It's Christmas!

Had a lovely day with the family (after a busy few days of preparation). A couple of particularly nice presents: a footplate experience at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum waterworks railway (thanks love!), and a copy of 'The Engine Driver's Manual' by Brian Topping, which looks an excellent read!

I hope to get some stock kit(s?) built up over the holiday, watch this space...

Hunslets @ Stoneleigh

Looks like next years' 16mm association National Show at Stoneleigh (April 10th) will be a 'must-visit'!

"The Association is proud to announce a very special visitor at the 2010 show - a full sized quarry Hunslet! The locomotive's identity will be revealed in due course and will be the centrepiece of a display celebrating the fascinating history of this historic locomotive builder. We want to make this history come alive by running as many 16mm scale Hunslets as we can throughout the day on the 'Jack Lane' layout, which will be located near the full size Hunslet. Our target is to see 100 16mm scale Hunslets throughout the day to make a grand total of 101. The significance of 101 will become clearer soon"

Hmmmmm - Hunslets! :-)

Braving the elements at Eastleigh

Fed up with being stuck inside yesterday, decided to brave the elements & visit Eastleigh Lakeside Railway with the lad. Fortunately it stopped raining for about 20 minutes, and they have some enclosed passenger stock, so we made a circuit without getting drenched or too windswept. We were hauled by their Coronation Scot, which was giving plenty of amospheric steam effects in the cold!

Whilst there, I picked up the latest edition of Miniature Railway magazine, which has a nice feature on the regularly visited Luscombe Valley (see previous posts!)

Kew Live Steam Model Railway Show 2009 - The Video

Here's a video of my favourite stuff at the Kew Live Steam Model Railway Show 2009:

Kew 2009

Made it up to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum Live Steam Model Railway Show today, and very enjoyable it was too. Whilst there weren't quite as many exhibitors and I recall in previous years (marquee seemed a bit empty?), all those present were excellent. Brian Caton's Isle of Man layout was fantastic, and nice varied 16mm running on layouts from Kew, Guildford & Bedfordshire. I bought a laser cut matchboard brake/3rd 4 wheel coach kit from Brandbright; the detail / price ratio was irresistable! Should be a nice project for winter evenings when the missus is out!
The only downside seemd to be I missed most of the Kew rotatative engines running; only saw the Easton & Amos, & Dancer's End in steam. Sadly the Hathorn Davey Triple wasn't running at all - I always love the sound & rhythm of that one running!
Nice to see the new 'Wren' loco Thomas Wickstead in steam; I could watch that Hackworth valve gear all day! (and I can neither confirm or deny any runors that I put my name down for a Wrightscale Wren, although with a 2 year waiting list I figure I have some time to develop a 'funding model'). Video to follow...

Exeter 2009

Got a pass out to got to the Exeter Garden Railway Show yesterday. The show was very enjoyable, with a good set of layouts. Traders seemed a litte thiner on the ground though?

Here's a video of my favourite exhibits at the show:

MSS upgrades

Not much garden railway action lately, what with new arrivals, typically mixed British summer weather, and a resurgence in my other hobby, playing the drums!

Anyway, decided to finally get the MSS sorted out, and ordered a steel wheel set from Dream Steam, as the quartering on the old ones was very sloppy. I fitted them today, and it seems to have sorted things out, with a good steam, first on blocks and then running light on the circuit.



Not really sure I should call it an MSS anymore, as it has had an uprated safety valve, meths burner, lubricator, regulator, centre-buffer buffer beams, hand rails & now wheels (which all in all must have cost about as much as the loco did in the first place; not uncommon to get a reliably running one!). Anyway, she seems in good fettle now, and I expect she will improve with some more running - here's hoping for some good bank holiday weather...