News

13th August

Since mid May, I have been building the snow scene diorama of Bratton Fleming and yesterday, I am glad to say that I reached an important step in its completion. All that is left to do is the scenery and backdrop graphics. As usual, it is the infrastructure and wiring that has taken much of the time. It may be of interest to review what has been achieved so far.

• construction and finishing of the three baseboard modules.

• Installation of LED lighting array with dimmers

• laying of track and ballasting

• fitting of point motors and wiring, including required electronics to permit automated operation using Railroad & Co software.

• building a Backwoods/Bemo model of loco 'Exe' including lights and DCC

• building Backwoods/Grafar 08 model of Lyn including lights and DCC

• building four coaches and fitting of lights and sound

• construction of station building, bridge and goods shed

Scenery does not take so long usually so hopefully, the layout is on schedule.

The time has now arrived to check over County Gate ready for the first autumn exhibition. All seems to be working very well so far.

The big news has been the completion of replica locomotive 'Lyd'. This is another huge success from Boston Lodge of the Ffestiniog Railway. It seems to be working well 'out of the box'.

the new loco prior to fitting of cowcatcher and application of Southern livery - photo Matt Waldren

A whistle was made for the loco from original drawings and what a weedy sound it is! We have replaced the whistle sounds on County Gate to match the 'real thing'.

1st August

The shuffle of trains on the fiddle yard now takes place as trains run onto blocks further from the fiddle yard and the problem is solved.

30th July

We are gradually fitting working tail lights on the County Gate trains. This means that a simple function chip is installed in the last car of each train. All of a sudden, we had problems getting the trains to 'shuffle'. The long train clear a block but the the last car is telling the software that the next train has arrived! More programming is in order to fix this one........thank you Malcolm!

27th July

Work has progressed on the Bratton Fleming layout with both new locomotives made and all baseboards complete, finished and varnished. Track is laid and wiring droppers installed. There is pressure to complete this layout as a blue diesel gauge 1 layout awaits to be built.

10th July

The two main baseboards of the Bratton Fleming layout are complete, filled and finished in dark navy blue and very smart they look too. The next step will be to attach the two together in correct register using mould makers pins and then the fiddle yard must be made.

9th July

The main two baseboards of Bratton Fleming are built and primed. Right now, they could easily be hamster cages! The fiddle yard is yet to be built.

The test sample decals for the Manning Wardle have arrived and include the lettering, green panels and white lining. They look very good indeed.

2nd July

Our Mallet, 'River Avon' had become a little 'tatty' due to excessive handling when converted to operating lights. Robert Kaczmarczyk (pronounced Shithotlocopainter) kindly offered to give it a  'brush up'. Some of the lining had been displaced and in a few spots we were down to metal.

I like weathered working locomotives so a 'brush up' might not mean quite the same thing for some. Thanks Rob.

Tomorrow, Andy and Fiona of DCC Supplies are back with us to programme our loco sounds. I have had a torrid time getting the train running properly for them and managed to wreck two chips. Still, all is well now and I have been enjoying the little train running round CG with all the lights out!

30th June

I have been building the first locomotive for our Bratton Fleming diorama. It is a model of the Manning Wardle 'Exe' and is based on a Backwoods kit. I have been unhappy with the design of the Backwoods chassis as it is very difficult to get working correctly and almost impossible to repair. This model incorporated a Bemo outside frame chassis from a small H0e diesel.

Build time was 44 hours and I am happy to say that it runs like a top. Panelling and lining still remains to be done.

24th June

Away with the Fairlies

My oldest friend, David Line, felt well enough to make a visit to the UK from France for a few days. A retired BBC man, he has always been besotted with narrow gauge railways and the Ffestiniog in particular. Paul Lewin, general manager of the FR and his staff, very kindly offered him a footplate ride on his favourite loco, a double Fairlie called Merddin Emrys.

In glorious summer weather, we drove up to Portmadoc in sufficient time to first be able to visit the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. The station is attractive and very well presented and the staff helpful and friendly. A diesel hauled train eventually drew into the station and the half dozen or so passengers climbed in and we were slowly drawn to the end of the line at Pen-y-Mount. The slow speed of the train is rather necessary as the line does not even reach the first mile post. Here is a replica of the original station halt, built in corrugated iron. The open side faces the WHHR platform while behind it, the Welsh Highland Railway main line passes unseeingly behind fencing.

After running round, we stopped at the new narrow gauge museum. This is actually well presented with good passenger facilities. My friend, who owns a garden steam railway, enjoyed a run on their 71/4" line.

On our return to the terminus, there was a small scattering waiting for the train but one does wonder how this operation manages to keep going on its traffic returns.

A very sour note was the text on WHHR posters, "we cannot sell tickets for the WHR as the Festiniog Railway does not allow us to". Hardly surprising really: when I visit Marks and Spencer, I do not expect to be able to buy things from Tesco.

a real class act

On arriving at the Ffestiniog Harbour station, we found ourselves pushing through the throng of visitors. This station had to be the most popular place in Portmadoc. We enjoyed an excellent lunch at Spooners Bar before our train arrived, full to the brim with happy passengers. Due to the recent low rainfall, Merddin Emrys was piloted by single Fairlie, Taliesin. This was to prevent the loco working too hard and setting light to the lineside.

David quickly decided that Merddin Emrys was more attractive to photograph than ride on and elected to travel on Taliesin instead. The long train was again about as full as full could be and right on time, we drew out of the station. In recent times, focus has been on the growing Welsh Highland Railway, also owned by the Ffestiniog and it is easy to forget what a stunning railway the FR really is. I cannot guess how many times I have ridden on it and I have to say that the ride never gets boring. This has to be one of the best narrow gauge lines in the world and frankly, seems to be better run than the British main lines; a real class act.

ready to depart

All to soon, we drew into Blaenau Ffestiniog station and we all got out onto the platform and pondered why anyone would want to go to Ffestiniog except as part of this railway trip. David had enjoyed a wonderful ride but found that it was a tad tiring and elected to return in the train.

David with his stead

Only too soon, we had returned to Portmadoc and sadly it was time to leave. That evening, we even managed to find a good restaurant at Tremadoc.

the great bladder saga

An early start next day, found us at the Welsh Highland terminus under the shadow of Caernarfon Castle. The installation is still a very temporary affair and is served by a gaggle of Portacabins. After finding a seat in a semi open coach, David loaded my disability scooter into the guards van and off we went. Garratt No 87 was hauling eight fully loaded coaches rather than the usual ten but still suffered considerable wheel slip upon starting.

The first part of the trip runs on what used to be the LNWR main line. In a way, it still feels like the two foot gauge is a small boy wearing Daddy's trousers and is frankly a bit boring. There was a compensation that the track felt good and we cracked along at a fine speed. After a short stop at Dinas, the original terminus, the journey really began. I still find it magic that after a lifetime of looking at an empty trackbed, the Welsh Highland has come back to life. This railway has almost everything British scenery can offer in profusion and description of it bankrupts the English language.

There is still a lot of work to consolidate the trackbed and for now, it is nowhere near as smooth as on the FR. The WHR will need many more years of hard work before it could be described as finished.

After our plunge through the long Aberglaslyn tunnel, we passed the new Nantmor halt and rolled down the dreaded Nantmor bank of 1:40 before coasting onto the river estuary plain beyond it. Until the Cob, at Portmadoc, was built some two hundred years ago, this large area was actually tidal. Dig a foot under the grass and one will still finds nothing but sand.

Last year's temporary terminus at Hafod-y-Llyn was passed and we were on new territory. In many ways, it reminds me of the first few miles out of Durango, on the three foot gauge. The mountain vista falls away as we rattle across steel girder bridges and by marshy fields before passing over the long Croesor river bridge and stopping at the latest terminus. From here, there is just three miles to go before reaching Harbour Station of the Ffestiniog. Some public trains are due to reach it later this year.

Pont Croesor is again a melange of assorted Portacabins and seems far more important than its remote location would suggest. This is because of the adjacent Osprey Centre, a Mecca for all twitchers. There is just one breeding pair and it is difficult not to wonder what would happen if they stopped nesting here.

During our trip down, David and I and enjoyed a variety of drinks offered to us by a very pretty French student who was working the summer on the line.  Perhaps we drank more than usual because she was so pretty. Fortunately, at our age, we are still allowed to look! After the various bumps from the consolidating track I felt it was about time to visit the disabled toilet at the other end of the platform. David set forth to recover my scooter only to discover that for some reason it had been off-loaded from the train and stored at Caernarfon!

It is amazing but when one discovers that one cannot go to the toilet, the urge to do so multiplies tenfold! The guard was most apologetic and promised to try to get a wheelchair for me at Beddgelert. It is at this point that one really does realise how long the WHR has become!

At some deep subconscious level I was aware of a hard working Garratt, wheel slips and tunnels but most of my thoughts were taken up with trying not to think about my bladder!

Beddgelert finally came into view but no wheelchair...........Oh my God! I was promised that there would be one at South Snowdon. I have no recollection of the next section at all except my Herculean effort not to find myself in a puddle of the wet, warm and wild. The journey was endless and for me, a trial. I tried to avoid looking at streams, not visualise toilets or dripping taps and of course those were the only things that did come to mind and in my imagination there was this image of a toilet, looking at me and beckoning. I felt sure it was laughing at me!

The guard came round, apologised profusely yet again and told me that I would feel as right as rain once we got to Rhyd-Ddu. I smiled weakly; he really shouldn't have said that!

After an eternity we arrived at Rhyd-ddu (South Snowdon) and eventually a wheelchair arrived. David huffed and puffed as he pushed me down the endless platform. By now, I swear that I could actually hear the toilet singing to me like a porcelain siren. We got to the end of the platform and had to cross the other line. Worse, I could now see the toilet building. A train was very slowly approaching the platform. "Go, David. Go". David hesitated and the endless train crawled by us.

After the last coach, David accelerated and we were off again. The front wheels of the chair promptly dug into the rail gaps and I was thrown onto the track like a projectile from a trebuchet. Perhaps it was a good idea that David had hesitated after all. Various station staff rushed over and I was quickly reloaded into the chair and finally we made it to the 'hallowed place'. I can say for certain, it was the best pee I have ever had. By now, our train was loaded up ready to go and was waiting for me. David, by now well out of puff, wheeled me back to the other end of the train while all the passenger stared at me!

The last part of the journey was uneventful but I have to say that by then, I was quite pleased to regain the independence of the car.

The Welsh Highland is indeed already very long, and even at OAP prices, the tickets cost over £50 for two. I rather suspect that many will choose to take just a section of the line.

Altogether an excellent and very funny two days in Wales with a best friend. Needless to say, I am taking the WHR and FR again in two weeks. This time, I shall handcuff myself to my scooter.

15th June

One train is now fitted with lights and sound and very good it is too. Any break in current collection, however, results in a crackle. This means that more coaches have to be hooked up for collection.

The entire website crashed due to the server failing. We have been offline for 24 hours while this very large site had to be loaded up onto a new server.

I am continuing building the snow covered scenic work for the group's Bratton Fleming layout. The snow seems to get everywhere when being applied as the particulate size is about scale for a snowflake!

1st June

Oops!

While preparing a brake observation coach for the fitting of interior lights and sound, I managed to drop it onto the carpet. I pushed my office chair back in order to pick it up and managed to run over it!

This is the result. A new coach is almost complete!

23rd May

Work is progressing on the working Bratton Fleming snow scene diorama. With the main station building and bridge completed, attention is moving to the 'goods shed' which appears to be little more than a converted farm barn. With only one photo of a gable end available, imagination will have to play a role. The snow scene began as a photographic commission. A local group of narrow gauge enthusiasts, (Marches Narrow Gauge Group) then asked if the diorama could be made to operate so that it would become a club layout. Their website is on here

On the home front, I have finally succumbed to the attractions of a stair lift as my efforts on crutches were becoming more and more precarious. We now have a huge pipe that sweeps up the stairs that is a passable imitation of a petroleum cracking plant. I ascend with a multitude of electric hums, bumps and whines. The cats, surprisingly are not in the least afraid of it and need the occasional prod with a crutch to make them move out of the way.

My young grandson is fascinated with the affair. A high clear voice from the kitchen floats up to me.

"When Grandad dies, will he use that to go to heaven?

Ho hum!

16th May

For a little while now, the automation on County Gate had become a bit unreliable. It was no longer possible to turn one's back on operations for a moment without something dreadful happening. A number of possibilities were considered from insufficient voltage to corrupted software. Andy and Fiona from DCC Supplies spent Sunday with us and in the gaps between lunch and watching the Monaco Grand Prix, we finally found the issues. Due to the lack of flush mounted Loconet sockets, we had used DIN plugs between baseboards. These are not the best plug at the best of times but it is always hard to find decent plug/socket systems. Due to constant plugging and unplugging when travelling to exhibitions, some wear had occurred causing corruption of Loconet information packets being 'sent down the line'. By connecting the computer with the Zephyr unit with one Loconet cable, it now runs like a Swiss watch! In the end a simple solution when we had feared the worst!

Our thanks to DCC Supplies for helping out.

15th May

The West Midlands 009 Society Group visited County Gate today and for the most part, it all worked quite well. Martin Radcliffe brought his superb Leek and Manifold boxed set which quickly found its way onto the layout. The transporter wagon would have never got through the tunnel though!

14th May

Back from Brighton with the lined and weathered Kitson Meyer. This was done by Robert Kaczmarczyk and a jolly fine job it is too. No 6 really is a brute. It runs extremely smoothly.  'River Avon' is now with Rob for a bit of 'titivation'.

6th May

UK election day. It does seem a bit pointless as whoever wins will only be a new group of pigs who put their collective noses into the trough with disregard to promises. I have the impression that politicians are chosen these days for their 'X factor' rather than skills. Two of them are still children! At least I can get lost in County Gate while all this bullshit is going on.

I have been testing the automated system for many hours and these days, we do get a few misses. That is, the computer thinks an order has been obeyed but it is actually ignored. The reality is the such systems are also electro-mechanical and resistance increases with age and I rather suspect that over the miles of wires, we are experiencing more voltage drop. Andy of DCC Supplies is bringing around a Digitrax Chief which has a booster and puts out much more current than the 2.5 amps produced by the Zephyr. We shall see if it makes a difference.

I have also developed a predilection for articulated locos with two motors which also eats up the power.

Another issue is to get the train placement on the fiddle yard correct. At shows, I like to have the greatest possible variety of locos and trains running. Sadly, when I built the fiddle yard, I have not anticipated my superpower locos. The new low pressure cylinders of River Brue foul the Manning Wardles so that train must now be moved!

The Kitson Meyer is almost ready to collect following lining and weathering.

I am starting a small winter L&B diorama for an Xmas magazine front page. Snow and winter trees will be a good challenge. I have also been playing around with a small diorama concept called Barbrook, showing the higher level track to Lynton and the new main line to Minehead. The upper track would be of a smaller scale so building L&B stock would be a good challenge.

Finally, my 0 scale L&B modelling friend Tony Spencer has just had his birthday and this was one of his cards!

3rd May

A little while back, I made the 'how to' articles on registration only. This was due a person who created many problems! The difficulty has now been rectified and I am therefore opening up the how to articles freely again.

Amazingly, 1354 people registered from as far afield as Oz, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Brazil. The emails, names and data have been now wiped and are no longer stored by myself. I am really sorry to have put everybody to such trouble but something had to be done to stop this person.

1st May

Took some of CGs rolling stock to the West Midlands 009 annual exhibition. This was held near Kidderminster and was a well run affair that suffered from rather poor attendance. This did give us time to chat and have a few laughs. Food was excellent and a new figure, Martin Radcliffe trolleyed in with a presentation case of the complete stock of the Leek and manifold Railway, build to near perfection in 009.

 photo by Mick Thornton

The 009 stand arrived with Brian Guilmant who had managed to get a visa to come this far North and as usual, some very tasty pickings were on sale.

 'River Avill' on Simon Coward's Isle of Mudd layout - photo by Mick Thornton

River Avill worked hard pulling long trains on Simon Cowells 'Isle of Mudd' layout while the rest of the CG stock languished in cases.

Thanks to Blair Hobson who organised the event.

a special event - the first public steaming of 'Lyd', replica of 'Lew' - photo Andrew Thomas

20th April

Bit by bit I am going through the rolling stock and where necessary renewing parts. For some time, the Grafar chassis under the prototype railcar No 200 has been misbehaving. I finally managed to buy a similar chassis on EBay and installed that. The railcar now works perfectly. Work is continuing to re-chassis 'River Brue'.

17th April

The Kitson is now running wonderfully well and will be making the trip to Brighton tomorrow for lining and weathering by Rob Kaczmarczyk. Five new empty bogie coal wagons have been completed so a 'return trip' can be operated in show.

The Garratt is still not running correctly with the push pull from the harbour and we must wait for Andy of DCC Supplies to come over and programme the back EMF on site.

11th April

Yesterday we drove down to Winchester to the Wessex Narrow Gauge exhibition at Sparsholt. 40 narrow gauge layouts were scattered in a series of classrooms. The exhibits were varied but included some well known examples, including Tarrant Valley, Ilfracombe East and East Quay Chapel Pill. They were supported by a smattering of traders which included Parkside Dundas who continue to support these events, all the way from Scotland, with amazing regularity.

It was a difficult show for someone like me who is confined to a small mobility scooter. The crush in each room made it extremely difficult to manoeuvre and Jenny quite quickly felt claustrophobic. I saw most of the exhibits and we left quite quickly and spent the rest of the day exploring the fabulous city of Winchester and its cathedral.

8th April

The Kitson Meyer is back after having its chip sorted out by DCC Supplies (spot on people they are too). The handrails are fitted temporarily and she has been trundling around the layout without too many problems although she is still a bit stiff.

5th April

The Garratt with consist works fine on test although, for some reason, I cannot programme acceleration and deceleration into the chip. A trip to DCC Supplies is needed I think. The brake ramps have to be changed but this is a very quick thing to do on our software. Yet another CDU from the original batch failed today, so at least they are consistent. I have therefore changed all the CDUs of this batch in the hope that we can have another long period of reliability.

I have mentioned that I have found that metal etched valve gear is too heavy when fitted to the Bachmann class 08 outside frame chassis. This is now been confirmed on close examination of our Mallet 'River Brue' which used the gear from Backwoods 'Russell' etches. The loco had become increasingly unreliable and is now worn out after travelling 5.2 actual miles. I am replacing the entire chassis using ROCO valve gear.

It does make me wonder how Victors will fare with their La Meuse offering.

I finally realise what an old codger I have become. My trusty old mobile phone broke down. It was simple, made phone calls and the battery lasted for days. The new Nokia sent to me looks a lot better, as if I care but it has taken me over a day to figure out how to make a phone call. Nowhere did the instructions say that a clear bit of invisible plastic had to be removed from the screen so one could operate the touch sensitive scrolling. I still only want a phone but this thing, if one could only understand it, does everything including getting stones out of boy scouts' feet! All I want is a simple bloody phone.

4th April

It is very strange that all my locos can easily pull these two coaches up the grade from the harbour but pushing them seems to be a lot harder. The only loco that is able to push up the rake without effort is No.4 Garratt, the oldest loco of the fleet. I have added a power socket to the front of the loco to take current collection from the rake and this will have to be the consist. The double heading using No.1 and No.2 with a mixed goods will continue and the poor old 4-6-0 Baldwin (No.9) still does not have a job to do!

I have been giving some thought to the work the new Kitson Meyer will do. This is still awaiting attention to its chip at DCC Supplies. The Diesel, 'River Avill' hauls a long coal drag towards Barnstaple. The Kitson will haul a drag of empty coal wagons in the opposite direction. I do not have enough stock for this, so I shall have to order some new kits from Parkside Dundas.

I have just seen that Nine Lines are winding down. They have produced excellent L&B kits of the bogie goods wagons and their loss will be a huge problem for those modelling the L&B in future.

2nd April

For the first time in two months, we now have all the fiddle yard tracks properly working. At the same time, all the panel point indicator LEDs have been replaced and bigger resistors added, which will stop burnout in future. I am now locked in battle with the 4-6-0 Baldwin to make it smoothly travel its new route from the harbour to the bay platform at County Gate. The wheels of the Baldwin are perfectly set with the correct back to backs, although the actual rigid wheelbase is quite long. It completely jammed in two points at the harbour. The rail gauge has had to be eased a little at these points and I have now removed the flange of the centre driver. Now it works!

31st March

We lost two roads on our fiddle yard ladder at our last exhibition which restricted our operations. Gradually, the problems are being identified as failed CDUs. These were made for me and were supposed to be pretty powerful. I have replaced the failures with ones from Gaugemaster which actually seem to have even more capacity and everything is now working, thank God!

The dilemma is now that as the four failed units were installed at the same time as all the others, it is likely that they too will be on their way home. I am inclined at this point to replace the lot, about eight of them, rather than risk a failure at exhibition.

I still have to replace many indicator LED lights on the fiddle yard control panel which had burnt out due to excessive voltage.

25th March

With the painted floor mostly dried now, I shall soon have access to the layout...not a moment too soon as politicians and elections are already driving me mad so the railway barn is a safe refuge. There MUST be a politician gene which results in complete dishonesty. If it was ever found, I would recommend foetal termination!

As far as I am concerned, Tesco should run the country and politicians stack their shelves (if they could be trusted not to steal the merchandise).

The push/pull coaches are now complete and ready for road testing. The workshop floor will be ready for rolling on by Sunday so I shall be able to get on with solving the electrical problems of the fiddle yard.

The NGRM forum seems to have regressed 30 years back to bashing Kitmaster Pugs and railcars. It is such a pity that so much narrow gauge modelling still revolves around such shenanigans while the rest of the hobby strives to excellence.

weathered

24th March

The push pull set is now wired up and ready for painting

the completed push pull coach end with sandpots and plough cowcatcher

22nd March

Access to County Gate's barn is not possible over the next week as the floor is being painted. This is an annual bit of fun! While this has been going on, thoughts have turned to the Harbour Branch. At present, the passenger shuttle, under automation, is performed by the Glenthorne railcar. Should any problem happen to the railcar, we are without a service. Our history states the railcar is not always too reliable and at times, a push/pull steam service is used. I have always felt a bit sorry for our 4-6-0 Baldwin, scratch built back in the early seventies. It runs well but has never found a role.

I have started to build the two coaches by butchering some L&B etches.

15th March

So we are back from Basingstoke, County Gate is offloaded into its barn and as usual, I am really tired. Basingstoke is not the first place that comes to mind when considering a recreational weekend but we went anyway. Aldworth Science College seemed to be generously blessed with large halls and we were quickly offloaded and had mostly set up by 22.00 hrs. The organisers of the show were very welcoming and helpful and we got to our hotel in good spirits. We were billeted at the local Hilton and could have asked for nothing better. The place looked like an up market old peoples' home but was well appointed and very comfortable.

A party was in full swing in the function room and even as early as ten thirty, there were a large number of young women who were already incapably drunk and being more laddish in their behaviour than I remember us blokes were in much earlier years! The old maxim of 'if you've got it, flaunt it', seems to have mutated to 'flaunt it, even if you don't have it'. All I know is that if I was a girl and had legs like most of the women we saw, I would wear a long dress!

Next day, after a hearty breakfast we returned to the school and got thing going before taking a look around. The range of layouts was very diverse and covered everything from an excellent 'Thomas' layout to fine scale 0. Three other narrow gauge layouts were in evidence.

In 009, was East Quay Chapel Pill by Angus Watkins. Despite the very strange name, the layout was excellent and included some lovely scratch built vessels and a working loading dock. The locos were running reliably and very smoothly.

East Quay Chapel Pill

East Quay Chapel Pill

Oro Grande Railroad, an SN3 diorama with a working crane was there although all I was able to see was the top of the crane. This was disappointing for me as photographs show it to be of an excellent standard. Worse was Crichel, apparently a 7mm/16.5 NG layout which was so high up that many able bodied folks were unable to see it properly. I find it difficult to understand the arrogance of Roy Wood, the builder whose work excludes anyone of short stature, children and of course the disabled. I have nevertheless included a photo of this layout. Scenically, it was very poor indeed.

 
Crichel in 7mm/ft

Saturday night arrived and we were off to the Conservative Club for an excellent dinner and quiz organised by the host club.

Sunday was relatively quiet, being mothering Sunday and of course, the first Grand Prix of the season. County Gate for the most part ran well except that we suffered a points failure just before the exhibition closed. We had hoped to test the new Kitson Meyer but a defective chip kept it immobile in the sidings.

The Kitson sulked in the siding for the duration.

Fellow Desperado Dave Renshaw was exhibiting his 00 diesel (making nasty noises) Cramdin Yard. Needless to say, a great deal of joshing took place throughout the exhibition... mostly about our noisy seagulls and his traverser which had refused to work!

County Gate won best in show.

Basingstoke is an excellent regional show which is friendly and comfortable to visit. We hugely enjoyed our time there and thank the organisers, the BNHMRS, for making us feel so welcome. Later on Sundays, the crowds always thin out a great deal. It was so good that the show closed at 16.00hrs, which gave many a chance to pack up and get back to their families. As usual, a very special thanks to Desperados Andy Beresford and Martyn de Young who so ably helped out and made it all possible.

9th March

The Kitson is now in etch primer and will make an appearance, (not running though) at the Basingstoke show.

The fiddle yard is set up in my room and finally I have identified the fault on one of the points. The Peco point motor had failed. This has now been rectified.

8th March

I celebrated my new workshop by building the Kitson Meyer. It is nearly finished and we are just waiting on a few bits.

4th March

Modelling standards in smaller scales are fast improving. I am delighted to see  more and more folks getting into etching and other new techniques. Companies like Dapol nowadays trolley down to the station yard and laser scan a prototype to produce masters using 3D printing.

  ...........and then we have 'little people'. Our near perfect rolling stock, set in highly detailed scenery are more often than not ruined once the 'little people' are added. They may be purchased ready painted or are white metal; it doesn't matter, they are so far from looking like real people that the entire effect of the layout is often ruined. One of my railway staff looks like Michael Jackson, for God's sake, and NO ONE looks like that!

these days, this is just NOT good enough

4mm/ft seems simple enough to me....this does seem to escape some suppliers too and it is often impossible to mix figures as they have been made to different scales.

When at the Brighton exhibition, I visited 'Overlord' and was shown a small range of 'little people' which for the first time actually looked real. There was even a model of someone pointing with a scale finger. It can be done but isn't!

What is needed is to get real people to dress up, laser scan them and then 3D print them. Then there is a chance. Am I the only one to feel the need for something a lot better?

I have more or less moved into the new workshop and hope to get to grips with the loco maintenance starting today.

2nd March

My workshop re-instated. Now for putting all the bits back in the new drawers!

So far, I have been able to do nothing on the railway as we are still in complete disruption from having flood repairs done to our home. One advantage of being flooded is that eventually, you get a cheque for damaged furniture, carpet and decorating. The disadvantage is that one is overrun by contactors who all have 'builders bums', (a particular dislike of Jenny). Come to think of it, Jenny tells all the Desperados who come to help showing County Gate, "Make sure that John is not showing his bum on his scooter". Below is probably the record beater of these proceedings!

By the evening, I had assembled the new Ikea flat pack drawer units for my workshop. They go together superbly well and are worth the trip to that dreadful store! I just wish loco kits went together as easily!

MDF is unbelievably heavy and it astounds me that it is still used by some for their baseboards. In fact, I suspect the severe earthquakes are caused by the excess weight of Ikea MDF which is proliferating around the world.

Jenny sent me to bed early as she thought I was getting 'hyper' assembling the flat packs!

Still, the carpet went down today and I am now building up flat packs of new drawer units for my workshop.... damn....there are some bits left over!

I do hope that some of the sick engines will be able to be fixed before the next show.

22nd February

Back in 2008, County Gate attended the Birmingham Model Railway Exhibition, hosted by the Redditch Model Railway Society. This year, we were again their guest at the Redditch show. This was held at the town hall and very comfortable it was too. I am always struck by the friendliness of this club and this year's event was no exception. We were very short of Desperados for the event and club members cheerfully stepped in to unload and dismantle the layout.

The Warley show at the NEC seems to act as a 'black hole' for other shows in the area and visitor numbers suffer as a result. This year was sadly not as well attended as it deserved. It is my understanding that in future, the club will hold just one event a year at a new venue.

County Gate automation caused a few problems but began to improve as the show went on. We have not had time to do any maintenance since Brighton so there is quite a 'to do' list outstanding.

River Avon ingested a lump of foliage and was withdrawn. Brue is still out with a bent rod and Exe suffered a broken wire to the companion car. My 40 year old K1 Garratt took over running the eight coach holiday special and operated faultlessly throughout the day.

Altogether a good show and I would like to thank the organisers for the help and kindness afforded to us.

15th February

So we are back  from the Brighton Modelworld show. We arrived at lunchtime Thursday and found ourselves at the loading bay in freezing conditions. For one who dwells in the backwoods of Herefordshire, Brighton is rather a strange place. Among other things, it claims to be the 'Gay capital of Britain'. On the streets, were men in frocks, and others (of indeterminate gender), had trousers with the crotch well below the knees. This made them look as if they had shot a load in their shorts!

I rather naturally burst out laughing on seeing such apparitions. Someone suggested that I should go on a diversity course. I found this hurtful as I have already been to two and last one actually had more than thirty sorts of real ale.

The Brighton Centre is a slightly frayed building more or less on the front. The interior is a rabbit warren of halls with one large arena on the first floor. When they built this place design work stopped some place short of the loading bays. These are cramped in the extreme and totally inadequate for the size of venue. The organisers made a valiant attempt to help exhibitors unload but the 'architecture' got the better of them. Many had to wait at some race course half way to Dover before being called to unload some hours later and there were quite a few grumps. Due to our long setup time, we were allowed in quickly and organisers kindly helped us to unload.

Light relief was afforded for exhibitors when the huge boating pool burst, dumping thousands of gallons of water across the floor.

Six hours later, we were more or less set up and retired to our hotel very cold and tired. The organisers had kindly booked a hotel on the front. On arrival, the Polish staff were more interested in getting guests to sign in multiple boxes to confirm they had read their no smoking policy (which was longer than the Maastricht Treaty), than actually making people welcome. A sort of Polish run Faulty Towers, in fact. The real problem arose when they demanded £150 in cash or credit card per person so they could fine anyone who broke the rules.

I rapidly disavowed them  of any hope of getting a deposit from us and we retired to comfortable rooms and began to warm up.

Upon arrival at the venue the next day, we were confronted with burnt out debris and an overwhelming smell of fire. Some idiots had tried to set fire to the building. Fortunately, Brighton's finest were there to extinguish it in short order. Hell, this place is Dodge City in a frock!

The Brighton show is eclectic in the extreme and is a first class venue for parents and kids. There was a large Lego stand where kids could build what they liked and an area for huge model tanks which gave battle to each other. Personally, I hate war games stuff and see it as playing with large radio controlled Tonka toys and dolls.

There were boats, planes and cars galore, all being controlled by RC. There was even a radio controlled goose! The entire building must have been awash with radio frequencies and therein lay our problem.

At the beginning and end of the days, the County Gate automation worked faultlessly. As more and more frequencies fired up during the day, it infiltrated our system and all sorts of mistakes cropped up which resulted in trains going into the wrong places and at times colliding with each other.

Some superb large robots were also wandering around. They were by far the most disruptive to our systems.

My favourite was 'Titan the Robot' which performed a great show. When he was around however, points even began to start changing all on their own!

Titan inspects County Gate

We had to almost run the thing by hand at times and gave up the unequal struggle during robot and tank shows. For the first time we did manage to run a Manning Wardle double header though.

the first MW double header

Being in the main hall was certainly not the ideal for us. As we were directly underneath the loudest Tannoy system ever installed, close to tank battles with ordnance and extrovert singing robots, we drowned in a cacophony of sound. It was impossible to hear oneself think and regular exits were in order to get one's hearing back. The lower floor, by contrast was as peaceful as a summers meadow and I just wish that we had been down there.

The food provided by the Brighton Centre was inspirational. I had no idea that road kill could be served in so many different ways.

Despite our tribulations, the public did seem to like the layout and we were awarded gold. All in all the experience was 'educational' and we shall certainly avoid venues with radio control all around us in future. At all times the organisers did all they could to help but for us, it was hard work to keep up a show.

My thanks to Desperado Rhys Davies who so valiantly helped out.

9th February

The layout gets loaded into the trailer tomorrow. The figures arrived from Aiden and have been planted. Some of the figures were too large in scale but have found a place in the foreground of the harbour. At last the awful flat sailor who stood on the platform has gone!

click here to see what happened!

5th February

So it is time to knock down the layout ready for going to Brighton. All seems to be going well and just a few repairs and new detailing remain to be done. I have been very unhappy with some of the figures on the line. Some new ones are due to arrive from Aidan Campbell.

31st January

It has not been the best time for us as we have had a death in the family and part of the house was flooded. Sometimes, during such trials, it is better to get really lost in some project or other rather than face reality! The website, which was originally intended to be short had grown into a monster and its navigation had become chaotic. In particular, the 'how we did it' articles were scattered all about the site. They are now together in a section which can be easily expanded. Of course, it is frustrating to have to rediscover how to navigate the site and I apologise for this. Nevertheless, I do hope that the new look website will work OK for everybody. Please let me know if there is a problem or bad link.

The Lynton and Barnstaple modelling section has also been revamped although no new material ever comes our way. This is disappointing as it could be a more useful resource.

22nd January

Back in the workshop and I am glad to say that after a few glitches, the layout seems to be working quite well. Taw jammed up and the problem was that the crosshead slippers had become worn. A curse on the covers over the slide bars on our Manning Wardle tanks. The job took almost a whole day.

20th January

Outside is yet again a blizzard and workshop access impossible.

Being born at the end of the War, universal hatred for Krauts and Nips was quickly displaced to the Commies. Our household became worried about annihilation by nuclear war, woodworm and dry rot in about equal measures. Rotten weather was always blamed on nuclear testing, of course.

After many years of concern about nuclear destruction, we have since been threatened with gigantic volcanoes, huge meteorites, extinction of wildlife, AIDs, and mutated flues. For me, the last two threats always looked quite hopeful. A mass reduction in the burgeoning world human population would resolve one of the other fears, that of running out of resources such as oil.

And now they have moved on to global warming, terrorism and unrestricted immigration. First they said that British weather would become like the South of France if we used aerosol sprays. In the spirit of things, my consumption of aerosols went up four-fold but still our winters remained grim and depressing affairs.

And now, that hotbed of potty extremists at the University of East Anglia have managed to fiddle data sufficiently to convince some fools that we are experiencing global warming.

Yeh, right!

Looking through the window at yet again, fast falling snow, tells me that this global warming thing is just another excuse to raise taxes for British politicians to pay for their absurd warmongering and of course the city bankers must all still be paid kings' ransoms.

I used to think that such hobbies as railway modelling were the preserve of those who suffered from horrible winters. I even convinced myself that the best model railways must be in Scandinavia and Canada. The internet has shown otherwise and it is clear that the hobby is pursued even in places of good all round weather.

As I have become older and hopefully a little wiser I now see that governments feel it necessary to keep us permanently anxious about some major potential threat.

It is little wonder that many of us retreat into imaginary little worlds where it is always summer and nothing ever happens!

10th January

The bad joint is repaired and now stock operates faultlessly. I would have liked to be testing on the assembled layout but the weather has got the better of me. Snow has been sufficient to make it almost impossible to get to the barn. Hopefully things will improve soon.

27th December

After finishing off the cold turkey and chestnut stuffing, it was time to go forth and work on the layout. Endoscopic examination of the track joint, hidden in the tunnel between the viaduct and harbour baseboards showed that one rail was .5mm higher than the adjacent one. Clearly, during setup or knockdown, we had managed to hook the end of the track to cause the problem. Jenny calls such things 'events'. This, in girl talk, means something we did during exhibition and therefore nothing whatsoever to do with her! It is quite surprising that most of the stock managed to get across the joint at all. I am sure the endoscope had a faint whiff of cow's bottom!

There was nothing for it but to cut out an access hole in the baseboard, remove part of the track and relay it. All is well now and we are left having to refill the access hole. Once this is complete, the layout will be reassembled and testing begun.

19th December

Now back from France, my thoughts are again turning to some CG maintenance. Our little engines have really covered some miles and were beginning to be less well behaved by the end of the Warley show. As an example of our maintenance schedule, here are the worksheets so far.

'Exe'
Complete ultrasonic clean. The plunger pickups were worn and giving only intermittent contact. They were replaced by phosphor bronze spring wires.

'Yeo'
A coupling rod bush on a drive wheel had become detached which caused rough running resulting in damaged teeth on one of the spur gears. The gear was replaced as was the rod bush. The chip was not always responding so this was also replaced. Chassis cleaned and loco tested and reprogrammed.

'Lew'
Replacement of failed plunger pickups with wire.

railcar no 200
Chassis cleaned and all bearings re-lubricated.

15th December

I had found that the forum on modelling that I set up on Yahoo was not a suitable format to easily combine photos and text. As a result, I set up a more suitable message board which would allow for an unlimited disc space for the storage of articles. Sadly, this forum remained largely unused and as a result, it was withdrawn due to the cost of running it.

24th November

I am shortly off to France for a while and face quite a lot of maintenance work on CG on return. For some reason, a baseboard joint has started to derail a railcar (we will have to borrow an endoscope to see why) and all the little engines will be visiting the ultrasonic cleaner! Some of them have now travelled over 7 real miles; James May, eat your heart out!

23rd November

Well, we are back from Warley and we survived! The drive to the NEC is a short one for us and on arrival, it did not take us too long to be able to drive the trailer into the hall and offload.

Already installed was the K1 Garratt from the Welsh Highland. What struck me was how tiny it looked in that barn of an exhibition hall. Also at the vehicle entrance was a stand being set up called S & M! We wondered at first if we were unloading in the right hall!

WHR K1 Garratt

The layout was together by 4.30 pm except, where was the electricity? Our automation does require a start up cycle that takes at least two hours. In the end, power did not come to us until 7.45 but by then, all we could think about was getting to the hotel for a meal and BEER.

It was nice to be alongside John and Jane Jacobs 'Nettlecombe'. That layout is exquisite. John and Jane were a tad more concerned in case I collided my mobility scooter with their fiddle yard, however! Despite many 'attempts', I am happy to say that the yard remained intact throughout the show.

Nettlecombe looks just like the place I would like to live in!

John tells me that in one show overseas, he was not awarded a trophy because his layout was too low. Certainly, in Europe, there are now more layouts at shows that are not accessible for the disabled to see than those that are. In Britain, the law requires that there is accessibility for the disabled at public events. It is amazing how folks can be so selective about observing the law. As a smoker, I do have to go outside for a ciggy. However, as a disabled person, I have to campaign just to be able to see a model railway!

I had wanted to see the WW1 layout Willesden Junction. This was brought to the exhibition by members of the Greenwich Narrow Gauge Railway Soc. Sadly, I was out plum of luck as they had clearly decided to further their campaign against the emancipation of the disabled, short people and children. Just to make quite sure, much of the layout was lower than the foreground! I am given to understand that there were a lot of things that looked like cow pats on the layout but then again, I shall never know! The Greenwich operators did however remember to bring step ladders to stand on so they could see their own layout.

Willesden Junction - a view from quite a high mobility scooter

It is still my hope that exhibition organisers will eventually wake up and insist that layouts shown, comply with the law.

We stayed at Holiday Inn Express and I have to say what a comfortable place it was, so we were able to get back to the NEC on Saturday morning in reasonable shape. It is such a pity that the hall lighting is so awful. All visitors should be issued with a valium pill to compensate! We were not able to go through the start up cycle before the visitors came in so for the first time we did suffer from a series of automation glitches throughout the first day. Luckily, trains were still able to run for the most part.

Saturday was extremely busy and at times, visitors were five deep trying to get to see County Gate. Sunday morning gave some respite and one was able to wander around the hall and see the seventy odd layouts and the numerous trade stands.

One thing that has always upset Jenny and myself. The people on County Gate. This is just something that we have never managed to get right. I have often seen the work of Aidan Campbell and the photos on his website always look like caricatures from Punch magazine. In real life I was very surprised how jolly good they actually were and the painting surpassed anything we could do. I therefore kidnapped him for a while and we will now be starting a gradual replacement programme with painted figures from Aidan.

I must say that I am getting less sure about some folks with sound chips in their trains. Some were actually louder than the prototypes and could be heard many yards away. Behind us was a G scale LGB layout with lots of sound... again rather loud, but it was the sound of Westinghouse pumps which did me in. Every time they parked close to us with the pump noise on it made me want to go to the loo!

I really enjoyed the 7mm hi-tech layout Dinas 1869 by Paul Holmes.

Dinas 1869 by Paul Holmes

Other favourites were:

New Ponca Yard, a very evocative US layout

Quite a large number of continental layouts were there, including our old friend Ems-land Moortrack who we had met at Utrecht.

Ems-land Moortrack

We were sharing the hotel with folks exhibiting at the National Cat Show...(very sad for me that it is the same weekend as Warley). At around 2am on Sunday morning I was wakened by "Mau....mau....mau". At first thought it was one of my cats wanting to get under the duvet until I realised that I wasn't at home. Oh well, got up and dressed and found a fine looking grey English shorthair at the door; and very worried he was too! Picked him up and ran him on the scooter to the lift and down to reception. He never stopped with his "Mau....mau....mau": as accurate as an atomic clock! At reception, he was reunited with his equally worried owner who suspected that 'cat show sabotage' was behind the whole affair; (those people will kill each at the drop of a hat).

All in all, a very well run friendly, huge exhibition with a high standard of layouts and the largest selection of traders you will ever see in one place. County Gate won best NG layout in show and the huge trophy spent time standing on the Contisbury cliffs. A few felt it was somewhat out of scale. I later discovered that the trophy was presented by Pete Waterman!

All too soon it was all over and we were knocking it all down. Some delays were experienced in getting the trailer into the hall following a car accident outside. How someone managed to run over a traffic warden covered in visibility vests and reflectors I have no idea. I only hope that he will make a full recovery. Despite this, it was all packed up soon enough and I was home before 9pm.

I had heard many tales of exhibiting at Warley and was somewhat nervous. We actually enjoyed the experience and felt the club had looked after us well.

As usual, a thousand thanks to the Desperados for helping so wonderfully at the show and well done Warley MRC.

15th November

With everything working properly, the time has arrived to pack up CG for Warley. After the 10 page article on CG in the British Railway Modelling magazine, showing at the NEC seems a hard act to follow!

7th November

Work is now beginning to repair the detached cross member under the viaduct section. Once this is completed, the railway will be reassembled and the new and repaired rolling stock programmed and tested for automation.

5th November

Diesel electric 'River Avill' was completed today and has been passed for service.

I have also been busy fixing a few small problems encountered at the previous two shows. River Brue began to run roughly and I replaced a wheel set and keeper plate. These had become damaged during the initial construction. The loco is now as smooth as River Avon. Better bogies were fitted to the Glenthorne railcar, (one had become detached at Genk), but the greatest effort as been with our 'Taw' (Mr Slippy) which is fitted with a Class08 chassis. It is impossible to add further ballast to the loco so I am fitting a Tomytec Scale 16m Chassis to its companion box car. This will have to have its own chip and be adjusted in speed to match the loco. It is the only way I can see to obtain reasonable load hauling capability up our grades.

29th Oct

Following mediation, a well established model railway exhibition will no longer be exhibiting in their current venue where no access to the disabled is afforded. Further details will be released shortly. The action took place as part of a campaign to ensure that this hobby remains inclusive for those with mobility difficulties.

logo of the Desperados, those kind enough to come and help run County Gate - click on image to enlarge

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