TEAMYAKIMA

Apologies, I must admit that I hadn't publicised that issue as much as I should have. Due to a clash of dates we have had to pull out of York in 2024

I must admit that I have not read every post on this thread, but I hope this layout may have some relevance to this discussion. My Club was formed in 1961 and for our 50th anniversary I built this 'typical' 1961 Table Top layout. It represents a typical kitchen table layout which got dismantled every day because 'mother needs the table back' Except for the two trains which run clockwise and anti-clockwise and the tea cup, everything else is glued down permanently in place - YES, the de-railed tanker, the track plans, the Railway Modeller, the pencil etc are all superglued in position There is usually a half-eaten biscuit in the tea cup's saucer and at one show a visitor complained bitterly that I should not have included the ashtray and (toy) cigarette as it would encourage his 3 year-old son to take up smoking.

Hello Steve We have three shows booked in 2024 - Alton (Feb 3/4) Abingdon (March 2/3) & Aylesbury (May 24/25) and, so far, in 2025 it's Basingstoke Can you see a pattern developing? 🤔 If it continues like this we will be doing Warrington in 2056 and Yeovil in 2057!

Years ago when my layout first appeared on the exhibition circuit it didn't have a lighting rig. This suited me as my layout is set in industrial China in the spring not Cuba in high summer. Consequently, the average hall lighting suited my concept. After a few shows and having spoken to viewers I decided to add lighting facia using 12v LED strips and that seemed fine, but having seen some recent photos and videos of the layout at shows, I'mm not so sure now. The trouble comes in well lit venues. Here it is at Manchester and you can clearly see the shadows of the two supporting beams It was even worse at Warley as can be seen in this video at 20.52 and beyond as the whole facia casts a long shadow along the front of the whole layout Consequently, I am thinking of only setting up the lighting rig in badly lit venues. I realise that I could light the layout in a completely different way i.e. not using a facia at all and having 'floodlights' on poles coming over from the back of the layout, but I don't want to go that route. For me there is a problem at the moment and the solution is to make a decision once I get to a venue ................. If it's a badly lit venue use the existing lighting rig If it's a well lit venue don't For me that long shadow at Warley completely spoils that video and something need to be done, but whilst I am sure that I could improve things by flooding the whole layout with extra powerful lights please remember that I want subdued lighting not a tropical island at high noon. Plenty for me to think about!

I think it's time for reflection on 2023 and a look forward to 2024 and beyond. Our last three shows - Taunton, Warley and Manchester - were all successful with crowds two, three and even four deep at times. At those shows we have had some issues, but we have learnt how to deal with them and have moved on. One such lesson that we learnt was if you have five identical RTR locos, the fact that four of them will run perfectly in reverse through a set of standard PECO code 100 points does NOT necessarily mean that the fifth one will !!!🤔 Things went so well at Manchester that we were able to experiment with a few of the so-called 'complex' moves on the China Rail main lines - just to add a little variety to the operation. There are two of these 'complex' moves, what I like to call the simple complex move and the complex complex move and we tried both at Manchester. All of these 'experiments' were successful, but that doesn't mean that there weren't lessons to be learnt. We plan to make these complex moves part of the standard operation at future shows, once we have made some minor operational tweaks to deal with the minor issues these experiments brought to light. So, we move into 2024 in buoyant mood - a layout which is finally delivering its full potential and a team of experienced operators keen to show it off around the country. So, all I have to do now is to wish everyone who follows this thread a 'MERRY XMAS' and a very 'HAPPY NEW YEAR'

On the subject of videos, I have always wanted a definitive one which captures all our unique features and in the last few days I have some time looking at various exhibition videos to get ideas. I think that the Abingdon show in March might be the ideal venue for such a video session as we will be in a separate room and so there will be less background noise than in a large packed hall. Consequently, the layout will have to be completely finished and running perfectly by the Abingdon show. So, no pressure then! 😬

There are several videos on YOUTUBE showing the Manchester exhibition, most of which include BEIJIAO, but this is my favourite as it highlights one of our new features - QJ 7141 with dynamic smoke - and I think it looks really good. We start at 7.13 and 'NO' that's not our soundtrack!

Thanks

Please allow me to say straight away that I am not a DCC enthusiast and 99% of what I read or am told goes right over my head, but to an extent I have learnt how to do VERY basic things like change loco addresses. I use Digitrax and all my chips so far have been SOUNDTRAX. I now have a loco which comes factory fitted with a ESU chip and that has somewhat thrown me. I don't like the loco's 'take-off' speed and hope to lower it and I want to change the direction of travel so that it runs tender first in forward mode. I have looked up ESU decoders and it seems to me that CV2 is linked to starting speed - how do I attempt to set the take-off speed lower? Also I see that loco direction is linked to CV29 - how do I change direction? I apologise that these questions are soooooooooo basic and I genuinely wish that my brain was more DCC friendly, but please take pity on me and give me the advice I need. Many thanks Paul

Absolutely true in my/our case. My layout needs 6 operators and we try to use 'local' operators whenever possible in order to keep costs down. Consequently, at our last three shows we have always had two completely new team members who, in some cases, have never even seen the layout up until then. Another issue is that some team members always use DC on their own layouts and we use DCC, but just because someone is used to using Gaugemaster or Hornby or Bachmann or NCE at home does NOT mean that they take to DIGITRAX like a duck to water.

All joking aside, the key thing these days is to be constantly learning how to get the best out of the layout - from the viewers' point of view, from the operators' point of view and from my point of view. The layout has many operational possibilities and we need to learn how to exploit them to the best advantage.We learnt a lot at Warley, we learnt a lot at Manchester, what we need to do before our next show is to find ways to use that knowledge to our best advantage. One problem we have in that regard is that operators only gain experience at shows - we can't set the layout up every week like a club can. So, the trick is to find ways of saving that knowledge we've gained and making it available to operators who come 'cold' to the next exhibition. We now have crib sheets for setting up the layout, crib sheets for using the Digitrax handsets and soon we will have crib sheets to enhance the operation based on the experience we gained at Manchester.

Wow! That's a leading question if ever I heard one - like something out of PMQ's! All I can say at this stage is that I was told by the exhibition manager that we came 2nd or 3rd in the public vote for best layout. All I can say at this stage is that all the operating team have told me that they would be very happy to operate again as/when the opportunity arises. and that means that we now have a pool of 16 potential operators. All I can say at this stage is that things were going so smoothly on Sunday afternoon that I just drifted off and looked around the show - a first for me! That's all I can say at this stage.😉

WOW! As the owner of BEIJIAO I can only thank you so much for your comments. The layout has been on the circuit for a few years now and has always been changing/developing with each showing. It cannot be set up at home and so we try to learn from every exhibition we do and make the next one better than the last and it seems, from your comments, that we are 'nearly there now' . Thank you again - it's moments like this that make the whole thing worthwhile.

I've just found this photo elsewhere on RMweb showing the layout at Manchester. The photo was taken before the show opened - HONEST!

Beijiao is being packed in a van as I write this #. Not seen a Chinese HO layout before? Then do come and take a look and if you have any questions, please ask. And "YES" the layout is set in 2001 and there was till steam running on China Rail. 2001 was the Chinese version of our 1968, there was still some steam running around one isolated industrial city, but the clock is ticking - steam on the main line will be gone in a few weeks. If you want to photograph 'real steam' doing what it was built to do you'd better get on a plane and get over there ASAP.

Now that Warley's done and dusted, we're off to Manchester this weekend. We learnt lessons at Warley and we will put that knowledge into practice at Manchester - do come and say 'hello' if you're there.

I agree. TBH I have always been surprised that HO was the prominent scale - with small apartments in China, who was buying all that HO? Originally, I guess, foreign collectors, but for China-based enthusiasts HO seemed the wrong choice and yet every HO model seems to sell out very quickly.

Very nice - many thanks. That was quite early on Saturday and I was too busy at the back of the layout to take much notice of what was going on 'out front' at that time. TBH it seems to me that it almost looks as though there was too much action on the front of the layout at some points. By that I mean that whilst having three or even four trains moving on the front does look impressive, it does mean that there will be a longer gap until the next train appears. By the end of the show we had got things a bit better organised so that there was constant movement out front, but no gaps - as one train disappeared off stage 'right' , so another train appeared on anothyerbtrack to take its place. One thing about your video, in particular, appeals to me - you feature the banked train move on the industrial! I have always thought that that banked move is one of our most important USP's and yet it very rarely gets included in a video and many visitors miss it as well - because it's at the back of the layout and as soon as a train appears under their noses they concentrate on that rather than the banking move. At our next show we are going to try to stop 'conflicting' movements on the main lines and give the banking movement a clear 20 second window so that it gets the viewers' full attention. Thanks again

I have spent the last three days dealing with some issues which came to light at Warley. None were 'life-threatening' and all/most have now been easily dealt with. One of the good thing about Warley was that I/we were able to identify problems and analyze them and therefore deal with them. One by-product of being so busy at Warley is that I never had time to take any photos of the BEIJIAO and so if anyone has any nice photos of the layout, please feel free to post them on here.

I agree, but TBH I think it was a mistake. My set up team went over and were surprised/shocked to be charged £1 for a tea/coffee and later we spoke to a couple of Warley members who were watching us set up. We moaned about the charge and one of them said that that seemed wrong. He went over to the temporary tea bar and came back to say that it was a misunderstanding and that from now tea/coffees were FOC on set up day. We did not go back to ask for our money back - it seemed a genuine misunderstanding.

The dust is beginning to settle after Warley and I/we will need to consider our feedback from the weekend which will, in turn, influence our attendance at future shows. I must take this opportunity to thank my team who made this year's Warley show such a success - Nigel, Alan, Iain, Gordon, Luke, Bill and Alex - each made a significant contribution to our success. One of the most important aspects of any show is learning from our 'mistakes' and taking steps to eliminate those issues at future shows - we have in the past and as a consequence our performance gets better every time!

Thanks for those kind words, but .......................... OMG! You've made me look really old in that photo!

I will be packing my Chinese layout, BEIJIAO, into a van this afternoon and we will be one of the first there tomorrow so that we can set up early, test everything and (hopefully) be in the pub by 19.30. I am extremely grateful to the Warley club to give me a return visit, I consider it a great honour and I hope we can repay that generous gesture by entertaining as many visitors as possible throughout the weekend. The layout has made great progress since our first visit in 2019 - we even have a station sign now! I hope many of you will come and say "Ni hao" and I will be only too happy to discuss the whole Chinese railway experience. The layout is set in 2001 and "YES" there were still double-headed steam freights on the national railway system back then, but 2001 was the Chinese equivalent of our 1968 - the steam was still there in remote areas, but the clock was ticking.

Apologies, I had not fully explained the scenario. As usual, me not being a driver has caused an issue. The van is actually coming from Haywards Heath and collecting the layout tomorrow at about 2pm in Watford and then overnighting in Leighton Buzzard. I will join it at 9.30am for the journey to the NEC. If I had known back in 1970 (when I turned 17) what I know now, I would have learnt to drive - 😧

We had a 'session' yesterday and now all the layout is set out in the garage ready to be packed in the van tomorrow lunchtime. If you're reading this and will be going to the Warley show, please do come and say 'hello' and don't worry if, at the time, I'm looking very stressed or running around like a headless chicken - those are my default settings - just come and introduce yourself as I probably will be the 'front-of-house' man interacting with visitors.