Bexhill Exhibition with Hexworthy

Yesterday I took Hexworthy to the Bexhill model railway exhibition. I was assisted by "local" Stephen Fulljames of Light Railway Stores, who brought a rake of the LRS exclusive GWR wagons by Rapido. Since the other end of the line to Hexworthy meets the GWR at Buckfastleigh, these seemed quite appropriate. 

The layout performed well and Stephen got the hang of operations quickly, which gave me time to check out the rest of the show. It was good to see a heavy narrow-gauge bias in the layouts! I didn't pick up a program so I don't have names. There were a couple of nice O16.5 layouts. 

And a a slate quarry in O14. The shed doors open, wagon turntables rotate, and the wagons are hauled in and out.

A busy and highly detailed On30 logging layout, with some characterful stock.

And a 009 layout featuring a zoo... with a private siding!

Yes, that is a zebra in the "cattle van"!

There were also some nice standard gauge layouts.

Power lines and builders' bags

Back at the Salisbury exhibition I came across a trader with some interesting 3D printed detail kits - 12A Models. I picked up a kit for a widely seen feature (in the countryside) that is rarely modelled - a pole-mounted electricity supply transformer. I thought it would look at home on Hexworthy.

The parts on a sprue give the impression they are injection moulded, but they are 3D printed, I think with a filament printer as the parts show lines. The material also proved tricky to glue, the pole halves seemed to go together with plastic solvent but other parts didn't, and even superglue seemed to struggle to grab it but worked eventually.

I thought it odd that there are four insulators, and four connections on the transformer. A google image search confirmed that 3-phase 11kV supply lines have, er, 3 wires... although the transformer outputs appear to have four outputs (3 phase plus neutral I guess). 

So I cut back the insulators to three, and on the other side of the transformer added three inlet connections. I drilled a hole, put in a short length of 1mm wire, and glued on a small spring from a Microtrains coupling as an insulator. Not that the coils showed once painted!

The transformer was then connected to the insulators with fine wire, soft steel wire sold for tree making seemed to have the right weight and be flexible but hold its shape. Gluing these in place was fiddly! These connections would lead to the 3-wire transmission pole route where the cables are overground, but this will be at the back of the layout, plus there are pole mounted transformers where input and output cables go underground. I could have added cables running down the pole, let's say they are on the back! I did add paperclip wire into the legs to help secure it.

Back to google images to help with painting. I started with grey automotive acrylic primer, which happened to be perfect for the transformer and the cross bars. The poles were painted mid brown and dry-brushed grey, and a little green. The insulators were picked out in a dark red-brown, and the wires in grey-black. 

The transformer was installed at the back of the layout, having punched a couple of holes in the scenery surface so the wire tails I added push into the polystyrene, and secured with a little matt modge podge. It's the sort of background detail that doesn't stand out or even get noticed by most, but helps make the scene feel right. 

I also got these builders' bulk bags from 12A Models, another feature of modern scenes. These are finely printed in resin, those corner hoops are very delicate. I simply sprayed them with white automotive acrylic primer, dusted with a little grey and beige weathering powder, and set some granite chippings ballast (the same as used for the track) in the top with a little matt modge podge. A few were then placed in the yard. 

I also added some to the permanent way train, including a couple with sand. 

Hexworthy will be at the Bexhill model railway exhibition this Saturday, 8th August - do say hello if you are there. 

Narrow Gauge South 2026

On Saturday I took Hexworthy to Narrow Gauge South - which I believe is the biggest NG show in the UK. 

I'm pleased to say it performed well, with the tweaks made over the last couple of weeks seeming beneficial. Thanks to Edward Malorie for assisting throughout the day. 

The big news from the show was the announcement of a new ready-to-run loco from Rapido - a Cranmore class Peckett, which is already at engineering prototype stage. Towards the end of the day I was asked if I'd like the prototype model to take a test run on the layout - well of course I would!

So here it is, along with a few prototype Rapido wagons too. It's a small loco, about the size of a quarry Hunslet, and very attractive. They're an ideal loco for many 009 layouts and I'm sure they will sell well. 

I can also confirm that it runs as well as it looks!

On to the rest of the show, but don't worry, I didn't photo all 30ish layouts. Hexworthy seemed to be next to the "Devon" end of the hall, which as well as a miniature railway 7 1/4" gauge Lynton & Barnstaple Manning-Wardle and the L&B preservation society, had a couple of L&B layouts. 

SHADOWS OF EXMOOR – Paul Steedman (O-16.5)

BLACKMOOR – Ian Lampkin  (009)

LONG SIBFORD – Oxford Group 009 Society (009). This modular layout has boards built by different group members, and included some characterful scenes. 

MYNYDD Y DDRAIG – Alan Monk (009)

A BYGONES WEEKED AT TAN-Y-BWLCH STATION – Richard Holder (009)

The Peco 009 layout built by Chris Ford as serialised in Railway Modeller.

BRIDPORT – Dave Taylor (O-16.5)

LLANFAIR RHYD – Aaron Matthews  (009)

PORTKINGSLEY – David Marshall (009) - this looks like it will be a characterful layout!

PORCUPINE CREEK – John Murrell (HOn30)

WISSEY CREEK – Stuart Reeve (009)

BOWCOMBE – Nic Arthur (009)

5.5 SCALE MODULAR GROUP - 5.5 (5.5mm scale on 16.5mm gauge) 

NETHERCOMBE QUARRY – Adrian Ponting  (O-16.5)

KEINDORF – Tim Tincknell (HOe)

DEVILS BRIDGE c.1904 – Andy Cundick (009)

TAN-Y-LLYN – Steve Flay (009)

KNAFF HALL – Toby Hollins-Jones  (Gn15)

FEÒRAG – Chris Odell (009)

TARRANT VALLEY RAILWAY – Stuart Webb   Layout  009

 An excellent day that passed too quickly.

Hexworthy preparation for Narrow Gauge South

Hexworthy will be at Narrow Gauge South at Eastleigh on Saturday, so I have been carrying out the usual preparations (a quick vacuum) and testing (running all the train combinations I can think of). There were a few minor jobs to do too, including looking at the exhibition fiddle yard following some occasional issues at it's last outing at Chatham last year. 

The probable cause of the occasional derailment or unwanted uncoupling was mismatched rails between the lead track and the traverser.  A couple of rails needed lateral adjustment, but several had a slight change in height. The rails are soldered to PCB strip either side of the join, so adjustment meant applying a soldering iron until the solder melts and holding the rail in the right place (including up slightly where needed) with pliers while it cools. All seems good now, hopefully it will stay that way!

The deck had become stiff to turn, and had started squeaking when turned. The pivot is simply a bolt which had a washer, nut, and locking nut underneath - the lock nut preventing the nut coming undone. When I looked underneath I found the nut had wound itself tighter upward into the wood support, forcing the washer with it - while the locking nut stayed where it was. Here, I've removed the lock nut and the normal nut is about to be removed, but the washer remains embedded about 2-3mm into the timber.

The solution was a bigger washer, and using just the lock nut which shouldn't loosen or tighten. The tightness has been adjusted so the deck spins freely but there's no vertical movement. The old washer remains embedded in the wood - I guess it can act as a bearing!

The end gates for the deck folded down to rest on the rails. The problem is when the deck is slid back and turned, they could catch on the fixed tracks, and the resulting jolt derails most of the stock on the deck unless it is turned very slowly and carefully! The solution is simply a screw (seen centre) acting as a lower stop, holding the gate high enough to clear obstructions when turning. 

I also made an adjustment to the latching arm release mechanism underneath. This pushes the sprung notched aluminium arms (seen lower left in the photo) away from the alignment pegs so the deck can traverse smoothly. I took a photo, but it doesn't really help explain things unless you know what your looking at - so suffice to say the lever doesn't need to be pressed so far to allow smooth deck movement. 

My operating team say that the birds on the canopy are not sufficient to accurately position the train for uncoupling. Something to do with the operating position being four feet away to the end of the layout. In an attempt to make uncoupling easier, I've added tufts of grass. The idea is that with the overscale blue tit in line with the coach roof and the grass by the end of the footboard, together being easier to judge from an acute angle, the coupling should be over the magnet.

The other tuft of grass of course aligns with the robin, the marker for the Microtrains uncoupler magnet. In both cases the trick is to stop beyond the magnet, then set back to the markers to uncouple. We shall see how much the grass tufts help...

Now I just need to pack up for the show. It looks well worth attending if you can - do say hello.