The Evil Bus Driver

My booster has arrived minus one buffer. Nothing in the box or the plastic tray. Pity. I'll have to phone Rails tomorrow and get it boxed up and sent off or see if a spare buffer can be sent. Since they're removable it would be easier that way. EDIT: I've just spoken to Rails and a new buffer is on its way. Thank you Rails 😀

Construction is on hold for a couple of weeks while we move the club to a new venue. NBT will be set up again and new boards added as soon as possible. I envisage the layout being 4 boards long eventually, but with the option of operating as a 2-board* 'Core' layout. *plus a makeshift fiddle yard. Probably the Cartridge type. have revised the track plan a little bit too

Deepest East Sussex. Sounds pretty dark. To be fair I once took a ride on the Sussex Scot. Brighton to Reading via Olympia then a Thames Turbo to Didcot for the railway centre. The second time I went via Guildford on the Gatwick to Reading and managed to bag a 47 + mk2s from there to Didcot. Happy days. I grew up in Shoreham-by-Sea so within earshot of the West Coast way line. Back in the 80s there was a good mix of stuff going through, the 33 and 5 mk1s to Cardiff or the 47 and mk2s to Plymouth, the odd engineering train now and then behind either a 33 or 73. The two signal boxes at Shoreham up til 85.

Perhaps, although I'm after one in 00 as I don't really have the dexterity for N gauge.

I've probably missed out on one from the first batch. Hopefully there will be a second run and I can get one then.

I'll be getting a couple of these kits in after Christmas. Just one question for @Wayne Kinney. Are the kits handed or can you build turnouts to suit if you needed 3 right and one left, for instance? Obviously I still need to move the boards for New Brunswick Town to the new club room before anything else.

That sits really well on that. I've got all the mk2Ds for my rake now and they're awaiting attention, ie new wheels etc. I actually bought one TSO more than I needed (A Mainline one) so maybe I'll have a play around with it. Looks like I have a lot of metal wheels to buy in the new year...

Looking good. Do you have a shot of the 'business end' the coupler?

I do need to tweak the plan a little bit to get the turnouts away from the board joints. A bit more plain track can help here. I'll have a play around in a couple of weeks when I'm next at club and bring in a few. I should be able to get the turnouts I need in a couple of weeks . Then I can get to actually fixing the track down and start sorting out wiring. Then (shock horror!) It'll be time to start chipping my locos for DCC. The control system I'll be using will be JMRI and my smartphone app (Engine Driver) as I don't have a Powercab yet. I will get one eventually. I've been on the cusp of going DCC for a while now and I thing this is the impetus to actually do it. My credit card will not thank me, however 🤪😎

Heh thanks. I need to get some rail joiners this week and hopefully some turnouts. Then I can look at getting track fixed down and holes drilled to take dropper wires. I haven't decided yet how I'll be working the turnouts though. I was hoping to use wire in tube off a lever frame.

A night at the club armed with some Peco track has yielded a track plan and some ideas. Plus I can use only 4 turnouts instead of 5. Only problem was I forgot to get any rail joiners 🙄 I definitely think some more track is needed. The concrete sleepered stuff is a placeholder

The end plates were set with 1mm of gap between the resin gangway face and the back of the end plate itself. These fit into the aperture left by the old rubber 'gangway' The 'plank' above the gangway was also removed. Even when these were a thing I do think they were removable (anybody???)

A Mainline buffet gets Keen systems floating gangway end plates. These are very similar to Replica Railways coaches so should fit. There was s little bit of filing and fettling to get them to fit

I have one with a slightly...erm....jigsaw like quality to it. I've rebuilt the chassis and used Butanone to stick it. Next step might well be to stick a piece of plastic strip on the thinner part of the chassis to strengthen it. This type of plastic does not stick well using superglue, although that can be used to tack it. Another plan might be to make a mould and use epoxy to make an entirely new chassis if it doesn't work.

To be honest I nearly missed mine, check the box it came in and make sure you haven't dropped it. Mine now adorns my tool box.

Mine arrived today and what a work of art it is too! Theres a little pack of brake rigging and pipes, possibly 3 link couplings (Fran?) A leaflet with info on the prototype and an exploded diagram. There are sprung buffers on it as well! You even get an Accurascale sticker so that's going to adorn my toolbox soon. Well done to everyone at Accurascale Towers, another fantastic model!

Like it! This is something I refer to as Scratch-Bashing, ie not exactly scratchbuilding, kit building or kitbashing but still obtaining a complete loco by putting stuff together.

It was great to chat with you guys at GETS and nice to get timescales on things. Hopefully I'll see you all at Warley too.

It appears that the use of the files on that site are subject to a cease and desist so they've been taken off. You might be able to use Text to Speech which has come on a fair amount but you do have to write it phonetically so you're spelling it how you want it to sound. Add a bit of reverb and you've got a space like a station concourse for it to sound like it's bouncing around. Just stick a Bluetooth speaker under the board and you've got something that'll sound great.

That's pretty worrying tbh

Yes it seems so. I remember the red labels above the window on Slam door mk1 and 2 stock that said don't lean out, don't open the door and if the door isn't properly closed, to pull the chain. It was originally a rectangular one but grew to around 6x4" in size

Or maybe people using common sense. Something that's definitely lacking these days.

Yes that's been a talking point in Bluebell News for quite a few decades.

Does that mean they will arrive at our addresses while I'm saying hi to you all at GETS? Sounds good to me.

That's fantastic news. I do remember seeing the Adams Radial in steam once (just once) back in the 1980s. It'll be amazing to see it running once again.