Having done the last show in the U'K before they all got cancelled due to Covid it has been ages since I took one of the layouts out to a Model show. I've got some bookings for shows this Fall for Hakuho, my Hokkaido based Japanese Z layout but recently we were at Kirkby Stephen East, the base for the preserved Stainmore Railway and one of the directors said '"we are having a model show in June but I'm short of layouts for the Saturday the 18th " "Would you like Republic Steel ?" I asked So the layout is set up in the workshop and I'm working through the checklist of things to take and then trying to find them. The good thing about this layout is it just works every time. Taking it in its Britsh form with lots of Class 37s and 47s running and lots of Coal and steel trains The Stainmore Railway is really interesting and has an absolute gem of a preserved loco, an ancient North Eastern railway 2-4-0 no 910 More soon Kev
Best way to jog my memory, Watch one of my videos! Another thing about the guys at Kirkby Stephen they take derelict LNER Gresley Teak coaches like this And turn them out like this I had this overwhelming urge to just stroke it! Kev
Hey Kev good to see you posting again. Always enjoyed your work and videos. Did you ever finish that Berkshire you were working on? With all the steam projects on board it jogged my memory and I was wondering.
Funnily enough I had another guilt trip about it looking at Robert Rays' NP 4-6-2 thread as I also bought some Archer rivet decals to do the tender and firebox. When the nights start drawing in again I'll get stuck into it again as well as my NP 4-6-2 and the other NKP FM H10-44s So many projects, so little time! Kev
For those of you unfamiliar with the Berkshire this was where I was up to when I got sidetracked onto other Z Projects Kev
I can’t wait to see this continued. I forgot how much you had gotten done. Tender looks complete already!
Kev, I had seen this in your G scale thread. That is a real beauty, even unfinished! Oooooooooooow! I forgot to ask, how much does it weigh? Scott
Thanks Joe I'd got to the air pumps and shields at the front when I put it away. And I had done the triangular, three safety valves assembly it ran at a few shows in this condition and its haulage power was pretty impressive. I gave it the ultimate test on the Shasta layout with a stupid amount of 40 ft boxcars and reefers (all fitted with Full throttle wheelsets) and it romped away with them Kev
The layout worked first time despite the long time it has been in storage But, my god, it was dusty. Spent a long time with a very soft brush and the Airline blower cleaning it off. Also made a cleaning tool to clean the track in the inaccesible areas (under the casting floor of the Blast furnace and behind the high line) basically a chunk of Garryflex abrasive rubber glued to a stick. As this will be Brooklyn's first show where he is operating not watching I told him yesterday to just play with it. Work out the section switches, get used to the Gaugemaster controller and get a feel for which locos work best. he spent hours out there. Quite a few of the locos with Marklin mechs' needed a good dose of Servisol 10 to clean the commutators and pickups and a couple needed to go into the Isopropanol in the ultrasonic cleaner to get the carbon dust out of the motors. Not a problem I have with the locos fitted with MTL or Rokuhan chassis. The MTL SD40-2 powered Deltic is a star performer The other thing I need Brooklyn to understand is that when you take rolling stock off the layout it MUST go back into the stockbox in the right place otherwise all sorts of chaos can happen at the end of the show when you are ripping down Stockbox 1 for this show is the one where when people say " I didn't know there was any British Z" Classes 07,25,37,47,56,73,86. Warships and Hymeks. LNER Class A3 (Flying Scotsman) and A4 (Mallard) and the WW2 WD 2-10-0. USRA 0-6-0T and assorted industrial switching locos Boxes 2 and 3 have all the steelworks internal user wagons. Torpedo cars, slag cars. Ingot mould cars. iron ore tipplers, coke cars and bolster wagons to take the finished product from the rolling mill. Tiphook limestone cars and the distinctive sliding roof and tarp roofed Coil cars The curious wagons on the lower right are the PNA Cinder block carriers and the KFA container car rake seen on the lower left will probably run all day My X-trail is in the shops later on in the week as the parking brake is doing 'Nowt' as we say in Yorkshire so I'm going to use one of the Call-out vans from work (one of the perks of being the boss!) As this is a show in Cumbria, I suppose we really ought to run one of the Nuke Trains. This model of a class 25 diesel hauling a pair of FNA-C Flask carriers is only possible because of the advances in 3D printing over the last few years, Only the Marklin chassis in the 25 is bought, everyhing else is off the printer More soon Kev
Your organization is crazy good. No way no how I’m even close. However I definitely see the need going to shoes. Certainly don’t anything left behind! using MT chassis is a great idea. How did you modify the trucks?
All very wonderful, especially the little class 24, for me, since I have some Lone Star ones in OOO scale. Doug
So. all went well at the show. The layout worked perfectly from the start. The only downer was the power supply to the blast furnace lights gave up but the yard lights and open hearth furnace mill were O.K, I was so busy I never got to photograph or film it sadly. When he got bored he filled his time operating everybody elses layouts including a vintage Hornby Dublo three rail layout later in the day the track started getting really dirty and a couple of locos became problematic stalling on the turnout into the Blast furnace We did run the Torpedo cars out onto the main line and they behaved themselves and stayed on the track which was nice Kev
Hey Kev what did you use or kit bash to make that mill? I keep looking at it and I can’t think of an available structure that could be bashed like that.
It was the Marklin kit available a few years ago. nowhere near as much detail in its basic form so I added loads of extras.It was an impulse buy from the Signal Box model shop in Faversham and sat unbuilt in the loft for a few years. The blower house, scale cabin and most of the piping were scratchbuilt The kits have been fetching stupid money on ebay recently Kev
This kit I guess: https://www.maerklin.de/de/produkte/details/article/89700 Earlier on Kev reported on the build here: https://trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/superdetailing-the-marklin-z-blast-furnace.94122/ Matt
Wow you really did bash that kit! Thanks for link Matt on original kit. I really enjoy looking at that then your adjusted version Kev. Heck it’s could be used to model mills I saw in Gary Indiana. Too cool
Hey Joe Check this out The smoke generator idea didn't last long, too fiddly Check out Laszlo's cool american cars at 2.10.
