wandering blue

Nope, a lack of planning and foresight by the organisers. Then a recipe for disaster for the organisers, who don’t receive the ticket money. A recipe for disaster for all the traders who can’t make a sale. A recipe for disaster for all the exhibitors, who receive one less platitude. Organisers of large shows have large challenges and I don’t underestimate the scale of the task. Off-site parking for any show with a peaky demand curve requires substantial resources for the peak(s), ( witness the simply vast bus fleet brought into Birmingham for the slick Commonwealth Games operation) whether they are heritage or new transport methods or the size of the parking lot. On this occasion, there simply weren’t enough, which is a shame for all involved and particularly those like Mike 84C who ultimately missed out on a decent show. Lessons will have been learnt, some of them surprising, given that MK was designed as the motor city. If they stick with this venue, and remain encumbered by the potential random clash with an MK Dons home game, then a better plan B is needed.

Couldn’t agree more. Wait for the bus service estimated well over 1 hour, so we walked 45mins to the venue. And like you, we witnessed the farcical return arrangements too. Earlier in the thread, someone disagreed with GETS being blighted by the venue, well, sorry, but today it absolutely was! Fully appreciate the issues of football timetables. It will doubtless be fine tomorrow. Memo to self, don’t go to GETS again on a football day. The staff were fine, but the bowl parking ( which I understand was full up by mid-morning) needs an ops management solution with a far larger fleet of modern busses that don’t break down and are continually staffed throughout the day. Great day, marred by something entirely foreseeable. Not the first time that a vintage bus service has let people down, why model railway shows are fixated on them is a mystery to me. WB

Hi. One quick question for the RevolutioN team please. Is it OK to put a 175 and a 180 together in the same 00 preorder, or do you want them kept separately? (I know that you usually require order separation ‘between models’ to facilitate your admin.) Looking forward to running an ATW 175 and an FGW 180 in due course! Wandering Blue.

For example, to share a(n expensive) dcc sound decoder output between two speakers in different multiple unit coaches. Roco make them, as do Kris-modell: https://krois-modell.at

68013 is now named Peter Wreford-Bush. I believe that Peter was a long-standing member of Leamington Spa station staff (?) who passed away in 2021. In a similar decent action by Chiltern, 68015 is now named Kev Helmer, who was a Birmingham Moor St driver who also passed away last year. Both naming ceremonies occurred earlier this month, photos of each can be found on Flickr.

Spoke with the Bachmann rep who was present at the display at HLJ over the weekend. He was confident that the DBSOs are on schedule to meet the arrival date currently stated on the Bachmann website, ie May/June.

Hello Simon. In a quieter moment on Saturday afternoon, I managed to get a view down the layout from behind the over bridge. Looking into the distance to see the next train coming from far away. Watching it get closer until I could hear it, on your imaginary autumn day. In O scale! Amazing. You have achieved a dream layout, whose central operating well is so large that I couldn’t catch your eye, to do what I can do here now. With a big smile, I doff my virtual cap to you sir! And hope that my small pebble, placed firmly on the positive side of the seesaw, allows you to look back with pride at the weekend. I was lucky, my stars aligned so that I could attend. I do so hope that others have the opportunity in the future. You are, quite simply, an inspiration. WB

Hi. As an alternative to model tec , if you’re in HO/00, you may also want to take a look at pre-etched sleepers from dcc concepts. They come in packs of 80, either 1.0 or 1.6mm thick, for £12.95 a pop. https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/pre-etched-sleepers-1-6mm-4mm-scale-straight-track/ This is my go to solution now in scenic areas, used in sets of 3 or 4 either side of the join. I’ve got a mix of copper clad and soldered screws for the non-scenic areas. I’ve got a fair few soldered screw joins, but would now go for a more robust length of copper clad, which I find less fiddly. WB

Neat work, as I expected!

Hello. I’ve been following and very much enjoying this thread. Can I applaud the speed and quality of your build. You’re 18 months in and I would say you are very much keeping to your 3 year anticipated timescale! I’ve achieved less in 11 years, on a layout half this size ( envious!) , but that’s family and work life for you. I wanted to ask which magician you used to wire up your helixes? Mine are only 2 tracks wide and I ensured that I wired them up as track laying proceeded. How on earth did you mange to solder the middle track of the 5 roads, with such limited headroom? Presumably you ran one or more busses up the structure somewhere? I laid mine between the tracks, to keep the headroom clear below. I use Scotchloks for bus connections, but I’m guessing yours are all soldered as that would take up less room. Good to see that you can run your stock up the helix without issues. I’m all diesel like you, but installed power-base on the uphill roads as a bit of future-proofing to potentially accommodate visiting kettles. All the best. WB

Good to see the retailer list and support for them. As a retailer based offer, I wonder if there are any ‘single’ or ‘group’ retailer exclusive editions in the pipeline? Suggestion- Accurascale don’t list all proposed 37’s on their own website (!), so if Cavalex do specific retailer exclusives, hopefully they will list where to get them! And a quick headcount of the first 22 hours of posts suggests that Colas should be seriously considered for ‘list 2’! Just sayin

At least Hornby, Bachmann or a.n.other will only have to make 1 plastic kit to suit every UK location: Make up your own mind if you like this national uniformity. Broke across the press yesterday: https://www.ribacompetitions.com/reimaginingrailwaystations/preferred.html https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-and-riba-announce-railway-station-design-competition-winner From network rail site: Edinburgh-based architectural practice, 7N Architects, has won a competition to shape Britain’s future railways, Network Rail and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) have announced. The contest sought architects, engineers and designers from across the world to reimagine how small to medium-sized stations can improve the travel experience of the millions of passengers who use Britain’s railway. The competition attracted more than 200 entries from designers based in 34 different countries. 7N’s winning entry considers the needs of both passengers and their local communities. The station frontage includes an eye-catching clock tower, which serves a strong civic purpose as a local landmark and a natural meeting place for social activities. Beyond the station entrance, sweeping platform canopies - elegant and refined in feature - provide shelter for passengers. The modular station design can be integrated into a variety of locations that complement the local landscape. Panel members thought the winning concept had been cleverly pared back to create an open and flexible system which, with minimum component parts, would transform people’s experience of the station whilst aligning with Network Rail’s aspirations to be carbon neutral by 2050. The design cleverly incorporates the capacity to generate renewable energy to provide most of the station's power by using translucent photo-voltaic panels which provide shelter from rain and dappled shade.

On the dot matrix front, have you seen model transport graphics on eBay? I think they will make bespoke to order. https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/modeltransportgraphics

It would be worth you searching RMWeb for gradient discussions on spirals/ helixes, relevant to where your ramps will be curved. You might want to consider DCC Concepts Powerbase. Non-steam era stock generally has an easier time of it, as others have said already. WB

Hello . I've got one of these as a trial to see if they make any sense: https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-85139.html The principle is to have overlapping chamfered cut rails in the centre of a short length of track, so that one end can be slid out up to 5mm across baseboard joints. Evidently electrical continuity therefore relies on the opposing faces on the joint; perhaps an additional pair of flexible droppers would solve that if it were problematical. The friction at the joint relies only on the plastic chairs and I can see this loosening over time. They go against the grain of soldering baseboard-edge rail ends to either copper clad or brass screws. I'm not sure they will work for me, as many of my tracks crossing baseboard edges are not straight, and although you can flex Tillig Elite track, to do so in this instance opens up the chamfered track joints. Trust the above is of use. Has anyone used these successfully, with or without Tillig Styrostone pre-ballasted underlay? Wandering Blue

Hello. I seem to be following in Colin's footsteps 4 years later. I asked Tillig to confirm how these are to be fitted. Their translated answer was: The application of the contact terminal 85506 can be seen here as a picture: The bracket is thus inserted into the profile at the bottom and can then be soldered there firmly. Please note that if the profile is burned, the burnishment must be removed so that the current flow is not inhibited. A cable can then be soldered to the second end of the contact terminal. Therefore there seems to be no gain, at least to a UK modeller. If you need to solder the clip to the rail, why not solder the dropper to the rail directly? I'm also using Styrostone, as I assume Colin did. My few trials thus far mean that for me, I'll probably solder droppers to the underside of cleaned burnished fishplates, rather than to the rails directly. This is because of the installation sequence required by Styrostone and my use of deep foam baseboards. That way, I can drill dropper holes after fitting the track/styro as work proceeds, rather than have to pre-drill them and be super-accurate. If I get fishplate continuity issues, I'll have to direct solder to (cleaned) rails. The fishplates 85501 are burnished, as is the track except the rail tops. Life is too short to contemplate cleaning the inner faces of the fishplates! Trust this may be of use to those following in the next 4 years! WB

Bumping an old thread here as the nearest I can find to some Tillig questions. I'm about to start laying Tillig Elite into Tillig Styrostone, to operate with with Cobalt stall motors. Experience of this particular combo, or with other stall motors, welcome! To all (and Vistisen in particular as above), why would you fit the motors to the extension of the tie bar rather than using the hole in between the rails? In particular, does this assist, or be detrimental to, tie-bar longevity, in anyone's experience? I appreciate that the tie bars are fragile, and from my electronic trawls at least some replace this with copper-clad. As I'm using Tillig Styrostone, I guess if I have a tie-bar failure I have at least a chance that the point may be removable from the Styrostone and therefore salvageable, whereas if I was traditionally ballasting I can see that the point fragility would easily result in write-offs. Finally, if anyone has used Styrostone on a dismantle-able layout, with board joints, presumably you still secured the rail ends with brass screws or copper-clad? As you have to fit the track into the Styrostone before laying, I can see this may be tricky! Thanks in anticipation. WB

Tim, good to hear! Can't wait! Not... Before you steeled yourself for the points, did you replace the tie-bars with copper-clad, or have you kept faith with the original plastic ones and their tiny pins?

Hi Tim, much appreciated. Plenty of trial and error here as well! A warm air paint stripper set on ‘low’ is still too much heat for the styro, so a new hairdryer is in order...... I too may lay my points first, because those positions are already set by ‘wells’ made in the underside of my extruded foam baseboards, although working in two directions on curves between points is going to be fun! I like the idea of soldering the droppers to the joiners, presumably you cleaned the weathering off those before fitting. I’ve so far tried some rail-side connections , like I’ve used on my non-scenic peco 100 , but as the ‘rail-side recess’ in code 83 Tillig is narrower, it’s not a great fit for the 1mm solid wire droppers that I use. Thanks again. Phil

Hello D1023 - great layout!, and Pete (and maybe others), who evidently has also used styrostone. Seems there is not much of that about on rmweb, so I thought I'd start here with some styro questions if D1023 you don't mind. I'll start a new thread if this detracts from your layout. I'm about 3 years behind you D1023, insofar as I'm about to start laying tillig styrostone, for exactly the same reasons. Can I ask please, given that you fit the track to the styro before adhering to the baseboards, did you add track power droppers before or after laying? I'm currently trialing both options, although given my soldering skills I'm having better luck fitting droppers to the track, and then making holes in the styro, before laying the track into the styro and then onto the baseboard. This also means I'm pre-drilling the baseboard for each dropper location. I can see that Stakcin is a fixed layout, so perhaps swisspeat or someone else has used styrostone for a dismantle-able layout, with board joins. Presumably although styro holds the track in place, the ends still need to be soldered to brass screws or copperclad, if only to prevent thermal movement altering the track ends? I've got a trial adjustable straight 85139 on order, I wonder if these could be an alternative to anchoring the ends, at least for straight tracks across joins? Any experience gratefully received. Finally D1023, did you use styropal or some other adhesive for the styrostone? (I've used a lot of UHU POR elsewhere on woodland scenics trackbed.) Thanks Wandering Blue

Hi Graham. Any chance of a photo of the inside of your voyager to see how the heat sink is arranged? Have you glued the pad into place with 2 part thermal epoxy?

Simon, I recently ordered some from Rapido directly. There was a covid-19 related unusual delay of around 3-4 weeks, but Rapido respond quickly and in a friendly manner to any queries. Not fitted them yet, but basically no problems with web sourcing or payment to Canada. WB

Indeed it was. I’ve waded through the original trail and all the spin-off links and unless I’ve missed it, no one answers the OPs 3rd question? Presumably locating point motors between pairs of running lines is avoided for safety reasons, unless perhaps there is very restricted clearance on the outside? WB

Good to know! A summary of your entire Heaton Lodge experience, if I might be so bold. I’m very much looking forward to seeing your magnum opus later this year at Warley ( with 2m of baseboard to myself to get a clear view and no backpacks in my ribs), or if that isn’t meant to be, in its own travelling artic-convoy circus some point next year. Your updates on here are a welcome distraction to the new world order, so on behalf of your readership, thank you for taking the time to share the journey. Phil

Hi Simon, stunning execution thus far! Good to see Heljan now behind you (presumably amongst others) and I hope the business plan works out for you. Um, 20kgs added to 100 MGR’s ! Not sure how many rakes that is going to make for you, but have either Heljan, JLTRT, your very small select army of devotees or your good self actually tried test running the proposed trains at full weight with the proposed traction? In 00, perlite stained with black India ink is one way of saving weight! Or is the load simply a decent excuse to run double or treble headers? Take care. WB