Work in the Sunshine and progress

Today has been sunny.
I was able to get out into the garden without either getting wet or bringing large amounts of sludge in.   The wet weather of last year has taken its toll though.

Given that I intend to revise the the track plan and putting it down was very much planning, then I decided to lift bits and take it for a trip to the washer.    The pictures without track also illustrate something I hadn't appreciated.  I'm using decking, but use it on the grooved side and soil will collect in the grooves, and because its level it won't wash away.  Solution - turn the board over !

This is the pile of some washed and cleaned (nice and shiny) track and stuff waiting (dark and covered in plant residue, snail snot etc...).   

The other thing I did today was test out a couple of controllers I'd bought second hand.  Another wireless transmitter and a complete handset with transmitter.  Everything works good, so I'm now good to have 6 people controlling trains at once, which should be good for open days and operating sessions.  The two at the right are a bit different and the only means of controlling any digital controlled points.  

More Track and a shop visit

Again whilst on my sojourn in the Midlands I undertook a trip to Glendale Junction: a shop that I have dealt with by phone and email several times but which I have never visited.  Circumstances meant that I found myself without a means to recharge my mobile phone other than whilst driving (and after having bought the wrong charger in Nottingham, and even having had it out briefly to see if it looked as if would work).  So, a reasonable length journey was needed - what better than the 40+ miles to Glendale Junction.  I'd wanted to buy some of their Elita paints for a while and this would mean I wasn't incurring the expensive postage for cheap but heavy items.

Unfortunately it was the Friday before the 16mm show in Peterborough so there was a steady flow of people as the day wore on, but I got a nice cup of coffee, lengthy chat and chance to look at various items and a sound demo of the new PIKO digital 0-6-0 switcher...

Very nice too, but I'm saving my money for the tender loco - again chipped with sound - which should be coming in at a tad under £300... 

Not in the shops yet - Q2/3 of 2013 but sounds promising.... 

Given that I would save the postage I made a substantial purchase.  A curved PIKO point, although I also got to look at the Train line ones as well.   I knew where I wanted it to go, and when I got home tried it out...

I may buy some more if this one works out, but it should enable the track in the top right corner of the garden to soon split into the proposed station area.   

Hopefully we will have a good weekend and I will be able to restore a basic running loop whilst planning the rest.  

North American Modelling

I've been away for a while for reasons that some of you know -  extended hospital visiting.  Suffice to say that I was away from home, with long periods of time to fill quietly and I got through a fair number of magazines.

On Sunday 28th April I went to a show put on by the NMRA British Region, and in particular I suspect the Black Diamonds sub group at Weston On Trent Derbyshire.  Their speciality seems to be creating modular layouts where the track comes off the boards at agreed points, and having built say 2-5 boards each, they meet up, join them all up and run looong trains on big layouts.....

Mainly N and OO/HO with a bit of On30.  I didn't have a good camera with me (only my mobile phone - which I'd discovered is pretty poor indoors in poor lighting) so limited photos...  There was one  On30 layout - loosely based around logging and water transport that I thought I might get some pictures of.

This is the blurry one I'm afraid as I failed to get a view of the whole layout - but it serves as inspiration.  

This s the wagon ferry on the lower right.  

This is the roundhouse on the left.  

There were some trade stands and I could easily have spent a large sum of money on DCC On30 American stuff.  There was however, what I consider to be a bargain...

The locomotive part from a Bachman Short Line Railroad set.   OK, so there's no power pack, controller or oval of steel track - when RRP is around £150, but this was £50 for the loco and rolling stock.  There is a cylinder missing and as a child's toy then it doesn't have the detail of other models.  However, I feel (as do others) it has a certain charm, and at £50 was worth it for the coaches alone.  With original plans to perhaps convert the loco and detail it up, circumstances may mean that it gets a nameplate and chipped as is.