The LNER Encyclopedia

A splendid pair of beasties and now a very tasty rake...

As others have said, beautiful pair of coaches!

Thanks for bringing them today Graeme, they looked very nice in the flesh, and thanks
to Vernon who kindly lent us his demonstrators table for looking at them and cutting out the frosted glass.

I don't know where those seven weeks since my last update went, but they obviously went somewhere.
Anyway, with a spare bedroom re-decorated in dazzling white somewhere along the way too, I have at last completed the laying and adjusting of most of the track on the "to be" main scenic section of my current project, painted the rails rusty, ballasted it, wired it up (no reliance on fishplates for electrical connection) and tested it with both a variety of locos and some sensitive six-wheeled coaches for good measure. That signal box is in place simply because it is one that I had.

A LONG way to go to completion I feel...

I'm delighted to hear that the 'Daz' approach resulted in a dazzling finish.

A layout update to bore you all seems to be well overdue...

The temporarily supported flat rectangular baseboard tops were extracted from the loft and cut (outdoors), in accordance with prior plans, to a curved shape largely following the prevailing curved theme of the track. My main intention is to model a railway as opposed to a load of countryside. A suggestion I picked up years ago was then implemented. Much of the underside of the boards was painted white, and a (reversed) copy of the track layout marked out, so that in future the question of which wires connect to which rails will be answered at a glance in crystal clear terms. Colour coded wiring and notes on the resultant full-size track wiring diagram should further aid long-term recognition and fault finding. As the view above also reveals, supporting framework was added too (staying clear of places where point/signal operating mechanisms would have to be - again made clear by the visible track plan), along with some temporary legs. Further cutting, gluing, pinning and screwing then led to the creation of the areas below track level alongside those parts of the line that are to be on an embankment. I could have made a much better job of planning for the embankment at a much earlier stage, but it was a late decision to definitely include that particular feature. The baseboards were then allowed to temporarily reside in our lounge giving good access for further development work and test running. In due course a temporary extra board was added at one end to provide three feeder tracks for test running purposes, the previously made simply mimic diagram with section switches was added, along with a faithful old basic H&M Clipper controller, and a few local modellers were invited along to ask searching questions and to make any important criticisms and suggestions. After some further trimming of the width of the top of the embankment, double-thickness corrugated card was also used to create the basic form of the sloping sides. A mock-up of the general form of the station platforms has been added too, both to test clearances and (to a surprising extent) clarifying my mental impression of (and plans for) various features of the final station plan. The footprint of the intended station building has been marked in, roughly in the right place.

Beneath the boards I've now added, for most of the points, a gloriously un-fashionable, basic, cheap method of control. Nothing more than a push-or-pull dowel threaded through an offcut of batten, with a piece of stiff wire threaded through the hole in the point tie-bar and into a hole drilled in the end of the wood offcut. We'll have no un-necessary, fancy, complicated, vulnerable, expensive electronics here! Although the ends of the dowels project through the baseboard frames to form a rudimentary operating knob, they are shielded from damage or accidental disturbance (to some extent at least) because the framing is inset from the edges of the board tops, allowing the dowel ends to sit just below and within those top edges. Bringing the report right up to date, here's a view of the boards with the embankments slightly more developed - no more so far than a couple of layers of thin card and brown paper covering and slightly blending the joints, followed by a single coat of green paint slapped on to give some indication of the way things may look when the grassy areas eventually receive some grass.

Looking good Mr King, I'll have to pop up to Grimsby again to have a catch up

See u at the weekend

I'll expect you Brian. I've started to slowly remember, and gather together, the things I want or need to take to the NEC. It takes time and thought when one has not done a resin demo for three years nor had any involvement at all in "exhibiting" since January 2020, and therefore no longer maintains a box or bag of standard items that suit regular weekends away at shows.

You're not alone in that. I still expect to arrive and then have to go and buy something essential which is still sitting at home awaiting packing.

I'm now more or less organised for the resin demo at the NEC this weekend, and if the lingering effects of the cold I started with three weeks ago don't hinder me too much I may be able to make a half-decent job of the demonstration, and of answering questions. I have a display of items at the ready, so at least there will be something for visitors to see if my powers begin to ebb!
Those "in the know" regarding my 2019 performance may be pleased to know that I have not forgotten the infamous Georgian-style butler tray...

Looking forward to the Fondant Fancies and crust-off cucumber sandwiches already.

In cast resin form? Provide the masters and I'll have a go...

More dreadful than the comfy chair...