New wagon

Mäusestadt received a new wagon today and its a beauty (in wagon terms anyway!) A Roco DR stake wagon.

Major Falcon surgery

Last night i had to open up the Falcon after the LED headlights stopped working in one direction. I found the reason was a wire from the main PCB to the lights PCB had become detached (maybe poorly soldered in the first place). So an easy thing to fix... Apart from the fact to get where i needed to re-solder the wire on the PCB was only possible by taking most of Falcon's internals apart!

I've never done this amount of disassembly of a locomotive's internals before so was nervous about it and hoping i wouldn't turn my flagship loco into a pretty paperweight... Luckily it all came back together and runs fine... and the lights are fixed of course!

Well the Falcon is the Falcon, thats why i love that loco so much. It can even survive me and a soldering iron... Lets just hope i never need to do this again.

Starting Mäusestadt station

I've made a start on the station, just a platform for now. Its made out of foamboard over which some grey paper has been wrapped. It doesn't look much right now but will have buildings and people added later.

The wall

The track arrangement has now been finalised (and fixed down), now i know exactly where the track is i can build the permanent back scene wall. This is a solid wooden frame and card has been used for the actual wall. Later on some brick and stone block effect panels will be put over the card.

Fleet catch-up

Just some photos of the 4 active locomotives on the slowly developing new layout. What of Plymouth 17? Well that might be coming onto the layout soon too...

Fixed down

At the weekend i raised the temporary layout then painted the board dark grey so there is a better base for any future scenery. Then i began laying the track down in a more permanent manner (with glue instead of double sided sellotape!) While the main loop is fine (though maybe a bit close to the edge in parts) i am not 100% happy with the MPD. I have ordered a couple of extra pieces of track.

Servicing

Now we have a new craft table all of the locomotive fleet will be properly serviced over the next few weeks. A photo of the first loco to be serviced is below, as it is in a state of undress we have taken measures to hide its identity...

A new craft table

Late last year my craft table, which was the dining table really... became the dining table again. I therefore needed a new table for my model making and i got it today. The 2017 model making season can therefore begin... and has with a model of a Jet Provost now in building.