A couple of Parnhams photos from Wirksworth.

A small GEC battery electric waits outside the Malt Shovel. Has the driver gone to the pub?


One of the 3Fs comes bursting out of the South End bridge with a freight.

Little modelling since Wirksworth. I've rewheeled 1234 using the wheelset off the BR D20 and will try it out next week. My "spare" 2P is in the workshop for painting and detailing and, thanks to eBay there is another B17 on its way. This one is "Grimsby Town", which I think can run the milk from the same road as the express.

Home from Wirksworth

A good crowd on both days. "Parnhams" ran well today, with a temporary fix for the section that didn't work.

Trev's J11 has been fixed- I used the wheels and motor from my last J11 and played swaps. Oddly enough having exchanged mechanisms and driving wheels I ended up with two good ones.

I got some good photos this morning. Hopefully I can get them proc3essed tonight and get one posted in the near future.

Show weekend

Today was the first day of the Wirksworth show. Not a big show, but a friendly one. Plenty of layouts there, though no real blockbusters.

"Parnhams" has been running well apart from a dead section in road 8 of the fiddleyard- I think I've worked out a fix and hope Trevor has his soldering iron with him. We've had a lot of very positive comments and two more invitations to exhibitions. I don't know if there are any awards attached to the show, but here's hoping......

Of the locos Trev's J11 just doesn't want to run at all. I'm going to take a spare mechanism with me to see if that is the fault. I've had one failure of a UM- my G2 has split a gear and I've swapped the mechanism with a loco from the "yet to do" pile- that one can go back to UM for a repair.

Of the Farish mechanisms, the Jubilee has a broken drawbar and the L3 doesn't want to stay on the track. Apart from these everything is running well, though we need to keep on top of track and wheel cleaning.

weathering and repairs

Following yesterday's running session on Parnhams today was spent getting extra engines ready.

Trev's J11 and Q2 have had to have their power connectors re-done to improve their running, and I've been getting another D20 ready as 1234 is running rather oddly. This one is number 711.

I've also weathered my J27 65860, Trev's J11 and the two V2s for Graham Dean, 60807 and 60845. I found I had a smokebox plate transfer for the latter so it is completely renumbered.

This is Graham's 60845. I've been trying out the Tamiya weathering pastels. These locos are the first fruits.

Soak testing

Have spent the day round at Trevor's, setting up "Parnhams" fiddle yard with trains to create the standard load, and to make sure the layout works.

A full hour of delay while we traced a missing circuit, which turned out to be a wire that had come adrift inside a chocky block connector, then some delays due to a pair of fiddle yard points that wouldn't stay over, but eventually we got testing and fettling.

The afternoon did emphasise the need for a test track and wheel cleaner to be taken to shows. Not a major issue but one which we mustn't forget to act upon.

What we've ended up with is nine trains running clockwise with a light engine in the tenth slot, plus eight going anticlockwise with a light engine and brake in the ninth slot. the "missing" anticlockwise train is due to making a 27-wagon coal train, which is the longest that can fit into the central sidings in the fiddle yard. Since the clockwise circuit includes the passing loop that needs to have the extra train. Of the 17 trains ten are Trev's and seven mine, though I'll be providing more of the locos.

One thing we have decided is that in order to make the call-on system work effectively both trains in each road in the fiddle yard will have the same make (Union Mills, Farish etc) of loco on the front as far as possible. This means that the train being called forward will usually run at the same speed as the train in front of it.

Three more on the bench

Just started three more locos.

Trevor's 4F to go into LMS livery- it is left-hand drive so I'll need to find a suitable identity that isn't one of the 1940 batch.

My 3F to go to Crewe-style LMS colours

Another J26 for 1960 livery.

All I need to do now is find some appropriate numbers. I'll probably take the two LMS ones to Bingham to do tomorrow evening.

The pic is 64332, one of my Farndon Road locos, the first of the J11s in the fleet. Must do something about those bright rods........

Almost October

Not done much modelling at all in the last month .

Farndon Road got to the Grantham Rail show and ran- not as well as we had hoped but better than we had feared.

Post-mortem is this week but basically we have a few jobs to do.

In particular we need to sort out running through the fiddle yard in an anticlockwise direction- this will involve slewing the clockwise exit to give room to ease the entry curves, then move the callon controller (or remove it) and relay the anticlockwise exit. Still, we have about 6 months to the next outing, at Whatton.

More urgent is that Parnhams has its first outing at Wirksworth in three weeks time. That will need a soak test first as it has got to run more reliably than Farndon road- at least the wiring is a lot simpler.

This shows one end of Parnhams as it was a month ago.

On the loco front three tenders have arrived from Union Mills, and two of these have gone into use behind a J26 and a 3F (I had to borrow the 3F tender for a big swapround to get a J39 back into service). The J26 will be renumbered and go into BR black and I'm not sure yet about the 3F. I fancy doing it LMS with Crewe-style numbers but will need a photo of one like that first.

Simon has finished a J50 and an ex-North Staffs 0-6-2T, and I've put the finishing touches to a Turbomotive bought on eBay from Graham Smith, so these three should be ready for Wirksworth.

Still troubleshooting

It may be wired, but parts still don't work.

Some of the points in the yard aren't throwing- I think this will be a fault in the return circuit as it affects three points close together. In addition points 5 and 6 throw each other in one direction- that is just a bit of swapping needing to be done.

The biggset problem is that trains running Southbound stop at the first callon, but none of the buttons work. This is a fault affecting all so is either the supply to them or the return. If the latter a simple fix, but if it is the supply it has already been doubled up.

Its somewhere under this panel.......

Farndon Fiddle Yard wired!

At last the wiring of the Farndon Road fiddle yard was finished yesterday, and the whole layout has been erected on its new legs at its full 16' by 9'.

This is the fiddle yard, or rather three quarters of it.



Bingham Model Railway Club are taking us as members and FR will be exhibited under their banner.



On the right is one of the power boxes Trev and I built (he made and I wired) last year. All passed their PAT tests and all three have been tried out powering up the layout.

Next stage is troubleshooting. Some of the points at the South end of the fiddle yard are thrown from the wrong studs (an easy fix) and one or two don't throw at all. Then to get a train running right round the layout.

Only 4 weeks to its first exhibition!

Club night

Two and a half weeks since I last posted, but the summer holidays have started!

Finished Trev's J25 at last and got it back to him. Tonight at the club we got the fiddle yard points in a Southbound direction completely wired in, and made a start tracing what needs sorting out on the power front. The layout is now packed up and in three cars ready to go to Trev's for the legs to be attached.

On my own locos the J94 65860 is finished apart from a front lamp, the 2F and 7F have LMS transfers on the tenders and I've got numbers identified for them. the 4P tank and the D20 are being numbered.

Sunday again

Must try to get more done during the week. Been a hectic week at work, or at least that's my excuse. Also been a good week on eBay- I've picked up no fewer than SIX Union Mills locos in mint condition, and all below the cost of a new one. Another J11, a J26, a pair of J25s, a D20 and a 7F. The last is a type I've not got already. One of the J25s and the J26 will definitely go BR for "Farndon Road", The J11 and 7F will go into 1939 condition for "Parnhans". I've not decided yet about the other two.



In the meantime I've run out of transfers. The 4P tank only has lettering on one side and I've not enough LNER tender transfers for the queue of locos waiting. Time to put in an order. However I HAVE discovered I can do LNER boiler bands from the BR mixed traffic set, which simplifies those locos a bit.






Just for a change, a diseasel. This is a Knightwing (I think) resin body on a Minitrix chassis. Runs like a dream. It has had three exhibition outings so far- all on Trev's old "Parnhams Maltings" layout. Only problem with it is that the steps are resin and extremely fragile. The centre steps have gone from both sides, and the cab footstep on this side is a brass replacement. It is numbered 12011, and the lion on the other side faces front rather than back, showing a last repaint before British Railways got it in the neck from the College of Heralds. Must get round to some gentle weathering.

Sunday Again

Another couple of weeks gone, and a lot of work shifted but little modelling. Still, holidays in three weeks and then it is under "Farndon Road" for the best part of a fortnight to finish getting it working.

Currently on the work bench Trev's J25 now has its number, and my BR J27 is now 65860. Both await varnishing. A D11 is getting its boiler lining done and the D20 from eBay is waiting a new base coat of paint, having swapped its tender for a smaller one. This one's for "Parnhams" VIP train so will need to be lined out and clean. The D20 class included LNER 1234 and 2345, though not at the same time. This is a prewar one so can become 1234.

From Union Mills has come an LMS 2F. for Parnhams. Also being painted is a 4P tank (Fowler) which needs lining. Still, if not quite right plenty of these ran dirty.

Some coaches

The dreaded triplet dining car set- an old Cav'n'dish set bought at the N-Gauge Society AGM. At this time it was in two parts and had Farish BR bogies and some wheels missing. It has taken quite a while to get it this far- it is now sitting on NGS Gresley bogies. Some of the wheels are Farish pizza-cutters but will be exchanged for better ones when I can get hold of some (probably by cascading Farish ones from other coaches).

Still to do is to get the bits of underframe that dropped off replaced, replace a missing buffer or two, and put a corridoor connection between each car. Plus the important one of freeing up the articulation so that it follows curves, which it doesn't quite manage at present.






Another Gresley, a corridoor third. Again a Cav'n'dish model it has taken thirty years (yes, thirty) to get it built and running. The original Cav'n'dish bogies weren't exactly brilliant and fitting Rapido couplers to them proved a forlorn hope. As a result the coach and its partner spent over 20 years in the loft. Now fitted with NGS bogies (currently with pizza-cutter Farish wheels at present) and finally in service. A small amount of touching up still to do.

The track by the way is Tomix. Cheaper than Fleischmann and very good for a table-top test track or display purposes.

Over a month!

I can't believe I've had no time to write for over a month, though thinking back I've been away in Manchester for four days and then marking solidly for three weeks.

Time to get back to some modelling!

The N-gauge Society AGM came and went, and Trev and I operated Parnhams Maltings for the last time. Of course, being an exhibition, some things didn't work, but overall we kept it going and Trev had one possible buyer for it.

I've been investigating a sound system for the new Parnhams and have paid a deposit on one. More as it materialises. Meanwhile I've sourced an MP3 player and some countryside noises- about 25 minutes of them- to form the backing track.

Modelling wise, nothing yet to photograph but two 4-4-0s bought on eBay (a 2P and a D20) and a Gresley triplet dining car set. The triplet is on the dining room table at the moment waiting finishing. Pics when done.

Where did the week go?

No railway club on Wednesday, no rehearsal on Thursday, so what happened to the week? Not a lot really, apart from work I seem to have slept through most of it.

Anyway, Sunday again and I seem to have missed a few days- though I did get over to Hucknall to the model shop yesterday. Bought some of the new Oxford cars and cleaned them out of Peco 5-plank wagon kits again.

i can recommend them- very friedly and helpful. TOTAL N-GAUGE, Hucknall. They advertise in the Toddler.

Introducing Lil

Jersey Lily

This is Jersey Lily- a Great Central Atlantic 4-4-2. Professionally built, it came from the estate of a deceased member of Lincoln Model Railway Club. Lily is temperamental. The connecting rods seem not to have enough to hold them in position. She may have to be sent away for fettling, though I don't quite know how.

Rather a beautiful thing, unfortunately she is the wrong colour. The lettering is post-1928, when the prototypes were painted black with red lining. Still, she looks good.

Productive Tuesday

Good day today for modelling, just like yesterday wasn't. The whole of Monday seemed to be taken up with those eleven exam papers- as they were practice ones I ended up writing the correct answers on the papers, and adding in other answers the students could have thought of. Definitely a mistake as it took me almost as long to mark each one as it took them to do the exam.

Still, one of them actually thanked me today- that is a rarity these days.

I've had the North end of "Farndon Road"'s fiddle yard upside down on top of my test track since last wednesday, to finish wiring in the control panel. All I managed over the weekend was to get the power supply from the call-on system to the panel (eleven soldered joints) and find out why the points wouldn't throw last wednesday- that turned out to be a duff lead. This evening I managed to wire in the point controls for the entry points (28 soldered joints) so I'm feeling a bit more relaxed about finishing the wiring in time for the layout's first show.

Not only that but I've got my LNER J25 and second J27 finished ready for use on Parnhams. Not only that but the crew in the J27 cab didn't have to be chased all round the cab before sticking - AND they stuck where I wanted them to. Impressive!

Weekend wonders

Saturday morning spent as predicted at Whatton. The layout didn't take as much wiring as needed, except that a silly fault needed a silly solution to make it work- wiring a switch into the return rather than the feed- someone will have an interesting time when they find it after Trev sells the layout.

It was also Bingham Model railway Club's exhibition, at Whatton. We walked over to the hall and had a look round. Only one member's layout- the club layouts were all destroyed in a fire a few months ago- but a good selection of privately owned layouts, most of which I've not seen before. Club chairman seemed surprised that Trev already has an invite to Warley this year with the new layout "Parnhams".

Got home to find a formal invite to exhibit at Taunton Rail-ex in October 2010. This will be an outing for "Parnhams" as "Farndon Road" can't travel that distance for another three years.

Happy Friday

Another week of work over and a long weekend to follow. A group of exam papers to mark, and going to Trev's tomorrow to help him get his old layout ready for sale. I'll take his J11 (6009) across with me, and no doubt pick up another loco for doing.


6009 in all its glory.

Thursday already

I think the word for it is knackered. That's the trouble with work- it gets in the way of the interesting stuff. Little modelling achieved in the last 3 days. Club night was last night and we got three boards running together for the first time from the permanent controllers- that will be a rush to finish for exhibition in September.

On the small engines front the J11 (6009) has a new set of transfers on the tender side and looks better, while I got 4 locos coaled this evening before starting to type up a set of minutes- more yawns....

Another pair I did earlier

This one was done at the same time as the J27 2350. This might look the same but it is a J26. How do you tell them apart? This one has circular cab spectacles (front windows). The J27 has shaped spectacles. The bad news is that 22 of the J26 class had their cab spectacles replaced in the twenties after crews complained the view forwards wasn't good enough.


One J26 was transferred with the J27s to East Anglia, so would be a useful Grantham engine in 1939. It was 379, which had shaped cab spectacles. 416 kept round ones, so is right for the loco but wrong for the layout it is to run on. Tough!

Another Union Mills model, this one came with an enormous tender, which has been replaced with a smaller one. Improvements so far are the same as on 2350.

5256 is a J11, a Great Central loco. This particular one was allocated to Retford and could well have been sub-shedded at Newark, so is quite appropriate. This is another Union Mills model. This one has had a rear stanchion added to the cab, with the other modifications done to the others.

All three are yet to be weathered.

Another day gone with the only modelling done being a fresh coat of paint onto the three tender sides I had to strip yesterday.

Bed time, trying evening. Cat wants to play trains by sitting on my knee and moulting all over them, and three tender sides have had to be stripped back to bare metal as the varnish lifted the corners of the transfers.

Here's one I "made" earlier

This one is a Union Mills model of a J27 class 0-6-0, originally built for the North Eastern Railway. The LNER in their wisdom transferred a small number into East Anglia, including this one. By 1939 they were all at Grantham. 2350 has had a partial repaint, a crew and coal added and been given cab glazing and a headlamp.

Today's group includes its partner 2389.

Sunday Funday???

Half past eight on Sunday, where did the last 24 hours go? Lawns needed mowing (at least it stayed fine) and some homeworks to set and mark (yawn).

Meantime the little group of engines got nearer to finished. What are they?- a group of goods engines in N-gauge being painted into correct LNER or LMS colours for 1938-9, and given numbers that correspond with locos used in the Notts/Leicestershire area if at all possible.

First attempt at a blog

Just sitting down after spending an afternoon lettering model locomotives- seems strange, but if you want your locos on an exhibition layout to be different to everyone else's that is one part of doing it.

I'll try and get a picture or two up tomorrow.