As you may have seen, in place of our regular physical meet this weekend, the Essex Belt Lines (the HO modules), found themselves invited to West Essex Model Rail at Marshalls Park Academy, Romford. They were in good company, with Dennis K and his Squaw Falls N Scale layout, Chris C representing the EM Gauge Society, and Mid Essex MRC with their EM Gauge layout, Blackwell’s Brewery Company.
The layout arrived at the venue at around 18:15 on the Friday, and myself, Paul P and Paul H got the boards up and had most of the electrics connected by roughly 21:00, where we were the only visitors left so we decided to stop there to return in the morning. From 08:00, we were in and finishing up the setup with Stu T and Michael T. Not too long after our arrival did Dennis K and Kian arrive with Squaw Falls. The layout was up and presentable by around 09:30 with the livestream attempt starting at around 09:45.
The first hour or so from 09:45 was a little rocky, as we had problems with one of the Ethanol switches, so we had to essentially abandon any plans for having the run arounds at the plant and the Patrick board. To complicate things further, not too long into the setup in the morning did we find no Ethanol signals. Therefore, the only run around available was Peach Meadows and we all had to be very careful with the unprotected main after that when heading to the plant.
We also identified two problem areas on the staging yard, one causing derailments for every train that passed through and the other requiring hands to push the train to the other side. As expected, we were soon versed and aware of these, avoiding them at any cost. After these problems were mitigated, one particularly thanks to the efforts of Paul H on applying a temporary fix on the Ethanol board, we were running a lot smoother.
The livestream unfortunately failed. The dreaded audio silence problem had reared its ugly head, and the playback device plugged into the camera overlooking the Ethanol Plant started failing, or at least, one of the cables did. The webcam at Peach Meadows thankfully remained stable, so I kept the stream on that and just hoped the lack of audio wasn’t a serious issue and was the only issue moving forward. To my horror, it wasn’t, and by around forty minutes in I found Streamlabs hadn’t taken my event for EMR from YouTube, and instead had used the description from the 2023 Open House. To add insult to injury, the stream to YouTube closed after the 40 minutes.
After multiple attempts, I did manage to get two hours of streaming, but by that point I had also started recording directly to my laptop. The two hours of streaming did not happen on the QR link I had placed on the layout, so I settled with getting recordings and abandoned livestreaming at that point. With testing, troubleshooting and a bit of luck, I will hopefully have fixed any issues with livestreaming in time for the Open House, but I will remember to have recordings as backup.
With the start up problems ironed out, the layout generally ran very well up until pack up time. The general consensus was passenger, both express and local, but there were some freight ops and Stu T took the lead on some local freight operations by doing run arounds and back ins into Ethanol (where possible) and Peach Meadows. If I can ever get over my love for my passenger trains (unlikely), I may take Stu’s inspiration and support the layout’s freight capabilities like the early days of my membership with the Thamesiders.
Michael T brought back his Triplex, and his PRR S-1 with complimenting passenger cars. The challengers to these were my Super Chief and El Capitan. The SC was being hauled by my F3s, and the EC my F7s. All ran very well, except for a troublemaker baggage car and a dummy FB unit. I believe the couplings are drooping on both. The only other troublemaker on these consists was my newly detailed 11 Dbl Bed sleeper, Indian Song. Like the Pleasure Dome, it suffered the occasional derailment likely due to the way I fed the wires from the trucks – I did notice from the PD it can be an exact science at times.
After a couple runs of both, I decided to go Super Cap. I properly cut the F3s from the SC consist except one dummy FB, side-lined the troublemaking baggage car and dummy FB, and reversed the El Cap onto the SC. The Super Cap made two runs before I made the mistake of routing her onto the derail track, and there I used god hand to save the SC consist and get it onto a separate road where eventually it was put away. The EC saw one more run before joining the SC in the box.
General interest in the layout was grand. There were several moments the scenery section was watched by a sea of punters. Everyone had something to be enamoured by and everyone operating and supporting the layout did their best to engage and give information. I myself volunteered my services to a member of Ilford and West Essex to try and troubleshoot his Triplex and Yellowstone. We were not successful with the former but had some luck with the latter and ran the Yellowstone behind the El Cap. If I got such a pleasing event on livestream or on the recordings is something to find out later. On reflection, I should have probably offered my services after the fact as opposed to during the event. I might have missed some cues regarding the livestream failing and could have supported the layout better. However, there is hope it served as an olive branch to a person willing to visit us later. Any little gesture must help these days.
The folk from my second (officially first) club Mid Essex were also interested in the layout, and I recall at least one hoping to see us in June on the Sunday after the Open House. I do know several members having HO in some form, one even running Canadian, whom would love a go running their consists. The general feedback has been good, but I do note the location could be and has been problematic for some in conversation. With such things one hopes the desire for trains defeats their reluctance to travel. I know it did with me, especially with facing the A12.
With the wife arriving in the afternoon, I took a stroll with her through the rest of the exhibition and noted similar interest and volumes as we did, and we even found some HO vehicles I could add to my expanding collection which will hopefully be added to some kind of layout in the not so distant future. We also used the time for snacks and tea breaks, returning to the layout not long after saying hello to Dennis aka dad, and Mid Essex.
As with all good things, our dreams and enjoyment began to fade around 16:30, when we saw the stream of punters run down and the vendors beginning to pack up their wares. Michael and I set a freight and my RDC to run laps, while Paul P ran his shark nosed local one last time. As they did the laps, we packed up everything else until finally, the boosters were switched off and break down began.
We escaped in fairly good time but as expected were the last to leave, but not by too long a time. I think towards the end I was running on autopilot, as there was many a time the wife was willing to help and I just couldn’t think up what was needed to do next. Thankfully the guys helped out and she made an excellent contribution.
Speaking of which, it’s important to recognise the contributions of Michael T, Paul P, Stu T and Dennis K for making the event go smoothly and representing the Thamesiders best. But most importantly, Paul H, for not only the above, but also specifically in securing suitable transportation for the layout and being our guide in ensuring we kept running and stayed interesting, and as usual, with the help of the others, keeping the layout itself in working order. I sincerely hope everyone named got something out of the event and continue willing to help in future events, because without them it would have been much more difficult, expensive, and above all, not as fun. I find with this hobby it is hardy about why you started, and more on how you’re finding yourself getting more interested and more involved. For me, it is working (and playing) beside people like these, and seeing what they’ve done and are doing for this layout, the Thamesiders (and Squaw Falls), and therefore the hobby itself.
Here’s to another one like it, or at the very least, another invite at some point in the future. I would love to do it all again.
Neal K
– Santa Fe all the way
Thamesiders MRG 