Spalding Model Railway Exhibition 2024 - Another day out for Mrs. Woody!

Mrs. Woody was delighted when I told her I was taking her to the Spalding Model Railway Show. My confusion at her positive view on this trip out was soon solved when I remembered the shopping outlet that was just around the corner! No doubt Mrs. W would seek retail therapy following the viewing of model railway layouts!

I always enjoy the Spalding show as it is a largish but not over large show. Lots to see and buy but easily doable in an afternoon. This year the show organisers seemed to have concentrated on more smaller layouts and the normal large layout that would take up the space of ten smaller layouts was absent which was fine with me. I like smaller layouts and this Scotish based one, Loch Syd, caught my eye and being only 7 feet by 5 feet is small for an 00 gauge continues circuit. However being based on Scotland the small size worked well.

  

Cutting the corner of the baseboard at a 45 degree angle as on this layout does make it easier to move baseboards as well as visually looking more interesting than a right angle.

Smaller still were these briefcase layouts which if you cannot find a space at home for, you really are pushed for space!

If was not just briefcases but also this guitar case in which there was a sizeable layout in n gauge. Not sure where you are supposed to keep your guitar if you go down this route!

An interesting take on a box file layout with the main layout in the box and another on the underside of the lid. Remove the bridge and the box file can be closed and stored away!

Moving up from n gauge to 00 gauge Sutton Bank TMD showed that a layout can be built in this scale in about 3 feet by one.

Operationally it may be limited but to display a collection of locomotives it is a really nice and compact way of doing so.

Getting back to bigger layouts, Hornby Magazine were exhibiting their TT gauge layout. Not sure what to make of TT even after two years of it being about now. Nice layout though and certainly a lot smaller then if built in 00 gauge!

I will cover a few more of the layouts tomorrow but to end this post you just cannot beat Hornby Dublo three rail in a tail chaser format. Most of the models on the board are sixty plus years in age and still going strong.

Retail therapy after the show - well lets just say that Mrs. W exercised my wallet!

Point motor wiring.

After yesterdays excitement with the strimmer at the Rocks By Rail Museum it is back to more mundane things at WMD HQ with wiring point motors being the current job.

I had already mounted the point motor and its base to the baseboard but to make wiring easier it was going to be best to take it off again and wire it on the workbench. Before unscrewing the base I made life easier for myself by drawing around the base so that I knew its exact position when I came to remount it.

In my continued desire to make life easier I also determined which wire needed to go to what terminal on the point motor. The red wire, red being for 'straight ahead' was marked up on the motor as was the green wire using a small piece of masking tape and a pencil.

On the bench it was just a case of stripping back the sheaving from this triple wire which has red, green and black wires.

Then a quick dab with the soldering iron had the three wires, plus a loop of black wire to join the two poles of the solenoid on the one side of the motor, all soldered in place ready to go back on the layout.

Just another seven to go for this baseboard section!

Vegetaional butchery reveals - a litter bin!

There is always time for a chat at the Rocks By Rail Museum and in this case it is about further stripping down of steam locomotive 1391 with Richard, Gary and John either discussing how to get the safety valves off or has anyone seen Rob?

Well, it must have been about the safety valves!

AS with anything on a steam engine, it is all about big parts and big tools to get them off as John attaches a tube to the end of a spanner (or wrench for anyone across the Atlantic) to get more leverage..

Meanwhile I found the missing Rob who decided it was a good idea to lie under the loco. He said he was undoing some bolts but....

I think he had a snack in his latest workshop addition of this oversized plastic shopping bag for his tools.Good job Riley the dog was not about!

In the Exhibition Centre, John is continuing flatting the existing paint on Mr. D in readiness for a fresh coat. 

There is an awful lot of work there but John has the will to get it done.

It is the same with David, who is digging out the embankment in readiness to create a viewing platform using Gambian baskets - I need to show those once in place as a picture will explain far better than my ramblings! A lot of digging to go but he will get it done.

For me, it was another day of vegetational butchery, however with something different! This mightlook like a drum of cable for my Last Great Project model railway layout but it is actually a drum of nylon strimmer cable!

I had to put new cable into the strimmer drum so that I could use this exceptional vegetational butchery assistant!

Amongst other places where the strimmer did its business, I ventured into the bone yard where many exciting bits are hidden in the overgrowth.

After an hour or so the exciting bits, such as the litter bin were revealed!

Still a lot to cut back but it is interesting to find what is in there even if it is a litter bin!

Time to tidy!

There comes a time when you know that you are going to have to stop and have a clean up. Whilst I have argued in the past that some of the greatest artists in history have produced their best works in the chaos of a cluttered and untidy studio reminiscent of my man cave,  But, I have also admitted that I am no great artist or produce great work! However things were getting to the point where I was spending more time looking for things then actually doing things so time to tidy! 

An hour saw some bear workbench area being revealed and tools and materials back in places that I knew where they would be.

Meanwhile the wiring on the baseboard is progressing although much to do yet! Just need to keep the place tidy!

Extension pins!

I am eventually going to have motorised points on my Last Great Project layout which will avoid having to switch them with my fingers. All very high tech but it does mean a lot of work. The point motors are the Peco solenoid ones which have an actuating pin that attaches to the tie bar in the point. Apply electricity to the solenoid from one direction and the point moves one way, change the polarity of the electricity and it moves the other.

The Peco motors are designed to fit directly to the point but means you have a big hole in the baseboard which I am not keen on. It also makes changing the point motor, if it fails, very difficult. I therefore mount the motor to a plastic base that Peco makes for this purpose. The plastic base secures the motor and can be screwed to the underside of the baseboard. The only problem is that the actuating pin is then too short to attach to the tie bar of the point. Not a problem as you can lengthen the pin with some brass tube and steel wire which handily the WMD Stores had in stock.

Having measured it did not take too long to make the extension pieces.

It became a bit of a production line. Altogether, on this baseboard I need eigh point motors.

 

It was then onto mounting the plastic bases.

I just need to fix them to the baseboard and then wire them up. Not much to do then!

I must have been lucky!

Well it is back to more wiring on my Last Great Project layout and whilst I thought that I had already previously wired up all the track I discovered I still needed to add power feeds at each end of two points so that is another 12 wires to deal with!

I am using these handy multi wire joiners which I got from DMG Electech, where I can feed up to 24 wires into one unit and then just have two wires powering them. Very handy as it saves cable, saves time and actually makes things a bit neater.

I am also using these screw terminal plug and sockets that I used to know as choc blocks to make the baseboard to control panel (once that is built!) connection. These are again really useful.

Having temporarily connected the various track feed wires up I thought that it might, given my history with wiring, to actually test that it all worked. So I connected up a controller and had this DMU go through all the tracks. Miraculously it powered its way around all the track without a glitch - I must have been lucky! 

East Midlands Narrow Gauge Modellers Group show - some humour as well as a couple of other things!

Still at the East Midlands Narrow Gauge Modellers Group  show, there was some humour about.

What is this on a railway????

Of course it is Thomas the Tank Engine!

Then of course there is that famous locomotive, Mallard!

Followed of course by a duck egg!

Now what's coming?

Ah! It's the flying Scotsman!

There was a Christmas themed 'pizza' layout which was nice.

And then there was Santa having a summer break layout!

Then there was this fantastic 009 Deltic prototype loco on a small layout!

Back to sensibility but keeping it small this layout is the size of two A4 sheets of paper and folds in half - you really cannot say you don't have space for a layout!

Apart from meeting Steve from Steve's Narrow Gauge Adventure blog I also had the great pleasure to unexpectedly meet James and Dylan from Dylington Model Railway YouTube channel - click here to see that. Dylan is a young but very talanted modeller and also a very capable video maker with stop frame animation being something that he excels in. Have a look at his latest video to see why I say that.

Dylan also had his 'in progress' 009 layout on display as part of a Paul Lunn lecture on designing a layout . Whilst at an early stage you can see why this will be a great layout just from the skills demonstrated in building the various structures.

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If only I could build like that!