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On 22/01/2024 at 15:16, ardbealach said:

 

To now ask layout owners, and their operators, to subsidise the organiser of a show is, in my opinion, setting a worrying precedent.  My fear is others may follow the Hornby Magazine example.

But one basic set of rules isn't going to suit every scenario. Someone with a 5k converted plumbers van or a 50k motorhome might find they get change out of the overnight stay allowance and their fuel paid in full, but would probably struggle to claim any extra maintenance contribution. A significant number of potential exhibitors may live a reasonable commuting distance away and might not even need accomodation, something else to be considered by an organiser if the exhibitor also charges for this if they have been put up in a hotel 20 miles away. 

Part of the fun of exhibiting was to take a layout elsewhere, it makes more sense to do that than expect people to travel a long distance to you, and there is the possibility of a reciprocal invite in return. The fact is though it is 2024 and things are a lot different and if a show decides to follow this lead they will have to do so with the knowledge that it can affect the viability of the event.

This is the magnetic coupling I designed for Athearn HO scale Bombardier cars. Without going into too many of the specifics, the key points I discovered were:

The magnets are superglued in place but I had to solder the wires to small track pins that actually float in their housings so the head is attracted to the magnet- an interference fit was too unreliable. 

Magnets are 2mm and are more than enough to hold the train together - the couplings are polarised so can only couple one way but the coaches have each end labelled anyway so this isn't a problem.

They will separate on sharp curves (less than 2' radius) without derailing, I could widen the slot in the coach to allow them to pivot more but they would still have limitations and the train still stays coupled.

My lights were 5v LED strips so at a reasonable voltage and brightness you would see each coach was successively dimmer. The cure for this was to increase the supply voltage and add a 100 ohm resistor so the additional 1 ohm drop through each coupling was less noticeable.

Is that running on plain water? I did experiment with one about a year ago with the intention of having a couple of smoking factory chimneys, but had trouble with the mist blocking the chimneys, forming larger droplets and blocking the chimney or the port on the disk. The next step was to fit a chamber above the disk and use a fan to try to create an airflow, but never got that far.

On 18/01/2024 at 17:19, stivesnick said:

To make the operation more complex, the use of an electric interurban mean that the interurban locos can not access the GN tracks with their longer spurs. The interurban run-around loop will not be long enough to run around the train. However the GN locos can access the interurban yard so will need to assist with the shunting. 

 

The refer cars are genrally yellow or orange with ice hatches on the roof and will have their doors closed! I need to check if I have enough refer cars to two trains. 

 

Hope that makes more sense.

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

The distance to the Iceing plant would be another factor, certainly in California you'd need load the iced cars pretty quickly. In later years big shippers would rent an empty mechanical reefer and only load and call for it to be picked up once the market price was agreeable to them. 

As for the train being too long for the loop, you have a pole, don't you?

https://youtu.be/jRzexSCZ0Ok?si=ddgJ2ImwEcLJZ9Do

With all the talk of doom and gloom over the last week, may I highlight the modelling of Cuban Alejandro Cordoves, "Enamorado de Los Trenes":

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084988162960

No shows to exhibit at over there but fortunately he is able to show his work online, and his scratchbuilds use household items such as cut down toothpaste tube caps for wheels...

Eurofighters from Coningsby, ZJ914 and ZK378 on FR24

I would agree that they are nearer to OO scale. Which might be useful if you model 4mm US but there is rarely a need for larger than scale vehicles on a layout (smaller is less of a problem). The wheels don't look too brilliant either, are they Cararama or the same but rebranded?

I recently found a box of a couple of dozen, probably brought from Poundland 20 -odd years ago. I took them to a show where my old club had a sales stand to put in the £1 odds and ends box and they were snalled up quite quickly, so someone must have found a use for them.

I've just had confirmation details from Central Alonzo's next public appearance at the NMRA(BR) 2024 winter meet in Stokenchurch, just off junction 5 of the M40:

Stokenchurch Community Centre,

Saturday 17th February 2024.

The venue can be found at:

Bartholomew Tipping Way, Stokenchurch, High Wycombe HP14 3RX.

I went last year and it is an excellent venue and well worth supporting.

7 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

256 when I looked a few minutes ago - but they did not show in the same search yesterday and so some stock is still being added . . . . . . 

.

That is something that has changed, previously it would have shown "over 10" They also seem to have literally a ton of their own ballast, it's the days of keeping a low stock count and any assets like this not shifting isn't good for any aspect of the business.

The "HO Model Power Caboose" count is down to 23, and if you brought all of the R609 in stock, you could make a helix 100 feet tall...!

Well I've had a good look through but still can't find the usual hidden tributes to a rock band, apart from the Beatles vans. 

The Nellie tributes are a bit odd, what ever happened to the new body that was on the most recent TV series? Or getting another Junior designer to do one that actually looked like the old Nellie? The chosen one looks to have origins as the 0-4-0 Thomas. 

13 hours ago, Les1952 said:

I wonder how many are like me and just not buying the kind of stuff Hattons (and Rails etc) stock any more?  I have nothing whatever on pre-order from anyone at the moment, though there are a couple of locos that might just tempt me.

 

I'm saddened that they are going, though not really a current customer.   

 

Les

 

Conversely, me (who rarely finds anything suitable out of the box for my exhibition projects) had a couple of pre-ordered locos with them. My local shop doesn't stock that manufacturer and most of my buying/ordering is done at work at 3am when I'm *£&@#$ off and want some retail therapy, so went to Hatton's for their comprehensive listings- something the smaller or one man band box shifters seem to be less efficient at.

I agree that they never really got a measure of secondhand sales, considering the time it must have taken someone to catalogue and price an item, a few minutes properly testing and repairing something could have netted better profit and reputation. Saying that, maybe they figured out we all like a fixer-upper project and you only see what they haven't sold, not what they have...

The ball of twine and tub of plastic cars have finally run out...

1 hour ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

I have absolutely no axe to grind in any direction, I was not a regular Hattons customer because I don't model British, but just as a totally disinterested outsider, it does seem strange to me that (apparently) they bought a US retailer only a few months ago - that honestly doesn't make sense to me unless I'm missing something.

I did sometimes question some of what they stocked- some of the secondhand HO Model Power looked like it came from a stock room 40 years ago and I once counted several thousands of pounds of Chinese HO coaches and coal hoppers ( @TEAMYAKIMA if you're interested, unsurprisingly I can't get on their site now to check...)

Nothing much in the way of an update as the layout is in storage for the winter, although I might have a show for it next month. But I have recently discovered a couple of photos that are eye openers and had to be shared. 

The first is claimed to be a Hershey Steeplecab, complete with "Go faster stripes". The number fits with the Hershey series and the hood rivets (or lack of) fit with one of the locos absorbed from the Havana Central, but the renumbering into the FCdeC series is a grey area and there isn't a lot of info and photos from the early 1960s as attentions in Cuba were elsewhere...

The second is the eastern end of the line in Matanzas, I'd seen photos of the covered station area on the right and the yard on the left with tracks going into the building, but never clicked that they were the same place! Since I prefer to model actual locations, I'm now distracted by modelling this as it'd be good to operate with the small yard with the Church in the background and harbour/refinery branch on the extreme right next to the Yumuri river.

3 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

I disagree its too late for 56’s… theres nearly 20 still on the mainline !.. but it does seem futile without anything to pull.

As long as there is someone with enough money, then anything is possible. But when you consider the number of 56s in preservation ten years ago Vs now, you have to have deep pockets and a strong will, and a lot of big bills means those ones that were initially preserved have been scrapped or sold back into the industry. Same thing will happen with most of the uselessly preserved Pacers, although more 15x units could go to preserved lines for training, like the 153s at the Great Central.

My only surprise is a number of preserved lines haven't gone the same way as scrapped stock, as we seem to have reached saturation point and rely on an ageing volunteer workforce.

My finished Sakura Densya Book-nook Christmas present, I wasn't keeping exact time but probably about six hours to build over the last week, including some time after work in the mornings. There are a few steps that were missing from the instructions but overall it went together quite easily. 

The family puzzle has been this Wasgij of a chip shop, despite coming from a charity shop and thinking we'd lost a piece it is complete...

Hasegawa "Egg plane" 747, finished with custom home printed decals as one of the One Air fleet as a Christmas present for my Brother who has been flying with them recently.

10 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

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.

Cuba, but during the cane zafra (harvest) so probably February or March. 

That is at Stafford and the layout was under the mezzanine so probably the darkest area of the hall, so I heard quite a few comments that the layout stood out as being bright*, despite only being lit by two daylight LED strips. That was great for viewing as the eyes do adapt and did create the big sky effect that I get from photos of the Cuban countryside, but looking at videos since made me realise the layout lighting was probably too bright for the ambient lighting, creating too much contrast and shadow on the sides of the darker stock, so I need to have a way of dimming the layout lighting when needed. This sounds like I'm complaining about the opposite to @TEAMYAKIMA 's experience at Manchester where the ambient light was good, but from experience it's something that you have no control over and have to tolerate to some degree in the world of exhibiting portable model railways.

*And being non-british meant there was less people around it.

Another difference between what is basically an enlarged micro layout that can fit on a car's back seat and something large like Beijiao is it is obviously easier with the former's size to create a framed image with a proscenium arch and off-stage wings as described by Iain Rice. My favourite layouts at the moment are ones that manage this and have several feet of depth, the large boards must be difficult to store and transport but they do look amazing.

There is a large step in the mindset between building something to exhibition standard (ie it works and looks good from 3 feet away, Vs what you see in front of you on the workbench or computer screen where I find it hard not to go to the n'th degree of detail. It would have been impossible to finish my latest exhibition layout if I didn't take a few compromises, basically because the information in quality photos was limited. 

For me the step change from trainset modelling to model railway was ballasting and painting the rails. I knew the colour of Airfix enamel on my GWR branchline probably wasn't right and my Dad had to prove it by taking me to the local mainline where I realised a completely different set of conditions produced different colours and weathering, such as ballast that is weathered in one direction in braking zones. 

I'm trying to stay away from a lot of the social media groups because standards don't seem to be what they were, it's never been quicker or easier to paint rails with a paint pen regardless of the shade of dirt & rust, but the current ethos seems to be how quickly you can build the same layout over and over again instead of enjoying the journey and learning and improving along the way.

The One Air fleet at Heathrow last week, G-UNET and G-ONEE here are kept busy on an intensive LHR-Hong Kong-Muscat (usually)-LHR circuit so it is rare* to have them in the same place at the same time.  

EDIT:

*They are both there now, must be a Monday thing...

10 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Not to mention - and confuse matters with - some A1A-Bo diesels in Cuba .................. as with the Metro-Vicks, a question of weight distribution as the engine lump isn't mounted centrally. ( the Cuban locos were Bo-Bo rebuilds I think ) 

Ex-CN GMD-1, the A1A trucks were imported later to decrease the axle loading on the heavier end. Rapido produced a model of it in HO a few years ago:

Wired JST 8 pin connectors are available on eBay, I'd have to properly measure the one fitted but I think it is a 1.25mm spacing.

This shows the loco's wiring harness:

https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_596&products_id=5622

TBH I was a bit daunted by the wiring too because I've had to solder one of the broken wires myself and I did wonder why it had eight when it only needs six.

This is the tender, if that helps (the code on the board looks really ambiguous, but you might be able to find continuity with the tender pickups and go from there)

https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_596&products_id=5630

I remember going to that one, the stand out exhibit for me was a miniature RR Merlin engine. There was also one more recently- possibly late 1990s/early 2000s when Scalextric had just introduced the drift racing sets. There was model flying outside and in, and RC car tracks. As a showcase of a number of miniature transport themed hobbies, the model railways looked dull and unexciting by comparison.

3 hours ago, roundhouse said:

One thing that has come to mind is how do people that charge their electric cars at home deal with requests for expenses receipts as we have a few helpers that do,

It would either be such a small amount as to not bother charging for, or potentially higher than the cost of petrol if a motorway rapid is used. Over the last few months I've personally waived 700 miles of petrol expenses for three shows because we get free EV charging at work for our other car which is also used for non-work trips locally. The only claim was for my chief operator claiming one round trip of 100 miles of supermarket diesel because another show was a society convention and other helpers kindly waived expenses because they were local or didn't want to for the third.

5 hours ago, Roy L S said:

There isn't any right or wrong here though, individual circumstances differ, but what I would expect is a club to honour the expenses we quote in the booking form, we may decline to take it on the day, but that would be our choice.

So what happens if the price of fuel increases (or decreases) dramatically over the time since the booking form was submitted, which could have been months or years prior? I'm presuming you also have to quote the milage, MPG and fuel price. There is the potential for an organiser to say "you could have brought your petrol/diesel/electricity cheaper than what you're quoting" and individual senarios may be too diverse to put a blanket rule on....

Fundamentally tho, it's a hobby, it's not worth falling out over and if you get a reputation for being too expensive you won't get future invites...

Something else that doesn't seem to be common knowledge are the competitions run at the show, is this a first for 2023? I've seen a few results posted but would it be possible for a representative from the club to post a list of winners here?