Scalefour Forum

A good weekend on the Society stand at RailEx. Danny Cockling and I were there both days with Mike Ainsworth joining us yesterday and John Chambers today. It was very good to see lots of Society members stopping by and Danny was able to gets subs from several - always a good thing. We also signed up a new member today. Interest from non members was well in line with previous shows with lots of productive conversations. Those members who were there today were able to get a sneak preview of the Scaleforum layout and that will get posted a bit later on when a few things are finalised.

Terry Bendall

Some video clips of Black Gill at Railex; it was difficult to get near enough to use a camera, even with just ten minutes left until closing time. Fabulous layout though







All the Best
Danny

Railex all over for another year, just got the figures through and it seems we are 20% up on the previous year no wonder it was hot in the hall on Saturday.

Congratulations, David, and to your team.
It is always well worth a long journey, and this year was no different.

Jim

Thanks terry, the black gill videos certainly prove to me that it would be great to see the layout. Though It is highly unlikely that I will ever see it in the flesh. The quality of the layouts at railex certainly show the lack of quality and running that we get here in Australia... Though is do not agree with the flat earth policy that some of the clubs adhere too! I am looking forward to September for this reason!

Doug

Just a thought on the running: the hall for Railex was a a comfortable, shirt-sleeves temperature throughout and the running was good. Were we seeing how running improves when there are no issues with thermal expansion?

Guy Rixon wrote:Just a thought on the running: the hall for Railex was a a comfortable, shirt-sleeves temperature throughout and the running was good. Were we seeing how running improves when there are no issues with thermal expansion?

Hum.... I remember setting up under a large glassed roof light at Lytham St Ann's. It was as a lovely sunny week end, and the temperature rose quite high. Once we'd sawed through all the rail joints that closed up the running was unaffected, and we never had a rail joint close in the heat again. There's a moral here some where.

I had the opposite experience when, many (many many) moons ago, I took the Taw Vale one cold November to the Bracknell show, I think it was (not the leisure centre where ExpoEM is now held). I had always been very pleased with the way that it ran until that day. We had been placed in an extension (more like a store room) off the main hall and it was freezing to start with. A number of fan heaters were brought in and periodically blew the fuses on all the extension leads because of the load. And the layout ran like a pig, all weekend. Smooth running just went out of the window, and I seemed to have to clean wheels and track every two or three hours, any less and things just ground to a halt.

I am reminded of this when thinking of the new railway room which will be outside in the garden, and will be making great efforts to banish cold and damp.

Philip

Probably condensation with all those fan heaters.

Had there been a dehumidifier in there, it would have helped a bit by taking out the moisture.

The moisture attracts dirt to the rails. I don't know whether batteries would have helped, but then batteries don't work in cold temperatures....