ColinK

Number 10 is a great little loco and a real credit to everyone who helped fund and build it.  If you read the book about it (available from the Corris Railway) it explains how the design was tweaked to make it more practical eg for coaling, and how some parts were made by railway volunteers to keep the cost down.

Myself and five friends hired the Corris Railway for a day recently (second time we’ve done it) and we all enjoyed it, including driving number 10 - appropriate as some of our little group had financially contributed towards it.

Glad to be of help RobinC.  The supplier I used was ukled.co.uk, at Kemp House.  Very helpful over the phone. I think the bill was less than £500; I could have done it cheaper but I wanted quality components that would last.  I’m very happy with the result.

I live in a bungalow with a loft conversion and its impossible to get access to the inside of the ceiling, hence the need for a different solution for ceiling lighting.

I have a almost identical situation to you, other than I have one layout on the top level and a different one on the low level.  
 

I contacted a LED lighting supplier (edited to add UKLED, no connection but very helpful) and chatted it through with him.  Went with what he recommended and I’m very happy with it. Underneath the top level I have 24volt (for more brightness) RGBW LED strips in proper LED channel with diffusers.  The W part of RGBW is important - it add white to the colours the LED strip can produce.  It is powered by a transformer (they call it ‘driver’) and has a remote control.  As a result I can alter the colour of the lighting and the overall brightness.  It works brilliantly (pun intended).

While the LED strip is self-adhesive, a few dabs of Araldite will keep it in place for the long term.

The supplier did recommend the L shaped connectors for the 90 degree angles in the corners which I used.  These made it very difficult to fit the lighting as there is no give in them.  If doing it again I would have soldered 4 wires to the end of each straight run and fitted plug-together choc bloc connectors.

The only down side is that the lighting rig makes it harder to access the underside of the top baseboards. 
 

Edit to add the photo - minus layouts.

Don’t know if this is relevent to you - A problem I have is that the room is lit by a single bulb in the centre, which means I am always working in my own shadow.  I asked our good builder about fitting lots of LED circular  lights (as often found in kitchens and bathrooms)  in the ceiling. While this was technically possible, the only way he could fit them would be by either replacing the ceiling (very expensive) or fitting a lower false ceiling (cheaper but still expensive and a fair bit of mess).  What I am thinking of doing is installing a narrow shelf (perhaps 150mm wide) at picture rail level (can’t be any lower because of constrains in the room) and fitting similar LED strips (I’ll probably use two strips side by side) under the shelf to light the top level of the layout. 

3 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

Everytime you get on a bus, part of the fare will come from the HS2 credit card… 

 

The seeming never ending rail strikes will not have encouraged the Govt to spend money on railways, especially when buses continue to run every day.

Haven’t DCC Concepts just announced something that will do what you want.

Friden Brickworks now booked to appear at The New Mills & District Railway Modellers mini exhibition on 14th October in New Mills.

It’s also booked for Narrow Gauge North on 9th March 2024.

Lunchtimes can be a bit poor for visitors. For example, at one big show with lots of large layouts, while the operators went for lunch en mass, many layouts, including one with a four track main line, just had one operator who had no idea how to run it.

Lunch arrangements for exhibitors are important - just one sitting for a hot meal doesn’t work.  The arrangements I find best are where there is a hot water urn tucked away somewhere for exhibitors to make drinks as often as they wanted and lunches are simply sandwiches to be eaten when convenient - but not while operating.

I’m enjoying your posts Johann, but the last two have been especially interesting.  I’ve never been to New Zealand, but had several trips to Luxembourg to photograph their trains.

Would a sheet of Sundela on top of the ply work?

Steve Martin and Kermit the Frog
 

https://youtu.be/5gNuj8UkyC4?si=a2HfpxKXJvFeYL2m

Is it etching grey primer that is stuck in the airbrush?  That will be hard to shift.

Thanks for the plan, its given me some ideas.

‘Liquid Reamer’ from airbrushes.com is pretty effective.

After cleaning my airbrush I put all the parts in a untrasonic bath filled with water plus a little airbrush cleaner. After a few minutes in the machine I dry all the bits and reassemble it.  Works for me.  

Years ago I took my German N gauge layout to a show, set it up Friday evening and everything was working perfectly.  Arrived Saturday morning and a point blade had come off - it was the critical point at the station throat.  The problem was caused by the hall being very hot on Friday and down to zero during the night.  Managed to run a limited service.

On Sunday morning nothing would run. Spent a couple of hours checking and replacing things without success. Finally I decided to remove all the stock of the layout, midway through this the layout sprung into life.  The problem was a metal wagon wheel exactly in the gap above a insulating fishplate just touching both rail ends causing a short.

I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to take my 00 layout to the three day exhibition at The Great Central Railway - the first time I’d been asked by a major show.  I spent a couple of months getting it and the stock ready, including setting it up at home and getting two people who had never seen the layout before to run it and look for problems I had missed. Well worth the effort as it ran perfectly for three days inside a marquee.

More recently I took one of my micro layouts to an exhibition which was due to open at 10am.  Setting up the layout takes less than a minute, put it on the table, put the loco and coach on the track, then switch on (layout is powered by batteries hidden in the scenery).  I arrived at 0940, so loads of time to set up - but the hall was already full of the public when I arrived; there had been such a long queue outside getting soaked in the rain that the organisers opened the show early.

3 hours ago, 5050 said:

I was going to suggest Enigma (I am rather biased after all!) and can confirm that the concept will probably work with Setrack small radius points.

what is Enigma?

On 05/09/2023 at 19:36, John M Upton said:

I just discovered my collection of old Southdown bus tickets from the late 1980's into the early 1990's.  Must be a couple of hundred!  I think I had this grand plan when I was about twelve that these would be worth a lot of money one day.

 

Would I be right in thinking I might as well chuck them in the bin?

Try contacting The Transport Ticket Society.

Interesting discussion.  Does this mean that someone who sends me a dubious email, eg one of those you need to pay extra postage scams, is able to know if I have openned their email?   If they know I’ve openned it, they will know I am a real person.

I was at Cark station on the Furness Line yesterday.  There was a power cut in the area so all the information screens at the station went blank, rather important as a major event (Cartmel races) was on.  I didn’t see a ticket machine, but that would be dead with no electricity, and surprisingly the mobile internet went down and there was no mobile phone signal (at least on EE) while home internet would have gone off too with no electric. 
 

So you couldn’t find out any train times or train running info, couldn’t buy a ticket (bear in mind all the publicity about no ticket = £100 fine) and couldn’t phone a friend.  Too much reliance on the internet.

I once travelled on a France - England car ferry where they got the loading so very wrong the ship had a distinct lean to one side. Vehicles had to be taken off and reloaded, made it very late departing.

To add a bit of action to the scene you could make the satelite dish move.

My dad had a bump in his Skoda which resulted in some front end damage, mainly front panels and bonnet bent, no mechanical damage.  The insurance company wrote it off.

A few months later a chap knocked on Dad’s front door, there was his written off Skoda outside. ‘Just wondered if you still had the luggage cover?’  He had bought the written off car, replaced a few panels and it was as good s it had been at the time of the accident.

So it must be possible to buy your written of car.

My dad was on a coach trip recently to Lindisfarne which is reached by a tidal causeway.  The driver told everyone to be back on the coach by 1545 so they could get off the island before the tide came it.  One of the passengers didn’t appear until 1615, the coach just got off before it was too late as the driver had sensibly given the earlier time to allow for someone being late. 

I know of two Chineese model railways in the UK, one is regularly on RMweb.

Today I called in at Arcadia models at Shaw at 1100hrs to ask Tim to keep me a sound fitted Bachmann 40063 when they arrive.  The reply was ‘they will be here between 1145 and 1245’.   I couldn’t wait longer than 1300, but DPD arrived just before that so I got my 40063.  I have to say it is excellent, looks good, runs well especially at slow speed and the factory fitted sound is superb.