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shuffling and testing.

A bit of re-jigging of the shed means I have been able to put all of the scenic boards for Brettell Road up together.  Its 5 months since the Cradley show – Time flies doesn’t it?

Theres a few things to fix after the show.  A couple of the points needed a check over as they weren’t totally reliable. I also found 2 dead sections that hadn’t shown up during the show so I fixed those too.  The lights on the upper floor of this building failed before the show but after the building had been planted onto the layout. It was too close to the show to fix it before so this is something to look at now I have time.  I also want to add a few yard lights and sort out the telegraph poles on the layout because as they stand now they don’t make a huge amount of sense.

The other thing to fix was the route setting on the main lines. Signalling purists are advised to look away now!  Before the track and signals were all operated separately via the throttles with only the yard set up as a route. (My Digitrax system allows me to program routes into it.) So thats been changed for operator convenience so that throwing a signal sets the route as well. I know the route should be set then the signal pulled rather than this way round. You can set the signals to danger on their own but in case you forget the routes will set all the other signals to danger for you anyway. I hoping this will be pretty simple to use.

Since the show I have a small stockpile of new rolling stock to be tested.  The rule is all stock must go everywhere without falling off, even though in this image only the middle road of wagons will go into the yard at shows.  Of this little lot only 4 wagons were rejected and returned to ‘works’ for some fettling. These 4 have now been passed too.

Below, just some more traditional layout style pictures.

 


Cradley Show – Epilogue

My friend Tim has put together a short video of the layout from Saturday. It was late ish in the day and being in front of a window the layout was back lit so didn’t really get the full effect I was after. (Note to exhibitions managers – I actually want the dark bit of the hall no one else does!!)  However it does show up the wet effects quite nicely.  I need to be a little more fastidious with the dusting in the future.


Cradley Show 2023

Yesterday Brettell Road made its return to the exhibition scene in its extended form.  The show went very well I thought and we all enjoyed ourselves. Theres a snagging list for me to work through, of course, but nothing major.  The layout seemed very well received and we were honoured to be awarded the Frank Collins Award for best layout in show as voted for by the Cradley Heath MRC committee.  Somewhat poignant for me as Frank had assisted me with info for the model of the Round Oak admin building before he passed away.  I like to think he would have approved of my efforts.  The kids seemed to enjoy themselves looking for the cats on the layout and and the strategically hidden lego Batman that the club provided.

Quick thanks to my operating team and the members of the CHMRC for their efforts.

(Pic ©Tim Horn)


Finishing touches

With a little over a month to go before Brettell Road is back on the road*, I’ve been finishing a few things off.

The last backscene is now in place so the road in the middle of the layout now gives the impression it goes somewhere.  The Leyland Steer seems to have lost its licence plate somewhere.

The little back yard on board 2 is done – I wanted a used but not particularly looked after feel.

I realised I’ve not actually taken any images of this building in its finished state before now.

Princess Margaret heads back to the Wallows for the evening.

GWR railcar catches the last of the sun as it heads off to Dudley.

* The show is a local one on the 7th October. Click here for more info.


14th September 2021

With the model railway exhibition circuit starting to show signs of emerging from its enforced hibernation I have updated the shows page. However with Brettell road undergoing its rebuild and one last show for Birmingham Moor Street I will admit it’s somewhat slim pickings at the moment. Heres a link.

Theres no Scaleforum this year but what there is instead is a set of smaller events from some of the area groups. For a full list click here.
The one I will be attending is this one

North Norfolk Area Group Event 25th September 2021
The Copeman Centre, Hall Street, BRISTON NR24 2LG
https://www.thecopemancentre.org.uk/
Opening times: 10:00 – 16:00. Admission free.
Light refreshments will be available and for this venue there is no need to pre-book.
The following layouts will be present:
North Elmham – Currently under construction by the North Norfolk Area Group, this layout will depict the station on the Wells next the Sea branch with its grain and milk traffic giving some variety from the norm. The layout will be set in the late 50s/early 60s period.
Obbekaer – A Danish independent line connecting Rebe, Gram and Vojens in South Jutland from Geraint Hughes set in the mid 50s. The Model is built to P87 standards.
Wheal Elizabeth – The end of a Cornish China Clay branch set in the 1970s/early 80s. from Jeremy Good.
We will also have the North Norfolk Area Group’s test track available for those who want to give their stock the chance to stretch its legs.
We will have six demonstrations, which are:
Modelling road vehicles – Jim Smith-Wright
Air-braked wagons – Phil Eames
Etched brass carriage construction – Tony Brenchley
Kit-bashing plastic coach kits – Alan Hall
Turnouts with a difference, an approach to building the inter-laced variety – John Geggie
Cavelex Models – will be showing production models and their latest samples for visitors to examine and will be very happy to discuss any aspect of their products

 

Hope to see some of you there.


20th April 2019

Moor Street performed to its usual high standard at Trainwest last weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a chat. Our next outing will be at DEMU with Brettell Road on the first weekend of June. (the previous performances will be skewed slightly to have a more diesel bias but not exclusively.) See https://www.demu.org.uk/showcase/showcase-2019

Note the fairly recent change of venue. Hope to see some of you there.


Post scaleforum, part 1

Brettell road seemed well received at Scaleforum and for a first show I was very pleased with how it went.  That’s not to say there isn’t a list of things that need looking at for the future though.

One of the things I did before the show that I didn’t really have time to post about was this derby lightweight from a Bachmann model. I have long-term plan for a DMU but this was a quick win to have something for the show. I wired the 2 cars together and disconnected the red tail lights. A swap of the destination blinds, a few passengers and some weathering and it was good to go.  I still need to redo the gangway at some point. I found at Scaleforum I had more wagons than I needed. this meant withdrawing ones that played up wasn’t a problem and to be fair my cripple train is reassuringly short. The class 20 didn’t have enough rotation in the bogies so that’s been fixed too.

I’ve toned down the streetlights as well as several people remarked that they were too bright. finally a quick shot of the Deeley parked up under the bridges (well why not?). I still need to finish the bedding in of the bridges so that will be a future post of its own.


15th March 2017

It’s been running for a while now and many of you have already found it but for those who haven’t I have a Facebook page.  I’ll be posting much the same content as here but I hope the Facebook page can be used for people to ask questions too. It’s a bit difficult to ask them on the site unless it’s a topic I’m already talking about. That’s the plan anyway! Click on the picture to go to it.

We are about to kick off out 2017 exhibition season with both Calcutta Sidings and Brettell Road due to go on the road this year. Calcutta will be out first at Scalefour North, the first weekend of April. Again click on the picture for more info.

On the subject of Phil (Calcutta’s owner) he has recently taken over much of Colin Craig’s range of usefull stuff. Phil’s new company is called Stenson Models and can be found here.

 


15th September 2014

20140915-144456.jpg

In less than 2 weeks, Calcutta Sidings will make its third appearance at a show, This time Scaleforum. For more details of the show please click here.

On the subject of shows I have added an upcoming shows page that lists upcoming appearances for Calcutta Sidings, Birmingham Moor Street, New Street and any demos we might be doing. You can find it in the other section or by clicking here.

Finally some of you have already found it but I have a new workbench section for a little side project I am working on. Much like the plank, it’s really a glorified test bed for stuff I want to try out for new street but this one will be more black country, more early 1960’s and (whisper it quietly) more steam! After a few name changes it called Brettell Road and you can find it in the workbench section.


29th May 2014

mrj231Those who take an interest in my random scribblings might be interested to know that I have an article on my class 317 EMU in this months MRJ. Its an all D&E theme and also features Tim Horn’s Bass canning line building he built for Phil’s Calcutta Sidings.

On the subject of  D&E this weekend is DEMU’s showcase in Burton on Trent where I will be doing a demo on multiple units, Hope to see some of you there.

Click here for more info.


13th May 2014

Just a quick update to say that we shall be at Expo EM this weekend with the second outing for Calcutta Sidings IIBass on Calcutta Sidings v2 TJH01 ExpoEM 15th September 2013 Copyright Tim HornPic ©Tim Horn and used with permission.

I shall be supplying a small amount of Stock and doing my best to fill up Phil’s car parks so please stop buy for a chat if you are going.

Click here for details.

 


19th September 2013

Well Expo EM North is over and Calcutta Sidings 2 is now in the public domain. The show went well for its first outing with not a huge list of things for Phil to fix before the next show (Expo EM in may) there were a few niggles but there are an awful lot of trains and track there and we weren’t exactly creeping arround at shunting speed a lot of the time.  There was a down time on the Saturday when a Digitrax box got overloaded (power districts were fine but no commands were getting sent out) but thanks to Mike, Tim and John on WFRM the problem was diagnosed and sorted fairly quickly.  Thanks to all who stopped by for a chat and to see some of Tim (H)’s pictures go to the Scalefour Society forum

Class 317Despite getting my HST refurbished for Expo EM I have also been busy finishing off my class 317 EMU which has been on my workbench for years and years. See the workbench page for more details.


29th August 2013

Some new things to look at.

25059-at-BNS-aug2013bAs well as the class 25 picture above there are new images in the class 37, class 122 and HST galleries.  On the coaching stock front there are new images in Mk1, Mk3 and None passenger galleries too.

Tank Wagons

I have also added a page for my small fleet of tank wagons, there will be more to be added to this page in due course.

Finally we are only a few weeks away from Expo EM north where Calcutta Sidings 2 and the Universal Fiddle Yard will be making their public debut. For more details click here and if you get along to the show be sure to stop by for a chat.


20th October 2011

The end of September saw the station section return to Scaleforum as an ongoing demo.  Thanks to Tim Horn, Simon Stevens and Phil Eames for their help over the weekend.

Click here for a gallery of images taken by David Brandreth at the show.


6th October 2010

The above picture was taken by Darren Rees at the Kernow/YMR show where the layout appeared as a work in progress demo. You can see more of Darren’s pictures on the shows page.

Other updates this time include new pictures in the class 31 and class 50 galleries while I have made a start on a page devoted to my class 47 models. Click on the stock link to have a look. On the scenery front I have been building a bus stop and billboard! If you fancy having a go at a bus stop yourself my drawing can be downloaded from the drawings page.


21st July 2009

I have made good progress over the last few months and took a section of the layout to the RMweb Members day at Chasewater. Nothing like a show to focus your attention even if it is only a demo and it doesn’t have to be finished.

James Hilton, Paul Burkitt-Gray and Tim Maddocks took images of the layouts outing and a big thanks to them for letting me reproduce them on my site. More pictures are on the shows page.

Above image © Paul Burkitt-Gray

Progress continues on my staff building, if you want to see more then please go to the layout section.