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3 hours ago, stivesnick said:

Hope to attend the Nottingham show on Saturday and looking forward to seeing the latest developments.

 

Nick 

Hope you can make it, it looks like another excellent show.

Annoyingly the cross brace on the legs has got in the way of the point motor, so I've taken the quick but ugly option and notched it out so the leg can fully fold....

A few of the jobs that were on the list to do for the Nottingham show this weekend. The extra curtain has been made by my Sister in Law and I've just about decided how to finish wiring the new fiddle yard.

This Gondola was rescued from the Derby Convention and has been re-lettered for the Hershey and will do as a place holder until I print the side door type I've been working on. The blue tarp is actually green and cut from a disposable glove, and is the wrapped up weight that it desperately needs. 

A few details for the town area, although seeing photos on a Nostalgic Cuba Fb page has prompted me to try to make more of the signs that were relevant to the era.

Finally the Steeplecabs have been cleaned and lubricated after the most used loco and the Interurban car developed a growling noise that seems to be amplified when the bodies are fitted. The AT&SF 44 tonner also came from the convention but hasn't had to give up it's latest type of chassis to a Steeplecab yet. 

This was my entry into the topical Halloween pumpkin carving competition, also the first time I've tried airbrushed cotton wool over LED strip as seen in plenty of action dioramas on Fb.

Another had turkey teeth, cut from a double sheet plasticard as mirrored pairs. ( I later removed the temporary writing to denote the pairs of teeth...)

Visitors to the NMRA convention in Derby on Saturday would have seen this small O scale layout called Little Calumet. Unfortunately I didn't take the right photos to do it justice but with a nice gilded frame it'd be talked about in the same way as one of those obscure continental layouts that go to Warley. Being in a darkened room showed off the glow from the grain of wheat bulbs.

It is part of a larger loft layout that is wired for vintage three rail, the centre rail can be seen buried in the street but due to the sharp end boards needed at shows it runs with an Atlas 3 axle diesel and a couple of hoppers.

The builder did admit that it proved impossible to accurately switch cars on the rear spur with old AC motors, and I was wondering if modern stuff uses the same control system? 

I follow a C&C Facebook group as it is somewhere in my top 10 of lines I'd like to model one day. So it be interesting to see what you do with the classic views of street running from around Claremont.

38 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

I don't quite follow that.

 

Good trackwork can be made to look abandoned / neglected cosmetically, without compromising the good running that well-constructed track allows.

 

Stay-alives are recent inventions - good running was and is achievable without them - despite recent protestations to the contrary!

 

CJI.

I didn't have much luck on a previous layout where similar locos would stall at the merest hint of one strand of static grass near a rail, so that's why I find stay alives to be invaluable. 

2 hours ago, The Meerkat said:

any news on were the Mk5 are going yet?

TfW.

"Good trackwork" is one thing, but if your prototype looks like it needs a mower instead of a ballast regulator then stay alives are a necessity. I haven't had much luck with the small square tantalum ones but have seen some decoders such as Zen Black advertised with a brown-out feature that is effective over small interruptions. I've never really found flywheels to be of much use at slow speeds but maybe there's a reason why some motors sourced from China come with them balanced, something I've not thought to do.

I get the impression that society still thinks nothing of unlimited car use these days and we are in an era where shows are filled up with the same people travelling to them instead of 30+ years ago when more people went to less shows and it was the layouts that travelled. When Warley first went to the NEC there was a certain backlash because someone could go to 3 or 4 local shows for the same cost, back then those other shows would have 15-20 layouts and lots of variety where as nowadays you'd see 5-10 layouts on repeat because there are less medium sized club shows.

Younger generations at work really don't seem so keen on this car ownership thing and many are happy just to get Ubers. Maybe if the true cost was considered, £30 of petrol is really a lot more since money for annual costs must come from somewhere, and the last time I had to hire a car it worked out to £90 per day plus fuel (for an absolute nail of an Opel Corsa).

As for my own green credentials, I get the Bus to the NEC, I've taken small layouts to shows in the Wife's EV, and the free electricity we get for that from work for social use I offset exhibition expenses with. 

Something else I've been wanting to try is a shortened Peco Loco Lift with a ramp to catch Pantographs. The ramp is code 83 rail curved using Kadee trip pin pliers and slotted into pre-cut holes in the end supports. I don't necessarily need to use this but it was on the bucket list to try.

And with the layout nearly 15' in length it seemed like a good place to try my Sounder set, now that the lights have been re-worked in the coaches. 

6 hours ago, NZRedBaron said:

I dunno if anyone mentioned it, but what about for a Transition era layout, a steam engine piloting a failed diesel?

Steam loco piloting Interurban cars on my Hershey layout- the same happened in Cuba quite a few times when a hurricane destroyed part of the overhead. 

I took that photo a few months ago but recently rebuilt that section of overhead and had to drag the Interurban cars then.

On 25/04/2022 at 19:13, Nick_Burman said:

 

The WIF ferries used Havana only and were RoRo vessels (same for FEC). Seatrain used loading and unloading via cradles and special cranes. Looking at Santa Cruz del Norte from Google Earth I can't find anywhere where a RoRo ferry could have docked. However, one can see a small inlet right next to what is today the Havana Club rum plant where a Seatrain vessel could have just squeezed in and there could have been a crane to load/unload the ferry there. If so, the ferry could have taken the cars to Edgewater, New Jersey (where Seatrain had its base and a terminal), where the cars would have been unloaded onto US rails, then forwarded to Hershey, PA.. But all this is just speculation.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

Interesting map from a historic Cuba Facebook group, that Google has translated from Spanish. So certainly by this time there weren't any international docks between the Havana area and Matanzas (shown as "Killings!!!") But there is modellers licence...

On 08/10/2023 at 12:27, Steamport Southport said:

 

Barrow Hill doesn't have a problem fitting mainline diesels and electrics, and that was the railway that only built small engines....

 

 

 

 

Jason

 

 

In early preservation days a homebuilt raised extension was used to turn large steam locos, but it was a right faff and fell out of favour if it wasn't exactly balanced and rubbed on the stonework. Large diesels such as Peaks had to have their unpowered wheelsets jacked and packed, and I'm sure Deltics were also too long. 

Turning one of the AC electrics was fairly easy with a working diesel on the opposite road, but if there wasn't we had to use pinch bars which took forever.

On 27/09/2023 at 19:55, JZ said:

My eldest granddaughter put together the first of her dinosaur kits the other day.

 

I helped my Dad make a few of those, I dug it out a few years ago to plonk on a layout to prove that the reasons why Dinosaurs died out was because they couldn't take a selfie of themselves....

Unlike something else this week FP2 has gone ahead in full, it is just over 4' long in order to fit over the main scenic board in the car making the whole layout look quite daunting at just a smidgen less than 15'. Unlike the other boards it has a built in leg. I have laid enough track to test it (although the frog isn't juiced yet) and after messing round with the DCC Concepts ABC board Hershey Interurban Car 153 made the first legitimate run over the road crossing. 

Each road can hold a 3' long train so that'll save some space in the main fiddle yard for stock. I'm not sure of the best way to operate it or decided where it goes in the real world, so haven't added extra switches to the main panel yet.

You obviously said "plonked" but it is worth checking the height of the furniture factory. Even with the base set at rail height excess height cars don't have a lot of clearance.

8 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

BBC announcing the announcement to cancel the line to Manchester will be tomorrow.

....to be followed in a few months with the announcement of the M6 Toll road extension to Manchester. HS2 obviously weren't shoving brown envelopes in the right direction...

Does anyone remember this regional airline? 

1 hour ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Thanks for the info, I have now found them on Rails website!

Is their any video of your layout using them on U tube or elsewhere.

 

Have you any experience of the Kadee company's version?

One reason for my interest is that I thought one of the Rapido version might work at the end of my curved platform. Any thoughts? Your comment about orientation is a slight worry!

Cheers

Paul

 

To describe the orientation problem, they have a line on top that aligns with the track-easy to set up before ballasting but should one fall out because the hot glue melted in a hot garage makes it harder to refit. I think I did so by trying to follow the original alignment but what I should have done was try it with a wagon or loco above to check the coupler was at it's maximum throw. 

This is a video on the small inglenook I built because I had a spare, the magnetic field is marginally affecting the steel weight in the hopper and causing it to roll away from the loco without stopping.

I've only ever used Kadee permanent magnets before, didn't like them because of the odd phantom uncoupling event and ended up snipping off the pins and just using a skewer. They still don't get around the problem of having to plan where you need them and the couplers need to be set up properly and with consistency, but they are still my preferred option. 

Stafford show postscript: first of all a big thank you to Nick Palette for the invite and Nick Quinn for agreeing to operate, despite both never having seen the layout before Saturday. And also to friends old and new who I managed to talk to, I'm still amazed by the reaction the layout got from the public and other exhibitors. I was a bit disappointed with invites, nothing until Sunday afternoon but then enquiries from Shrewsbury, Pontefract and Glasgow which won't be straightforward but might be doable. 2024 is looking full up anyway but if anyone is organising any shows a reasonable distance from Coventry I'd like to hear from you. 

The next show is Nottingham in early November and I'm contemplating whether I have time to build a second fiddle yard now I've seen how much spare space is in the car. The overhead still needs refining and something doing with the sector plate to make alignment more reliable. I didn't have time in the end to finish something akin to  display boards explaining the Hershey but the new fiddle yard gives space to mount these.

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Hard not to like!

 

3 hours ago, Rich_F said:

When I was big into HO I used to have one each of the little 44t/70t switchers. They're lovely little things & can be used for any setting. It looks right at home moving the wagons around outside your sugar mill.

It looks like Olddudders has caught the mixed diesel hauled local being switched after arrival. Although steam and diesel was used sparingly outside of the busy harvest period it was always the intention to model this working. Bachmann 44 &70 ton performance can be variable and do rely on a good decoder (ie not the DCC fitted one) and a Stay alive (AEmodels) is a necessity.

Photo: William D Middleton.

Just found this thread after being asked about them at Stafford at the weekend as my layout "Central Alonzo" uses three of them. I find you have to set their orientation exactly right and have to stop more accurately than on a between the rails permanent magnet but I generally find that they work really well. 

@Tallpaul69 Rails have single ones in stock. 

1 hour ago, sixteen 12by 10s said:

Attended the show yesterday as a club exhibitor, overall a good show, put on by the Stafford team, there looks like there are accounts of it been poorly attended, but the large isles diluted the crowds, if I have a observation, its the smaller exhibits and often the gems, of the show, are lost in the vastness of the thing.

Credit though to the organising team for providing on the website a comprehensive list, including images and descriptions. So it's easy to work out what will be of interest beforehand. And as for the vast aisles, that also made it easy to see the layouts from a distance- try doing that whilst trying to avoid people in a crowd.

Singles movie poster, with Janet's VW from the film...