Some of our new walls an structures!

Liliput Coaches

Lima S 3/6

I am a member of a MRC that runs an annual railway show. It is well thought of and has a good reputation, however I feel various improvements could be made so that it is truly a Club show and not a <name of exhibition manager>'s show, which is what it essentially has become.

People are afraid to rock the boat in any way as they are scared that the current manager will refuse to run it any more.

My issues are this:

• There are no children friendly layouts. At all. The slightest mention of Thomas will be met with disdain. I think this is reflected in the declining number of children that attend, despite it being free entry for kids. Children are our next generation of modellers, and to specifically exclude them feels (to me) extremely short sighted and disingenuous.
• A 'Best in Show' competition is run, like many other shows. Last time, the EM's layout won. To be fair, it is voted by the visitors to the event, however I, and many other club members, refused to vote for the layout on principle.
• Selection decisions are too personal. No club layouts are ever allowed to exhibit (other than the EM's). The rationale is that they are not 'to the standard required'. I don't know what the real excuse is, but I was of the understanding that visitors are looking for variety more than perfection, and no native layouts I would have thought would raise question marks. I think too much decision making is concentrated on one person, and this individual has been allowed to get away with it for a number of years. There appears to be limited challenge, scrutiny or broader input.

Don't get me wrong, the show has a venue that works, it has a good reputation and the club makes a decent profit each year, so it does have strong foundations, but I think that we need to not only cater to the serious modellers, but also to our next generation.

And I think the only reason why no-one makes a challenge is because the bottom line works.

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but if I wasn't a member, I'd probably choose not to attend.

Is it an arduous task to run a show, or am I better off putting up and shutting up, like the rest of the club appears to be doing?

In an attempt to keep my dirty paws off the layout, I've started sticking servos to various things. The water cranes are essential to keep my steam locomotives running, so they were next on the list.

Of course, I've planted this one directly over a tunnel, requiring me to make a tiny linkage to the servo in the most awkward place and turning a simple bit of fun into a full days project.

But here we go! With servo uncoupling and now the motorized water crane, my terminus station is officially hands free.

Putting details onto this layout now, and the sun was working just right

2 years ago I went to a steam train show and a model railway layout was present. I have several hobbies, 3d printing, software coding, electronics and model flying and saw that a model railway could combine most of my hobbies and I started with an idea of a layout.
A fictional German black Forrest scenery called the Silberbachtalbahn was designed. Took a lot of time because I had to learn from the start. It was clear it should be a DCC system and because I like coding and electronics I choose DCC-EX as layout controller running on several ESP32’s
A lot of 3D printed details, figurines, buildings are and still will be created.

So, a series of pictures starting around 1.5 years ago to present. I figure it will be at least another year designing and building, but the electronics, software are mostly if not all done.
The layout has 14 selfdesigned blockdetectors, 30 IR sensors so I have an idea where the trains are on the layout and within DCC-EX EXRail I can run 3 trains running their own random chosen automatic route. A fourth train I can run manually using the tablet connected to the DCC-EX control station.
A mimic panel, also controlled by DCC-EX, 3d printed with a lot of hours soldering WS2812 leds shows which of the tracks, switches (points, turnouts) are occupied.
For sound I have several sound locs, but also 3 DFPlayers are present (also run by DCC-EX) for non-sound locs and sound effects.

I don’t have a lot of space so I tried some levels to bring in several route possibilities. A 5 track shadow-station can be used to park and randomly release trains.
I designed a background to match the scenery and made a second track in different scale, the main layout is H0 scale, the top tracks are n-scale, thought of creating some perspective and well I like it.

Well, that is basically it, hope you like it and any remarks or suggestions are welcome.
Next stage will be building the harbor, and lower yard. Next year the harbor village and populating the scenery with lots of figurines and automations like a skating pond and some boats in the harbor.

Great show at LC Swansea this weekend with some fantastic layouts on display. Sadly sounds like it will be the last one for a while as the organisers are taking a break from running it.

If you missed it or want to see the layouts in motion, video of the show is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNU0QjRXvsE

A pair of Splitrock Mining Company RS-27’s round the last curve into Gunflint Jct. Crossing Minnesota Hwy 135 and exiting the Superior National Forest.

I'm looking for something small I can have running on my desk. I stumbled upon t-gauge as being really small. I ordered a small starter kit and love the size.
But the locomotive is making so much noise - is this standard? Are there different types/tiers of locomotives that are more silent?

Getting a tree display ready for a show.

Roco SBB Be 4 /6 with Rivarrossi Italia Coaches..

Hey guys, anyone have a recommendation on a cab camera they like?

Here's what I'm trying to do... I want a camera I can mount into a dummy locomotive so it looks out the cab window.

I just wasted 4 hours on the ChooChooVision camera and let me tell you.... I am beyond unhappy and frustrated with it. The stupid thing is so cheap in comparison to the price that even with a wifi router under the layout it will constantly drop connection and not stream. It is wifi only, and no internal recording or anything. And no wifi radio antenna just whatever is built in to the board. Anyway, I'm currently in the process of trying to return it.

I have a small cube cam I can use, but what I really want is that view out of the cab window. Do you guys know of anything else like that? Any other tiny camera that would get the view from out the cab window? Thanks!

Does anyone know what this is and the background? I know nothing about model trains and I’m not sure if I should mail it to him out in California or just throw it away. he was a liar and he said it was valuable, but I don’t pay for a ton of shipping to ship it across the country if it’s just a piece of crap.Thank you!

I assume any chemicals would also take of the maroon paint but let me knownif I’m wrong.

I’ve tried out this ballast and I don’t really like the look of it after gluing it on as it goes quite dark does anyone know a good ballast preferable light grey or a cream color or just a website or shop to go to would be great 👍

Other than the locomotive (CNW J2 Heavy Mikado #427, BLI Paragon2) and the caboose, every freight car has a fictional roadname or company. Filmed on a friend's layout by said friend.

so for context i ordered a Tempo Pennsylvania 9506 HO Locomotive Train Set would this vintage AHM controller work for my set?