Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 1, 2018 14:39:57 GMT -5
Well time flies. It doesn't seem ten years since Cuyahoga, my Nickel Plate Road' layout made its debut at Zedex 2008 so to celebrate I'm taking it to this years show to celebrate its anniversary.
Back then I was really struggling to get it ready for the show and there was some doubt whether it would be ready but a serious thrash got it into some sort of running order
The scenery was really sparse and it has a paper diagram on the control panel!
Guest operator Colin Burns gets his head round the trackplan
Even the photographs were a bit naff back then!
The area intended for the coach servicing area was bare so a quick intermodal yard (completely out of period) was thrown together. I had to run what little stock I had, hence the very out of era TTX spine cars rake had to do.
The layout was well received by the public and there were some kind comments about the boats. More importantly it ran well and the trackplan showed its potential in regards to switching the docks and roundhouse,
There then followed an improvement program and the show invites mounted up
Once I was happy I submitted articles to Z-Track and Continental Modeller magazines and it duly appeared in them and carried on taking it out to shows across the U.K.
By now I was picking up a lot more rolling stock AZL, MTL, Full Throttle and converted Marklin. The drive was to keep it authentic, right railroads, right era so things like the AL GP7s were a godsend
Although the NKP in real life only had one GP35 I've repainted two MTL ones, as like the GP7 they are superb runners. I keep a log of loco hours and NKP GP7s #422 and # 426 have now clocked up over 250 hours each of show running and all I've ever done is clean the wheels
More soon
Kev
Back then I was really struggling to get it ready for the show and there was some doubt whether it would be ready but a serious thrash got it into some sort of running order
The scenery was really sparse and it has a paper diagram on the control panel!
Guest operator Colin Burns gets his head round the trackplan
Even the photographs were a bit naff back then!
The area intended for the coach servicing area was bare so a quick intermodal yard (completely out of period) was thrown together. I had to run what little stock I had, hence the very out of era TTX spine cars rake had to do.
The layout was well received by the public and there were some kind comments about the boats. More importantly it ran well and the trackplan showed its potential in regards to switching the docks and roundhouse,
There then followed an improvement program and the show invites mounted up
Once I was happy I submitted articles to Z-Track and Continental Modeller magazines and it duly appeared in them and carried on taking it out to shows across the U.K.
By now I was picking up a lot more rolling stock AZL, MTL, Full Throttle and converted Marklin. The drive was to keep it authentic, right railroads, right era so things like the AL GP7s were a godsend
Although the NKP in real life only had one GP35 I've repainted two MTL ones, as like the GP7 they are superb runners. I keep a log of loco hours and NKP GP7s #422 and # 426 have now clocked up over 250 hours each of show running and all I've ever done is clean the wheels
More soon
Kev
