This weekend sees us take Harkness to the 60th Wakefield Railway Modellers’ Show.
The dates are Saturday 30th September and Sunday 1st October.
The venue is Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Sport Hall, Northgate, Wakefield WF1 3QX.
Public opening is from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm Saturday and from 10.00 am to 4.30 pm. Sunday.
https://www.wakefieldrms.org/exhibition/
This weekend sees the long awaited return of Railex, Aylesbury
27th & 28th May 2023
Stoke Mandeville Stadium
Stadium Approach
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP21 9PP
Saturday 10.00-17.30
Sunday 10.00-16.30
We have a vintage bus running again from Aylesbury Railway station to the stadium on both days.
For the first time in quite a while, I made it along to the R&DMRC club night to do some modelling this week.
First job was finishing the base coats on the final gable end warehouse for Inchyra Mill. I’ve now added weathering powder and Dullcote to seal.
Next job, swapping the chassis on the Hornby 21T hoppers so that we can swap the 3 links back to NEM couplers – we are going to trial the Hunt Magnetic couplings offered by West Hill Wagon Works. The reason for this change is buffer locking of the rakes when being propelled down into the mill sidings. The Hunt couplings will ensure a constant gap. To further improve clearance, I’ve shortened the buffers at the inner ends.
Finally, a review of progress on my Fireless loco and comparing to my recently purchased research book, FIRELESS LOCOMOTIVES by Allan Baker (Oakwood Press). The chassis & cylinders are 180degrees to normal on these locos. Next step is to complete painting & decals etc and get the loco into service.
This weekend, Inchyra Paper Mill will be out at the Neepsend Exhibition in Sheffield.
Grenoside Community Centre, Main St, Grenoside, Sheffield S35 8PR
https://neepsendmrs.weebly.com/annual-exhibition.html
Our NER Autocoach (Heljan/Rails) has made its debut in EM Gauge this weekend on Harkness
Not a straightforward conversion with a new trailing bogie needed to take EM wheels. We need to find the ‘wand’ to turn the lights off but overall, a very good addition.
Harkness will be out next weekend at the Expo EM (Spring) show at Bracknell
https://emgs.org/shows-exhibitions/?event_id1=242519
Last week we made the decision to withdraw from Warley 2023. Time pressures from family and work simply made it unworkable
Warley was our final booking and being THE model railway show, had always been on my hitlist so it is a decision that saddens me but sanity must prevail.
The layout, in particular it’s electrics and hand build track & points are showing their age and needing increasing levels of repair for each show. Time and energy to do this before November is already doubtful. The stress of taking a flaky OAP of a layout to a show of high intensity such as Warley would be unbearable.
The net result is Kirkmellington is now entering semi retirement. It won’t be scrapped just yet (that requires time & energy) so may pop up at smaller, local shows if required but is unlikely to travel far. It’s been a great journey, 24 exhibitions attended and enjoyed.
Life continues though with supporting both Harkness and Inchyra Paper Mill on the circuit so the blog will live on.
Yesterday was RISEX 2023 and an outing for Inchyra Paper Mill.
A morning of frustration as we got to grips with layout and stock. Despite the test running, you can guarantee new niggles will come to light at a show, often referred to as the bathtub curve
7 hours of running, exploring moves, sidings and using a wide cross section of our stock can create pitfalls.
All niggles have been noted, so a few out of alignment rails, an odd geometry problem, raised obstructions such as check rail and point motor pin. None terminal or even repetitive but spotted and will be corrected. Rolling stock also needs adapting to reduce buffer locking, mainly the longer 21T hoppers.
As the day went on though, the easier and more fun it became as everything settled down. Lots of good comments and chat with visitors and other club members lifted spirits.
The Faller car system worked, just with a solitary van so far but more lorries in production and our junior helper liked it a lot.
Plus a couple of videos now on YouTube
Just over a week to go until Risex 2023 in Princes Risborough where we will be showing Inchyra Paper Mill
A few extras are being worked on, more Scenics have been added and everything cleaned & tested & adjusted.
R&DMRC have issued a video preview of the show
Testing and route learning are underway on Inchyra Mill as it has a show next month.
we will be exhibiting at RISEX, Princes Risborough on Saturday 18th February
Oxford Diecast recently released a AEC Dumptruck – perfect fodder for an opencast coal mine. Luckily for me, Kirkmellington was always a combination of vertical shaft (with winding gear) and horizontal shallow workings (with narrow gauge coal tubs). In real life, these shallow workings morphed into the big Ayrshire opencast mines.
I can therefore justify a dumptruck. A reason for it to have come down to the pit head complex is needed so maintenance is the plan.
Out of the box, the model is really huge and dwarfs all other period vehicles. It is also, bright orange with a high gloss finish.
Clearly 24hours in an opencast pit would do away with such a nice sheen so a few layers of grime have been applied. I’ve used acrylic paints, MIG washes and weathering powders plus some acrylic Matt varnish.
Next up, the maintenance crew
Covid has continued to play havoc with some exhibitions this year. Risborough & District MRC being badly hit with both Risex in February and Railex in May being cancelled due to venues not being available
An additional one day show has therefore been arranged for next Saturday, 15th October in Haddenham (close to M40 J8a).
We will be taking Kirkmellington to the show so attention was turned last night to fixing a lost DCC address and cleaning a few wheels.
The exhibition is at Haddenham Village Hall, Banks Road, Haddenham, HP17 8EE from 10:00 to 16:30.
Entrance to the exhibition is £5 for Adults and £1 for children
This weekend, Mr B senior has been at Liverpool MRS with Inchyra Mill giving the layout its Soft Debut.
So why “Soft” Debut? Well it (and us) have not been used in public before. Whilst we have tested and retested things, it’s inevitable that things won’t work 100% first time out. It’s also still a work in progress with more backscene / low relief needed plus all of the small detail. But it’s in a good enough state for exhibition and we have a reasonable amount of stock so it’s time to bite the bucket and really work things hard.
Feedback has been good and interest received from other exhibitions. The layout has behaved but some stock needs fine tuning with couplings & running quality falling below standard.
There are also a YouTube videos of the exhibition posted. Inchyra Paper Mill starts at 9mins 45sec on this first one:
And is the first footage on this one:
And from 6.05minutes here:
From 0.21 mins:
Finescale (ish) Modelling in 4mm Scale by two friends
Welcome to the new home for DRD Transfers
Ouse Valley Modeller is a blog about my 4mm OO gauge modelling, my observations mostly about Sussex railways in the 1950's and my layout Herstmonceux
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