A little more progress

The shed is now painted and carpeted, and the benching has been installed. I've even got the test track temporarily on the long bench. Power lead along the top of the bench is to save cutting holes in it.

Oh- and the alarm is now active- just the windowshield still to do.

Progress

The workshop arrived late- least said about the performance of Shires Garden Buildings the better- suffice to say they didn't cover themselves with glory.

Since when the building has had three exterior coats of the nearest to North Eastern Region tangerine I could find (Autumn Gold) and has been christened Oompa-Loompa Land as under the trees with its orange and green foliage above and two windows like eyes it looks like a giant Oompa-Loompa, or so I'm told.

Next stage was to get it lined out and the electrics in- seven pairs of double sockets and strip lights along the top. Now it is close to painted and the benching will be fixed in place on Saturday 1st October. Carpeting has been ordered.

Planning

With a lot of work mainly by Simon the base for the shed is laid and it is being delivered on Friday.

Planning for the new layout has begun. Location is the Durham Coast line, not one covered very often. I'm now trying to find out what dolomite traffic there was in the Easington area- Teesside got a lot from Thrislington which travelled in covered hoppers via Stockton. However there were two other quarries actually on the Coast line. Did their stone come South to Hartlepool or go North to Sunderland?

Two more months- then progress.

At last- progress to report.

After a busy couple of months marking exams on line- plenty of unrepeatable howlers to keep me awake- it is time to get some progress made on the railway.

First progress- the Dapol Hall has arrived. This will look good on Parnhams in September pulling the Inter-Company train, despite the fact the GWR didn't have running powers to the vale of Belvoir.

Second progress- the car has been changed. now with a Grand C4 Picasso I've room at last to cart a railway around the country.

Third progress- the railway shed has been ordered for delivery later in August. A 16 X 10 foot railway room all of my own. That should take a workbench and enough room for a 12' X 2'6" exhibition layout to be made. Next stage is to plan it out......

Idiot Software

I've just spent a very frustrating half-hour trying to publish that last post. On my desktop machine since I updated Internet Explorer there are certain buttons that just don't work no matter how many times you push them. Microsoft at its best, no doubt. Every update seems to add new bugs. Very frustrating!

Thank heavens for backup laptops.

June already?

I always thought that retirement meant more time to keep up with the hobby. WRONG!

Cotgrave show went well, though didn't get enough people through the door. We must do better next year. One thing that has come out of it is that the N-gauge Society AGM is to be there next year.

On the railway front I've been looking at what I need in the way of stock and getting rid of some to fund their replacements. basically I need three groups of stock- for Farndon Road (Eastern Region- about 50 locos in all), For Parnhams and Seldomseen (the new one when I get it started)- about 20-25 locos LNER mainly but some LMS until Trev sells Parnhams off, and for the small German layout, provisionally called Gundelfingen- unless there actually WAS a railway there!.

More later- Gundelfingen will start later in the year when I get the shed up and running, and Seldomseen will follow it.

Cotgrave Show

Setting up today for Cotgrave show. I've just collected a long wheelbase van and put an inordinate amount of diesel into it. Breakfast next then off to Kirton to pick up "Holcome Brook", then back to Newark to pick up "Armathwaite". Then off to Cotgrave to arrive by about 2.30 with a little bit of luck.

Hopefully we've sorted the electrical problem on Parnhams and won't need to double up the B17s again.

Free at last

-- or at least getting cheaper by the day? Finally reached the end of term and early retirement. Next job is to get my strength back and tackle a backlog of UFOs (unfinished objects) on the shelf above the computer. Stocklist is shrinking at the moment- I'm getting rid of a few LNER pacifics and other types so the survivors can all get into the stock boxes.

better than a B17...

Parnhams at Nottingham had an electrical fault develop over the weekend- nothing serious but we couldn't run two trains out of siding six. This meant combining them to make an 11-coach mega express hauled by a pair of B17s (one alone couldonly just manage seven as the exhibition floor wasn't quite level). Looked very impressive

End of March already...

More work and not enough railway modelling, same old story. Nottingham exhibition has been and gone. Successful weekend except that we had a high casualty rate. Alberta has done another stand-in stint, not bad for a 30-year old Peco loco. Parnhams got a good crowd all weekend. A lot of people also took away with them fliers for the Bingham show at Cotgrave on 30th April and 1st May. Cotgrave will be without Farndon Road unfortunately- more technical problems mean Parnhams will have to substitute. Never mind, there's always next year. In the mean time I'm going to upgrade as many of my FR locos as I can afford to do. The WD has gone- though the Royal Mail took sixteen days to deliver a first-class packet AND delivered it at 6pm on a Friday evening!!!! One A1 (the one needing a repair has gone, with the Grafar-chassised one to follow (Abbotsford). Two A3s so far with a third up for auction, and one A4 with one waiting. I've also sold a spare 04 diesel (three are too many) and from the Parnhams fleet a director, a J39 and the N7 are going shortly, together with Trafalgar when fixed. Replacements will be fewer in number and better in quality.

Yet another half-term

Little modelling done as I've been up to my neck in work. Still at the clubroom work on Farndon Road has progressed with the first two boards wired apart from the rear yard, and successfully tested.

At home 61005 has been part-weathered. Next job here is to run the colour in a bit further and matt varnish.

Also I've got enough of the resin tender top for an A3/A4 ground out for it to actually sit on the Farish chassis. Still a slight crack to repair then weather properly- the grot on it at the moment is resin dust.

Attached to 60016 as Silver King was a Gateshead engine and always had a non-corridoor tender. Not yet sure how much to weather it yet.

Almost February

Yet again four weeks since filling in what's been going on. On the positive side we've got the main line running with points working across the Station and Maltings boards on Farndon Road. On the negative side I'm going to have to replace the switch on the bay platform for a full DPDT switch as the idea I had of switching it didn't work. Still it is a small price to pay.

We've decided not to wire up the yard just yet as the main line needs finishing first, and the fiddle yard still needs two days work doing. Pic shows Sayajirao arriving in the Northbound platform with a parcels train.

January again

Another month, another load of excuses. Actually, it has been fairly busy with two daytime sessions on Farndon Road and another trip to Wendy's. This time D9555 has arrived and is now running sweetly on the test track. The picture is one I took of the real thing at Burradon in about 1974.

FR's control panel is on the dining room table having a whole set of new return wires added to avoid crossovers from one controller to the other causing short circuits.