This physical meet saw numbers a little thinner on the ground; long drives and the Americana weekend took at least two of our newer regulars. But all was not lost; both the N and HO had just enough bodies to get setup and running by 12:00 at the latest, with time for maintenance and getting the Laxton modules up for the first time since their arrival.
The N Scalers elected to have the live stream running, because the HO was mainly focused on the introduction of Laxton with some solid work from Paul P, Paul H and Tom F altering the stand in corner board to fit within the setup, and then fixing the wiring so the power and control busses route through correctly.
This was the first physical meet with the Thamesiders where I didn’t run any of my trains. This would normally have been a weird thing for me, but surprisingly with only a month or so to go, I had a couple of things to focus on and worry about let alone playing trains. This includes making sure the livestream ran on the Thamesiders’ YouTube channel properly.
My highlight for this meet was being able to setup all the electronics with only two wiring issues. It’s a positive outlook on supporting Paul H and the group in future and hopefully some more smooth setups to come. Watching one of Tom F’s coal drags move off from the staging yard after you have successfully setup the track power is a nice little feeling.
If anyone visited me and dad/Dennis’ livestream from the Royston & District MRC Exhibition, you’ll remember there was no audio except for on the interchange via dad’s phone. That has since changed now, and part of the main test was to get my new little handy microphones to work. In the picture for post you’ll see the little black tribble-like creature on the cable coming from the (not so 4K) camera. This is the microphone with a little windbreak. Watch this space (or a latter post) to see the virdict.
We got some good little shots from the livestream of the N Scale, but unfortunately there was some issues around the reversing loop and the control bus which needed the expertise of Paul H to help Dean, David and Paul E to try and isolate and figure out. David’s Arduino-driven reversing loop may see some reprogramming after some sound advice!
Due to the reduced numbers we all started packing up at 15:00 and were all clear by the usual time of 17:00. I’ve been meaning to suggest another double day at some point to the group… But the Open Day I recon will stave off that craving for now.
Happy modelling everyone!
Neal K
Thamesiders MRG 