goes well. Fingers are firmly crossed. On a brighter note, happy birthday to Ian (OD). I hope you have an enjoyable day.

I had hoped that I would be able to add some more detail to the rock face to make it more presentable for tomorrow's show. Unfortunately my daughter decided not to drift off to sleep until very late this evening. As a result I have struggled to even dismantle the layout ready. There will be lots to do in the early hours of the morning. Hopefully all will go well.

Evening all. A long day today preparing the school for tomorrow's exhibition. It seemed to take much longer this year. Part of that was due to the fact we are using all the classrooms, but there seemed more junk to move out of the main hall too. Andy Sharpe (leopard) offered his services and was a great help. Without him I think I would still have been there at midnight! I have already recorded my thanks to him on the show's page. I had hoped to work on my layout this evening, completing some final scenic pieces and dismantling it ready for packing into the car tomorrow. Unfortunately my daughter had other ideas. Amber has started with a cold and struggled to sleep. It was 10pm before I could escape and get into the spare room. There will be lots to do in the morning. Fortunately the aforementioned Mr Sharpe has offered to put up the road signs so that will save me one job in the morning which means I can probably leave half an hour later than usual. Fingers crossed it will all go well. I always get very nervous at this point in the proceedings.

See you tomorrow Nick

Good morning all. My apologies for being away from these pages for the last few days. Please accept my generic greetings, congrats and commiserations as appropriate. Things have been hectic this last few days as the final preparations for our exhibition are now in full swing. These preparations need to be combined with the usual round of school planning and marking and home life. None has gone smoothly. One member of staff is not pulling their weight at present, leaving me to do much more and I have to admit, as a teacher, I am finding the going very tough. When other people's lack of effort directly impacts on my own effectiveness it is hard to take. This week has also been a busy week of Avon deliveries. As always I have found myself helping Sarah out with that. Two hours were spent on Monday evening delivering her more far flung orders and and a further hour was lost on Wednesday evening delivering further orders whilst I was out picking up the road signs for the show. Last night I spent another hour on the final orders. You would think that this would be appreciated, but Sarah's mood is quite down again. I know she does not like it when I am working all hours God sends, so hopefully once the show is out of the way things will improve. I am certainly hoping for more sleep. Burning the midnight oil is an accurate description at the moment. I think I have averaged about five hours kip per night this last week. Anyway I should stop burdening you all with my moaning. At least I have woken up to face another day. That is more than can be said for one of my exhibitors. On Monday evening I received a telephone call informing me that he would not be attending with his layout after passing away on Sunday night. Tragic news and puts things into perspective. He was such a lovely, friendly and helpful chap who always had time for others and was happy to let the youngsters work his layout at a show. My thoughts rest firmly with his family and friends right now.

I found a few minutes this afternoon to add a second coat to the rock face which has toned down the black areas. No pictures I am afraid. Tomorrow is the last chance to prepare the layout for the show. I doubt very much that I will get much done as I will need to clear my modelling materials from in front of the layout just to get it out of the room. The fiddle yard board also needs clearing of stored locos whilst the stock needs to be boxed up. A busy night beckons. This year Skaleby West will be displayed as a terminus with only one fiddle yard. This is due to space issues. It will represent how it is operated at home.

Looking forward to seeing you there. Busy day beckons tomorrow, with the afternoon set to be spent preparing the school for the show.

A quick update. The clay rock face has now dried and tonight I attempted painting. I used the paint materials from a Woodland Scenics kit, building up the colours in layers as instructed. Here is the current state of the scene. Personally I think it needs lightening down a bit more. In some areas the black is far too prominent. I may need to give it another coat of paint. Time is rapidly running out though.

Then who did?

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Some Americans will need to keep smiling!

Could be accused of deliberate rule breaking!

Looks like Southern and LE posted simultaneously

Really talented modeller!

Busy on Saturdays

It is a great railway.

The sane people

The layout is superb Paul, don't let the "rivet counters" grind you down. It is your layout, you run what you like. Will seem strange at Weston this weekend without the procession of Jubilees on Foster Street!