Three members from the Wealden group, Nigel, David and Myself, spent last weekend at the Tolworth Showtrain exhibition operating Nigel’s Llangerisech.

The layout performed well, and a good (if tiring) time was had by all.

After two days running blue diesels, Nigel finally cracked and ran his scratch built Jones Goods on a steam special, and I managed to grab a few snaps on my phone:

On Saturday and Sunday I brought Llangerisech to the well-respected Uckfield show held in the same building that we have our monthly group meetings. Members of the group assisted in setting up, running, packing away and everything went pretty smoothly.

There was quite a bit of interest and a fair bit of work had been done since the non-public outing at Keighley last year. Running in Blue Diesel mode did seem to work quite well and the shunting added another element.

Naturally a few glitches were present, mainly with the couplings, although a couple of hints from the Epsom show manager will be incorporated before the next outing at Tolworth. A bit of finger trouble and uncertainty from novice operators lessened as each day continued and the gremlins were generally put to bed. Mechanically and electrically, the layout seemed fine.

It would be possible to run the layout single handedly  if the need to keep things moving for the crowds was not there. When operating an intensive service (most unprototypical!) three people can easily be fully absorbed just keeping things moving. An extra bod is certainly needed to chat to the public.

There did seem to be a wide range of questions from visitors and many favourable comments. Even criticism was well intended and merely highlighted areas for future work on the scenic side that was on the to do list. Most of us were tired at the end of the day, but the fun and chat kept us going.

So all in all, a successful first show with a few lessons and none of them too painful.

Here are a few photos of progress on Dave Barnett’s scratch built chassis for the SECR H class. Dave had this running on the test track at the last meeting where it ran impressively smoothly.

More to come from Dave in due course.