Weymouth MRA - All done!

Just two weeks since the last exhibition and we found ourselves back in familiar surroundings - our home club exhibition.

The layout made its first appearance here twelve months ago today. Since then it's undergone several modifications to improve reliability and more stock has appeared!

After a rather rushed Saturday morning setup, we omitted to test the turntable sidings, which we really should have done as this was the only part of the layout that gave problems and was only discovered a few minutes after the doors opened and we found ourselves with a rather large crowd of people along the entire front of the layout. Thankfully after things quietened down, I was able to locate the source of the problem, which was caused by the same section of track as before. It may be necessary to replace this section if it gives further problems but after the initial tweaks, the layout settled down well.

Faults in the track around the turntable and run-around are particularly difficult to trace due to the fact that this section is controlled by a walkabout controller and has no ammeter, therefore faults are not so easy to spot, or remedy. I may need to investigate the feasibility of adding another ammeter!

Several of the inner sidings of the fiddle yard have been difficult to operate and by the end of the weekend I'd successfully repaired two of them, leaving just the innermost siding needing attention as it fails to isolate properly. The source of the problem has been located and a repair will be attempted on the next exhibition. For now though it works fine as a carriage siding!

For this weekend I ran the newly-modified green EMU in two car formation on the shuttle. This worked reasonably well until early on Sunday when the ammeter needle began approaching 1 Amp. Not good. Thankfully and after a quick strip-down, the problem was being caused by carbon build-up between the commutator segments of the armature. A quick clean with a knife and clean up of the commutator itself and the EMU then returned to faultless operation, looking quite at home on the shuttle track.

Also for the first time ever this weekend, I swapped trains around on the shuttle, utilising the shuttle siding for the first time. This meant not having the breakdown crane on display and for this weekend it remained in its box. A simple change-around system, involving sending one train up to the main station, switching off the shuttle control and then shunting to and from the shuttle siding turned this into quite an easy operation.

I've also gained another Bristol Castle for restoration, a gift from one of the attendees today who saw us advertised and thought I could make use of it. Cursory inspection shows a wire off, missing brush spring and the motor isn't engaging with the gear worm. It'll also need respraying but the paint I already have for the other Castle, which I obtained as part of a job-lot of scrappers (see the Scrapheap challenge posts)

All too soon it was all done & dusted. After overcoming the initial gremlins the layout performed the best it ever has - the recent modification work was definitely worthwhile!

Just two more weeks and we're out yet again, next stop Southampton...

Some pictures (no video this time!) from the weekend:

I produced two more bespoke wagons featuring the WMRA club logo.

Syward Junction looking busy!

The blue EMU received much praise, even from HRCA members!

The green EMU, reduced to two-car operation, running nicely with its rotated chassis.

Both EMUs waiting at Syward Junction

And again!

All four A4 locos saw extended service, along with Duchess of Montrose, covering the absence of Duchess of Atholl, which still awaits repairs.

Managed to park the Blue EMU parallel with the green one for this shot!

Waiting at Brough for the EMU to arrive!

Twin home-made refurbs double-heading on the upper loop on Saturday. For Sunday we replaced these with 80104 & 80105

Sir Nigel Gresley and Golden Fleece. Golden Fleece had suffered issues with derailing over points, the problem was found to be that the pickup assembly was twisted!

Sir Nigel Gresley & Gresley teak coaches, Golden Fleece on the mail train.

The Blue EMU, my current favourite item of rolling stock (you may have noticed!!!)