Harmans Cross was the location of this little exhibition, right next to the halt on the Swanage Railway. The first time a model railway exhibition has been held here and a great location - Harmans Cross station has a passing loop so with the railway operating its busy summer timetable there was plenty of steam, smell & noise, a great backdrop for a model railway exhibition!
A reasonably easy setup, here four of the boards are assembled and the 37pin connectors are still working perfectly to interconnect the boards without using additional cabling.
The list of exhibition badges is growing along the front of the layout!
Following on from the first successful batch of Dorchester Gas & Coke wagons, I have produced five more wagons from scrappers. These have turned out much better than the original five, so these will shortly be re-worked using self adhesive vinyl rather than sticky paper.
The Castles were produced with this show in mind, however I don't think anyone spotted them!
For the first day, I spent a lot of time double-heading. Here 80104 & 80105 haul a long SR train.
We then exchanged these for two 0-6-2s, plenty to choose from now but 69566 & 69565 ran the best together.
Corfe Castle was down on power, it was produced before the magnetiser arrived and struggled on its own, so the modified front bogie was borrowed from Bristol Castle and Lulworth Castle was sent to assist!
Deltics St Paddy & Royal Scots Grey hauling the goods train.
Recent refurbs 48158 & 48159 paired up as usual.
Busy station as the goods train crawls through. 0-6-2 tank 2274 hauls the three maroon refurbed coaches (see previous posts)
Turning a Castle.
Canadian Pacific also made an appearance, not just on the turntable.
The usual EMU combinations - Brighton Belle, blue EMU and Blue & Grey EMU wait in the fiddle yard alongside the goods train.
Hogwarts Castle continues to run well, although in three coach formation as the fourth coach still has running issues.
After lots of double-heading, single Co-Bo takes over the goods train.
The Bachmann Class 105 DMU worked with the GWR Railcar and Hornby Bubble Car as usual. My electronic shuttle program works really well.
Three Castles - Lulworth & Corfe on the coal wagons and Dorchester on the TPO.
A very successful show from our point of view and a higher than average number of requests to exhibit elsewhere. We now have a break until October and only two more shows scheduled for this year!
After returning from Bridport with no casualties two weeks ago, this time we weren't so lucky - Clan Line, one of the most recent additions, suffered a burn-out, most likely the armature has failed as I didn't spot it in time. The turntable also gave up on the second day. This time the fault appears to be motor related and may not be particularly easy to repair.
If only there was a way to motorise a Hornby Dublo version...
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