Colonel

In the last photo, presume that is a ground signal attached to the point mechanism? Nice bit of detail.

Sounds like an amazing resource Eoin, so good luck in sorting it and great to know Ken's stuff is in safe hands.

Great to see the 5p thread back again!

Given your usual standard of research, I was starting to wonder if you were indeed tempted to go 12" to the foot!

Fab.

Would put myself very much in the builder, rather than operator class. However, when I exhibit, I do enjoy staging a bit of theatre and there is something very satisfying about bringing a train into the station, uncoupling, running round and doing a bit of shunting - especially when it is all hands free and done at realistic speeds. Hence I tend to do a lot of rehearsing at home before a show and often tinker with the make up of trains in the hope of greater reliability, so guess this is when I do a plenty of operating. I try to keep each train's "performance" fairly simple, so I can still talk to visitors, but hopefully still believable too. One of my all time favourite exhibition layouts was Stoke Summit. No station, just the East Coast Mainline, with a slow road in the up hill direction. A constant stream of beautifully modelled trains, fed from two enormous storage loops - it was not unusual to see visitors actually transporting and writing down numbers! I rarely spend more that a few minutes in front of a layout at shows, but this one kept you there for much longer. Not many layouts combine real action with all the visuals, but Trevor Nunn's East Lynn was one. Prototype working, fully signalled, stunning scenics and exquisite stock that always seem to run beautifully. It was S gauge too...

If you fancy a cheap way to do Irish narrow gauge, check out Alphagraphix. Roger's card kits are only £3-4 and make either decent static 7mm scale models or the basis for working ones. Schull, Donegal, Cavan items included, plus much standard gauge too with a very good range of Sligo Leitrim.

Wonderful archive footage, especially of the Sligo Leitrim. Even the Howden- Meredith Patent Wheel gets a mention!

I think the other end just needs completing. A bit strange for someone to leave it like that, considering it is already painted, but looks a nice model. Indeed, crying out to be finished off with three teddy boys perched on the balcony as per that wonderful picture in Michael Whitehouse's book.

Apart from Society shows, where the cognoscenti gather to chat and compare, general exhibition goers mainly want two things: highly detailed, realistic scenery (useful especially on smaller layouts where only one train is present) or lots of trains going round and round. Which is fair enough. Having exhibited at over 100 shows, where there is a vote for best layout, this also goes two ways. If it is a public vote, the roundy roundy, ready to run layout nearly always wins - especially when it is nicely done and well operated. Folk seem to like things they can identify with. If the award is done by the exhibition organisers then fine scale stuff tends to be favoured. Overall, it is what you'd expect really - the joy of our hobby is that it is such a broad church and there is something in it for everyone. However, for me, at shows I always want to see both: nice looking layouts that run well and are well operated. Don't care what scale, gauge or concept they are, just that they are interesting to look at and (like some of the Lego or steam punk ones), make me smile.

Speaking of 7mm, while a full kit might be tempting, a set of Worsley type etches to cover sides, bodies and underframes would certainly be of interest, with printed ends a bonus!

Great project and will certainly look forward to seeing it progress.

Sounds great to me!

I've wondered that too - maybe they just slowed right down and called its bluff? Or maybe, by the time diesel power appeared, the goat was no more? Exhibiting can require a certain masochistic mindset at times, because you just can't predict some of the things that happen. Equally, it is always nice talking to people and you learn as much as you share. At Chatham, the failure of my HH controller came after 20 years of faultless exhibition use. The W was always the spare, but never appreciated it wasn't good enough, so now have two HH, just in case. The biggest problems at shows are dirty wheels and dirty track, for which the only solution is regular cleaning. The semi open nature of the No5 Covered Slip at Chatham, together with its unsealed concrete floor, means you do that two or three times a day. Large school or sports halls are usually much better, with only a general clean first thing each morning required, while smaller/stuffier rooms seem to increase the need again. With rolling stock, it is mainly couplings that need attention. Can't imagine tension locks cause many problems, but the DGs I use, while very effective can be fragile, with the loop coming adrift the main problem. Likewise the AJs on Northport Quay - any misalignment and they don't work. I still occasionally think about going back to three links (never screw links though), but operating from the front it is not fair on the viewing public. You always need spare motive power because a weekend show mean around 15 hours operation and if something goes wrong, it can be difficult to fix on the spot. The other potential big problem is wiring of course. A single dry joint or short can scupper the whole layout and they aren't always easy to find. Only happened to me once, in over 100 shows, but it wasn't funny. Have occasionally thought of converting a couple of locos to battery power, just in case... For some reason, layouts seem to get heavier as we get older (!), but for anyone interested in going public with you layout, would suggest joining up with a club layout to learn about the whole process first. Transporting, setting up etch as other elements that need care and there is always safety in numbers.

Unfortunately, haven't been able to find a way of posting photos of the Hornby 1:1 weekend, but here's another salutary tale of exhibiting a scratch built layout. Swillybegs as a layout, still works as well as ever, but issues with some of the stock continue - not helped last weekend when a stock box nearly fell out of the car. Caught it just in time, but only to find that several couplings had sprung and loco crew clearly jumped to safety! Some things worked well all weekend: Railcar 10 and the West Donegal Trams were pretty much faultless, probably doing twice as much mileage as the rest of the trains. Following the usual post show cleaning & fettling, the latter can now do as originally intended, by accessing the layout via the front track. This means Railcar 8 can enter via the mainline. The two Swilly trains suffered mixed fortunes. My Barclay 4-6-0T is already looking a bit battered and at times was limping along in very ungainly fashion. Turned out the were no less than three separate faults! First, noticed a crankpin has come loose off one of the rear drivers, also one of the front drivers had come loose on its axle & gone out of gauge. A built in problem caused by using Gibson 4mm drivers because the right diameter 7mm ones were not available. However the real culprit was part of the brake gear. This had also worked loose and was flapping around behind the frames, catching on the driving wheel spokes. Despite all this the engine did its best to perform, but was looking an increasingly sorry sight, so had to be retired on the Sunday morning with one of the Clogher 0-4-2Ts substituting. Back home, the mechanical issues were easily sorted, but the paint work will need a bit of work before the the next show in October. The 4-6-2T and fish train had different problems as this was in the box that nearly hit the floor. The loco was alright, but both bogie vehicles suffered coupling damage. Managed to get these repaired at the show, but the train kept derailing as it entered the layout from the fiddle yard. Back home, traced this to the cassettes not aligning. Hard to work out why, but various amounts of filing and adjusting have been needed to set everything right. The photos show a rarely seen corner of the layout though, so may be of interest. The Unit & its short goods train [along with Phoenix] were in the same stock box, so also suffered some broken couplings. There are enough spare wagons to cover occasional problems like this, so we got by, but some erratic running towards the end of Sunday afternoon turned out to be rather more crud on the pick ups than I'd expect from an air-conditioned exhibition hall. Maybe I needed to clean the track more often? The last picture is my take on Maggie Coulter's goat - a tale from the Clogher Valley railway, which always causes amusement. The model was hand made by me a few years ago, when I could't find a ready made one. Anyway, such are the slings and arrows of exhibiting and it only goes to show you always need plenty of stock - just in case!