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Ashford International Model Railway Excellence Centre, that's a good shout. We’ve had a couple of enquiries but nothing going forward yet. Apart from the accommodation problem, I was asked why we were selling it and not just retiring it, the main layout is now 42 years old, some bits would be 60+ years old, may seem strange but we own it but it would never be ours, it was made by someone who was far better than we could ever be, but we decided from the outset that we had to get a good team together to put the layout into good shape for exhibiting. This layout in concept and operation is far too good to be stored up out of the way or scrapped. Is it a museum piece? Could it still go out on the exhibition circuit? Could it be in somebody’s garden shed? Yes to all 3 really. Have had what-if thoughts in the past about this time, considered that if it was still in its shed when I retire and not in the clubroom then BM station could be modified to be a through station and to either go out in the garden or to loop around and connect to the back of the GN fiddleyard to make a continuous loop, it makes it easier for one man operation. But somebody or a team needs to take it on and enjoy it.

Well back to the real thing. The layout is currently stored in it's shed along with another layout from the Newhaven Club and we have a problem coming up. We cannot see any chance of our club circumstances (i.e lack of space) changing in the near future, there is also a good possibility that it will be losing its current storage site in the near future, it's already been stored up for a while but long term it is not going to do the layout any good, it really needs to be assembled and operated. So reluctantly the BM Group has decided that we need to sell the layout, it would come with everything that you would see at an exhibition with the power switched on ready to go, lights, controllers, transformers, all the paperwork that we were given by the Dyer family, including the paper and electronic timetables for running the sequence, but no stock, we never received any of the original locos etc, what we use are owned by group members. I thought that I would put it on this forum first in case of any interest, we are open to offers . Please PM if interested. Regards Charlie

There is no doubt that the railway modelling bit of it needs freshening up, some exhibits appear every year, some every other year, I thought that we had seen the last of the P4 layout Pulborough, unless my eyes were deceiving me it is now an abridged version, brilliant layout though. A few more photos, Bluebell and Captain Baxter were top and tailing some 4 wheelers and the LNWR observation coach. I didn't take a photo but you have to laugh at the driver and fireman of Baxter when looking through the Obs coach straight into the open cab, because of the short wheelbase and small wheels Baxter certainly pitches up and down as it goes over the track joints, mind you the recent work carried on the trackwork down from Horsted Keynes to Sheffield Park has improved things greatly. A few more shots Token exchange at HK The trolley now arriving at Sheffield Park. Anyhow, came away thinking that the Bluebell is not just any preserved railway, its a working museum. Running was the H class 263 built 1905, P class 323 Bluebell of 1910, the Maunsell Q 30541 of 1939, Captain Baxter of 1877 and in the shed was recently retired C class 592 of 1902 soon to be replaced in service by O1 class 65 of 1896. And in the nearish future they will have the Brighton Atlantic running but that will probably have a 2020 build date on it, if you have not seen it, it is well worth a visit.

I'm not sure that it is advertised as a model railway show, I know that local clubs get invited to attend with layouts, individuals as well by the looks of it, but no expenses are paid, I don't believe that the event is sponsored either. A few photos This live steam A3 was superb This was part of the N gauge modular layout display in the loco works Wow Perhaps not so wow

Hi, agree with your sentiments, if you want to post some more then there is already a Bluebell topic in play http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80488-bluebell-railway-news

Wanted, will buy or swap - I am after a green OO Heljan Class 35 Hymek body, preferably all green but yellow panel or end acceptable. Can swap for OO Heljan Class 35 Hymek body D7042, blue with yellow ends (3503) Charlie

Looking to buy or swap - I need a OO Dapol class 22 body, early version without the headcodes. Can swap for a OO Dapol class 22 body, green, split headcodes, small yellow warning panel, D6319 (D1000D) in excellent condition. Charlie

Geoff, there is always something going on, be it locos, carriage works, infrastucture etc. It should be like any preserved railway really, the news section gives an update of what is going on, useful for those who perhaps cannot attend. Just think that 5 weeks at this time of year is a bit excessive since they seem to be making a serious effort to try and bring more people to the railway to add to the coffers, advertise what you are doing. Perhaps in this new world of the Bluebell management they need to give Richard a hand or an assistant? So what is happening to the Met coaches for instance? How are they getting on with O1?

Any idea what has happened to the news section on the Bluebell website? It hasn't been updated since 28Apr17? The Bluebell model railway weekend coming up on 24/25Jun.

Martin, because of the current situation with Newhaven MRC and the temporary clubrooms, the layout is currently stored out of use elsewhere and the team have no current plans to exhibit it further until the situation changes which may not be for sometime. Regards Charlie

I'd concur with most thoughts, layouts and trade were good this year. I'd agree that Pwllheli is a well built layout but I wish that they would have got their stock out of 1st gear. I went to Bracknell intending to buy EM conversion sets for a Bmann Warship and prairie tank, but I realised that at least two of the layouts there were using locos which were out of the box OO with their wheels pushed out and they were running perfectly well. I don't think that this can be recommended for all OO wheel profiles but for later models it is the way that I am initially going to go as long as I can spread the wheels squarely. Think that the P4 layout Sandford & Banwell is worth a mention.

ssssshhhhh, wooooow, we are in enemy territory here, I'll talk in code as an A2 to an A2/2, I agree FS looks right for its current condition, I don't think that it will happen but in apple green and as close to it's 1920's condition would be nice, I know, wrong boiler, wrong tender etc etc.....but personally this loco topped it when it paid a visit some year ago, with the bark from its exhaust it was an animal, very impressive and another NRM loco. Would like to know what year this might have been? The trees causing the shadows have long disappeared since the carriage shed and museum have been built.

A friend asked me to take some photos of wagons if I could for modelling purposes, I'll post some photos of the home locos first, but if anyone can match the wagon photos to a model it would be appreciated. Be careful if you respond that you don't keep repeating all the photos. The two operational class P's, Bluebell and 178 having a rest on shed. This is the SECR class C 592 about to do some carriage shunting. Apart from anything eastern this has to be my favourite loco, something to do with having driven it as part of a Clive Groome training course many moons ago. Here is the S15 847 and Q 30541 coupled up waiting to depart on the 9:10. They have moved the departure signals at SP further north to increase the train lengths, the plan will be to extend the platforms I understand and to position a signalbox on the north end of the down platform. I was mucking around here to see what the camera was up to, not every preserved railway is lucky enough to have pre-nationalisation stock, but this is in the birdcage brake and shows you the repro brasswork that goes to finish these coaches. The Q class had come off the front of the S15 at Horsted Keynes. In the distance you can see the WD 0-6-0T, it's in wartime grey but somebody has been at it with a spraybrush adding shades of Southern Oliver and Malachite by the looks of it. At Horsted Keynes the Q class was giving free Queen Mary brake van rides around the station confines. So to the wagons

Some photos from today at Sheffield Park. This is around 8:30 and light-up was well on the way. Camelot had already left on the early train and the Q and S15 were coupled up waiting to depart on the 9:10 in the station Things went slightly wrong (for taking photos that is), the S15 847 had returned from East Grinstead into the up platform so the Scotsman came through on the nearside down platform, it was non-stop so I assume the S15 was on the otherside to make it easier to pick-up passengers. The result was that it was too close, fantastic loco though, sounded like it was just out for a stroll, it looks like a speed merchant and not really suited to 25mph. Arriving at Horsted Keynes. I'm not the best photographer so hopefully someone has some better photos?

Chris, I have sent you a PM with a copy of the BM timetable. If anyone else is interested in a copy just drop me a line, it is in MSExcel. Regards Charlie

Carrying on the theme of early editions of the Bluebell News, back in the start-up days of the Bluebell they had plans to buy an ex GW Railcar, sounds like there was a list being produced at the time because the ex GER J15 is mentioned. 78059 was going to be bought with its tender, it's some years later that they decided to make a std 2MT out of it, good idea in hindsight.

I suppose that it is interesting looking back at any preserved railway in-house magazine, but in a Bluebell News over 20 years ago this was captioned - 60103 Flying Scotsman will now not be visiting the Bluebell Railway in 1993. It is hoped a visit can be arranged for the future. I don't remember it ever being down the Bluebell, correct me if I am wrong, but it has been a long time waiting but it's almost here, that's if you can get anywhere near it, they have estimated to the authorities that circa 50,000 people could be in attendance over the week it will be there. As a bit of fun, what other locos have visited the Bluebell?

Anyone interested in the diesel weekend starting tomorrow might want to look at the changed line up http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/whats_new.html The Western weekend is now an English electric weekend, 1x50, 2x20, 2x73 + resident 09 + sentinel "Skippy"

Chris - Ground signal on rhs - I'll have to try and see if I can view this. Control of the headshunt and sidings - these lines have their own section, yellow in this case, it can controlled by any one of the 3 BM controllers, arrivals/departures/freight yard+loco yard, the latter is one usually assigned to this duty in the timetable. Outlet signal? Yes it is the departure signal from the goods yard to the departures line. In the past it had been damaged and we carried out some repairs, I'll check to see what sized arm it has on it. Gantry signals - I'll have to defer an answer until later, we carried out some repairs to this pre York exhibition, we made some notes, you were after the lever numbers anyway.

Tony, the turntable has very old section rail on it, it would have always been a fyard TT, so it is not the one from the front of BT, but the track to the lhs of the turntable is fibre based so probably originates from BT, indeed if you go over to the far lhs with the 3 loco sidings and the coal sidings behind the Wellow Park backscene these are original fibre based points. As for the add on board to the right of the TT, this is all new, we decided early on to have as much hands off since we run a lot of kit built locos and along with the RTR all are weathered, so clumsy or sticky fingers are not a good idea.

Chris, the overall width dimensions and depth back to boards 4H and 5H should not have changed, the GC fiddleyard 6L has been rebuilt twice since Newhaven took over the layout and is deeper than before to relax some curves, reposition the turntable and add an extra storage line. Thinking about it 4H has been increased by one line, probably when the layout moved from North London to Caerphilly one of the storage lines was removed to make more access space down the side of the shed, we found a cut back point in place there so when we re-inforced and rebuilt parts of board 4H we added the line back in. It has been written about and explained before that FD used a furniture van to transport the layout to exhibitions, in this day and age we would not be given that luxury so we decided that it had to fit into a short wheelbase van, also we decided early on that we didn't want to spend 2 hours breaking the layout down every time so we use inverted tressels along the front and back, the boards effectively just slide on and off these. Just an obsevation that 3B is not a separate board, it is within the same frame as 2, I can't check at the moment because of the way the layout is stored but I don't remember seeing a separate sheet line across there. 4L and 6H have been cut in half, there are now only two boards across the back, 5H+½4L+½6H, 4H+½4L+½6H+3+7H, 3A the lifting flap has incorporated part of 3 and is now just a bolt in section. The only other change is the addition of locos storage roads fanning off of the GN fiddleyard turntable to the right of 4H. Like I say, access is nigh impossible at the moment but I know that the overlength is not exactly 4m, we'll have to wait until it comes out of hibernation, could be an idea to log exactly what everything is made of, mostly blockwood for the tops and recycled furniture for the framework, and Wickes softwood and ply for what we have added, apart from what we have recycled.

"For me the clincher is sound" Each to their own, but I've no interest in sound, at the moment, apart from the cost and sometimes having to think twice if the sound coming from that model is exactly what I remember, I was operating a layout at an exhibition a couple of years ago and next to us was a stand selling sound chips etc. This guy came along and had a chip fitted into his Bmann Peak, I think he had pre-ordered it. It was then run up and down for a test and the guy seemed very please, but, it wasn't the sound of a Peak. It was explained that recordings were made at various events around the Country, this got us thinking, there is a Peak on a preserved railway that has a Brush type 4 engine in it, I think it is a class 45. Anyhow, he paid well over £100 for this. Aside from this, I think that all the other chipped diesels we heard were very good, especially a Deltic doing a short light engine acceleration spurt as if it was coming off the buffers on platform 10 at the cross looking to go back to FP.

Tony, I don't do hostile responses, but I've disagreed with you before about rigid v flexi-chassis and I'll agree to disagree, but, as part from my reventure into EM I have bought a second hand Gaugemaster DCC controller and have tested a loco in straight DC and then with a chip as DCC and I can tell you that it performed better in DCC, at low speed there was no cogging, I've gone on to test a Lima GW railcar with the old pancake motor and it has run far better, but above all, I don't need any section breaks or section switches, so the conclusion is that there is no reason for the layout not to be DCC. Charlie

Chris/Pete, thanks for your responses and link to that departmental website, I'll pass the details on but the next question is bound to be what colour would the coach be and of the lettering. Regards Charlie

One of our Newhaven club members is making a model of Shrewsbury circa 1962 and is trying to match his stock with details we are finding on-line or in books etc. The attached is part of a scanned copy of an autocoach at Shrewsbury between probably 1958 and 62, possibly 63. Of course it is in departmental use, unfortunately smoke from a loco is obscuring the rear of the coach, but can anyone deduce what diagram this autocoach might be to?