We were out both Saturday and Sunday with our group WW1 16mm Layout ‘4000 Yards Area 5.

On Saturday we were at the Bury St Edmunds Model Railway Clubs Exhibition at Thurston. Their first exhibition at this venue. It was a very good day and met up with lots of friends and had many excellent questions from the public – next year their Exhibition will be at BSE Cathedral.

On Sunday we moved from Suffolk to Norfolk, this was to the Whitwell and Reepham Railway. It was their ‘Rail 200’ day and again was a very enjoyable day. Just a quick plug, we will be back there in October for their O Gauge Exhibition day with a different layout.

All photos taken by my Wife over the 2 days.

On Saturday 2/3/24 we were at the Mid Norfolk Model Railway Exhibition – we had Grahams 16mm (SM32) WW1 Layout there. A few Photos taken by my wife on this very enjoyable and busy day.

This Layout is at March Model Railway Exhibition on 9/3/24 – come and say hello.

Here are some photos of the WW1 layout before the crowds arrive.

Photos by Les and John

I have just finished the new fiddle yard and blended the new with the old. We still have some extra bricks to add and this will be done before its next Exhibition.

The new fiddle yard gives us far more flexibility and lets us run longer and more realistic trains.

The dilapidated Shed was made using MDF, Cork and various strip wood.

Today I started to blend the front of the new fiddle yard with the original baseboard. There is a lot to do with the broken down Barn a priority. Graham has ordered a load of 16mm bricks and is actively seeking some appropriate roof tiles. It will be quite a tight schedule as this needs to be complete by September 10th when we are at the Cambridge Model Exhibition with the layout in its new form.

I also took the chance to touch in the flaked paint and replace missing ballast. Humbrol Enamel paints both diluted and neat were used.

While we were adding the new fiddle yard we also tested the DCC System for the Locos and the DC system for the points.

Here are a few photos taken during the testing.

Yesterday we added the new fiddle yard to Gare De Brindille. We now have an off scene fiddle yard, all shunting previously done on the scenic section. We also took this opportunity to clean the whole layout and patch up some ballast that had come adrift. All that remains now is to blend the colours for continuity, Graham will also be making a building, probably an old Barn to ensure exit from the layout is not through a ‘hole in the sky’.