TEAMYAKIMA

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.

Yes, I think excessive rain is the more likely contributing issue. there had been very heavy rain two weeks before we arrived there.

Yes I am pleased to say that I am in one piece and totally uneffected by my recent experience although some of my fellow travellers did suffer broken bones and cuts and bruises.

I'm back from Argentina now and gradually recovering from 40 hours with less than one hour's sleep - just can't sleep on planes! TBH I have enjoyed being able to concentrate on other things and not have to think about the layout 24/7. There are three relatively minor issues to deal with on the layout and then we pack it all up on Thursday and head off to the NEC. But for the moment my priorities are an Indian takeaway, some red wine and an early night. As a clue as to why I enjoyed the trip so much, a bottle of house red wine in a 5 star Buenos Aires hotel was just under £8 - need I say more?

Having just hit 70 myself, I couldn't agree more. On a similar theme,I am currently on a rail fan trip in Argentina and for the first time in my life I have paid for a single room supplement and an upgrade to economy plus on the airflights. Why? Recently I researched every well-known religion and none of them told me that I would be able to take my money with me and so I'm spending whilst I can. The same applies with buying, using and enjoying model railways.

I put quite a bit of effort into that too.🤫

With just over three weeks to go before our next exhibition (Warley) I find myself surprisingly relaxed - so relaxed in fact that I am taking a holiday for two weeks. 🙂 Taunton was our most relaxed exhibition so far and, because we were relaxed, we were able to quietly analyse our few outstanding issues - all of which I have managed to address in the last ten days. Everything we learnt at Taunton about getting the layout up and running as soon as possible has been incorporated into updated and expanded crib sheets which now cover everything from how best to pack/unpack the van, how to set things out in the hall once we arrive, what jobs to tackle first, how to lay the stock out etc etc - all designed to get the layout up and running as quickly as possible and hence getting us in the pub as quickly as possible! In that context, I must thank all members of my Taunton Team for the fantastic job they did, especially as three out of the five had never operated the layout at a show before - and one of them (Mark) had never even seen the layout before! So, thank you Iain, Mark, Neal and Peter, not forgetting my long time helper, Gordon. I now have an expanded pool of operators spread around the country and I must also thank them for all their help over the years - Bob, Kev, Alan, Luke and especially Al Turner who has not only helped at exhibitions but who has made major contributions to the layout with such things as the superb 3D printed signals which really enhanced the layout at Taunton. So, I head off on my travels confident that when I return we will be ready to carry on where we left off at Taunton. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS! (or words to that effect!) 😉

Damn! I genuinely thought we had at least a remote chance of being voted 'Best in Show' - NOT ANY MORE! 😉

Bath Green Park came first by a country mile.

Having spoken to everyone involved with our visit to the Taunton show, I can now claim that it was our most successful /enjoyable exhibition so far. The EM has told me that we came 2nd or 3rd in the public vote - and with 35 layouts to chose from, that's not too bad. 😊

Many thanks for your kind words. Yes, as Chinese railways are a very unusual subject I find that having a front-of-house man giving some background information really helps viewers engage with the layout. Our aim is to 'educate' those who want to learn more about the Chinese railway scene whilst, at the same time, entertain those who just want plenty of action.

Yes, there is no point denying that (not for the first time) the peculiarities of 'Digitrax' conspired to cause us trouble before the doors opened on Sunday, but thanks to some expert help from Derek (one of the exhibitors) we were able to track down the problem and deal with it before the public arrived and we were putting on a very professional and entertaining performance from about 10.10 until close-down. I won't give any further details about Derek as he will get inundated with requests for DCC tech support if I do, just to say a huge THANK YOU to him for his support and help. I must also thank my Taunton Team (Iain, Gordon, Neal, Peter and Mark) who were so supportive and helpful throughout the weekend and especially when the van arrived two hours late on the Friday due to appalling traffic conditions on the M4.

Please do come over and introduce yourself to us on Beijiao

Many thanks for your comments - I will be dealing with this issue today. 🙂

As if to prove how close I think the layout is to being 'finished', I will show you some of the 'major issues' I've been dealing with lately - some of which have been 'major issues' ever since our very first exhibition! The first 'major issue' - When I first laid the industrial track, I laid the important tracks (the through road and the platform road) with concrete sleepers as if they had been updated at some time. but I laid the sidings with wooden sleepered track. However, I randomly inserted some concrete sleepers to show that when the wooden sleepers had needed repair they had used the more modern concrete sleepers, but in my haste (six years ago) to get the layout ready for its first show I had just washed black paint over all the track and so the subtlety of that 'feature had been somewhat (literally) overshadowed .................... Now, having finally got some spare time to deal with these really big issues, I've gone back and sorted the problem 😉