Moving onto my next project, I decided to spend a little time maintaining and building a new N-club module.  I wanted to make a conversion board from 2-track N-club to 4-track N-mod.  I had a module in stock, that was once 1200mm long, and I’d cut it back to 900mm (for a project that never happened.)

I then had the bright idea to cut the end of the module at 10 degrees, as shown below.  This is about the angle of the Peco large-radius fine scale points, and by cutting the end at an angle, one avoids any reverse curves and all tracks flow through the points.  It also adds a small change of direction to the boards, that adds interest when exhibited.

Progress is looking good, and I’m about to start track laying and wiring, although most of the required N-club track is already in place and can be reused.  One tweak needed is the transition from Code 55 to Code 80 track.  A little work with my micrometer shows a 0.8mm difference in depth between the two types of Peco track.  A little careful packing will be needed to avoid any bumps in the wrong place.  Note too, the problem with working with a small N-club board 800 x 400mm, as opposed to a 4′ x 2′ N-mod board – it fills up too quickly with tools!

I also wanted to rewire my N-club modules, after some problems with getting the plugs right the last time we took the boards to Stuttgart.  You shouldn’t need to use a multimeter to plug your modules together.  So the obvious answer was to rewire them according to the N-club standard.  But can you spot the difference between the English and the German manuals?

There seems to be a bit of the problem with the compass!  A couple of emails to Stefan (who was touring the UK on the way to TINGS) gave me the definitive answer.

Allan was helping the N-club crew at TINGS, and I gather that I was the first person to notice this deliberate mistake.  It pre-dates Brexit, so we can’t blame the politicians for this one…..

On show with the N-club layout at TINGS is this fantastic model of Bodiam (Kent) Castle as the centre piece of a return loop.  I’m sure I’ll have some other TINGS photos in due course, but these three came from Allan’s Facebook post.

I didn’t get to the show this weekend.  A busy weekend elsewhere, including this garden party with Maxine on Saturday – a thank you for involvement (very minor for us) with development work in Burundi.  The weather was kind to us after the past week’s rain, and the spread was even better than a TINGS full English breakfast.

Finally, another lurch to the dark side.  How could I resist this 1/48 scale 3′ 6″ gauge plastic kit of an early Japanese loco and coaches.  Non-working, of course – but S gauge track is about right….