KH1

Spoke to one very dedicated exhibition goer yesterday who went to see you in Beds on Saturday and then me at NEC on Sunday!

Have now just about recovered from our Northern Irish adventure which went rather well apart from a rather exciting crossing going over - quite a contrast to the mill pond like return. Big thank you to Simon for being mad enough to agree to come along and for Les for helping out on the day and to everyone who made us so welcome and didn't seem to mind the fact that we got ourselves locked out of our accommodation both nights ! With the dust barely settled though I am now all packed up for what might just be my most local show yet - never one to do things by halves that is the Warley show at the NEC. Many late nights of playing with the new couplings and getting the biggest team yet together for what will be a very hectic weekend. As the layout is right next to the real Hunslet 1215 I just had to pull my finger out and finish my third Chivers kit so we will have a miniature version running or at least I hope so as it has had minimal testing so far and there are a couple of bits missing but you probably wouldn't have noticed unless I had mentioned it. So here is our accommodation in the Ulster Folk Museum A rather poor one of he layout set up right next to a rather large real loco and Simon doing all the work while I shirk off . This is before the show opened as after this we were inundated the entire day! And a not at all posed one of us right at the very end and yes, there were bits missing from the Simplex before we got there!

Long journey and an interesting evening of food, beer, music and seriously mad cab drivers but now all set up in brilliant place for a busy day.

Yes, we are off on a bit of a trip rather early tomorrow to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra, near Belfast. I do know that I have a lot of followers from distant lands so just to make sure they appreciate the enormity of this, it involves a 300 mile trip to Scotland, a 2 hour ferry crossing and then some more on the other side. So, car packed, as much upgrading and maintenance to the layout and stock that I can manage and a nice early night. https://www.nmni.com/whats-on/model-railway-day

It's show time again but very difficult to type this as desk is literally covered with rolling stock all newly fitted with my new home brewed couplings. The complete couplings saga will be related soon but it has not been an easy journey and have not seen bed until 3am two days on trot now. So Saturday 27th Oct, Welshpool Town Hall. It is looking like a really nice line up of layouts put together by a very competent exhibition manager. Cannot do better than the little blub in the back of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Review so shall copy verbatum; Mid Wales Model Railway Show This is now an established annual event and takes place on 2 floors of the Town Hall, Welshpool. The venue is 10 minutes walk from the Mainline Railway Station and 10 minutes walk from the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway at Raven Square (see WLLR website for timetable) There will be a variety of Model Railway Layouts ranging from N gauge to G Scale. Ample parking is nearby. Organised by the Newtown (Mid-Wales) MRS. Saturday 27th October, OPENING TIMES 10AM TO 4.30PM. Admission charges: £4- accompanied children free. Among the 15 layouts on show this year there are a number which will be of particular interest to REVIEW readers. Boot - Peter Kazer, 1:48 scale, Ravenglass and Eskdale 3ft gauge Crowsnest Wharf - Trevor Hughes, 7mm scale, Snailbeach DistrictRailways Lydham Heath - Barry Norman, S scale Bishops Castle Railway Up the Line - Kevin Hughes, 7mm scale WW1 Castlefinn - Chester MRC, 4mm scale 12mm gauge Under Milk Wood - David Rowe, 4mm scale 9mm gauge Both Crowsneat Wharf (104) and Up the Line (110) have been the subject of feature articles in the REVIEW issues noted. ----------------------------------------------------------- On the subject of the latest Review there is a very good article on a layout, Fen End something or other ......!

I have just got back from seeing the premier screening of Peter Jackson's new film in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum and as the title suggests my astonishment knows no limits! I actually only found out about this at the weekend but obviously wasn't a complete secret as I certainly wasn't alone in the cinema. Unfortunately I wasn't invited to the real premier but went along to one of the two hundred odd simultaneous screenings across the country. The film is made up entirely of original movie footage from the IWM collection but beautifully restored and colourised in a most convincing fashion. Perhaps the most astounding thing is that with a bit of computer wizardry it has been made to run smoothly and at a realistic speed. I have not previously been a fan of colourised film but as the director himself said in the Q&A afterwards this is usually because they have been done on a very small budget which was certainly not the case here. There is no narration except for audio library recordings of veterans telling of their experiences in their own words. Sound has been added in a most convincing fashion and even using the exact words spoken in some clips that have been analysed from lip reading. There is a short section on narrow gauge railways, all clips I am familiar with but looking very different in colour. One interesting point is that the artists has gone with grey or plain wood wagon bodies with white letters. One of the few things I disagree with though is that there is a well known still shot of a Hunslet included and it has been rather badly colored in green - quite out of sync with the overall standard and in a colour of which there is no evidence I know of whereas there is evidence of them being black. Possibly the most useful thing to the WDLR modeler is the wealth of detail scenes that are just waiting to be recreated. I admit that the colours used are the artists interpretations but I would say that they have been researched very well and such things as the colours of shells are spot on. To be very picky I do think that the colours are sometimes a bit too intense particularly where grass or other greenery is concerned but overall very, very impressive. Unfortunately it was a one night only screening but I believe that it has been taken up by the BBC and I for one would buy a copy if the IWM make it available. A glimpse can be seen here though https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/peter-jackson-they-shall-not-grow-old To get the full impact of the film however, I did something I have been meaning to do for a long time and properly visit the Regal in Tenbury Wells. I was not disappointed - I superbly restored small traditional building run on a semi volunteer basis. Look at the link below but maybe scroll down to the gallery section at the but first. http://regaltenbury.co.uk/RegalCinemaTenbury.dll/Page?PageID=4&SubListID=1&SubPageID=0

You all know the usual excuses about how long it is since the last post so won't repeat them here! There are things going on but at an admittedly slower rate than previously. One thing that I have been meaning to do for ages is an educational aid - something to more adequately explain what all the stuff going past on the trucks is for. Some of it is rather too obvious but trench building materials...... So here it is - my mini, cutaway trench showing A frames, duck boards, revetments and associated wiring. I have a horrible feeling that it may be three years since I started, and quite quickly, almost finished the Alco 2-6-2. It has appeared on the layout many times but only as an otherwise little known 0-6-0 version. Well, at long last I have managed to fit the missing wheels and what is more they seem to be staying on the track. One of the other things that is helping the Alco stay on the track is that I removed the lead that I rather over enthusiastically put in the coal bunker thus unbalancing it . This was not then helped by the white metal figure in the cab. I had picked up some Modelu 3d printed figures at ScaleForum the other day and it was time to paint them as they will be so much lighter. Once again I seem to be much better at painting the backs than the fronts! There is much action behind the scenes and excitement as a joint project with Simon, building on Mike's coupling design should shortly be coming to fruition hopefully VERY soon as want them in place for next show in Welshpool October 27th, and then perfectly fettled for our biggest adventure yet to Belfast November 10th and then to biggest show at Warley, NEC November 24th and 25th. More on this when I am sure they work and if they don't you must forget I ever mentioned them. In other slow burning news. The pantograph milling machine which I have had for nearly a year has taken a massive leap forward. Having finally reconstructed it a couple of months ago (it is REALLY heavy!), I have now worked out how to turn it on! How was I to know there was a master switch on the fuse box? I know have some suitable cutters and engraving brass but only have to work out how to fit the drive belt. The induction soldering iron I got four months ago is still unused - I have to make a return plate first which isn't difficult but but must admit to being a bit intimidated by the rather imposing box. Have not really really had any projects on the go which have required either yet but all that will change soon - just as soon as I manage to create a bit more time!

Poo! That's what you need now - where there are horses there is ...........

This became my mantra for the past three days at Tracks to the Trenches 3. An exceedingly hot train shed as accommodation and an awful lot to do by mostly by myself. Not entirely by myself though so thanks must go to Richard, Simon (when he was not playing with the real thing), and the Pont du Ferme boys. Heat led to some electrical difficulties but main problem was that I fear new couplings are just not up to life on the road so back to drawing board on that one. Didn't take a big camera but did have a chance to play with my phone so here are some completely unedited snaps.

On the Tracks to the Trenches 3 web site there is a doomsday clock clicking down, guess it is not actually ticking down to doomsday but feels like it right now! Just after the last show over three months ago I decided to ditch the Zamzoodle couplings and go for something else. Unfortunately much of these three months was taken up with deciding which ones leaving precious little time to actually fit them. I will leave a description of the (highly modified), couplings for another time but in order to make them work properly some electro magnets were needed. Luckily I was given some beautiful, and very large ex GPO devices and bits of last few days and all of this one have been taken up with fitting and wiring them. All of this to the sound of the SVR's 40's weekend drifting over - there are only so many time you can hear We'll Meet Again before you become fundamentally damaged. A real live Hurricane using our house as a tuning point for it's display managed to off set it a little though. So here we are everything fitted and wired in and possibly the most boring picture I have ever posted; Actually, I lie - THIS is the most boring picture ever! It shows a barely concealed giant electro magnet below the track. All I have to do now is finished the long connecting leads to the panels and test it I guess, before desperately fitting the new couplings to all my stock before Friday. If you want to meet a completely exhausted man who now thinks railway modeling is a form of torture do pop over to Apedale!

Here Here!

Thanks to everyone for help with this. Have a few Emails out now exploring the 24.5mm axles. Is interesting that Ian found them to be 24.4 which explains why my searches for 24.3 got me no where. I did also try the 'so obvious I didn't think of it' route and tried tuning a long axle down on my lathe, but a combination of it's rather slack and worn out nature and my ineptitude meant I couldn't quite get the end pointy enough and or the correct length. If all else fails I do know a man how would be able to do it and could just end up cheaper than buying wheel sets.

Help - my patience - already stretched - is now at breaking (pin!) point! Into my stupidly hectic schedule (which explains lack of updates), I am trying to fit in what has turned out to be a pretty major project - to ditch the scale chopper couplings and replace with auto couplings that might actually stay coupled. I have settled on a heavily modified Dingham now but removing the old couplings is proving rather troublesome. Having removed all the bogies from the wagons I have also set about trying to weed out those that do not run smoothly enough. This has resulted in two things; 1) A rather large pile of bogies 2) A realisation that that the only ones which work properly have a 2mm pinpoint axle which is 24.3mm (or slightly under) in length. Obvious solution is to replace all the longer axles - mostly 25.8mm with shorter ones but can I find any? A Google search brings up plenty of wheels on axles but no body seems to state the axle length. Although it would be great to be able to find a supply of axles only I am now desperate enough to buy complete wheel sets and use just the axle. So it would be brilliant if everyone across the land could whip out their Vernier calipers and measure their axles in the hunt for ones of 24.3mm and it would be even better if you can remember where they came from!

Very nice weathering on green house and great attention to detail overall. In the picture the white of the card does stand out on the edges - a wash with very dilute should sort this out.

Great to see you out and about! Looking at back scene, I think a BIG East Anglia sky would be just perfect - would be happy to oblige, Kevin.

Construction seems awfully minimal - Are you sure it will work?!!!!!!!

Some very nice friends gave us all individual Easter eggs last week and mine was particularly appropriate. After looking at it for several days and decided that nibbling a little bit off his coal bunker wouldn't do any harm - how wrong can you be! Poor old Thomas literally exploded and on gathering up the bits really did look like the pile of bits you see in photos after the scrap man had paid a visit. Only trouble then was that before I could find the camera most of the bits mysteriously disappeared - collected by preservationists perhaps? I think not! As aforementioned chocolate thief's saw fit to leave me to my own devices this afternoon I finally got around to the problem of power in the garage. After much excavation and getting very bad tempered with the amount of junk in there I eventually found the end of the cable which had previously supplied power but which had been disconnected by a thoughtful builder at some stage and never replaced. Now that we have power again I couldn't resist trying out the electric hoist I had borrowed to reunite the major components of the pantograph milling machine. Well, one thing lead to another and with the total lack of anyone to assist I now have it back in one piece - well almost. I still have to replace the vertical slide but after getting the monster top assembly back on the plinth that should be easy! Please note that total clutter behind machine is due to recent excavations and as soon as no one is looking is heading for Ebay or the tip as if we have not needed it in the twelve years since it was deposited there ......... On smaller modelling matters I now have some Dingham and DG couplings to play with - both very speedily dispatched and very nicely packaged in a very thoughtful but not wasteful manner. Now I only have to find the time to play with them.

A quick Google suggests it might be Peterborough?

Couplings that will un-couple remotely so less 'HoG'. Am afraid that I really don't like Kadees - fine on other layouts, but not mine. A fuller explanation will follow in next coupling post but at the moment DGs look the favorite.

Survived the Ally Pally show which turned out to be probably the busiest, most intense but also most interesting show yet. Also very well organised (thank you Nick), and for a big venue the staff were excellent which was a nice and welcome surprise. It has also led to somewhat of an epiphany..... On both days I had to explain the operation of the layout to new operators (big thanks to Neil and Neil), and realised that although the basic premise is very simple (long steam hauled trains come in on one road. steam loco detaches and places itself on empties road via the middle road which is kept clear. Meanwhile petrol engines take loaded wagons split into two or three trains to other fiddle yard and return empties to be taken away by steam train) - it is surprisingly easy to cock it up! Everything relies on there being sufficient empties and fulls at the same time. There are times when you can get a really good rhythm going and all goes smoothly but a log jam is always just around the corner. At this point I do realise that this blog has been going for ages now and although I have my faithful followers there are a lot of newer members who have no idea what I am going on about. For these I am planning a 'retrospective' soon with lots of pictures and a basic summary. On the subject of pictures, I never manage to take any myself at exhibitions and although half the world seems to be doing it for me I never get to see the results. So, on this occasion the only picture I have from the whole weekend is one Andy managed to snatch of me explaining some finer point of detail to a visitor during what was actually a quiet patch! Anyway, back to the point of this - in order to achieve my aim of always having plenty of stuff on scene and running for the visitors - I have to make things even simpler. Although it is nice to have a mixture of the different classes of wagons that were operated, as they all need different sized loads I am proposing to use just the D class wagons for shows. This means that I can use just my new 'whole wagon loads' which will speed things up massively. Secondly I will (semi) permanently couple wagons into pairs to make splitting the trains easier. And thirdly and very much connected, or as too often is the case disconnected - I have to get the couplings sorted out! This is an ongoing problem which at one point I thought I had sorted but seems to have gone into reverse. I did apply a tip I picked up which involves a small smear of Copydex to the inside face of the coupling, which, when dried, helps to prevent the hook from lifting. Although it may do this if the hooks were seated properly, I found that it was preventing the hooks from seating and then when they were was preventing uncoupling when you needed to. All of this meant rather too much having to barge in front of people to check couplings which is a pain for everyone especially those with video cameras! On a slight aside here, I have nothing against people taking photos or videos - it shows that they are interested which is good - but if we cannot operate the layout they will have nothing to photograph! So unfortunately we do have to get in the way sometimes and as a p.s. to this tangential rant - it is always appreciated when permission is sort especially if flash is involved. As an adjunct to my previous thoughts I realised that if I were to seek the panacea of auto uncoupling, I would only actually need three uncoupling points - one for the loco and then one between wagons 2 and 3 and then 4 and 5. If as occasionally happens I indulge in an eight wagon train (usually to wind up the other operator if they are slacking!), the last four could be pulled further along the siding later and over the magnet. So where does this leave us? Do I persevere with the Zamzoodles possibly re-engineering the hooks where I think the problems originate and make them auto couple friendly or do I abandon completely and try something else completely? If the second option were to be adopted which ones bearing in mind that the wagon bogies have a hole at 10mm above the track level which cannot really be altered. Any other option would also have to be pretty robust and easily mounted. Have a few months before the next show but am well aware of how little time this actually contains for playing trains. On a slightly more positive note I now have some pretty concrete proof for the colour of shells corroborated by two sources, one of which is slightly unusual. Am not quite ready to go public on this yet but will do soon and I have a great title for the blog lined up!

How many blog entries start with apologies for not updating for ages? Well this one won't - I shall end with my excuses! This is because I need to tell everyone that the layout is at the London Festival of Railway Modelling or the Ally Pally show for short. Alexandra Palace, London, N22 7AY 24th - 25th MARCH 2018 Quite excited about this one as used to exhibit at car shows here in a previous life and always enjoyed the location which it has to be said was pretty much at the top of my road then! Not quite so convenient now but I think living in the sticks has many more advantages. On the website from which I have just shamelessly stolen the details and logo there is a handy count down clock say something like 2 days and 13 hours to go. Well, my countdown clock is running a bit faster as already running like around like the proverbial blue posteriored insect. Ah, I get it, the clock is for visitors not exhibitors! If you do manage to get along then you will be able to see a couple of projects that I have been working on but shamefully haven't written about - but I will get around to it soon, promise. As a slight teaser I can promise a lot more and very convincing wagon loads, a scratch built Baldwin 4-6-0, some progress towards the workshop train and maybe some progress on a new wagon building project. Oh yes, excuses - work, family, uncooperative computers, monster flu - all the usual suspects!

I am sure that 2832 in the mining museum at Apedale has a horn with a squeezy end probably of the bicycle sort, and am also sure that some but not all have in contemporary pictures. Such adornments would probably not last in place very long in an industrial environment. A sample of some one shouting 'Oi! Gerr out my way' in heavy local accent might be more fitting! Am also sure that someone is working on a sample (might be for the 40HP though) but can't remember where I found this out. Possibly the 16mm WDLR FaceBook page and although I can't be certain Legoman Biffo might be involved. Kevin.

Am pretty sure that you get the Review so you will probably remember that Roy did a review of this rather nice kit but seem to remember that he had a little trouble with the gears. My evening will just evaporate if I try to find which issue it was now but will find it for you if you haven't got it. There is always the volume index I guess but that isn't half the fun!

It is called peritrack and was used to make perimeter tracks on airfields during WW2 so plenty knocking about in East Anglia.

Yes, the canisters are there in the last photo. I have just made a second mould for them which will double the production rate. There is some debate (mostly amongst myself!), as to how many charges there are per canister. One source suggests that the charges were in three parts and were used in proportion to the range required. 1915 manual on ammunition only seems to show one which is 24 inches long which is the size I have established from pics that the canisters were. From the very limited number of pictures available it does look as if there may have been more shells per truck than canisters so not sure where to go with this one yet.