Football focus. This is why Germans are better at penalties.

 

There is football knocking around at the moment, and from my limited knowledge, the one thing England are scared of is a game against Germany, going to penalties. We always lose, because the Teutonic player is simply better at these. 

It can now be revealed why -Märklin Tipp-Kick Fußballwagen.

In the box, we have a Tipp-Kick player, a non-round ball, and a railway wagon. The wagon has two holes in the side, and the basic game is simple. Haul the wagon along your layout, and hoof the ball into a hole. 

This is, to put it mildly, incredibly difficult. 

Now, I should be honest, and say that there is not a single sport that I am not rubbish at. Give me something involving a bat or a ball, and I'll show you just how badly I can attempt it. At school, I was always the last person chosen for a team - in fact, normally not chosen at all, I just ended up in a team after everyone else had been picked. 

You will have noticed that for my attempts, the wagon is not moving. Despite this, I score no goals. 

So, we can conclude that the German teams are all expert at this, and through lack of practise, English teams aren't.

Come on Hornby - time to wheel out the big boots, and give us a UK equivalent! 

Skipton's Apple Crumble tugboat

Wandering around Skipton, I spotted something a little different. Yes, the canals are lovely (more photos in a future post), but there is a tugboat serving crumble!

Of course, I had to know more, so once I'd walked my lunch of Yorkshire pudding, sausages, mash and peas down, dessert was to be from the towpath. 

At a guess, this is a converted Bantam tug, although the superstructure seems more boxy than normal. 

Food is served through a hatch in the side, presumably it used to be the side window. 

The photo above is from a bench where I sat scoffing the crumble and ice cream. All the time pondering the modelling opportunities. I've built a Bantam in the past, so the upperworks don't worry me, and hopefully I can buy another hull. The toughest job is all the lettering. You can't really avoid it if you want the model to look right!

To be honest, this isn't going to bother my workbench for many years, if ever, but I hope the photos will inspire someone. Looking online (search "the ice cream tugboat skipton"), there is no shortage of information, apart from a history telling us what the boat was before it became a crumble dispenser. 

 

Test running the steam locos

 

 

Did all the servicing make a difference? There was only one way to find out. A dryish Thursday evening saw me at the L&WMRS outdoor track with a box full of gas and water. 

First out, the Lady Anne. She fired straight up, was soon in steam, and ran very nicely for a few circuits. No worries there, and the batteries didn't fall out of the cab roof. 

Next, the Merlin. I lit it up with a bit of fuss, and the model was struggling to raise steam. I could hear the burner, but it was very quiet. 

After 10 minutes, I decided all really wasn't well, and wondered if the gas jet was partially blocked. As it happens, access to this is pretty easy. The unit pokes through a hole in the back of the cab, and, with a single banjo bolt undone, lifts the pipe off the unit. This them pulls out, and the jet can be unscrewed from a brass block. 

After squirting some WD-40 through the jet, all seemed to be OK, so I reassembled it, and this time the loco lit straight up, with a good, loud burner.  

After that, the loco ran perfectly. Plenty of steam, and a nice exhaust. 

Finally, Ragleth. 

I hadn't spotted that the loco was set to 32mm gauge, but that was quickly changed. Then I lit it up, and a few minutes later, the servos stopped working. Yes, like an idiot, I'd not charged the receiver batteries!

I packed everything up, and then took Ragleth into the railway club, putting it on charge in the workshop. An hour later, suitably refreshed with some tea, custard creams and plenty of chat, I took advantage of the light evening for another go. 

This time we lit up, the servos operated, and off the loco went. Sadly, the regulator servo stopped working again, but it turns out, you can drive on the reverser alone.  Which is what I did for a few minutes, and the model seemed quite happy. This isn't so odd, the Merlin works the same way. 

So, more work to do with Ragleth, but it's usable for now. The others are spot on. Until something else happens, I'm sure... 

Loco servicing

With a bit of public operation in the offing, it was time to catch up on some loco maintenance with the live steam fleet. 

First, replace the battery box in the cab roof of the Lady Anne. The original had distorted over time, and would drop the batteries out, not ideal in the middle of a run!

I've had a replacement box for nearly a year. The old one is bolted into the roof, using holes in the plastic that are also in the new box. I thought this would be a doddle, but it's a fiddly job since the bolts are only just long enough.You can't get at the screw head on one either as it's under the non-sliding cab shutter. Pushing the nut very hard onto it allowed me to just catch the thread. Bolting a flat box under a curved roof isn't ideal, and so replacing this with a battery pack in a side tank, something I have seen done, appeals. 

Next, I planned to swap out the regulator servo in Ragleth. 

 

I'm a dab hand at removing the body, it's only six bolts after all, and could soon see the recalcitrant item. I had another servo, a posh one with metal gears, but when I plugged this into the receiver, it wouldn't turn. Hmmm. So, the old servo, which works, went back in. I think the problem is that it's being affected by the heat, but we'll have another test. 

Finally, the Merlin Mayflower.  

All I needed to do here was regauge the model. Simple job, slacked off the screws, shove the wheels out, and do them up again. There are even dimples in the axles, I didn't expect those, to set the gauge. 

Next stop, the club track.  

Open day haul

 

You won't be surprised that I managed to swap a fiver on the Bring'n'Buy stall for some stuff I probably don't need, although this time I managed to find items that might just be useful. 

Vinyl letters are always useful. They are now in the drawer with transfers. These are larger than anything I own, I think, so a quid well spent. Possibly less useful is a roll of blue and white check vinyl, but if I did another RC car, I could use that on the wings. 

Obviously, I don't need another model boat kit, but a Police launch for a couple of quid? 

What appealed most is the length of the model - 410mm. Ideal for a "Thursday boat", the sort that I can pick up at a moment's notice, and head off to the lake with. 

Slotting the main hull parts together suggests that the build shouldn't be too hard, although the proof will be in the eating!As a hard chine hull, there is wood to be bent around the edges, and a nose to be carved from solid, but none of that should be too difficult. There's space inside for all the gubbins, probably a brushless motor and battery pack. 

Having found it online, this is a nice-looking freelance model too. More about sailing than looks, although, I think it will look nice on the water. One day...