Colonel

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!

Wonderful! Minimalist doesn't begin to describe some elements of the Swilly, but then with those locomotives and the amazing landscapes, guess they decided not to compete with the rest.

There must be entire layouts with less wiring than this loco!

Yep, previous page.

Looks nice at first, but... The body looks 'solid', rather than articulated. The chassis should be an 0-4-0, with coupling rods at the tractor unit end. Probably fine in 2mm scale, but pretty noticeable in 4mm, you'd think. On the other hand, seems like all the complex shapes in the bodywork are done nicely.

Looks very doable, especially with a bit of compression and the Rock on a back scene!

Thanks John, interesting as ever. I'm probably as guilty as anyone for not always appreciating the manufacturer's side of things.

By the way, it is Wonderworks, not Dreamworks. Google the latter and you get Disney...

Sounds like it is going well and all layouts present problems to be solved. One thought would be to avoid a bright blue sky. For me, a very pale (almost white) sky makes a better backdrop and is much easier to do.

To me, the whole idea of a mixed media kit is what modelling is all about: choose the most appropriate materials for each part. Likewise using solder or glue to join them, as appropriate. Just because something can be 3D printed in one go, doesn't mean it has to be. And as is said above, the real things went through many changes over their lives, so far better to have the separate pieces to accommodate this.

Swillybegs was at the Dreamworks 1:1 at the weekend. DreamWorks is of course the Hornby factory in Margate but the 1:1 part is special as it is a a collection of full size stuff that currently opens only one day a year. It must be the closest thing to the show that Cultra used to run, because of being among the real locos. The ground floor includes a Eurostar loco, Deltic 9016, Royal Scot 46100, a Hall 4-6-0, a breakdown crane and a 4SUB EMU. Below that are working layouts in 0 and 00, alongside display cases of large scale models. The mezzanine above has the restored Gresley beavertail observation car, plus a small selection of motorbikes, cars and a tank! There are also many five inch gauge locos too. I was there with the Chatham Club, plus several other ones who brought layouts and stands from some of the local preserved railways. It really was a splendid place to be, but though I took my camera, I'd left the memory card out. Took pictures on my phone, but at the moment can't get them transferred to my laptop. Hopefully will post some later...

Was only wondering the other day how long he might continue - being of a certain age. A vast resource for 7mm scale. Let's hope someone will come in to take over. We really are close to a major tipping/watershed point in the hobby.

Indeed! When you think about it, the majority of most models can be broken down into basic flat shapes and strips. Even a steam loco boiler is just a rectangle, rolled into a tube, though streamliners are another matter and likewise some diesels. Many wagon bodies are just two sides, two ends, a floor and various amounts of strapping. Coaches can be far more complex though, with lots of repetitive marking and cutting out out, just to create a couple of sides. The real issue with scratchbuilding versus kit building is all the other bits: Buffers: so many different shapes and sizes Boiler fittings: chimney, dome, safety valves, etc Bogies, springs, axles boxes etc All such things are complex shapes and while they can be made, the amount of time needed becomes exponential compared to being able to buy a few whitemetal or brass castings. Now, while Allen's stuff gave us a start on creating a model, it still left the problem of making or sourcing all those difficult bits. And those difficult bits are getting harder to find, partly because of the boom in rtr, partly because many of those who made them are no longer with us. For me, the ideal scenario would be for those with the skills to begin creating a library of CAD files for these complex parts. With the price of 3D printers now looking quite reasonable, I'd certainly buy one of I knew there were files out there that I could buy to print my own stuff - especially if such files were to be found in a few central places. I suspect the main problem with the above, is that there are not enough people that interested a scratch building to make it viable. Or are there...?

Excellent info - thanks folks. Often wondered if Kenmare might make a decent model, but not in 7mm scale it seems. At least not in my house!

For anyone starved of space Iain Rice devised a splendid set up with three small freight yards on three fully enclosed baseboards stacked vertically on a wall, one above the other. The link was a simple cassette, lifted up or down to move the train between them. This gave the effect of a goods branch in linear space of less than 2 metres, plus the cassette. A simple idea, all on one level is to use a basic oval, with a back scene down the middle. This divides the oval into two separate scenes, but does of course require access to both sides.

Lovely stuff, as always. Photos of Kenmare always seem to focus on the platform area, with the attractive background of the town itself, but presumably the must have been a goods yard and loco facility? Are there any pictures of these?

Funny you should say that....

After the trials and tribulations with Swillybegs, it has been nice to do something scenic for a change. That said, ballasting not my favourite occupation, but needs must. The usual method of dilute pva via an eye dropper. The only thing I will say is that the ballast is three different colours of fine Woodlands Scenics, which for me feels just right. The gap at bottom left is the baseboard join, so will be done a little later to minimise the join. Another thing that was even more tedious was the fencing. I got it via the web: it comes as a pre-drilled fret of laser cut ply posts, with thin wire. However, I substituted fishing line for the latter. Either way, threading this through the pre-planted posts was no fun, though the effect is quite pleasing. To complete the right hand side of this cameo, I needed to think about how I was going to hide the hole in the sky where the main line exits. The space between this track and the fascia is quite narrow, so in the end decided a shallow cutting, reinforced with some brickwork should do the trick. The latter uses the same Howard Scenics card as some of the buildings, though this will be pretty much invisible from the front. Once this substructure was in place then it was the usual case of an initial covering of polyfilla mixed with paint and pva and then once this was dry, a covering of medium 'crumb' was glued on top. After that out came the static grass machine, filled with varieties of long, light coloured fibres. These need some titivation to simulate weeds and other plants, but with a further spray of hair lacquer another pass with the grass machine adds nicely to the length & depth. Have used some 'sea foam' by Forest in a Box to hide the hole in the sky with some basic trees and scrub. Once sprayed with a brownish grey colour then more hair lacquer, they are dipped in different grades and colours of Woodland Scenics crumb for a surprisingly quick finish.

Very nice! Must pay more attention to other threads...

Makes you wonder how many more of these part-works are stashed away like this, or indeed how many never collected the full set. It will be nice to learn about this one's progress though.

For solo operation, the American short line concept is an interesting one. Their layouts are often big, occupying the whole basement, but the idea is that a single train (essentially a pick up goods) runs the whole, multi depot line, picking up and dropping off box cars along the way. Add in dcc sound, along with a brake simulator on the controller and operation can become extremely realistic.

I think you need to plan for lighting on three levels: General, for the whole space, so that you can see what you are doing during construction, but also dimmable for later. Layout - much more specific, with LED strip being ideal. For example, if you are including back scenes, you don't want to see shadows of buildings on the sky or distant hills. An ideal set up is usually an overhead strip on the centre line of the baseboards, plus another one inside a pelmet (set a couple of cm in front of the layout outer edge) to cut shadows on the layout foreground. A pellet works like a picture frame and blocks out any unwanted sights that can spoil the scene you have created. This needs thinking about during layout construction, but not really needed until a section is finished as it could get in the way of track laying, scenery etc. Workbench/maintenance area, where bright lighting is always important. However, note that if/when you are painting stuff, this should always be done under the same lighting conditions as on the layout itself, otherwise you may well find that colours suddenly look different.

The decline of the local model shop is matched by the decline in what they can offer. With everything ever more ready to run, kits and especially scratch building materials are harder and harder to find. Plus since the demise of Maplin, a local electronics outlet is rare too, so basic stuff like layout wire, switches and connectors all have to come from on line orders.