News

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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