Well, the layout had it's first outing to the 3mm Society event in Wootton Bassett yesterday and after getting there extra early in order to set up in a relaxed way, place what little stock I took on the layout and give it some juice......oh
.
The loco crawled along at a scale snail's pace..........and no faster
.
Quickly swapping it for the AEC railcar was just as bad so it wasn't the loco (which had been fully checked the day before).
We diagnosed a controller failure (Gaugemaster hand-held job) and no spare being carried some oaths were said quietly. Step forward Mike from the adjacent Finney & Smith emporium who very kindly lent me a hand-held "Pictroller" and transformer..........saved
.
I won't bore you with the reason but I couldn't use the electromagnetic uncouplers for the B&B couplings so the 74xx and B set handled most of the workings with a very infrequent freight and minimal shunting (resorting to a bent piece of wire as a shunters pole).
With the layout back home today I tried another transformer with the "defective" controller and it's fine. Looks like I will have to retire my 50 year old Triang transformer
. It was rather noisy yesterday with a loud buzzing sound!
Nice to see Simon T there too.
Here are a couple of piccies I took of my layout at the show.
I should point out that the goods shed was only plonked in place for the event and has not been "planted" yet hence the gap.