60526

Well as one of the current minders of the layout it's nice to see somebody raise an appreciation for the layout, hopefully you understand what this layout really is all about and why it is still worth showing. The plan is to periodically update the Newhaven & District website with some further layout details, http://www.newhavendmrc.com/club-layouts/borchester-market-1/ The layout will now be having two outings this year, Seaford Show 25/26 October Spalding show 15/16 November I can't speak for the operators but the layout itself is certainly behaving these days, the Warley show is probably the best it has ever run with us. A surprise to us at Warley was winning the Best Signalled Layout award from the Signalling Record Society, a fitting tribute to Frank Dyer really. The layout is still fully signalled and these fit in with all the timetable movements. What have we done? Well the two main station platform signals had been repaired on a few occassions by the looks of it and our Ray Warner has replaced these with etched brass ones. Ray has also managed to repair the arrivals starter signals which had also been damaged, but apart from some TLC we have not had to touch the main gantry signals, these were scratchbuilt by Frank Dyer, it's a work of art, even the platform arrival panel works to tell you if a train is going to platform 1, 2, 3 or 4. Charlie

If anyone is interested I thought that I would give you a comparison between Borchester Market as it was and as it is now. The layout was set in the mid 50's, it's now early 1960's We are using one of the original timetables, there was 23 locos in this rota, there are now 35. Original locos for this rota included 4F, A1, A5, B1 x 2, C12, BR cl4, D11, J11, J39, J50, J6, K2, K3, L1, N1, N2, O2, O4, V2, Brush type2, Craven & Derby Lwt DMU's, Diesel Shunter. Now, A5, B1, D11, J11, J39 x2, K3, L1 x2, N2 x2, O2, O4, V2 x2, BR cl4, Brush type2, Craven & Derby Lwt DMU's, plus, A1/1, Peppercorn A2/2 x2, A3, A3/1, A4, B16, 9F, Brit, Mucky Duck, Patriot, EE type 1, Sulzer 2, Peak, Falcon, Diesel Shunter. What we are after is reliable running locos, one of the J39's is filling in for a J6, one of the N2's for a N1, the 9F believe it or not covered for the C12 on the Grantham local, we chose this because in one of Pirt's books there is a photo of such a thing, the 9F also covered for a WD on minerals. We usually run a K1 but had problems before the exhibition opened so was replaced by Falcon, which does have a local connection having run around Sheffield and on the ECML. The Patriot was used as a replacement for a Black 5 on passengers from the GC. To space out the re-apperance of locos we normally have another A3 in the roster, but this was playing up before the show so was replaced by the A4. These trains would have come up from either Grantham or Peterborough, so for the early 1960's this may not have been out of place. B16? Well there is a fish train in the rota, what better loco to be pulling it. So on the workbench at the moment is a Airfix 4F with a Comet chassis, a Crafsman C12 which just won't behave itself, a heavily modified Lima J50 with a Perseverence chassis which has probably been talking to the C12, A B'mann B1 which will get a Comet chassis (eventually), a DJH J6 which needs a new chassis and motor, a London Road J6 which is still in the box, there are 2 B'mann WD's which have failed - problem here is that B'mann don't supply the original sized motor anymore so they are on the back burner, a Nu-cast K2 which has a Tony Wright type of rigid chassis and it doesn't like Borchester, so this will be modified with a flexi chassis time permitting, 2 DMR K1's, excellent kits, one is just about to come out of shops the other has been run so much that it needs some TLC, an ABS L1 and a DMR L1 - these have been replaced by the newer Hornby L1's but because the pony trucks on these were causing problems at Nottingham we're considering what to do next, there is a Drewry shunter which could be used but the Hornby 08 we use as station pilot is so good that it's not worth considering. So we do run a fair number of kit built locos on the layout, as for coaching stock the quality of current day RTR coaches is so good that it's not worth changing, mind you there are some Comet Gresley & Thompson coaches in there. One last thing, Borchester is not the easiest of layouts to operate, we do have operator errors but then it's no different to when it was originally operated. How do we know, we have asked previous operators, we even have one in our team. What we did find out at Nottingham is that at times Frank operated the layout for 45 minutes and then had a break for 15 minutes, wish we could have done this, we were down on operators and in certain cases operated out the front for 3 hours, fancy keeping on your feet and concentration for 3 hours, not a good idea. Anyhow, Nottingham was a good show for Borchester, a lot of people appreciated the layout being there, over the 2 days in following Frank's timetable there was just over 1200 loco movements, the most that we have ever achieved for a 2 day show. It's next outing will be at the NEC in November.

Excellent Graeme, thank you very much. I think that TW will get that one. At least you can read through me getting my merds wixed up or at least a slip of the keyboard, 'sown in the photo'? and 'correct you are wright'?, I don't know what it is coming to. I must have been taking some notice of Mr Cameron being honest about a EU referendum and believing him. Anyhow I'm still taking the pills because I've got all the bits for your B1 to O1 conversion, but that's after the A2 to 60500 conversion, much more fun. Thanks again and see you at Nottingham.

"TW rightly suggest there should be a 'please' in there but he has duly obliged." To be politically correct you are wright. I'll say thank you when I see him next. But, a straight on end view would also be nice, please, not all the detail is sown in the photo. As much as this Hornby model is extremely good and I should really be buying one, I'm one of those who still likes modifying RTR locos, so this photo will help in finishing off a Dave Alexander GE tender, which is more akin to a B12 than a B17. All the best.

I've read the BRM review of the new Hornby B17, we're any photos taken of the front of the GE tender? I wouldn't mind seeing the detail.

It is going to take a while before he returns and I'm sure that we all wish him well. Thinking of TW, I notice that the Wolverhampton boys are exhibiting Stoke Summit at the Spalding show on Nov 12/13. And I believe it is out to York next year. Always a good layout to watch the trains go by.

What make is the water crane? I know Mike's Models used to make something similar, but not at the moment it seems.

I dont think he has a website, but his e-mail is mike.dmr@btopenworld.com, tele 01872 272 325. The other week he was still waiting for some of the L1 detail parts. Moving on, we're getting ready to exhibit at ModelRail Barrow Hill in just under 3 weeks time. We were in the process of making 2 L1's for the layout, the first an ABS whitemetal kit, which unfortunately will not be finished in time because of problems with the cylinder block casting, but the attached photos are of the DMR L1 which has borrowed some bits from the ABS kit and a Craftsman C12 to finish it off. This hasn't been made by me, it's Ian Forsyth's, but as with all DMR kits I've come across its turned out to be a very nice model. I'm sure that when Mike Russell overcomes his part delivery problems it will be on general release even with the Hornby model coming out. If your an EM or P4 modeller, would you buy the RTR model or a kit like this? Much more fun making brass and whitemetal kits even though I'd like to introduce the ABS kit to a 5 lb hammer right now.

I dont think he has a website, but his e-mail is mike.dmr@btopenworld.com, tele 01872 272 325. The other week he was still waiting for some of the L1 detail parts.

The DMR L1 should finally be available very soon. It looks like it will make up into a nice brass kit.

They also used to run into Kings Cross on IB66, the so call Cambridge Buffet Car Express, used to occasionally see one of the Thompson Buffets on this service and would concur seeing a Gresley buffet on the Harwich-Manchester, I think that I used to be more interested in vintage coaches in those days than class 56's!