Wednesday 3rd April 2024

Worklist:

Welcome a visitor.

Play trains.

Test things out.

Carry out a few repairs.

Geoff had completed reworking the frame for the 2 new boards. A much better job. 

Chris Holmes has been a guest operator on Worton Court and Cottesmore West (he even had his own Cottesmore module and was part of the 65ft long display at the Sandown Model show!). He has agreed to assist us with the Salisbury Show and so a running session to learn the 'new' ropes made good sense.

The full layout was set up just before Chris arrived. After having a good look at the new boards, he was given a run-through of the new control panel, track section breaks and magnet positions. Stock was put out and we played trains.

Chris was asked to particularly look at shunting in Edwards yard. To do this, he needed to know the different stock moves, and was given 'this weeks' scenario:

Edwards is now considered to have two lines of production. Slabs/paving/architectural stonework and 'bespoke' goods - garden features/ornaments/headstones, etc. Stone slabs come from the quarry in 2 or 3 plank 4w wagons which are delivered to the front yard and shunted to the rear yard (a yard shunter is available). Vans or wagons with finished stone are brought up from the rear yard where they are shunted onto a waiting loco, or added to normal traffic. Bulk bespoke items are despatched from the rear yard or via the loading dock for local distribution. Residual stone 'waste' is despatched in 4w open wagons. Empty vans and wagons are returned to the front yard and then taken down to the rear yard.

Empty vans being returned.

One thing that a hidden magnet layout needs is good, unobtrusive clues about their locations and Chris's presence forced us to provide proper indicators. Normally, stones work well, or some clumps of grass, or a fence post etc.  There are two magnets in the photo below, which perplexed us, for a while. There is one magnet in the loading bay. Chris suggested a seagull on the edge of the canopy, directly over the magnet. There is also one on the road crossing the track where a pencil dot had been applied previously, but it was not easy to see when a train is over it.

After some thought, Geoff decided that the area is a likely place to drain the cylinders before starting off, so he added some rusty water drops/tracks, starting at the magnet centre.

It was a great session and we now look forward to the Salisbury show on May 18 &19th.