If you are looking for me this weekend, I'll be in a big shed next to the airport at Solihull, chatting to people from the World of Railways stand at the National Festival of Railway Modelling. Which we must stop calling "Warley"!
I hope to see you there - please drop in and say hello. I should have a few things to show you, and there will be loads to see.
My quest for a reliable source of water for small steam engines continues. Since it turned out the very convienent Spotless Water is deionised, and therefore bad for my fittings, I have gone back to the water from our condenser tumble drier.
The only problem with this is that it's got fluff in it. Last time I tried it, I filtered it through a piece of silk, but sometimes I could see fluff in the filtered water, and it needed to go back through again.
So, I went to the supermarket and picked up some coffee filters. Like an idiot, I had to ask where they would be, and was told, in the aisle with the coffee.
Things didn't improve. I saw a number 4 on the box, and took it to be the contents. It is, but it's the size. There are actually 40 filters in the box. And I bought two.
Still, it does seem to work. I can't see any fluff getting through, so perhaps I have the solution. Let's hope so, I have plenty of filters!
Thanks to Duncan Young for this photo. He says:
I visited Eden Valley Railway at Warcop and came across this simple lamp room. The weather is quite harsh in winter hence its substantial construction instead of corrugated iron huts elsewhere.
He's not wrong. Most lamp huts are wiggly tin, but this is pretty substantial - and would be easy model with some plastic sheet. Measurements could be guessed from the door, unless you fancy a trip with a tape measure. Thanks Duncan!
I nearly gave Mobil Box a miss - the shop doesn't open until 2pm, and my time in Lucerne was limited. However, in the window were some fascinating G1 UK prototype locomotives, and I couldn't resist hanging around that end of town.As it was, I found some excellent souveniers for presents, and visited the Bourbaki Panorama, which was fascinating.It's not far from the lake, so I ate lunch watching boats.
Back at the shop, I followed the owner in once he unlocked, and has a mouch. There's a lot in there - mainly plastic models and related stuff, but some trains. Also, a work area, so the place is obviously frequented by modellers who use it as a social area.
The shop has been operating for 20 years - pretty good for what is a city centre location, and not a small one!
Those locos in the window belong to the proprietors father, and for the right money (I didn't ask), they might be for sale.
The electrical models appear to be mostly Marklin, but there is one that isn't, although I couldn't identify it.
Sadly, all were to large to fit in my rucksack, so I settled on a card kit for a German lifeboat becuase it is flat and fitted in the back pocket of the bag!
A really nice shop with a freindly owner. Well worth dropping in. Check out the Mobil-Box website.
Add another classic car to the list of vehicles I don't fit in - and Austin 7 based racer.
Pedants will point out that you tend to build these around the driver, and so if I built one with the pedals slightly forward, and wore much less clumsy footwear, I might be able to drive it. Whiel I was at it, the hammered aluminium seats could be adjusted to fit my backside, they were hardly comfy!
As ever, the NEC played host to five halls of classic cars. Basically a days worth of looking around, asking questions and wishing a little bit that I was a millionaire with a big garage. A little bit. I think I prefer these things in thoery than in practise.
If I were a millionaire, I wouldn't have bought the low-mileage 1993 Ford Escort turbo that I saw go for £180,000 in the auction. It might have less than 6000 miles on the clock, assuming it wasn't clocked in Essex 20 years ago, but what do you do with it? Drive the thing around, adding miles, and you are reducing he value. Sit it in the garage to look at, and well, what's the point? Someone must disagree, as there were at least two bidders.
If I was buying, apart from the Rancho I always mention, I quite fancy this Ford pickup.
It had some rust bubbles. Quite a few in fact, that I'd have used to try to beat the price down, but it looks fun. Probably not the most practical of vehicles, but it is cool.
The Ford would come second to this Morris J-type van though.
Doesn't it look fantastic?
No obvious rust, and a spanking paint job in a lovely livery. OK, the thing will be miserable to drive in modern traffic, but standing with a polishing cloth at a local classic car show would be a lot of fun. I wouldn't be carting layouts long distances though!
Anyway, you can enjoy the show a bit without thousands of steps on a hard NEC floor, by visiting my Flickr Gallery.
Despite the sore feet, I still enjoyed the show. The Sporting Bears were working well, with a procession of cars going off with their punters who had made donations, and drew a good crowd of people watching from the barriers.
Elsewhere, there were people who just loved their cars, and the enthusiasm when chatting came across. Like a model railway show, it's great to see people doing something they love, even if we are spared the cold nights in the garage fighting rusty fixings!
