North of the border.

I had the pleasure of taking "Steam on the Cambrian" out to the Perth model railway club's exhibition last weekend.  I must admit I was a bit dubious about accepting the invitation because of the high milage and travelling time. It's a 6 hour minimum journey from "Dukedog Towers"!

However, i needn't have worried, the Perth guys really made us welcome, and the people north of the border are so friendly and willing to help.

This picture was taken from the balcony of the cafeteria and bar.

"Steam on the Cambrian" can be seen centre left in front of the restored Scammell and with the usual green drapes.
What I liked about this venue (The Dwear's Centre) was being able to drive the car right into the exhibition hall to unload and set up.
Same again with the knock down on the Sunday evening. A real blessing as the Scottish weather was doing it's best to form a lake outside!

This magnificently restored Scammell mechanical horse was on display immediately behind our layout.

80002 is a Bachmann 2-6-4T recently acquired from Ebay only a few days before this exhibition.
I managed to do a bit of work before the show so that I could run it for the first time.
I changed to couplings to screw links, added real coal, fire irons and lamps. I have given the loco a light weathering using paints and powders.





The layout performed well during the show apart from a big operating error on my part which saw my Dukedog fall off the turntable fiddle yard and hit the concrete floor! Initial inspection shows just a broken loco/tender coupling. Nothing that a drop of superglue won't fix!

While I was there I took the plunge and joined MERG (Model Electronics Railway Group), Well worth the membership fee for the access to their members only web pages and the kits that they produce.
More about MERG in another blog entry.

Cheers for now
Frank