Post-Exhibition review

Ever wondered who else reads this blog? Well we met him today. Dave ventured all the way from deepest Birmingham to join us and was good enough not to laugh at our efforts. Apparently he recognised Andy and Allen at Shepton Mallet show "from the photos on your blog!".

 Great to meet you Dave and we hope you will join us.

Although it seems a long time since we were at Mickleover, this was our first meeting since then, and so we began with the traditional review of what had worked well (and what had not). We had some problems with derailments from our flatcars and with unexpected uncoupling of the Kadees as they passed over some of the fixed magnets. One particular instance sticks in my mind......

 Someone (well, OK, to be honest it was me!) forgot to take a spirit level to Mickleover, so we used the time-honoured technique of "up a bit, stop" to align the boards by eye. Obviously our eyes are not that steady! At one point I was reversing two coaches stereotypically slowly into the depot. They unexpectedly uncoupled themselves from the loco and ACCELERATED into the depot area, coming to rest level with the platform.....

So we spent much time today leveling the boards, checking Kadee heights and alignments, plus the freedom of movement of the bogies and the back-to-backs on the wheel-sets. Andy produced seemingly endless amounts of flatcars from his box - he must have been building them continuously since Mickleover. At one point we had one of Allen's much-modified Shays pulling and pushing ten flats the length of the layout, which made a fine show as they snaked across the turnouts.

Dave was treated to an example of our haphazard building techniques when we decided to convert one of the fixed uncoupling magnets into a "moveable" one. This meant digging up the ballast, dragging the existing magnet out and then cutting yet another hole in the baseboard (I swear the boards are only half the weight they were when we started).

 Then Allen fitted the magnet onto a flap, which is closed by yet another servo motor. This being the prototype, no doubt Allen will bring an improved version to the next meeting, so hopefully pictures next time.

 Somehow the meeting after Mickleover always seems to result in digging up track, cutting holes and generally making the layout look less ready than it did before. Oh well, here's to the next 11 months!