Somewhere SW of London. Somewhen before today

Yes, Peco turnouts etc modified very well.

Gosh Rick, can it really be nearly seven years since you packed up Penhayle Bay.



     Ed

I was thinking the same thing. As my Father told me many years ago; the older you get, the quicker the years go by.

Ed said

Gosh Rick, can it really be nearly seven years since you packed up Penhayle Bay.
     Ed

From “Post #290,225”, 16th May 2024, 1:29 pm

Is that all?  

It sometimes seems rather longer than that!  I do still have the large stone viaduct.  It currently resides in the MRC clubhouse and is used occasionally as a display piece either with my weathering roadshow or just as a piece of modelling work in its own right.  The loft contains most of the rolling stock; I sold a few items but almost all is still here and has been added to since.  The D600-series "Warships" were produced too late to run on that layout though have all turned wheels on Waddlemarsh albeit very briefly.  

There is no chance at present of re-creating the entirety of Penhayle Bay but there may be an option to rebuilt a couple of scenes as run-through dioramas.  I have in mind the clay works and Penhayle Bay station and the beach if the option ever becomes available.  

I also continue to make selective additions to the Waddlemarsh rolling stock roster.  Just this weekend I was at a local show and found a 2-Bil EMU set at a sensible price. It claimed to be new and unopened but the box had definitely been opened more than once.  The unit was still wrapped in its tissue inside and appeared to have never been taken out but once I removed it it became apparent that one of the buffer beams had been re-glued at some point, along with one of the fuse boxes hung from the frames.  Nothing shows to the viewer but there are glue marks beneath the unit which suggest it might have been a factory repair of transit damage.  That would have rendered the item unsaleable by Hornby so it has probably been sitting on a shelf somewhere for the past ten years awaiting purchase by an after-market dealer and that is how it came to me.  

At £85 I can't complain.  These units often fetch £120+ on the auction sites for used examples.  "Brand new in box" ones are quite rare now and can command twice that price.  This one is in the BR green with a small yellow warning panel on the ends which is the livery variant I have been chasing on and off for some time having missed out when they were first released.  So I came away a happy bunny and the unit is now on the weathering bench being slightly dirtied.  

I have the fiddle yard set up and powered so for Wednesday's club night I shall take the new unit along and hope it works! That will also be the time to start fitting the new two-into-four crossover piece which will give more flexible access to and from the yard than was previously the case.