Great Western Coffee Shop

Not usually my thing these days, but as I have a RailFuture board meeting in Birmingham next Saturday, I'm tempted to stop overnight and go along and see what I suspect is the biggest show around.

https://www.thewarleyshow.co.uk


Noting that the local RailFuture branch has a stand ...

Anyone else going or tempted?

Is this the annual event that featured in James May's "Big Trouble in Model Britain" two part series from about a year ago? I think that was billed as the biggest of it's sort in the UK. 
I'll have wait for next year though, already been booked in for London that weekend for the Hogarth Exhibition and the V&A.

I wouldn't advise going on the Saturday (far too crowded and noisey).  Much more relaxed and more aisle space on Sunday.

Phew!    That's my plan.  Thank you.   Will you be there?

I'm planning to at the moment.  Just to give you a feel for the scale of it all, they generally have about 15,000 visitors over the two days (i.e. its a big exhibition!).

The Hall Plan and list of exhibitors can be found here: http://thewarleyshow.co.uk/pdf/2019%20Hall%20Plan.pdf

I’ll be around on the Sunday volunteering on the Swindon Panel Society stand(s).

We’ll be taking a mini/portable version of a panel with us to the show. Running the same tech scaled down to what we use on the Swindon Panel at Didcot Railway Centre.  ;D

That will be Newbury, but not quite, so Notbury, and will there be some knobs to turn and buttons to press?

absolutely...if all goes to plan.  :)

Main pictures in the "Lighter Side".  Here is the more serious stuff of a better railway for the future.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/warl_20.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/warl_21.jpg)

I have started my N Scale/Gauge journey with the beginnings of a layout that I've taken ownership of from a family member.

I'm thinking of modelling a late 1950s era fictional country scene with a small town and some industry, perhaps a hillside colliery on its last legs. Inspiration will likely be Somerset with its coalfield, and the S&DJR.

A rough and ready test of the track and my first loco.

I note you have a footbridge but not passing over any tracks.  If not required, could it be moved to Pilning?

Sadly that footbridge is in a poor state of repair. It'll need replacing with Equality Act compliant lifts and overbridge.

Very smooth control(ler), impressed. Smooth trackwork as well.
2020 Model Railway Challenge entrant next year?

I'll be looking to get a better DCC controller in the near(ish) future. The one I have currently is what Graham Farish supply with their DCC train sets. It can control many trains but doesn't have the ability to control points, signals, lights etc. It also doesn't allow for programming of Configuration Variables (CVs) that can adjust such things as the acceleration curve and momentum.

But I have to save my pennies first/write to Santa. In the meantime it's sketching out the plans and starting to model the landscape. Using cardboard, newspaper and PVA for that.

Service suspended due to emergency engineering works.

(http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt68/bignosemac/rps20191127_201814_zpse9gjsgnf.jpg)

......is it the lovely old footbridge that used to belong to Taplow before NRs contractors "accidentally" clobbered it so badly it had to be removed?

If so, I'm glad its found a good home 🙂

Have you got one of these?

http://www.smart-rail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/04.jpg