ColinW

I am part of a group building a layout, for our club. We are going to use an ID Backscenes, photographic backscene, and are wondering if anyone has sealed the backscene after it has been fixed, by using an artist's varnish or similar, or if anyone has any other suggestions. Thanks Colin

Seeing the photos of the whole set of buildings together, shows how stunning they look, and would certainly be an eye catching part of any layout. Hopefully you can get a chance to show them in their location on your father's layout. Colin

Have to say that the building's are looking superb. I really like the way you have got the brick work painted. Colin

Another excellent show put on by Adrian & the Uckfield club. The standard of all of the layouts was exceptional (no surprise there) and a good range of traders, although wasn't after much today. Worth a visit tomorrow if you are in the area. Colin

I can now add a list of traders, societies & demonstrators attending the show Traders ACE Products C&L Finescale Carriage & Wagon Models Coastal DCC Dart Castings David Wills Dingo Servo Mounts DoW Scenics Golden Arrow Productions Hardy's Hobbies Harrison-Brown Models Heritage in motion Kent Garden Railway KS Laser Designs Layouts4u Matthew Cousins (Artist, with Drive Thomas) Mike Turner (Artist) Plus Daughters Rail-Books Railroad Trading Ray Morris Roxey Mouldings South Eastern Finecast Squires models & tools Supercast Societies Gravesend Rail Enthusiasts Society Network South East RCTS Spa Valley Railway Tonbridge Model Engineering Society Demonstrators Michael Tucker - Scratch built buildings Roger Sawyer - Basic soldering techniques Steve Sharp - Steve's model building service, Locomotives & rolling stock built in Plasticard Also, Butley Quay was added to the list of layouts by mistake, and will be attending our exhibition in 2021. The list above has been amended. Will up date when I have more information Colin

I have now been given a list of layouts booked to attend the show, there are 34 of them. I will list them with gauge and when set (if I have them!) Alt Furka HO Swiss Bottom Works Sidings OO BR and British Steel c1973 Canute Road Quay OO Southern 1940's Cheffley OO Southern 1930's Coldharbour Lane O GWR shed Durston OO GWR 1930's Edington Junction O Somerset & Dorset 1920's Forrestone N South London main line station Four Oaks OO BR Southern region Gasworks Basin OO Gasworks in 1950's Hayning Island EM BR Southern region 1960's Hoch Feldberg Z Kuchon 3mm German Black Forest branch line Lianbruck OO9 Austrian Lydgate OO Lancs & Yorks railway set in 1960's Lyndale OO9 small layout built to fit inside under bed box Lynwood OO9 small layout built to fit inside under bed box Manston Airport OO BR Southern region 1950's Morfa Mawr West Wales Rixworth Green P4 Southern 1920's Rotherbridge Goods OO Lancs & Yorks railway set in 1950's Scatchy Bottom Halt Gn15 Sheepcroft EM South West 1960's/70's Shellsea Harbour OO Southern 1920's Sillean MR N St. Elizabeth Street N St. Luke's OO BR Western region St. Mary's O Welshpool & Llanfair light railway 1930 Tansey Bank OO9 Preserved ex industrial line 1960's Welford Bridge N BR Western region 1960 I will add a list of traders once we have final confirmation. Colin

Looks to be another excellent show put on by Adrian, and I shall be making the short-ish journey from Tonbridge, with some members of Tonbridge MRC on the Saturday. Colin

Tonbridge MRC will be holding their 39th exhibition at the Angel Leisure Centre, Angel Lane, Tonbridge TN9 1SF, on Saturday 15th February 2020. Admission prices are: Adults £6.00, Children (between 10-16) £1.00, Children under 10 FREE. Following criticism of the over crowding situation this year, especially around the Jubilee room, the club has taken the decision to put demonstrators/Loco doctors and possibly a society in the Jubilee room, and there will be a larger area just off of the main hall that will house layouts in there. I will update with a list of layouts and traders in the near future. Colin

Have to say that the signal boxes and the distillery buildings look very impressive. Colin

Our club has a selection of books that have been donated to us, we do not have a great deal of space in which to keep an overly extensive collection. However I did recommend that the club purchase some of the Wild Swan books on scenic & plastic kits, which have been well used. As for magazines, the club itself does not order them, but members will bring down various titles on club nights. Colin

Having followed your build of Caledonian Basin, I will follow your progress on this with interest. The coaling shed looks superb. I like setting deadlines on work being done on a layout (more self encouragement to get jobs done quicker) Colin

Having seen the layout today at the Pevensey MRC exhibition, I can only say how delightful it is. A simple track plan, Scenery very well done, the sound on the loco's at just the right level, not too over powering, and movements kept me wanting to stand and watch it. Colin

First of all I need to ask why this is in the exhibitions section? surely the miscellany section would have been better placed. I am a member of the Bluebell railway, and also in close proximity to the Spa Valley Railway, Kent & East Sussex, Lavender Line and at a push the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch railways, as well as the Bluebell railway, so I could have my pick of lines to volunteer at, but as has been mentioned, work and other activities mean that I am unlikely to be able to volunteer at this current moment. As I currently work as a signaller with Network Rail, I can understand that any railway would like me to do a similar position, but sometimes you need to do something different from a day job when on rest days. I might be more interested in the restoration side of the railway, rather than being a 'public face' to a railway. Colin

P{art of the reason for extending the hidden fiddle yards, was to allow us to add a local freight movement down the branch line, rather than just use a 14xx & Auto coach or Diesel Railcar. Due to the way the original fiddle yard board was constructed, we are unable to fit a hand into it, so the extension board was made so that we could gain access to the nearest track on the hidden fiddle yard. Running a freight down the branch means that we will need to remove and then reconstruct the freight before it departs again. This means that we need to fit an un-coupler to that line. In the second picture, the rule is 5" from the end, as that is where a loco can be run/pushed to before using the un-coupler to un couple each wagon. The piece of card in the third pic, is just a template to show where it will be situated. Will show more when I continue with this work later. Colin

Some more work was carried out this morning, mainly tidying up the wiring, but we were able to sort out the isolations on the two tracks in the hidden fiddle-yard. Some of the next jobs to be carried will be checking the Seep point motors used for operating the un-couplers and signals, and looking to install a new un-coupler in the extension board, for the hidden fiddle-yard. Colin

Thanks Neil Colin

Having not put anything on here for some time, here is an update. Unfortunately, we once again suffered electrical problems during the Faversham show, and this left us with little choice but to go through the wiring on each board. Fortunately the way the control panel has been made has meant that we could plug each board into the control panel and fully test them. As we did this, we also found problems with some of the Fulgurex point motors, so we took the decision to take 4 of them out and replace them with Cobalt motors, and these appear to be working much better. Today we had the layout up and had a successful running session, much to our relief. Colin

It's good to see you back at work Ron, have certainly missed your building updates. Colin

A few local stations for me PENShurst PADdock Wood (if you have enough money might have full first word) High BROOMs STAPLEhurst HilDENborough OrPINgton Maidstone BAR/RACKs BELT/RING StoneGATE ROBErtsbridge BATtle ETCHingHAM Colin

Went to the show yesterday, was well worth the journey from Kent. all the layouts were excellent, and traders were able to provide me with some things I wanted. The cameo layout section was great and no doubt very hard to judge. One of our club member's, Chris Matthews was showing his Bottom Works Sidings there, and we have been watching him making and weathering wagons for the layout, on club nights recently, so it was good to actually get to see the layout. Colin

I have to say that both of the photo's with overcast sky really enhance your modelling. Makes you feel like standing there with an overcoat on. Colin

I have to say that it looks superb in your photo's. The one thing I would say is that having an overcast background, rather than blue sky, would give it more atmosphere (sorry for stereotyping Scotland) but that really is me just being picky. Colin

Hi Ron, Good to hear that you are re-starting the project. I look forward to seeing your updates in the near future. Colin

That is some very impressive modelling that you have been doing on here. Colin

Hi Andy, Looks to be a couple of interesting projects you are working on. I am very envious of the time and space you have available to you to be able to carry out these projects. Colin