It's a long time since my last post, but I spent most of my time last year downsizing flats - although I kept my cellar, so did not have to downsize the layout.
Last weekend was the 25th Anniversary of our interest group "N'ler in Dreilandereck" (where Switzerland, Germany and France meet) and we celebrated by having a two day running session. I counted around 50 m of modules, with a running length of over 70 m. Here are a couple of pictures (sorry about the quality):
Here's Mallard running wrong line (engineering work further up the line?) with my Minitrix Gresleys. I don't know whether teak is too late for the early BR totem, but who cares! The model is a limited edition Modelbahn Union commission from Dapol and runs very well.
Here's a Farish J39 pulling Minitrix wagons. It did very well - over 20 without slipping. I also noticed that the vacuum pipes have not been fitted, so this is my next to-do.
J50 with part of my coal train - I was not sure how it would run with DG couplings as there were a lot of large gaps between the modules further up the line. It ran OK, especially after a couple of the wagons were treated with a magic teflon-containing oil.
Finally a D11 with the Gresley coaches. I built this around 30 years ago - it's a GEM kit on a Farish 2P chassis with front bogie from some German Minitrix loco - don't ask me which, it's a long time ago. This had not moved for five or more years but, surprisingly, ran very well. Due to my cackhandedness it always had very tight tender wheels which limited it's pulling power. At the weekend it had no problems with 6 coaches and with a bit of magic oil, who knows. One day I might get around to adding the name!