Giga post

Hi,

Lots of things have been happening, so here's a mega update. Firstly a good friend of my Dad allowed us to borrow his rolling bars and today we set about rolling the roofs of every carriage, planned carriage and loco roof I could find. I counted them later - 59 separate bits of brass! This is a massive step forward and, with the pre-cut strips from metalsmith too I have saved loads of time here.


As I alluded to in the last post, I am starting out on a project (with guidance from Rob Waller) to scratchbuild some Ffestiniog carriages from plasticard evergreen strip. Today at the Leamington model show I picked up some strips of the necessary sizes. I also found myself a compass cutter and some plastic weld (which could well be better than the mek pak I have used up to now). Game on.

So, the Leamington show then. I picked up a flyer a while ago from a local model railway shop. It had a map on the back of it, but frankly it was useless other than to tell you the approximate location - it didn't even tell you which junction on the A46 you needed (there are multiple junctions for Kenilworth/Lemaington! Looking at a road map, we headed for the National Agricultural centre (which had decent signage to it). Once in the site there was a bit of signage showing you where to park within the huge site, but we then struggled to find the entrance to the hall. A bit more thought would help here for those who are not used to the local area.

The entry price was a bit steep I thought (£5) and the secondhand stall was really disappointing - secondhand prices at close to the normal price of a kit new! Why risk second hand? Maybe that's ebay's fault - pushing up secondhand values?

On the narrow gauge front, the wonderful Fallgate was there (images below). This was its last show at the hands of its creator and it will be for sale in the next 009 news. A price of about £1,100 (stock is included and valaued at £700 which won't be separated from the layout) was noted. A super little layout if you can afford that kind of wonga in these 'crunched' times.

Trade support was good - squires, modelex, green scene, rural railways, castle trains, classic train and motor bus, C+L finescale, books, DVDs etc etc Other layouts were generally good, Hungerford stood out.

Back at home, the wendy house has had its sills added and has been put together into a basic 'box'. This gave me the opportunity to take some shots of the layout fully erected (even including the triangular piece) and with some new features added. I have also completed the ramp at the far end of the platform and painted it.

I also trial fitted the Beddgelert end tank. The bases didn't look right and now, having looked at photos of the real thing, I find that the bases are much slimmer than they are shown to be on the CAD drawings. So, the actual as-built on the ground is very different to the plans I have - oh well. I'll have to take a saw to them (ensuring that the legs of the water ower are central on the bases and then reballast around them.

Colin