hoover50008

Nothing like a bit of advance notice to get my act together and finish the bridge. Red Card Yard has been invited to the new Plymouth Model Railway Show in November.

Slow progress of late, made a start on the bridge but haven’t got enough Redutex to finish so waiting for new stock to arrive. E

So that’s the lighting rig sorted can now turn my attention to extending the bridge. E

I enjoyed the show but have to agree with your sentiments re layouts with operating. I must have looked at 6 layouts at least where nothing was moving and operators just stood around yapping even when they see you watching they just carry on not operating. This isn’t unique to the Warley show though it affects most exhibitions and is very frustrating. E

Well as it wasn’t raining for a change down west today I managed to start painting the lighting pelmit, managed two coats and it’s not looking to bad. Another little project I have been working on is renumbering this Dapol 08 to Eastfields 08727. Started thinking about the bridge extension as well. E

So continued with the permit today using wood from a previous layout. E

Managed to progress the lighting rig a bit yesterday basically fitting the hinged supporting section. Hopefully this will allow the rig to fold reasonably flat for transportation. E

A bit more progress on the light rig today with the pockets fitted to the boards and the uprights in place. E

Hi John I have only exhibited Red Card Yard at one show so far where it made its debut. This was at Yealmpton which is a one day show but I don’t see why it wouldn’t keep you busy for 2 days. As I explained previously one shunt can take up to 25 minutes depending on the position of the required wagon couple this with talking to people and slopping tea etc and the time soon goes by, it is simple to operate which I think is part of the attraction and it is easy to put up and take down. Hopefully I will pick up some more shows next year so will have a better idea then but so far so good. E

So I think I have the way ahead with the stabling siding and bridge installation but for now I have turned my attention to the lighting rig. This will be constructed mainly from 9mm plywood and will sit in pockets on the end of the layout. I intend to make it collapsible for easy transportation so the upright legs will be hinged at the top. I made a start on the pockets today whilst I had the opportunity. E

Thanks Richard it was good to catch up yesterday. I’m warming to that idea now and putting some condemned wagons there as Colin suggested. The tricky bit though will be making the bridge fit as there isn’t a lot of room. E

Thanks Rob that had never really occurred to me about the bridge and actually that is a good idea so will put some thought into it. Cheers E

So the dilemma is what to do about the stabling siding, I’ve been considering this whilst away in Cornwall this week. I was never entirely happy about it but when I built the layout but thought it would add a little bit extra operating potential but in reality I don’t think it does. We didn’t use it at the Yealmpton show as the siding where the point is was blocked by wagons. I was thinking of leaving an engine down there just ticking over but consider that a bit risky now as it is not possible to keep an eye on it all the time. So what are the options? 1/ Remove the point and siding, extend the bridge wall across and just have it as a fiddle yard board. 2/ Remove the siding as far as the bridge wall and extend the bridge wall across creating a truncated siding and boxing the front creating a fiddle yard board. 3/ Leave it as it is. Any thoughts would be welcome. E

We operated the layout using a card system at the weekend. I wrote all the wagon numbers on pieces of card and one is drawn at random, this is the wagon that needs to be shunted under the hoist for repairs. That card is then left out of the draw for the next selection. If the wagon on the stop blocks is selected then it takes about 20 minutes to shuffle all the wagons around. First you have to move the wagons to get the selected on behind the engine this then stays coupled to the engine, then you can only move one additional wagon out of the way at a time to position the selected wagon under the hoist as the sector plate can only accommodate the shunter and two wagons. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I find there is something quite therapeutic about shunting “trucks”. E

The 2 yard pilots this weekend were 08227 and 08769 both are sound fitted with Paul Chetter sound. I only had one comment about the BR arrow being the wrong way around but that was how it was on the real thing. E