Spalding Model Railway Exhibition 2025

Looking back through my blog I see this is the fourth Spalding Model Railway Exhibition since the pandemic. In some ways that period seems so long ago and in others just as though it were last year! I can recall thinking at that time there would never be any more such exhibitions but we move on and luckily we overcame and now the model railway diary of shows seems as busy as it used to be. Certainly the Spalding Show has always been a great exhibition and each year it seems to grow in quality with this year being one of the best I can recall even going back before the pandemic. 

So lets look at a few of the layouts that Mrs. Woody and me liked.

First off, Welby Lane RTC, am 00gauge layout, which is based on the British Rail test centre at Old Dalby. All the RTC (Research Technology Centre) stock was painted in a distinctive blue and red livery and there were some unusual conversions of standard rolling stock into RTC versions including the Laborotory 25 Decapod which no doubt had a far more interesting life than the Mk1 coach it was converted from!

Interesting as the rolling stock was, there was also some interesting scenic modelling such as the old station with its delapitaded building.

Amd here it is in closer detail - nice!

I was also taken by this scrpa yard scene.

Ambergate was interesting in that it was a large layout but the railway was only a passing loop station with a three siding goods yard. The space was mainly taken up by some fine scenic work.

This is the atation end.

And this is the other end showing just how little trackwork there is but this was a real example of a railway through the scenery model.

The allotments must have taken many hours of work to complete.

Mauch Chunk PA is an H0 scale layout based on an actual location in Pennsylvania, USA.

Superb modelling makes this almost look like the real place.

Staying in the Pennsylvania, but moving down to n gauge, there was this fantastic layout Mackenzieville Yard.

The layout was for sale but I resisted asking how much - I just don't need another layout at the momeent - really!

Moving onto Switzerland, this fully automted and computer controlled layout called Kaninchenbau allowed its owner amd operator to wander about the hall leaving the trains to run themselves! Now that is a clever layout build!

There were 30 layouts covering all the popular gauges and various parts of the World as well as traders and demonstrations so something for most visitors to find of interest.. 

To couple or not to couple- that is the question!

I had intended to post about the Spalding Model Railway Show that Mrs. Woody demanded I take her to (well that is my recollection of our conversation) but it is late so something to do tomorrow. In the meantime I did have a chance to do a little more on the upgrade of the Lima Class 117  DMU.  I this case I had to decide if the DMU was to couple or not. Obviously the two coaches that make up the unit have to couple, but are the couplers at the outer ends really necessary? Well, given that it is unlikely that I will couple it up to another DMU and that the existing coupling just looks so big and ugly I decided to remove them.

A short session with a razor saw cut off the coupling which is moulded as part of the bogie. I just had to clean up the sawn edge with a file and all is well! I have to say that as there is no going back now!

A sign of the times?

Catching up om things at the Rocks By Rail Museum showed that signs are proliferating! No idea why but obviously a sign of the times!

There was this old tea triolley.....

...now repurposed as a, as the sign says, work bench!

Paintiing on steam loco Barrington continues and the wet paint sign was, well painted in wet paint!

There is an awful lot of scrap at the museum but we now have a sign to tell us it is scrap!

Eric has done a great job on painting the narrow gauge skip wagon....

...and really brough the detail out with the sign on it.

Meanwhile, Back in tyhe restoration shed, John seems to be stopped!

The purpose of this sign was not as a signal to me to stop, but it was a sign to attach to the track to indicate that all traffic on the track should dtop whilst Richard and Hazel were doing some maintenance work.

Despite all these signs, work on other projects continues. Alex was back to chipping cement and crud off Ketton No1. Why he is smiling is anyones guess as this seems to be a never ending job!

Back outside, progress is slowly being made on refurbishing this van. New floor and roof are needed and that is a winter project but which winter?

And for me? Well I took it that as the weather is chanmging it is a sign of the timeds that I need to get some final grass cutting done this year!

Seated passengers.

Having painted the interiors of the Lima 117 DMU, it was time to add some colour to the seats. In real life the DMUs underwent several refurbishments and the seats were upholstered in blue towards the end of their use with British Rail. I went with that brush painting a suitable blue onto the seat faces.

It took a while but eventually both interior units had heir seats  painted.

I also took the opportunity to highlight the existing detail in the cab. Just painting some of the controls brought the cab to life.

Now as to the reason for spending time sanding down the end tor pin marks on the seats and it is contained in this recently procured pack.

These are not highly detailed or particularly well painted seated passengers but for the inside of the DMU they are ideal. Just to get an idea of how they would look I temporarily placed a few figures on the seats. I think that is look good!

It looks fairly drab and toy like!

 This is the interior of the Lima Class 117 DMU.

It looks fairly drab and toy like which I guess for its 1980s origin was the common approach by manufacturers who were still selling vast amounts of train sets for the younger market. Now, whilst much of the interior is unseen through the body windows, I still felt it could do with brightening up and be made to look a little more like the prototype.

First job, having taken the seating unit off the chassis was to filo down the various ejector pin marks.

Now, given that you cannot really see these through the windows of the DMU, you may wonder why I spent time on fikling these pin marks flat. Well, there is a reason for that as I will explain tomorrow! In the meantime, the seating units were sprayed up in grey primer from a rattle can.

It already looks far better then that beige colour! However there is more to come!

A bit of a service!

Whilst doing work on the pickups on the Lima Class 117 DMU I thought I might as well give the motor a bit of a service. Not that there is much to do on these old pancake motors but it was worth opening it up as I found this.

The blackish ring is dirt on the commutator which needs to be cleaned off as it is affecting contact with the brushes supplying power to the motor.

That was soon done with some fine abrasive. With the cover back on having lightly lubricated the spindle, I turned my attention  to the other side of the motor casing and the gear wheels. They needed a light greasing but also, Lima gear wheels are renowned for having these ejector pin marks on them from the manufacturing process. The edges can stand proud of the surface and cause uneeded friction with the rest of the gear train. I used a fine sanding stick to smooth them down

After reassembly I used a 9volt battery, whose terminals conviently match the two brush holder points on the motor, to test that it all still worked which amazingly for my work it did!

I just need to replace that burnt out DCC chip now.

Pick ups!

With an hour to spare I thought I would pick up on upgrading the Lima Class 117 DMU by adding an additional pickup to the rear bogie. At the moment it only collects current through one side of the bogie. Adding pick ups to the other means that it should run better!#

I have done similar on other Lima models so my first thing to do was to add a strip of styrene to the side of the bogie to mount a phosphor bronze strip to.#

Next stage was to super glue the phosphor strip to the strip once I had soldered a wire to go to the DCC chip.

Then it was a case of drilling a hole in the chassis for the wire to go through.

I am thinking of doing the same with the unpowered trailer car which would really add to the reliability of running but I will have a think about that! At the moment I am pleased with what's been done so far. 

Woody's Hardware Store!

Following on from yesterdays post here are a few more layouts from the excellent East Midlands Narrow Gauge Group show.

Jubilee Works was unusual in that it was a 7mm dual gauge layout with both standard and narrow gauge track running together. I can only wonder at the skills in making those points!

Another unusual layout was Angst Lesspork which was themed around the Terry Pratchett book Going Postal

Show winner was Gnant Gwernol a very scenic 009 gauge layout. In fact it was so scenic that the railway almost disappeared!

Going down in size one modeller had produced a number of micro layouts.

And then going back up the size scale was this monster!

Finally, over the years I have met with James and his Grandson Dylan. James has only been modelling six or seven years nut has skills that defy that short time and Dylan.....well lets just say with what skills he has at his tender years if he carries on model making he will end up as one of the greats1 His 009 gauge layout is still a work in progress but as you can see it will be a fantastic layout.

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Dylan is even building his own rolling stock which is fantastic to see.

Unbeknown to me, Dylan has created a bit of WMD on his layout.

It took me a moment to notice but the shop is named Woody's Hardware Store! 

I was quite taken aback by that but thanks Dylan! Very much appreciated!

There were some great traders there with products you never knew existed. I sis purchase a few bits despite the concerns of my Financial Advisor and wallet Watcher, Mrs. Woody! Eddy from 3D printing for charity had his stand there s a few interesting items came home as they always seem to do when he is in attendance!

A great show and some great people. Unfortunately I did not see Steve from Steve's 009 and 09 Adventure Blog. We probably just missed each other or he was keeping an eye out to miss me!