Bressingham 2017

To Bressingham for the garden railway event.

Or at least that was the plan, I'd never been to Bressingham before. I knew of it - mainly because the industrial Garratt lives there - but what with it being 3 hours away, a visit hadn't been on my radar. However, with a garden railway event taking place, my new role made it important for me to visit.

What I hadn't expected was a rally of small-scale steam vehicles with 29 entratns, all of excellent quality.

After poking around the sheds, finding my favourite loco and enjoying a load of the others, I headed in to the garden railway show. There was an awful lot of chatting with trade and exhibitors. Sadly, this didn't result in many photos for you.

More producting for pictures was the rally and also the three working real railways on site. I didn't have time for a ride, that will have to wait for another day, but it's ceretainly worth the trip. For a tenner, I could have even driven a narrow gauge loco pulling slate wagons. Money well spent.

For the moment, enjoy a little Terrier action:

And also the selection of pictures I did take over on Flickr.

Saturday Film Club: Snaefell Number 4 by drone

For the moment, we will ignore the recent issues concerning the Snaefell Mountain Railway and the hysterical contributions to the discussions by people who should know better. 

Instead, look at the very recently refurbished Number 4, turned out in Ailsa green livery and looking very smart indeed. The guys working for the railway really do an excellent job on this sort of work and it's lovely to see the tram under test on the line. 

The drone fliers got lucky too. It's not always that clear when heading up the mountain.

Trapped!

Holding planning meetings away from the office makes a lot of sense. Take everyone away from distractions and the team can focus on layout down ideas for the next few months. This accounts for a few trips to Quorn on the Great Central Railway where the BRM tram have sat around a table in the cafe working out how we'll fill the next few issues of your favourite model railway periodical.

Wednesday saw such a trip. Waiting for everyone to arrive, I enjoyed a stroll around the year taking photos of things. It's an interesting place as there is always something new to look at. This time, there were loads of wagons showing signs of a life outside.

Not long after I took this photo, I was accosted by some freindly hi-vis sporting chaps from the railway. One of whom asked if I was there for the cake. Not really, but after that, I could hardly avoid sampling it. 

 

You'll be pleased to know the chocolate crunch was excellent and I'm told the Victoria sandwich was also very good. The brie and cranberry sandwiches though, delicious. I could have eaten a couple more rounds although I had, they wouldn't have been the only thing round!

If you are in the area, even if not planning to use the train, this is an excellent cafe with a good range and friendly staff.

Anyway, our meeting went well and we've lined up some really exciting features for the future. Afterwards, Andy Y and I recorded a little video promo for the October issue and then stood around chatting beside the good shed, accidentally out of sight of the staff. This wasn't the greatest idea as by the time we made a move, the last train had long gone. And the car park was locked up!

Despite my efforts to guess the combination on the lock, it took three-quarters of an hour and many phone calls to get the correct number sequence so we could escape. I wouldn't mind, but the cafe was locked up and so we both faced a night sleeping in our cars. Lesson learned.Well, that and "have the brie and cranberry panini, which looks even nicer than the sandwich.

Mind you, this Moggie Minor has been there a lot longer then we might have been. 

Details of Quorn station here.  For your Satnav, you'll need the postcode: LE12 8AG. Leave some cake!

Electrical things in BRM plus cakes!

The September issue of BRM has gone all DCC - which as all fules kno is the work of the devil.

Nevertheless, I have had a bit of a look at accesory decoder modules, which I have to grudgingly admit could massivly reduce the amount of wire under a baseboard. The savings in wire could go a long way to helping pay for the chippy things too. Using them is pretty simple nowadays, you don't even have to do any soldering.

 

Above the baseboard, we are offering an airbrush to new subscribers so I'm going through some of the basics and explaining why you might want to own one with quick projects on locos, rolling stock, track and even buildings. A really versatile tool which many modellers seemed scared of. OK, we aren't all proferssional painters, but it's still useful in the hands of and idiot like me.

 

Of course, when you saw the title of this blog post, you were only interested in the cake. Well, I mention it because I've writen a piece explaining why I like smaller shows. You'll be unsurprised to know that this includes my enthusiasm for different cakes. For sensible content, Jerry Clifford also explains the work that goes into a show from the exhibition managers point of view. 

Over on the DVD, there is a Phil double bill. 

First, I take viewers through a few wiring basics - tining wires attaching them to point motors and track and even unsoldering. When we were talking about a DCC lead issue, it occurred to me that these very basic techniques would be useful to all. Soldering irons are another tool people are scared of, so that's another demystified I hope.

I'm also making cable drums using a resin kit, a last-minute addition to the line-up but hopefully there is something useful and entertaining in it. I do explain why you shouldn't let them lie down on a layout...