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.