Banbury in N scale - A great time at the Abingdon in March 2024

[roundhouse]

Layout now loaded with just the stock and DCC to load in the morning for a 2 hour drive to Leamington to set up.

 

Had a couple of locos to sort oit after last weeks show but they now appear to be running OK after a session on the test track and rolling road.

 

Got all but one of the platform namebords fitted.Made one less than I needed. I wonder if any one will spot where its missing!

 

Looking forward to this weekend but my credit card isnt.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

well this morning the layout was set up and all the turnouts dcc etc working fine but the couplings just caused us grief be it the rapidos, fixed knuckles and even the Dapol Magnetc couplings. Wasnt the baseboard joints as trsibs were splitting on plain track. We did have an initial issue where we just hadnt put some rolling stock on the track properly. However done couplings tbat had not given us problems before did today. UK stock just doesnt work aswell as USA items. We are getting rhere but NEM boxes seem to be the problem as couplings that did work OK now dont. A bit of PVA glue in them does solve most of the problems.

 

A lot of stock now has Dapol magnetic couplers but today we fitted Dapol Mk3,s with them and they were even eorse as they all drwooped and wouldnt stay coupled to the class 67 so the fixed knuckles we refitted with a bit of PVA and now running fine again. Strange as the Dapol knuckles on both Farish and Dapol container flats work much better than the rapidos did.

 

Anyway, much happier that it has settled down this afternoon and working well.

 

Ian

[TomE]

Hi Ian.

 

Saw Banbury in the flesh for the first time today, and it really is a superb layout. Having passed through the real place twice today also, you've captured it perfectly. I look forward to seeing it again sometime soon.

 

Tom.

[roundhouse]

Thanks Tom

 

I hope you saw it when we had it running OK.

 

Ian

[Revolution Ben]

Hello Ian

 

It was great to finally see "Banbury" in the flesh at the N Gauge International show today, and to meet you!

 

You've captured the area brilliantly, and I was particularly taken by the rows of Chiltern units all parked up next to each other - very authentic.

 

Not sure why you had problems with your couplers, on Horseley Fields today we had a few electrical glitches but all our couplers (rapido on most rakes, Dapol buckeye on coach rakes and Dapol easi-shunt on the steel trains) worked with approaching 100% reliability....

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[roundhouse]

Ben

 

Good to see you aswell. John was telling me you had a few electrical issues but yes, your couplers were working fine and Horseley Feilds was working very well each time I saw it.

 

It could be due to the length of trains we were running but annoying. It isnt the track as that has been checked numerous times. However the Farish locos that we have fitted the Dapol Easy Shunt couplers inyo the rapifo boxes worked very well. Not sure if they would work uncoupling over magnets but as we generally just run block trains they do the job well. The Dapol buck eye fixed knukles have worked fine every show till today but I am sure its because they get loser with use. A bit of PVA seems to have sorted it today. If it was the baseboard joint I could understand it but they were uncoupling randomly round the layout.

Edited September 10, 2012 by roundhouse

[shanks522]

Seeing the layout in the flesh was very impressive indeed, Always nice to get a scale of things for real.

 

Graham.

[roundhouse]

Today the layout ran much better w ith a fraction of the unintended uncoupling of rolling stock.

 

Putting a bit of pva in the nem boxes that were causing the fixed knuckles to bounce solved tbe problems.

 

The Britannia class locos we got cheaply at the show ran well on the steam special. These will be renamed Oliver Cromwell and Britannia.

 

No more shows this year with the layout but will be at Tonbridge show early in 2013.

Edited September 9, 2012 by roundhouse

[bmthtrains - David]

Very impressed having seen Banbury in the flesh today. Smaller than I thought it would be, and that's excellent, as it acts as a great inspiration for what I might want to model next...

 

By far one of the best layouts at this years show, so well done to everyone involved

 

David

[roundhouse]

Thanks David

 

The about is 16 feet lng with about 10 - 11 feet of scenic area. I would love to have built it longer but that's what fits in the car with four of us. We Our other operators came down from Warrington to help. Certainly needed all of us as I spent a good part of the day sorting out the couplings!

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

A few photos of taken this weekend

[Guest]

Awwww wish I could have been there!

[Robert Shrives]

Hi All, I agree the Layout stunning first time seen and spot on in every way! I only saw it running well on both days with a good crowd around the layout. Certainly a good crop of layouts and gets my vote for best current scene layout. The layout behind St.Ruths best for a period diesel layout. Best Blue layout was Lowbeck Hall East, a fine 70s blue loco depot in less than 3 foot by half a foot - very full of atmosphere and again a first see.

Robert

[The_Cuckoo]

I was very impressed with Banbury, infact I went back to look at it on more than one occasion. Just shame I only got to chat to the operator (wearing a Green t shirt) for a few seconds but it was so busy!

[bridgiesimon]

I got to the show today and was mightily impressed with this layout, it looks fantastic and was running really well, congratulations.

 

Simon

[roundhouse]

Thanks for all the good comments.

I think Graham was wearing the green T shirt on Sunday. I had a green one on Saturday.

 

Certainly was a busy show. Sunday was quieter but still very busy at times.

 

The only problem we had was that we had a column right where one of our operating positions was and it was only a few inchese out of the way of the boards. Good job we dont have a control panel otherwise it would have not worked. As it was it did give us a bit of a problem getting to the DCC and PC set up under the boards plus access to one end of the fiddleyard.

 

 

We were dismantled and car loaded in 35 minutes from the end of the show. Took about 2 hours 30 to get home.

 

WIll post a few more photos that a I took over the weekend but not a lot of work will be happening on the layout for a while as we have ROUNDHOUSE going to a few shows so planning on doing a bit of work on that one now.

 

Ian

Edited September 10, 2012 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

A couple more shots taken at TINGS over the weekend

[engage]

Hi Ian

 

It was very nice to have met you and your helpers over the past weekend. I was very impressed with your layout and the attention to

detail has to be seen to be believed, well done ! It was a pity about the various problems we both encountered but life might prove

to be a bit dull if everything always went according to plan. Ben had his eye on your end covers so that might be a job for the not too

distant future,probably won't need to give you so much grief with this one. We did the packing up in a similar time,left the site at 16.36

and a journey time of just under 1½ Hrs. Looks like we will now need to keep an eye on your Roundhouse Thread from now on then,

eh ?

 

All the best

 

John

 

Horseley Fields - N Gauge layout (was Dibben Junction) - Layout topics - RMweb - Page 8

[Tom J]

Saw the layout at TINGS for the first time and loved it. I figured that someone had to make a layout with loads of cheap 'Turbos' from Hattons - contemplated it myself more than once! As Ben said, white units everywhere is the thing that registers it as being where it is, for me. Well done.

[roundhouse]

Hi Ian

 

It was very nice to have met you and your helpers over the past weekend. I was very impressed with your layout and the attention to

detail has to be seen to be believed, well done ! It was a pity about the various problems we both encountered but life might prove

to be a bit dull if everything always went according to plan. Ben had his eye on your end covers so that might be a job for the not too

distant future,probably won't need to give you so much grief with this one. We did the packing up in a similar time,left the site at 16.36

and a journey time of just under 1½ Hrs. Looks like we will now need to keep an eye on your Roundhouse Thread from now on then,

eh ?

 

All the best

 

Horseley Fields - N Gauge layout (was Dibben Junction) - Layout topics - RMweb - Page 8

 

John

 

 

Thanks

 

The end boards fascia panels have been carefully set out as they bridge two boards which means they have to slot into each other for boxing up, hence the little slot in nthe top of the cover.

 

Not sure how yours boxes up but ours box tightly together so they fit very compactly in the car.

 

I will take some photos of the boards boxed up when I get chance but may not be for a while if I don't manage to do it tonight. You might find this one a bit more awkward to follow than the lighting pelmets. but ask away all you need.

 

Mike, one of our operators, has already been working on the coaling tower for ROUNDHOUSE. I will do some updates on there shortly.

 

Tom

 

Actualy none of them came from Hattons as I think they had sold out by the time I started collecting them. Quite a few came from Martells when they were at various shows in the South East. One was obtained second hand as a 4 car unit but with a pantograph on top. Luckily it was still in Chiltern livery so was easy to modify. I have all 8 of these three and four car versions with plans to do the different cab style versions at some point plus do some of the 3D Shapeways class 165's.

 

Ian

Edited September 11, 2012 by roundhouse

[trisonic]

Ian, I have no idea as to how I missed this thread before! Am plowing through and up to p.14 - but I need to get some sleep, it is 3:41am here in Gotham...

 

Inspiring work and like others I am becoming convinced that N is the way to go for modern mainline layouts (from either side of the pond).

Is the more recent Atlas N Code 55 OK? It's dirt cheap over here compared to Peco (and I've never liked the look of Peco turnouts/points)....

 

Will catch up fully on the thread later.

 

Best, Pete.

[roundhouse]

Pete

 

British N scale is miles better than it used to be but its still not as good as USA N scale. The fiddleyard is used on both Banbury and Santa Barbara. We get very little grief when its used on Santa Barbara (apart from operator errors) but quite a lot on Banbury.

 

I did lay the curves in the fiddleyard with Atlas code 55 but its too coarse for most rolling stock as the wheel flanges catch the spikes/ chairs (I did have to change all the standard Microscale wheel sets to fine Microscale vwheel sets on the USA stock to run on the Atlas track on Santa Barbara). I believe that Atlas have made modifications to their code 55 since I bought it so it might be better now.

 

The fiddleyard curves have now been replaced with Peco code 55 flexi track as the Atlas set curves also caused a few problems at the joints despite soldering them. Microscale couplings on the USA stock are still much more reliable than any British coupling in the experience I have had with both. We do get the occassinoal problem on Santa Barbara but no where near the problems we have had on Banbury. However ,we are getting there with sorting these issues out. I suspect we have had problems due to the length of the trians we are running.

 

Having closely watched some of the couplings at the weekend on Banbury, I think its the weight of the train which causes the couplings to lift out from the next. This very rarely happens with the Microscale ones on the USA stock running even longer trains.

 

Despite all these issues, I still have plans for further N scale layouts that will make use of the same fiddleyard, both USA and British outline - the upcoming release of the Dapol Bullied light pacifics is way too tempting!

 

Ian

Edited September 20, 2012 by roundhouse

[trisonic]

Many thanks, Ian, very interesting.

 

Best, Pete.

[ANT]

Hello Ian

 

Found this recent aerial photo on Geoff Plumb's website, might be of some use

 

http://plumbloco.smu...R6VsF&lb=1&s=X3

 

Thanks

SEEYA

ANT

[roundhouse]

ANT

 

Thanks for that link.

Thats a relatively recent shot and a different angle to those I have seen before. Also very high resolution so will come in useful.

 

Now all I need is for someone to fly really really low and take some shots of the oil tank storage area from above the platforms so I can add them to the backscene!!!

 

Regards

 

Ian