Bridport & District Model Railway Club Exhibition

A one day show, we returned this year to defend our trophy, which we lost!

We settled for third place this year, which we're happy with - the best layout in the show was a deserving winner without doubt.

After a leisurely Friday evening setup. the one-day show passed very quickly and without any issues - no locomotive failures, no layout issues or track faults. The layout literally went together and ran perfectly!

As this is only a one day show we kept the stock to a sensible level - no long goods trains etc. The twin 8Fs performed well on the upper loop, if still a little slower than before but coped with the seven coach train and reverse curves. These worked in turn with twin 2-6-4 locos, 80104 & 80105. After some initial issues with the two locos separating, I discovered (by accident) that they actually ran better if run at full speed - no derailments, no uncoupling and while two locos to haul six coaches may be excessive, it looked pretty impressive!

No issues with the EMUs this time, the blue and blue & grey units spent some time working together to form a twelve coach rake, which again looked quite impressive. Five more Dorchester Gas & Coke wagons have been produced recently to form a ten wagon rake, all individually numbered.

Once more we were very well received and have further potential bookings for next year to keep us busy and before we knew it, it was time to pack down once again.

Next outing is only two weeks away, it is hoped that there will be a new arrival on the layout in time for Harmans Cross...

Inside an A3 controller

Ever wondered what goes on inside one of these?

This one was in the bottom of a box of Dublo spares that I acquired some time ago and the rivets had already been drilled out and replaced with nuts & bolts. It didn't work and the rubber cables were quite badly degraded, so time to take a peek inside and see what makes that delightful noise when you overload an A3!

There's a lot crammed in here!

Top left is the transformer. The incoming mains cable connects straight into the transformer coil.

The transformer has two coils, one feeds straight to the ac outlet on the back, the other goes through the rectifier (bottom, centre) and then into the regulator (bottom, right)

The coil on the top, right is the overload protection system and the source of the wonderful sound when it overloads.

Quite a simple design, when too much current builds up in the coil, it lifts the arm underneath. There are contacts below which open when the arm lifts, and this illuminates the warning lamp. When the power is cut, the current falls and the arm drops, closing the contact again.

Closer look at the rectifier, interference capacitor and power regulator...

And that's what goes on inside. This one has a faulty transformer - I applied 15v ac to the input of the rectifier and the regulator and overload operate as they should.

Potentially I could fit a replacement power supply and fit a mains cable with a moulded plug.

A future project to modernise the A3 maybe...

Somewhere, in a field in Dorset...

Another weekend away with the caravan in tow, another steam fair and another marquee!

This time we were at Chickerell Steam & Vintage show for our second marquee experience in a row. Lots of blocks required for the legs and plenty of fiddling about trying to level the layout. Eventually we got everything level enough to run and after a couple of minor gremlins, the layout settled into reasonably good reliability over the weekend.

This was a chance to run many of the restorations and additions that have arrived since the last outing. Newly rescued 48159 and recently refurbished 48158 paired up reasonably well and although a little sluggish at times, stayed together all weekend.

With one of the blue EMU sets now sold, I'm down to a six car set but the blue & grey unit now has another three car dummy. These spent some time running together as a twelve car rake - quite impressive!

Clan Line proved to be one of the strongest and fastest runners. The TPO coaches need some mechanical attention as many of the steam locos couldn't pull them.

Also, having recently sold my 80059, I've created my own version...

I now have N2 tanks numbered from 69563 to 69567 and all ran without fault. The two new castles - Corfe & Lulworth also appeared after some further tweaking to make them run properly.

The Hogwarts loco ran exceptionally well, sadly the coaches proved to be very temperamental, so more work required on the coaches.

A very successful weekend, the only hiccup being that the marquee had a hole in it, which was right above the layout. Thankfully only one rain shower and the blue & grey EMU, which got leaked on, was swiftly moved out of the way. No damage done to the layout or rolling stock.

Casualties were light this time, a couple of the other N2 tanks in need of servicing and a few new tyres required. Nothing major.