Quick as a flash - the two day exhibition was over!
We were very well received, lots of nice comments and about five offers to show at other exhibitions next year, which I'll consider.
As for casualties, after two weekends of solid running back-to-back I expected some failures - Dorchester needed some lubrication after one of the axles seized up. My original 8F 48158 refused to double-head with the other 8F, despite working perfectly the previous weekend, this was found to be caused by a dry motor bearing. Again a quick lube and off they went together again.
Duchess of Sutherland made only a few laps of the layout before expiring having shed its connecting rod on one side. Worryingly the rod pins are still attached to the wheels and refuse to budge, this is the only non-runner of the weekend, however there was plenty of stock to run.
We'd already worked out from the previous weekend which rolling stock suited which tracks and kept all four tracks running for most of the time all weekend - not a bad achievement considering the age of the rolling stock and the track.
The shuttle loop, manned by 0-6-2 and 2-6-4 tank engines with a single coach each, ran faultlessly, if a little too fast, all weekend. This hopefully will be resolved by upgrading the old H&M Duette controllers. More to follow on that little project.
As for the layout itself, well it performed really well - no major work required but some simplifying will be done by removing a set of double points between the main loop and shuttle. When I originally designed the layout, the shuttle was a bit of an afterthought and having now spent so much time and effort getting it to work, the platform dedicated to the shuttle in the main station will never see use like it did on the previous layout, it'll be the permanent stop for the shuttle trains so there will be no need to send trains from the main lines into the shuttle. The points at the end, hidden in the tunnel will remain so that trains can still travel to and from the shuttle, they will just have to reverse instead! However after completing four days of running, this option was never explored and the shuttle was left alone.
More pictures...
The fiddle yard, with most of the sidings in use, while Cardiff Castle and the working 8F haul the brick wagons.
Viewed from the village terminus of "Brough" the 0-6-2 and single coach have departed to the main station, Brighton Belle is in the distance.
Brighton Belle trundles along the outer loop while the red LMS (Wrenn body) 2-6-4 waits in the main station.
Another 0-6-2, Green LNER tank hauls a rake of Southern coaches.
(Purists and rivet counters look away please!)
The main station, with buildings illuminated.
Better view of the front with a triple-head of Deltics hauling the goods train.
Video of the weekend is here, at 18 minutes it's a bit long and possibly boring for some but there's plenty of variety, sadly the video quality isn't that good due to the .mod files not being Windows 8 compatible, my iphone was jammed full of photos and I had to convert the files to make them work.
Enjoy!
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