Saturday 7 March 2009

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:
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6 comments:

Phil Parker said...

There's nothing like taking a layout to a show to find problems that you'd not seen when testing at home. Sounds like you had less than most people though so congratulations !

Anonymous said...

Hey, good man!

It looks better than a lot of 009 layouts. Perhaps its the industrial nature of that end of the line but it seems very right.

Now you NEED to negoiate with the "Household Authorites" to build the "country" end which should be a bit more sprawling.

Good Luck with that and with this end too. may this be the first of many sucesses.

stephen said...

Great to see (and try out!) Awngate yesterday. You've done a really good job there - looking forward to the next time ;)

Tom said...

Hi Michael,

It was nice to see the layout in the flesh at the weekend, it's a credit to you.

Look forward to seeing the 'country end' ;-)

Michael Campbell said...

Thanks folks, it was a very enjoyable show. Yes, there might well be a next time, but it would be nice to get it a little more finished first - not that it looks unfinished.

What's this about the "Country" end? I don't remember mentioning that!

Anonymous said...

Country End. What a nice name for a country terminus.

Seems you've found name for it already. Do you want a trackplan?

Seems your down for it in the future!!!!

As Ever,