A quick pictorial post just to prove what we have been doing.
And now they are both nearly finished this is what will replace them on my overcrowded workbench.
Yesterday we had the REAL PLEASURE of exhibiting in Swaffham Norfolk.
The local town council has a very active "Cultural Consortium" department and they had organised a "Railway Reflections" event to commemorate the importance of the railway to the town,,,all in bygone days of course as Dr Beeching killed off most of the railways in East Anglia in the mid 1960's.
We did not know what to expect as it was not an official model railway event,,, and we were somewhat surprised to discover that the event was open to the public and it was ALSO FREE!!!!
WHAT!!! now there's a novelty.
Have we made the right decision I thought to myself in the van on the way to set up,, whatever,,, never mind we have had so few chances to do a show of late that it dosen't really matter,, lets have a good day "playing trains" and when all said and done it is only an hour away,,, which is yet another novelty.
The steam gods were with us and it became very apparent very quickly that we had definitely made the right decision.
What a lovely hall,, what a lovely bunch of people the organisers were,, not only friendly but helpful as well and I have to say that the questions and interest shown by the Swaffham public made it one of the most enjoyable show days I have ever had as an exhibitor.
Neville warmed to the occasion and graced us with his top of the range Top Hat,, it worked wonders,, he quickly recruited several under 8 trainee tram drivers who all seemed to enjoy the experience,, and the smiles on Mum Dads and proud grandparents faces make it well worth the risk every time.
Needless to say no day is perfect,,, we do keep a rough guide on which model creates the most interest and yet again Lizzie the Elephant garnered around 50% of the questions/requests closely followed by the tram at around 40%.
What do I have to do to get some interest in the railway aspects of the system,, which is approximately 95% of the total offering.
Just for the record can I say again,,, "I know nothing about trams and even less about elephants"
We even had one person ask permission to take a photo of the elephant for a friend of hers who was on holiday in France,, apparently the text message was "whatever you do make sure you get a photo of the elephant" .
I sometimes wonder why we bother!!!
To conclude,, what a great day,, what a lovely place and to the lovely gentleman who asked all the right questions for an hour in the morning and then returned for another session in the afternoon,, we are doing Spalding in the near future,, why not come and join us,,,,we can even provide a chair.
A final shot to confirm my modelling of the tram track is not bloomin rough,, it is deadly accurate.
Above is everything you need to know on how to come and see Salmon Pastures in the flesh.
We are exhibiting once again,, for the first time in very nearly 2 years,,, and only the second time in the last 9 years.
Crickey 2 of us had hair back then!!!
If the "significant other" insists on coming,, fear not,, you are in luck,, as you can leave her at Roys of Wroxham where she can very quickly dispose of your hard earned savings,,,, or even better you can hire a day boat and send her off on a cruise round the Norfolk Broads while you enjoy yourself watching us show just how much we have forgotten about running the layout properly in public. We can't wait.
I also attach a couple of pictures as mitigating evidence on why we have forgotten how to run the layout,,, I have been that busy trying to finish off some the "projects" that have been gathering dust on the "To Do Shelf" that we just haven't had time to play trains of late.
The track has got that dirty I can see I may have to attack it with an angle grinder if the inherited 12inch "b*st*rd" file dosen't do the trick,,, talking of cleaning track did I ever tell you about when we did a show at Barrow Hill and we were in the Deltic Society's workshop,,,, I had to clean the track that much over the 2 day show I got blisters,, and we still have some rather caustic smutty marks on the rail which just will not clean up.
The recently airborne Jersey Lily will be in evidence,,, [see above,, and how fitting with this being V.E. 80 week] along with it's brand new scratch built chassis and it might have even been weathered by then,,, along with the D2 and D21,,,, not that they need weathering but it is the easiest way of disguising my pretty average attempts at red lining a black loco,,, Ian Rathbone deserves every penny he gets painting and lining 00 locomotives,,, I think my eyes are the wrong shape for such activities,, a comfort zone it is not,,, and never will be.
In that well known modelling phrase from way back "from 6 feet it looks fine,,, get any closer and it looks as though it's been done by a one armed blind man on a galloping horse"
How Michael Angle-ion managed to paint and line that cathedral ceiling whist lying on his back 35 metres up a ladder is a complete mystery to me,,, I have to wonder if he used Humbrol or acrylics???
Any way we look forward to seeing you again,,, we are usually the elderly mob in the corner,, giggling like Hyena's and almost certainly the furthest away from the tea and biscuit stall.
The recently painted J39,,, one of the original Dad's Army crew from way back when,,, last painted in about 1972 and to say it looked shell shocked was an understatement,,, I was going to go mad with a new chassis and motor/gearbox etc but once again just like the J52 I decided against it as it has served me well for so long I thought it could do without the pain and trauma,,, perhaps I should just call it a "Layout Loco" and believe me I've got a few!!
A personal favourite the N4,,, another from the Millholme series of "Heavy Metal Models",,,, for me this is your archetypal station pilot and when the mood takes me I may well build it's sister engine as I ended up with 2.
I know I'm biased but I think they looked good when Parker built them but they looked even better with a J G Robinson chimney and dome,,, and back in the day there were many of them working in the Sheffield / Barnsley area,,,, needs weathering but it looks quite good straight from the paint shop.
For the GCR men it will always be the class 8B,, for the LNER afficianado's it was the C4,, for lesser mortals like me it will always be a "Jersey Lily".
Mr J.G. Robinson once commented that a chimney and dome to a steam locomotive are as important as a hat to any "man about town" and I have to say he got this 100% correct.
As a rather obsessive GCR fan I just had to have a C4,, I bought mine as a McGowan kit from Millholme Models at Woodborough near Nottingham in 1976,, and the box says it was £3.75,, + motor and wheels!!!
I was so happy to have a C4 kit that. it quickly reached "icon" status in my collection,, which means it sat in it's box on a shelf gathering dust from the date of purchase to about 1994.
In fairness I would regularly get it out of the box/tissue paper and look at all those white metal bits and admire my purchase,,, but one day,,, having read various articles on what a swine it was to put together I had this inner self thought!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!! that's £3.75p down the tubes!!!
NO no,,now calm down and just think about it,,, so,,, more time on the ToDo shelf.
But one fine day grasping in the right hand not only all the white metal bits but also the hot soldering iron [ouch] and being full of enthusiasm,, bravado,,, and home made lager,,, I set about building my very own Jersey Lily. YooHoo.
I won't bore you with the full 9 yards of the build,,, it was 31 years ago,,, and I have been affected by the ageing process the same as everyone else,,, but a quick synopsis would have to be:
To carry the just purchased 4mm 00 gauge kit from the counter to the car I needed a sack barrow,, talk about heavy metal.
Instructions should have been an optional extra,,, as I never used them,,[no change there then] they made no sense whatsoever.
There was more flash than castings,, and when you'd got rid of the flash it still weighed a ton.
I spent more time trying to make it lighter than I did building it,,, and in the end I decided I had gone as far as I could,,, it ran,, just,, almost,, after a fashion,, but it was never up to impressing at an exhibition,, start,, splutter,, cough,, fizz,, repeat,,short,, repeat,, more time on the shelf,, but at least I'd made a start,,,and then one fine day about 4 years ago I yet again decided that this,,,for the very last time,,, I was going to sort the Fizzing Thing out,, for once and for all. [determined to say the least]
I got technical,, I wrote a list of what it would and would not do,, to try and identify where the problem was,, were there any common denominators,, recurring themes,, overlooked insights !!!
It looked fine,,, as it should it's a C4,,, but it would not run reliably.
About 90 minutes later I once again decided enough was enough!!! A life's too short moment!!!
I give in,, you win,, buggie off back to Gorton and take your lovely chimney and dome with you!!! .
AND SUDDENLY as if by magic it was suddenly under the control of a new driver an ungainly fellow called Douglas Bader Esq,, and yes it literally flew the complete length of my workbench,,, the smoothest journey it had ever had [honest] but the halt was,,,mmm,,, shall we say abrupt!!!
Now the post mortem revealed some interesting issue's on the deceased:
The main one being the chassis was a banana,,, not a Jon Claude Junker of Luxembourg variant but a "normal banana" bent and straight off the Tesco value shelf.
What To Do,, commit it to a quiet secluded departure for a few close friends or bite the bullet yet again and make a proper chassis for it,,,
Ha Ha,,, to be concluded,,, and watch this space for further instalments!!!
You never know it may even make a cameo appearance at the Broadland Exhibition at Hoveton in May,,, BUSY BUSY BUSY,,, on the other hand it may not,,, heavens the suspense!!!
In an attempt to keep various factions of the Pastures supporters group happy I offer a pictorial diary of the rebuild of the D21.[stop complaining,,, it only took 5 years,,, I'm in no rush]
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Anyone who has read the full diatribe related to our Delivery Elephant,,, will know how popular she is at exhibitions,,, if you don't know can I suggest the following reads which covers this situation nicely:
1, Salmon Pastures Blog of 25th Feb 2015. Title: Lizzie Ward a severe case of elephantitus
2, Salmon Pastures Blog of 22nd July 2014. Title: T'hat's the way to do it.
Anyway doing further research at the Pastures library recently I discovered that TWW Wards not only seconded elephants from a circus to work in the steelworks but they also had a couple of camels,,, [ I know you just can't make it up],,, and to prove the point take a look at this.
