Larking Around in Haywards Heath

Saturday saw the Sussex Downs 009 group host their Biennial "member's day" exhibition in Haywards Heath. The club's own layout, the Upsan Downs & Everleight Railway, was assembled for the first (and quite probably the last) time as a 50ft x 10ft L-shape, achieved with the modular format of the layout and arranging the "universal" fiddle-yard in the centre. Parts of this layout are 30 years old, but it is superbly detailed. I spent most of the day operating the Upsan Quay end, seen here.

There were plenty of other layouts, some by members, some by previous members, and some by friends - some even in scales other than 009! John Thorne's Purbeck was voted favourite by the public ("Best Unfinished Layout" - because no layout ever is!). The show went well, plenty of visitors (much better than 2 years ago, perhaps due to a better venue and date), excellent catering, and a good atmosphere.

Chris Ford had his excellent Tal Coed layout on display - recently featured in Railway Modeller, and the first time I had seen it, I can say it is a superb scene but much smaller in reality than it looks in the pictures! Chris had suggested a double-header to compare Skylarks, so having bodged a suitable coupling onto the rear of mine we gave it a go. The Kato and Fleishmann chassis ran at very different speeds, and that train doesn't really warrant a double-header, but they look pretty good together I think!

I also couldn't resist posing my Skylark and the Egger-bash coached on Tal Coed for a photo of them in the countryside. This is a fake though, although these are not large coaches they are too big for the clearances of Tal Coed!

Anyway, for the rest of the photos and the other layouts, click on the link below:

Haywards Heath Sussex Downs 009 Group 2013

Sussex Downs Members' Day Exhibition

The Sussex Downs 009 Group will be holding a "Members' day" exhibition in Haywards Heath on Saturday the 16th March, from 11am until 4:30pm. See the full poster here.

The club's layout, the "Everleight Light Railway", featuring several stations, a brickworks and quarry, can be assembled in different combinations for exhibition. However for the Member's Day it will be featured as a 50-ft long arrangement for the first - and probably only - time!

Other attractions include at least 9 other layouts in 009 and other scales (some well known, others not!), the 009 society sales stand, and specialist traders. I won't have one of my layouts there this year but no doubt I'll be behind the club layout, one of the other member's layouts, or even on the door. So please do drop in if you can, it promises to be a good show.

Haywards Heath Show!

Well I got there in the end! After a few frantic days and a couple of late evenings getting everything ready, the layout up to a reasonable standard, the stock in good shape with the right couplings fitted, and the loco's serviced and tested, the day finally arived for Awngate's first public appearance!

The trestles worked well, and were tidied up with a drape as you can see below. The trains performed well, but the uncoupling was a bit hit-and-miss. I got some more magnets to try. Other than that the only problem was a point failure - the blade came loose, but I managed to get it back in place and super-glue it. Lots of people made nice comments, and there was a lot of interest in the fiddle yard! My friend Steve helped out with the operating, getting very engrossed in the shunting (see second picture) - thanks Steve.

The rest of the show was enjoyable too, you can see more photo's here:

http://campbell-modelrailway.fotopic.net/c1663884.html