Saturday 26 February 2011

Eastleigh Show - February 2011

I attended the Eastleigh model railway show today, it was held in a leisure centre hall and featured a good number of layouts, including several US outline end-to-end type layouts in both N and HO gauge, a few of the Seaboard Southern guys were there manning the NMRA booth.

I was surprised how much US outline HO there was to be seen on the trade stands, two traders LSWR and WESTERN MODELS were dealing solely in US models new/used respectively.

I picked up a couple of blue-box Athearn locos, an SW1500 and a GE 33b, which are perfect for a couple of upcoming projects.



The GE is great externally but in bad shape underneath, with pretty much all the components sprung loose inside the shell, but although the motor and all the clips are seperated, everything is there so it should go back together. 

The main reason I bought it was to use as a donor locomotive for my rail-power Dash 8-40b build later this year because I picked up a shell, chassis and all the required detail parts for a song on ebay and this Athearn 33b is the correct model to supply the truck and gear components.



The SW1500 is in perfect condition, but the real reason I bought this one was because I purchased a modern RTR Athearn SW1500 shell recently, again a cheap ebay bargain, and I am hoping to adapt the chassis from this earlier version to fit the new shell.  The new RTR version has seperate etched grilles, finescale handrails, interior, flush glazing and other details, so all it needs is some power.  An initial examination of the blue-box chassis suggests that it will fit just fine, so heres hoping!

It was a long drive down to Eastleigh, but the show was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to my next one.

Here are a few photographs of some of the layouts that attended.


Fort Myers - CSX/Florida East Coast/Seminole Gulf Coast


Hoxie Harbor - USA Docks scene


Blackrock Colorado - USA Modern Image



Garfield - US Car float (ferry) - small layout part of "No room for a layout"

Saturday 5 February 2011

A dash of six axle power



I recieved my first big engine in the post today, it's an Athearn blue box GE 9-44CW in UP livery.  This is another ebay purchase, and it was probably a little overpriced given that the previous owner has damaged the shell by using too much glue on some of the details and also by choosing to glue the light lenses and other details onto the outside of the shell instead of attaching them from the inside?

I'm going to be detailing and repainting this engine as a Norfolk Southern unit, and I will also be adding some new celcon handrails to replace the metal ones.

I'm looking forward to this build, and it will be next on my list once the two Athearn GP38-2 units are finished.




I also took delivery of a selection of intermodal well cars, in yellow TTX, blue CSX and red BN liveries.  I now have five of these cars, with more on the way.  I have also ordered several containers to stack on them.  These cars are Athearn and Walthers, the Athearn cars a lightweight plastic and will need specially weighted containers, the Walthers cars are made of diecast metal and run much more reliably, also the Walthers cars can carry truck trailers as shown in the uppermost picture.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Erith Show - January 2011

This weekend I attended the Erith Model Railway show near Dartford, only a half hour drive from home.  The show was held in a primary school and the various layouts and trade stands were spread out across the various rooms and halls of the school.

There were several US outline layouts and both LSWR and The Signal Box were offering US locomotives and rolling stock.

I purchased an Atlas 60ft CSX boxcar, an Athearn Stack car and a second-hand Walthers 89ft Intermodal flat car.

US Layouts included:


Ian Lampkins Santa Barbera N scale layout.



Dan Lawrences  Twin Falls Logging Railroad On30 scale layout.



Tim Mercers Zanesville HO scale layout


Overall it was a really interesting show, lots of layouts, some really outstanding modelling on display, and the fun of wandering through the warren of corridors and rooms finding new things to see.