Ellis Clark Type 27 Wickham Trolley

Ellis Clark have produced a model of the ubiquitous Wickham Trolley, which must be one of the smallest self propelled vehicles in 7mm/O Gauge.

At Warley I bought a Yellow with Wasp Stripes DCC Sound version.

The box looks more like it is for a OO model.

There is the Type 27 trolley and a low sided trailer in the box plus detail parts.

This model has DCC sound squeezed into the tiny vehicle.

Here it is with a current 50 pence piece for scale.

Driver's side.

Front. The lights work.

Back.

Other side.

Under side.

Warley National Model Railway Exhibition 2023

 For the first time in nine years, I went to the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.

This was part of a giant modular layout, this module based on Barnstaple Town.

Bridport Town O16.5.

Copenhagen Fields.

Dawlish

German HO model.

Detail on the sector plate.

A freelance mini Pacer on the modular layout.

Some examples from the Peco stand.

Spur-O

Another O16.5 layout. Definite Wantage inspiration.

A Real Prairie tank.

Tomatoes

These tomato plants were photographed between the rails on a British mainline railway.

This was before the use of retention toilets.

Single Line Terminus

This was a single line terminus board I built for O Gauge, mainly for the Bachman Brassworks Class 121 DMU.

The platform is on the left (without the platform surface. The fiddle yard is at the bottom.

The Class 121 at the bufferstop end with a figure for scale.

Unfortunately it did not get any farther.

V100 - Lenz O gauge

A while back I bought a V100 diesel locomotive.

It is DCC sound fitted and has a storage system which will allow it to continue moving briefly if the power is interrupted.

I just need to build a layout for it.

Heljan Class 31

I have just received a Heljan 'O' Gauge Class 31 locomotive from Tower, having also made use of their numbering and weathering service.

It looks really good. I now just need to do something about a layout...

More pictures later.

Ixion 'O' gauge locomotives

Ixion issued their brass model of the Manning Wardle H Class 0-4-0T locomotive in the first half of 2012.

I bought mine from Dragon Models at a show.

The model ran very well on the rolling road, with excellent slow speed control.

The only fly in the ointment came when I came to take it apart to check the lubrication (plenty of grease) and to see how easy it would be to wire it for DCC.

There is a design or implementation flaw in the sanding gear/ brake gear. There is a piece of plumbing (ah technical term) under the footplate with pipework running from the footplate to the chassis side, passing under the connection between the brakes. By design the connection is not contiguous, there is a path you can use to move the connection rod through the 'maze'. Unfortunately I did not manage to disengage it (I am also rubbish at those dexterity games with the wiggly wire, the loop and the buzzer) and managed to break the connection to the chassis.  It is not particularly noticeable. The other problem is the sand pipe. It starts outboard of the brake rigging but end up flush with the chassis side, again trapping the brake rigging. While trying to move the sand pipe I broke it off at the brass moulding. It will need to be replaced on both sides.

As you can see, there is plenty of room inside the body to install a 'OO' decoder (it runs at well under one amp, well within the range of a higher power 'OO' decoder).

At the Gauge O Guild Guildex show in September, I bought an Ixion Hudswell Clarke 0-60T locomotive.

This is DCC ready and is again an excellent runner.