nickwood

A few photos of Much Murkle which will be returning to the exhibition circuit after a four year sabbatical. Very much looking forward to exhibiting with my team again and meeting old friends and acquaintences. photos courtesy of Andy York & BRM .

Hope you can make it, would be nice to see you again Bill. Prior to my house move in 2021 I planned another GWR terminus layout and built the boards. Peco bullhead track was ordered and received and that is as far as it has got. It is not a dead project, just on the back burner and waiting for sufficient spare time. I also have another project that is moving on albeit very slowly. I acquired a couple of DCC sound equipped diesels and a small amount of goods stock from the estate of my good friend Mick Bonwick who you may recall passed away suddenly in 2021. I had some spare boards already built for another layout which didn't progress so I've used these with the intention to try out DCC with a gritty industrial shunting layout set in the late 60's. Green diesels and 16T rusty minerals aplenty. I've moved my workshop into a garden studio building which will have this layout on a shelf along the rear wall. I may start a thread on this soon as the track is down and wiring is nearing completion. Anyway this thread is about Much Murkle and my focus currently is getting it back into tip top shape before the Basingstoke show.

The Southampton show is always a good show, but it's not one of the ones I said that I'll be at this year. Thanks to everyone for the likes and comments. At least I know that there are some of you still watching and listening 😄 My Kernow Steam Railmotor arrived on Saturday morning. It's had about 2 hours running in on the rolling road and a quick test on the layout. It is a lovely model and runs well. I've taken a few pictures (not very good ones) and video showing off its slow running capabilities. There is a small problem with it though. The cylinder guards catch on the screw heads holding the aluminium angle in place on the cassettes, so I've got to alter the fixings on the cassette dock and one of the cassettes which will have to be allocated solely to the Railmotor. Shouldn't be too difficult just moving a few screws back approx 3mm each side. As you can see I have had to make adjustments on the dock before. Fortunately the cylinder guards don't foul the platform which would have been a bit trickier to rectify if not impossible to do. IMG_5924.mp4

If anyone is still watching, happy new year to you all. Nearly a year on and a decision on Much Murkle's future has been made. During the year, I've considered selling it, would anyone want it?; scrapping it, which would be heartbreaking; keeping it as a home layout, which it was never designed to be being operated from the rear and viewed from the front; or keep it and try to secure more exhibitions with a new operating team. I'm pleased to say that the latter option won out in the end. I now have three exhibitions booked this year, Basingstoke in March, Andover in August and Newbury in October. All very local to me so and an easy lead back in with my new team. The layout was erected recently to check it over as it had sat in it's crate for well over a year. I'm always anxious when it has sat in the garage for an extended period hoping that nothing has got in created mayhem. Over the years I have never had anything serious happen and this time was no exception fortunately. The only issue I had was a detached wire on the power circuit. It took a bit of head scratching to find as it was in one of the multi cored leads to the control panel but once identified it was an easy fix with the soldering iron. There are a couple of bits of scenic maintenance required before it goes out to the Basingstoke show but that was it. I'm in the process of checking through the stock and servicing the locos. There are a few of the DG couplings detached, they are generally superglued to the underside of the buffer beams and doesn't take much to shock break the bond. Again an easy fix. All the locos are being oiled and having wheels cleaned and so far no issues. There will be some new locos on the roster this year, a Dapol Mogul, Oxford Dean Goods, Hornby 61xx, Kernow 1361 and a Kernow Steam Railmotor which should arrive today. All need detailing and weathering though before they will be allowed in front of the public (or shown on here). I'll finish with a photo that I may have posted before. Deans Goods on a local passenger comprising of C10 all 3rd and a D37 brake 3rd and a busy goods yard

It was Coopercraft. EBay might be your best best.

I’ve not come across this theory but in principle it makes some sense, however the difference in height would hardly be different to the tolerance you would expect in trying to make the couplings the same height. Not worth the effort in my view. The latches are not needed on the ends with loops. I do fit them though when making up the etches as in my experience the latches are the weak point of the DG design and if one becomes troublesome I can easily swap the loop to the other end, turn the item of stock and continue using it. Not that I’ve found. They seem to work well whichever way I choose to face them. At the time I made the decision to go for DG’s, a few years ago now, I couldn’t find a supplier for the B&B’s so my choice was made for me. I do not use DG’s method of making the loops with phosphor bronze wire and a steel dropper soldered to them as the whole loop Assembly and dropper can be easily made from one length of ispring steel wire . I assume with the B&B’s you have to solder a steel dropper to the etched loop?

I use DG’s very successfully on my layout both for home use and over 30 exhibitions. If your layout is end to end and you are happy not to turn your stock then I can see no point in having loops at both ends of the stock. The loops in one direction would not be in tension in any case. I accept that there is the possibility of uncoupling if the track level is uneven or the coupling heights vary. Both of these situations would be better addressed at source rather than trying to overcome it with adjustments or unnecessary additions to the couplings. I have found that DG’s are generally tolerant of small variations in height. I have no direct experience of B&B’’s but as they are very similar, I assume that their performance would be similar.

Scalescenes have a kit and ChisinDen do a laser cut set of card parts for it. https://scalescenes.com/product/r011-arched-bridge/

Thank you both. I really need to give some thought on Much Murkle's future and where I go next.

I’ve had to cancel Much Murkle’s attendance at the Newbury show in October as we have to attend a family gathering in Spain. Newbury MRC’s understanding exhibition manager has rebooked us for 2024. I have just found out Andover MRC’s exhibition is now not going to take place and I didn’t hear anymore from Warley, so that means no shows for Much Murkle this year. It’s disappointing as I really miss exhibiting having previously done 5 or 6 weekends a year pre Covid. On a more positive note I have seen today that the latest 30th anniversary issue of BRM has an article “30 years, 30 layouts”. It wasn’t surprising to see BRM’s 30 favourite layouts include iconic layouts such as Little Bytham, Buckingham, Chee Tor, Lime Street and Copenhagen Fields featured and those from great modellers such as Pete Goss, Geoff Kent, Geoff Taylor and others, but I was stunned to find myself and Much Murkle amongst them. Thank you so much to the BRM editorial team for honouring my meagre modelling efforts alongside the other 29.

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I had a Lillevilla log cabin installed earlier this year. Lillevilla.co.uk I looked at many other suppliers and for me Lillevilla came out best on value for money for a good quality building. They do promotions at the shows they attend and it is usually a very substantial discount if you order at the show. Erection team were fantastic and I'm very pleased with my cabin. The cabin is double glazed as standard with 40mm thick logs (most are 25mm) which gives better insulation. I opted for floor and roof insulation as an extra. I installed a laminated floor and the electrics myself and you do have to get the base laid beforehand by your own contractor. 12 year warranty providing the outside is treated within 14 days of erection. I have no connection other than as a satisfied customer.

We’ve averaged just over 8kwh generation over the last four days in North Hampshire with a 6.5kw south facing array. We’ve only had solar installed since early December and Although some days have generated very little, we have been pleasantly surprised overall. It has performed much better than we expected so far. We are with Octopus on their Go tariff which gives us 4 hours from 00:30 to 04:30 at 12ppKwh which we use to top up our 9.5Kwh battery and do as much high load domestic use as possible at the cheap rate.

Apologies, the smiley didn’t appear on my screen for some reason. Agree about biofuels.

Care to tell us what recreational activity you enjoy, it’s obviously not golf. You could make the same argument for any recreational areas, sports fields, common land etc. If it is ground based areas a more sensible suggestion might be motorway and railway embankments where there are substantial tracts of land doing absolutely nothing.

Looks like you’ve got that traverser tweaked to perfection.