It's not a model railway, it's toy trains...

At times I wonder if my portable layout is anywhere near good enough to be put on public display, even after one successful weekend a couple of years ago I still think it can be improved and there are better representations of vintage Hornby Dublo out there, with more running tracks, more going on, more action.

This was something that we debated at times during our recent weekend outing and, after some more convincing and another request to display, I guess there's something here worth seeing.

It's been commented that my layout, with its minimal scenery and stock whizzing round at totally unrealistic speed, is actually fairly faithful to the original table top design that Hornby had in mind. It's not a model railway, it's a toy train set - you take 'em out of their boxes, you chuck those to one side and you "rag it" as fast as it can go without flying off the track, and that seems to be the theme with every 3 rail layout I've ever come across. Warley, Ally Pally, everything runs at far beyond normal running speed and there's always something whizzing round.

A few commented that at recent exhibitions they'd seen folk struggling with DCC operated layouts. I know from bitter experience that if something fails then it can stop the entire layout, meaning rebooting everything sometimes multiple times and all the time you're doing that, nothing can be run! At least during our last public outing we kept something running throughout the entire weekend. This time if we need a break and want to cheat then we can fire up an EPB or two - these things can run for hours and due to their modern couplings they don't come undone, not something you can do with a rake of mail vans, Pullmans or even goods wagons - you can't turn your back on Dublo, not even for a few seconds!

Even I had to accept during our discussion that during our last public outing we attracted people of all ages - kids loved watching whatever was running, while the parents and grandparents, after explaining what they were looking at, would often just comment...

"I had one like that."

Pictures from 4th May weekend

Taken with a camera phone as I can't find my camera:

Rear sidings, 0-6-0 Diesel shunter at the head of a goods train with Crepello on the front of a rake of Pullman coaches.
The damage to the shunter still hasn't been repaired but coupled up in this fashion it was hard to see the missing chunk of bodywork and rear buffer.

Co-Bo heading the mail train.

Steam sidings and Diesel sidings in the  background. The Diesel sidings are a new addition as we added the new, wider base boards during the last maintenance session.

Impressive line up of steam, while the repainted Southern 4MT 2-6-4 rushes round the corner.
All of these locos worked!

Same view, the EMU is parked in the far siding taking a break.

The Bachmann DMU, by this time the two carriages had been cable tied together!

Another view of the Diesel sidings, viewed from the front of the layout.

Taken from the same spot, the switches control the points, signals and track isolation through the main station.

Better view of the switch panel, each track through the station has two isolated sections.

Goods train waits in the isolated section, it's parked behind a passenger service. There is another line immediately to the right which can't be seen here. The 2 EPB's also wait at the signal while the mail train goes for a spin.

Co-Bo approaching with the mail. (mailbag waiting on the hook)

Front view of the EPB from the track.

Two of the Four running rails through the station, green signal ahead.

Waiting for the mail train...

Other side of the main station, the rear of the green EPB on the left. The passenger service on the right is parked up with the goods train immediately behind it.

Twin EPB's wait for a green signal, priority still for the mail train.

Better view of the main station. There's a footbridge and level crossing to come...

Nice to have all the steam locos out.

Looks a bit sparse here but several of the Diesel locos were out on duty elsewhere on the layout. The Two A3 controllers on the right control the two running loops. All the track in the siding here is loose-laid.

Rear station. The line occupied by the Pullman can be accessed from either running rails via the points and crossover in the distance.

Pointwork and crossover at the end of the station.

Canadian Pacific - the most expensive item in my collection, was used very carefully throughout the weekend and performed well. Due to its cost and condition it doesn't get much use.

DMU, SR EMU & Pullman Express having a rest.

Can't see the damage to the shunter!

Same position, the shunter's been joined by the other goods train, the Pullman has been moved into the siding and the 0-6-0 has been just backed in the coaches to make the 10 car rake (which it couldn't pull)

Two Class 20 Bo-Bo's making light work of a 10 coach train.

The portable layout. 10ft x 16ft of toy train porn.

The rear station and sidings viewed from outside the layout with the Two Bo-Bo's flying through the station.

Successful weekend

2 days of successful running on the portable layout.

Two class 20s at speed hauling 10 tinplate coaches.

Everything worked apart from one pair of electric points which overheated, not sure why and didn't really cause any major issues.

Silver King proved to be a bit sticky so I'll so how it runs on the loft layout before I strip it down and the only other casualty was the SR EMU, which just stopped. Thankfully it was nothing more than a broken wire and was soon back up and running and sounding really smooth, one of the nicest runners of my entire collection.

I was also very pleased with the performance of both Bachmann EPBs, I took the decision not to take the CEP as I was concerned with siding space issues. The A3 controllers aren't great for these, singularly you have two speeds - off and fast but doubled up they were fine and considering that both have only just received their Marklin skates, I'm impressed that they never once derailed or stopped. Points and crossovers also not a problem.

Also ran the Bachmann DMU, the two cars kep separating so these ended up being cable tied together. These also suffered with excessive speed problems so weren't run for long. Once the other green DMU is 3 railed I will consider doubling these up if I decide to use them on the portable layout.

There was some debate as to whether we should run any new non-Dublo items on the display layout but agreed that a few examples of what can be achieved wouldn't hurt. They do run exceptionally well and the clickaty-clack sound on tinplate track is very authentic and needs to be heard!

Double heading worked pretty well but I found that the 2-6-4 tanks worked better when doubled up with an 0-6-2. This was the case with all 3 of the 2-6-4s.

Towards the end of the day I put 10 carriages behind 2 of the class 20 Bo-Bo's. whilst this doesn't sound too great an achievement it's worth bearing in mind that the tinplate coaches, as well as being quite heavy, also tend to offer a fair bit of rolling resistance even though the wheels were lubed on every coach. Some of the steam locos couldn't pull them but the two 20s with their new tyres managed this with ease and looked quite spectacular.

A quick lap with the green EPB

Fitted a new skate under the green EPB, so took it for a quick lap round the layout before boxing it up ready for the weekend run on the portable layout.

Excuse the mess, the layout is still very much work in progress.

The first 10 seconds of footage can be ignored, the train wasn't on the track properly.