Hi all.
Just an interim report. I will be putting up photos on my website in the near future.
Apart from suffering from sickness, I had a great weekend. So, negatives first.
o Evening before I had a complete dead length (three electrical sections) of track but was unable to find why. (Next morning it all
worked!)
o One loco motive went short circuit shortly before the end of the exhibition.
o I hit a deer about a mile before I got home which resulted in my front bumper disintegrating (could have been worse; last time I hit a sheep half the front of the car had to be rebuilt).
Now the good news.
o Apart from the dead loco everything ran to perfection except for some wagons that kept coming off the track - candidates for the lead treatment - before the exhibition opened. Mind you, I did have finger trouble occasionally, usually when engaged in conversation, which lead to a few collisions.
o The really good news was that I am the proud holder of the "Best Operating Model Railway Layout" cup. However, I think that was more by default that to my credit. Mind you (again!), I did keep trains running throughout the entire exhibition whenever there was someone present.
o I should add that my idea of having the control panel swing up over the layout using parliament hinges was so successful that I think I will go down that route permanently unless the scenery prevents it.
o I learned from one visitor that the BR61 (in 1935) had ABS to cope with the change in weight as its water was used up,
I'm far from being up to the Modelrail Scotland standard but hope to be able to attend other exhibitions in Scotland next year.
So, the next stage is to make a longer control pansel so that I can add the extra switches and buttons required to put in route selection and uncoupling as well as sorting out a few minor glitches. Also there is the dream of adding a second board.
Lessons learned:
o Take your own lighting.
o Avoid second hand curved points.
o Test out trains more thoroughly before use.
o Take something to allow the layout to be raised above normal table height and a step for kids to see.
o Take less stock.
o Put images on the front of storage boxes with picture of a) item that goes in that box or
how contents were backed.
Probably other lessons as well, but I forget them.
All the best everyone,
Chris.
PS. I am copying this to other forums, sorry.