BREITENFURT AT ELGIN MODELFAIR
— Organised by the Elgin Model Railway Club, 2008/11/22-23 —

Unlike at Inverness, at Elgin MRC's Modelfair Breitenfurt had all its track laid and the turntable working. However, performance was restricted as only the track circuits had been wired up. Pointwork had to be operated manually (the cause of several collisions) and uncouplers were out of action. Notwithstanding these drawbacks there was a larger variety of stack in use and the layout was kept running most of the time and drew much positive comment. In addition to the layout I also had a couple of smaller scales working layouts, one in T scale (which was a bit unreliable) and one at 1:900! On the whole, these were looked after by my friend Rolf Schmidt who also had his layout present at the exhibition. To my delight, Breitenfurt won the prize for the best operating layout.

Anyway, to summarise.

• Everything ran to perfection appart from one loco that went short circuit in the last minutes of the event and some wagons that kept coming off the track and were removed before the exhibition opened. Mind you, I did have finger trouble occasionally, usually when engaged in conversation, which lead to a few collisions.
• I learned from one visitor that the Henschel Wegmann BR61 (built 1935) was fitted with ABS to cope with the change in weight as its water was used up.
• I should add that my idea of having the control panel swing up over the layout using parliament hinges was so successful that I think I will go down that route permanently unless the scenery prevents it.

Although far from Modelrail Scotland standard, I hope to be able to display Breitenfurt at other exhibitions in Scotland next year. So, the next stage is to make a longer control panel so that I can add the extra switches and buttons required to put in route selection and uncoupling as well as sorting out a few minor glitches and getting the branch line modelled. Also there is the dream of adding a second board.

Lessons learned:

• Take your own lighting and your own extension lead. (We were half way between two sets of lights.)
• Avoid second hand curved points.
• Test out trains more thoroughly before use – in both directions.
• Take something to allow the layout to be raised above normal table height and a step for kids to see.
• Put security panels at both ends as well as the front of the layout and a sheet down the front of the stand.

Probably other lessons as well, but I forget them.

Breitenfurt

(Click on the small images to see a larger version in a new tab/window.)

and Tiny Train

(TY (1:900) scale Swiss train.

Populating the lay- out with trains prior to the exhibition opening.

The Breitenfurt exhibit from the west end; the visitors' first impression. The buildings help to conceal the hidden sidings.

View across the operator's panel. (The panel will be replaced by a longer one so that controls can be added for pointwork, uncouplers and signals.

The east end of the station with the loco servicing facility behind.

The operator's view of the central part of the station with a DRG BR61, a Baden P8 and a KPEV P8 with short freight train. (Well, it IS freelance!)

The visitors' view of the east end of the layout. Now the layout is pretty well fully populated and everything is running well.

The east end of the layout showing the loco servicing facility and, on the right, the east end of the hidden sidings. The bottleneck to the 'rear tracks of the station can be clearly seen.

If the layout inspires just one child to take up railway modelling, then I feel all the effort was justified.

Harry Clyne
Large scale
Highland Railway 2-2-2, 'Raigmore'. (5)

Steve Cameron
TT scale
German outline country station. (21)

Elgin MRC
O Scale
Cragganmore
(an end-to-end Highland line). (19)

American outline diorama.
No info.

Kennedy Collection
1 scale
Highland Railway Collection (54)

Inverness MRG
Gauge O
A model of a fictitious ex NE Railway branch terminus in 1930's LNER period. (32)

Moray MRG
N scale
A modern image station based on Glasgow's King Street terminus. (33)

Ian Lamb
Dava tribute to Douglas Berry
Includes locos from the 1948 locomotive exchanges. (50)

And, a few I cannot identify... (The first two are called Cochieneal.)