It was a great pleasure to be invited to take Chitterne to Salisbury RailEx in Thruxton on the 17th and 18th May. This was the first year that this new expanded show had been run at Thruxton and we were keen to see how it would work out.
We – well actually mostly Chris H – worked intensively to extend the layout before the show, but clearly this was never going to be feasible to complete in time. We therefore decided that we would show the layout as “Work in progress” with the two original station boards basically unchanged from their completed state and the new board functional but with incomplete scenery.
The new boards consisted first of two scenic sections. The first contained an extension of the line from Codford and a new single line fiddle-yard at the back to represent the military camp. The second was a shorter board added to the right hand end of the layout to represent the edge of the village. This latter board was purely scenic without any track.
We also took the opportunity to replace the cassette based fiddle yard with a new one using a six track turntable.
After rising at an ungodly hour we collected the layout from the Group Room and arrived at Thruxton in good time. Unfortunately, our allocated space was on the first floor and although there was a lift, it was quite small and rather busy so we had to carry most of the layout up a spiral staircase. Fortunately, the organisers had provided some volunteers to help with this task for which we were grateful.
Setup of the layout went smoothly considering the modifications and the lengthy period since our last exhibition. We were asked to display a picture of a character from Thomas the Tank Engine as part of a competition for younger visitors and were delighted to represent Cranky the Crane!
When the exhibition opened there was a steady flow of visitors and operation of the layout went reasonably smoothly. The new fiddle yard was a huge improvement on the old one and the new station approach board seemed to integrate well into the rest of the layout.
A limitless supply of tea was available although we did have to walk some distance to an adjacent building to collect it.
There were of course some issues. Some engines seemed to run rather roughly and needed a lot of volts from the controller before they would start moving which they would do with a sudden jerk. We also had a few derailments, but we managed to identify the offending stock and remove them from service. Of course the perennial pain of different couplings and the impossibility of getting three link couplings to connect continued to plague us!
A more serous issue arose about half way through Saturday’s running when one of the point motors started to misbehave. When switched in one direction the motor failed to stop and a loud clicking sound of the gears slipping could be heard. As this motor controlled the entrance to the loop it obviously could be left in one position. The problem slowly got worse and amazingly two other motors began to show the same issue. What was really mystifying was that one of these was the entrance to the engine shed siding which had almost never been used. Why it should fail at the same time as another motor which must have been operated at least twenty times as frequently?
Attempts to identify the cause on Sunday morning with the aid of a multimeter proved fruitless and we just had to proceed by leaving the relevant points in the “none clicking” position unless a train was actually passing over them. Fortunately, none of the motors failed to the point that they clicked at both ends of travel which would have really caused us some serious issues.
We received many positive comments from the public and there was some interest in the “Work in Progress” sections and how they would look when completed.
The next outing for Chitterne will be at Wilton Railex 2025 on the 20th September where we will be joined by Navigation Road. Hopefully the updates to the layout will be completed by then and we look forward to seeing you there.