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Yes it was……..

Busy day yesterday as the layout was set up in the kitchen for a photo shoot with permission from Mrs G. The new PCB for the class 37 arrived from Bachmann, only ordered Friday. I also found three sheets of etched ferry van ventilators, I didn’t know I had. These will be used for three more 4w ferry vans, not sure from which country yet.

We wondered what the massive crash was…..

Those boiler bands are in the wrong place and they’ve forgotten the wheels…….ill get my coat!

The only casualty over the weekend was my class 37 which died. I’ve dismantled it this morning and the motor is dead. Spares available.

Biscuits make the world go round.

Some photos……. Me and Chris Jones (Corkscrew Lines) Sandy Clark NGS and Chris Chris Jones Me and John Dixon NGS.

I’m knackered…….a three day show was hard work. The layout largely behaved itself the loss of a route was just a wire out as I thought and was traced in a matter of seconds. More of an issue was the fact that the layout had gone from a cold garage to a warm indoors and we had trouble with baseboard joints. G clamps to the rescue. Otherwise apart from a couple of intermittent issues with one point it ran well. A big thank you to my operators Chris, Sandy, John, Mike and Alan……and also my colleagues from Monk Bar Modelshop for getting it home. Nice that a few Rmwebbers made themselves known and a lot of customers from the shop too. i didn’t miss the irony that we were next to a layout based on the Izal factory!

We were set up by 1730 last night after two trips across a very busy York in the hire van. Couple of faults which shouldn’t take too long to find. One route in the fiddle yard won’t set, probably a wire off somewhere and a not quite dead section also in the fiddle yard which looks like a section of track without a feed. Just need to get the rolling stock, road vehicles and curtains on.

Everything is boxed up and ready for Friday. York Racecourse here we come. Stand 75 on the first floor.

A nice relaxing week away in Amble, Northumberland. The railway has been long gone and there’s little sign of in the town although it had high level coal staithes on the dockside. This is the site of the station now. The newer buildings have been built across the formation, although you can easily follow the route out of town. Tomorrow I should be able to get Olympia boxed up prior to pick up on Friday for the Racecourse.

These are also available as undecorated or chassis only. The chassis only option is useful as it is the same WB as many European ferry vans that visited the UK.

Done a bit………

A few days away prior to the York show but where might we be?

Thank you both very much.

Can anyone recognise where D5344 (26044) is in this view from November 1968. I’ve just purchased the slide.

Thought I’d back up the PC today and use my Seagate portable storage……..last one I’d done was written on the box 19/6/2021!….oops.

Well one bus comes along and another two arrive! This another one of those roundtuit jobs. This pair of BT Models Atlanteans have been dismantled for about two years awaiting to be ‘converted’ very loosely into MCW Metrobuses. After the issues stripping the ODC Routemaster of paint I thought I’d get some plastic safe stripper for these bodies. Only the chassis on the BT Models Atlantean is metal everything else is plastic. After reading the instructions to DO NOT ALLOW the item to sit in the stripper for more than 5 mins and only paint it on the surfaces, I left the model for its 5 mins…………..and absolutely no paint came off. After probably 6x5mins the paint still wasn’t shifting although had softened. So the body got removed and rinsed with just the shine taken off. With the second body I’m not even bothering with the stripper. Anyway some progress photos. The completed Metrobus has the doors from the TPM Models DMS conversion kit added, kindly supplied by Grahame Hedges. As this is no longer available I’ll have to make some doors up. The Atlantean having four part doors.

Yes they do.

Yes it appears to have pick ups on the tender. DCC socket is in there too.

The RML gained its advertising and route blinds today, I’m quite pleased with this one.

The RML also gained its decals….and got varnished when I got home. Clad with typical 1980s adverts.

A productive day at the Yorkshire area NGS meeting. A bit more weathering done, The Royal Kensington Hotel block painted ready for planting, The Duchess had a good run in too.

After lots of Anglo -Saxon cajoling of the PC it finally behaved itself long enough to edit and print the first lot of adverts. I’ll let them dry off overnight before sealing them. They look OK to me.

I have also dug out my only steam locomotive, Duchess of Hamilton. This was purchased in the Cumbrian Mountain Express train pack that GF did in 2014. It has never been run, so it was with a bit of anxiety that I took it to work to see if it would even move. No problem at all, very smooth. I will take it to Saturdays Yorkshire are NGS meeting to give it a run in on the modular layout, prior to fitting a chip. This loco ran some excursions out of Olympia back in the day.