Chris: My first layout

Chris, Good to catch up on your thread. Seems like it is all coming together, even if the glue won't dry. Keep up the good work. Jim

I've posted another update with a few images added. Not the world's most interesting except, possibly, for the bird's eye view (less bridge 'cos it would fall off.
All the best,
Chris.

Dear Friends,
Just a short note. The layout is all ready for it trip to the Dundee expo tomorrow. I took a few photos shortly before and after closing it up. Sadly they didn't come out too well; I don't think the auto focus was working properly. Still they do give an idea of where I am at.
All the best,
Chris.

Hello everyone.
The Dundee expo went really well with very few spontaneous derailments and coupling failures. I did do a few rear-enders though! Several people opined, on the basis of plenty of detail and the tiny size of the trains, that Breitenfurt was the best layout there. (Smug feeling.) No awards tho'. I'm just about back down to earth.

I've put up three photos of the layout on my diary/blog. Some more will be available later but the won't be very good as the autofocus AND exposure controls were misbehaving. I think it's something that I am doing, but don't know what. Anyway, do have a look.

All the best,
Chris.

My apologies to anyone who tried, and failed, to view the three images from the Dundee expo. The problem has now been resolved. Ironically, no-one complained.
Chris.

Dear Friends,

Well, I really did make a mess of those pictures from Dundee. (There won't be a full report as my camera's focusing was playing up.) Since then my life has been pretty chaotic with a wind band weekend (I play the horn) and a trip to Utrecht to the Eurospoor 2011. And now I am preparing for next weekend's expo in Elgin. I have had to change out a turnout and an adjacent length of track, repair a signal that got damaged during that task. Also one of my Märklin turnout control boxes failed and has had to be swapped with one that has spare places on it. Finally, I am wondering whether to wire up the station lights - it's a lot of wires. I will try to post some images from Eurospoor, and Elgin, when I get some time. (I have a lot of practising to do for a concert at the beginning of December.)

While at the Eurospoor I managed to acquire an extra Bavarian S3/6 and a second Badischer mixed traffic set (Märklin 81420), both at a very reasonable price (compared with British prices).

Finally, a question. I keep losing the coupling bars from my Henschel-Wegmann set. Fortunately, so far I have found them after a diligent search. However, I fear that that one day one will disappear for ever. Does anyone here know where I can get another set of these bars? They are no longer manufactured.

With best wishes,
Chris.

Dear Friends,

A while ago I was asked if I had any videos of Bahnhof Breitenfurt – Ost to which I replied that I didn't have a video camera. However, a friend of mine, Gerry Coogan, came to see the layout at the Elgin MRC exhibition last weekend and his videos are now all on Youtube. Rather than clutter up the forum with a load of links, I have set up a draft webpage with the necessary links on my site. You can see it at trains.manvell.org.uk/exhibitions/20111112-Elgin/videos.htm . It's a bit of a mess but I will tidy it up later. Note: there are no internal links to this page, only the one above.

All the best,
Chris.

Hi Everyone. It's been a long while since I did an update. The simple reason is that I hadn't done anything worth reporting on the layout. However, that has changed now. The platform lighting, with one exception is complete and working; the footbridge is now complete and in place (with lighting) and the houses have internal lighting. It looks pretty spectacular. So the next step was to take some photos. To be able to do this, I had to move the layout to another room (also necessary to get it ready for an exhibition on the 17th & 18th) and start experimenting. My aim is to improve on the effect I got at the end of 2010 (see diary). I'm not there yet but have put my first photo on my website diary. Do have a look.
With best wishes,
Chris.

Dear Friends,

Just a very short message as I have a lot to do before I leave for next weekend's exhibition. I have posted five more photos of my layout, five by moonlight and one after the clouds have covered the moon. I do promise that there will be some daytime photos soon (and, maybe, a couple of videos). Anyway, do have a look at tiny.cc/breitenfurt/ .

With best wishes,
Chris.

Hello, dear friends.

Well, the Moray MRG exhibition in Elgin (Scotland, not IL) has been and gone. It all went pretty well though the usual problems of tired locos on the second day afternoon manifested itself. Anyway, I am happy, which is the important thing. The visitors had a lot of positive comments though quite a few just walked past noses in the air. No prizes though.

Anyway, I have been very busy on the web. I have completed reports for the Dundee MRC and Moray MRG expos. Sadly the former is very patchy as I did something to my camera and most of my photos were unusable. I have only competed the Breitenfurt part of November's Elgin exhibition and the rest will follow over the next week.

Do have a look and I hope you like what you see. Here are the links.
Dundee MRC exhibition, October 2011
Elgin MRC Modelfair, November, 2011
Moray MRG GNOS Exhibition, March 2012

With best wishes,
Chris.

Since posting the above message, I have also added 13 extra photos to my Breitenfurt diary.

Chris,
Thanks for sharing the adventures of you and the Breltenfurt Railway.
I certainly would love to see it in operation, have you ever done a video and placed it on You Tube?

Robert

Hi Robert.

Thanks for the comments. There are some videos. Go to the Elgin page and you will see a link at the bottom of the text. I am also hoping to upload some videos myself but I am still struggling with the editor. I'll post when they are available.

All the best,
Chris.

My Elgin 2011 report is now complete.
Best wishes,
Chris.

Dear friends,

With nothing in the offing and with other things occupying my time Breitenfurt Ost sort of got pushed to one side for several months. Then, like London buses, three came at once. (Well,, not quite. One was in the offing in October but 2 weeks ago two invites landed in my inbox within minutes of each other! One month to get things sorted (panic). About the only thing I had done was to lay chippings between a few of the tracks and now I discovered that a mix of inexperience and with only one good eye I had managed to get the grit into point motors and train detectors. Anyway, the whole sorry story and more is on my website (usual address).
In case anyone is in the north of Scotland (some hopes), the first expo is in Inverness on 8th & 9th September. More info on my website.

With best wishes,
Chris.

Dear Friends,

I haven't kept you up to date with the layout as most of my updates to the website were all pretty boring with lots of text and few images. However, I have added a few images from the exhibition if you are interested. Of course, they are not much different from those in the spring. Worth having a look though, if you are interested.

With my best wishes,
Chris.

Hey everyone. :o)

I've been really busy this last couple of months (not just on railways) so, just to give you a summary of my recent activity, here are my latest web pages. I only just finished the Inverness one. Please, if you spot any mistakes, do let me know.

Bahnhof Breitenfurt – Ost — updated 2012/10/26:
tiny.cc/breitenfurt/

Zedex 2012 (Oxford & District MRC) — The annual convention for Z gauge modellers, including Z scale (1:220), Nm and 2mm narrow gauge:
trains.manvell.org.uk/exhibitions/2...Zedex/index.htm

Inverness and District MRC Exhibition (8/9 September) — at 100miles (160km) my nearest model rail exhibition:
trains.manvell.org.uk/exhibitions/2...rness/index.htm

Do have a look, and enjoy, especially the Zedex page where there are two 1:220 British outline layouts, and one in the making, amongst all the superb models.

Now I have to go and fix a signal.

With best wishes,
Chris.

Dear Friends,

I just checked my access files and was horrified to see hundreds of errors reported. My apologies for the two links that didn't work. I hadn't realised that the forum software had abbreviated the addresses. Here are the correct links; do have a another look.

Click here for Zedex 2012 .

Click here for the Inverness 2012 expo .

If all else fails, just go to trains.manvell.org.uk/ .

Once again, my apologies.

Best wishes,
Chris.

Dear Friends,

After several days of hard work, I have competed my Elgin Modelfair page and updated my layout page Do have a look. The links are:

Click here for the Elgin Modelfair .

Click here for the Breitenfurt Diary .

No more exhibitions planned at the moment.

With best wishes,
Chris

It certainly has come along well mate,looking good. Who makes the turntable please?