Our first physical meet of 2024 was started with the knowledge we wouldn’t be joined by the N scale layout as it is known – it was time for important maintenance and therefore a non-running session. Dean took the opportunity to work on the Taggart Bridge module, David on the pulp mill, Paul E on his loop and expansion board, and finally, Dennis on his new modules.
We saw the usual faces set up and run on the HO Scale, with Paul H and Paul P walking through the overall layout and identifying problems that needed rectifying. We also gave Rai’s fixed mainline on the Peach Meadows modules some running; spotty at first as expected but as time went on the choppiness settled down. As for me, I decided to continue my journey into the realm of the ATSF, especially considering I am now a member of the Santa Fe Historical and Modelling Society.
Just after Christmas and on the run up to this meet, I found myself in the possession of a proper ABBA F3 consist; all powered and all needing speed matching. I took my time at Mid Essex MRC to achieve this, hitting some problems on the way but eventually finishing what we saw at St Osyth on Saturday.
In the end the consist transformed from a hopeful 3 sound 1 silent to a 2 sound 2 silent consist of 3 F3s and one F7. My first ever sound-enabled F3, #22 by MTH, turned out to have a decoder which wouldn’t let me alter speed settings without MTH’s proprietary hardware. Luckily the other three units had more forgiving decoders installed. So, I relegated that to the storage case awaiting a replacement decoder for later and called up my unconventional stand in, my recently upgraded MTH F7A #39 with ESU Loksound. Unfortunately, it gave up during its first heat of the speed match. Therefore I pulled out the decoder and replaced it with a reliable Gaugemaster Ruby decoder. Speed matching was completed not long after that.
Thinking about the YouTube channel, and what I could bring onto the table (or layout), I decided to go with something easy which I knew were working (relatively) fine; my Hi Level El Capitan and Super Chief cars. Unfortunately there hasn’t been much progress in terms of detailing the cars, but those that were detailed still looked very good (in my opinion), and with the exception of the SC pleasure dome, ran exceptionally well. The pleasure dome just didn’t like coming out of staging for some reason, which I believe could have been a snagging wire from the truck. I’ll queue her up for the workbench and when I get around to fixing her up, I’ll take a look at the track power wires and hopefully replace that sagging antenna with something more solid.
The Super Chief El Capitan (or Super Cap) took all of my operational time on the layout, as I found it quite invigorating to be able to run something so close to the original with very few hiccups. I managed to snag several videos for the YouTube channel too, and with any luck the video should be up and viewable by now.
Otherwise it was a fairly quiet day for the HO with some testing being done on Laxton to ensure it is still in good condition, with Paul P running some of his stock on the yard to the sound of the busy N Scalers making their mark. It was also good to see the young amongst us eventually make some moves on the layout on his own, and from what we could tell he had a perfect run too.
During lunch we broached the subject of a recent communication from an exhibition manager about potentially having a modular layout at a local show. With the N Scale down for maintenance the HO chaps agreed to offer some setups, and as a result Paul H and Paul P started their list of any issues left to resolve including the scenically decaying Bridge Modules, which Chris C took home to work on. The details of the potential setups were recorded and passed on to the manager with hopes we may get an invite!
Otherwise… Not bad at all for the first physical meeting of the year.
In terms of what’s next, February’s physical meet may see even less action as several of us plan to go to the NMRA BR Winter Meet at Stokenchurch; myself included. There’s a need to have some representation there on behalf of Thamesiders in advance of the NMRA 2024 Convention rollout, as well as the general interest that comes with events like these being closer to home.
It’s just a shame we couldn’t secure an alternative date for our meet this time – it is always a fulfilling time of the month when it’s time for the Thamesiders. If we don’t see you in Feb, then see you in March!
Neal K
– Santa Fe all the way
Thamesiders MRG 