Back, sort of!

After an enforced break I'm back in the world of Trains, Boats and Planes! I was given a case from a DJ Hero Renegade device, (a controller for PS3 to play a DJ game, not unlike the Guitar Hero games).
As soon as I saw the case I thought, "This is perfect for a small portable railway" I'd always wanted to make a railway in a suitcase, here was the perfect chance! I just realised that this was never posted, and it remained a draft all this time! I have started to put 09 inot it, that is 7mm/ft scale running on 9mm track, representing 15 inch gauge. It has been sidelined for the moment, but will be built soon.... I know that's what I keep saying!

PJP's internet is now fully up and running again.

Delivered a replacement router to PJP and his internet is now fully up and running.

Yet another long break and lots of news. I'm sitting in Sainsbugs cafe enjoying a very tasty pulled pork baguette waiting for my youngest son to come out of an interview. He looked very smart in his suit, though the trousers are too short, again!
On the railway front I allowed myself to get all worked up over exhibiting Pallingham Quay at Swing, and in the end couldn't get it ready in time. If I ever get the chance again I'll get some help in plenty of time!
My routine has been taking offspring to and from work/college/clubs and as a thank you my older son bought me a Gn15 layout!
Preparation for GoEM is notching up a gear, and with luck we might be on to a winner!
More to follow soon, I'm off to fix Phillips internet access.

Long Time no action!

Well it's been a while since I updated this, personal and family reasons mainly! Since my last post I became the proud owner of a Gn15 layout, which was originally "Woods Shropshire Beers" with a couple of sidings and sheds and a canal scene with a narrow boat in front. I decided to move the location to one in this area, selecting Pallingham Quay at the southern end of the Way and Arun navigation. Beer gave way to Cider, and the change was complete! After showing it at the South Downs Area group of the 7mm NGA open day in Pagham I decided it needed some upgrades to the 10+ year old track work. Nature intervened and following a roof leak in a storm much of the scenery was  damaged beyond repair, and the track started to rust!

As another club member had, at this time, set the ground rules for a modular layout system I decided to use the same specifications for my G scale 16.5mm gauge layout as set for the 0-16.5 modular system. Between bouts of foul weather I have managed to get the new baseboards built, and the new canal cut made, and after buying a 3rd loco (kit) from the wonderful Narrow Gauge South West show at Shepton Mallet. I've been working on rolling stock as well. (The kit, a new Gn15 from the house of  Steve Bennet's Sidelines range, is a wonderfully cast resin model of a light industrial minimum gauge loco called Dragonfly.)

In between working outside on the baseboards I've also been catching up on some of my other projects, including a couple of DCC 0-16.5 diesels, one freelance/scratch build based on the Bachmann 0-6-0 diesel shunter and the other a Boulder Valley "Kit Bash" on the chassis of a Bachmann H0 US diesel switcher.

 Both are pretty near ready to paint, and I hope to undercoat them this week. I also got a Backwoods VB steam tram loco at the Erith show, along with the matching tender as well as an On30 Bachmann Diesel Mechanical which is the donor for the chassis. The tender was dead easy, but the loco is a lot more complex and I'm waiting for a 10BA tap ordered from flea bay to start the build.

Mad Days

Been a mad and busy week culminating in getting bitten by a "baby" seagull! The bird was injured on the road, and a woman was dithering around in the road. I stopped  and picked the poor thing up, he seems to have 2 broken wings but I'm just off to Brent Lodge to get him looked at. Out of sheer gratitude the little bugger bit me! Sadly I missed out on a couple of important events, due to health and sleep problems, but I'm (sort of) back on track now.

SAG open day, Narr-O 2014, Merstham

Went along to the 7mm NGA (Surrey Area Group) Open Day at Merstham Village Hall on Saturday, to support Doug who was showing his "Allbroke" layout. I managed to get a bit lost on the way up there, I still blame my son for nicking my SatNav when he went off to work amongst the sheep!

Allbroke 

It was a nice show, in a compact venue, but a lot of quality layouts, as well as a good assortment of displays from the Association. The 7mm NGA  (7mm to the foot scale Narrow Gauge Association) are a body of railway modellers interested in building narrow gauge models in the scale 7mm/foot ( also known as O scale) 7mm NGA website. 

I've finally gone and done it!

Here I am, almost 60, possibly a Grandad, (more to that some other time) and I've done the one thing I swore I'd never do, started a blog!