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Six hardy members turned up for Sunday afternoon’s running session.  This was an interesting meeting, as (1) there were no dashboards – the circuit was entirely made up of real modules, and (2) we’d almost brought enough trains to compensate for the lack of Paul’s Japanese selection.

Modules consisted of Derek’s Doverswood, Dave’s canal basin, and my new boards (must think up a name…..)

I was pleased that my boards still worked after ballasting the main line.  Allan was running a Swiss push-pull train, with the loco somewhere in the middle.  Totally prototypical, I’m told – at ESNG it usually happens when half a train uncouples and is collected by the loco next time around.

Derek was having a continental afternoon….

Brian added a little Dutch flavour….

My own contribution was British…..

And Brian recorded it all on film – and to music by another of my favourite bands!

All in all, a pleasant afternoon.  Good, too, to see the days getting longer, as when we had packed up, it was still light outside.

Five members turned up for the Wednesday meeting, allowing plenty of running time all round.

I tried running my military train for the first time, having made the NGS Warwell and Warflat kits during the first lockdown.  It ran reasonably, but needs a little fettling, as it kept derailing at a couple of locations.  Still, I was pleased with it so far.

Chris was running some Metropolitan line underground stock.

I replaced my train with a container rake, that ran perfectly.  Chris then gave his re-geared Class 33 a turn on the front of the containers.  Graham’s American Union Pacific rake overtakes in the background.

Mr Stroudley turned in his grave at the sight of a Terrier pulling a GWR autocoach!

Whilst a GWR Small Prairie pulled lots of large coaches. 

After testing my new modules last Sunday meeting, I corrected the obvious errors.  Where I de-crimped the wires when folding the boards (having forgotten to unplug them), I made a new end board, with a slot for the wires to remain connected and loop from one board to the next.  A couple of legs fitted should allow the modules to be stored vertically.  I also fixed the misplaced track joint where the fishplate had missed.  Point control is nearly installed.  And a rattle can coat of sleeper grime painted the track in two minutes flat.  Next job, ballast.

More from Switzerland in the next post.

A little more progress on the club fiddleyard today.  We’ll get there eventually.  A brace of Derek’s carried on tracklaying.

I got some wiring completed for the point frogs.

This a most impressive layout.  Very realistic scenery, especially the forest.

A very quiet afternoon, with just the four members present.  Plus Ron, the ESNG honorary auditor, lured south by the promise of a curry.  Excuses from other regulars ranged from the reasonable – I’ve a fence to fix – to the unlikely – I’ve got to watch Chelsea lose a cup final.

But we had a very pleasant afternoon running trains, with a track each.  Mr Atfield brought along another new module.  This has a number of interchangeable scenery sections to show the area around a station at points in history.

My new modules continued their debugging.  The new castors and handles that I’d fitted were most useful in lugging the thing around.  I found (or at least a train found) a bad joint, and a bit of wire sticking up above the track.  A good test session, and I’ll get on and fix these issues this week.  The module looks good end on, watching the trains snake through the curves.

We ran a variety of trains, including Allan’s Inga-Net friendship trains, with wagons gifted or bought at Stuttgart over the years.

And the afternoon did indeed finish with a curry.  Can’t be bad!  No video from Brian today, but here’s his new fence panel….