Boys just wanna run trains....

So, after a week's holiday in the Outer Hebrides which was train (if not railway) free, then on the first weekend back AND a dry Sunday then I wanted to be able to run trains.  Ideally show off in video the new track cleaner and bo-bo diesel that were pictured in the last post.

So, we had one quarter that is nice and level on decking as a result of previous labours.  The rest was a bodge job to get a circuit up and run trains.

Alas, I learned some lessons.  First of all the track was grubby - no surprise there given the amount of rain we have had.  Much more important was a lesson about points (turnouts) - some of the ones down haven't got motors or manual switches - which means that they are free to move.   With a bogie engine (bo-bo) or truck (Snowplow) this seems to meant hat after the front bogie has gone over the point, the blades decide that they would like to move.  This causes both a derailment, and in the case of the bo-bo a short circuit.

I did get the bo-bo to push the snowplow with a brick in it for a quarter circuit though until it encountered a point though.  So, there's clearly enough "oomph" in the engine for the job for which it was bought which is good.

Because the night was drawing in, and therefore getting cooler and damper, then we had a derailment caused by a slug on the track.  I'd like to report a fatality but unfortunately we just have a bit of a squish...

Unable to show off the new toys (and the Pulsed smoke Stainz may have stopped making smoke) then it was out with the newly revised chipped (Massoth XLS - so with Sound, rather than the more basic decoder it originally had) Spreewald and a carriage with lighting..