Monthly meet

(First up, a quick note to anonymous; what kits? e-mail me for more info)

A smaller crowd this month, but still some interesting discussions.
I took along the pieces of track that I've been working on. One piece was examined by the Guru for several minutes with a few probing questions. I think it was OK, but I'm lucky he didn't have his optivisor. He did point out that my check rails are too short, so I'll have to go back and extend them a bit (read; make them again). I also recounted the trip to the Trainz weekend in Chch, along with me missing most of the things I had wanted to see.

The hosts layout was a simple loop with some sidings to be added later. He had some older NZR stuff (2 D's and an F, plus what lookedlike the chassis for an old K), but also had some very nice On30 stuff. It runs fantastically well too. I'm soo tempted...

Later on there was a discussion on how Nickel silver isn't actually that good as rail, and gets dirty all the time. Now I've never really seen this (Ok, well at 2 day exhibitions, but we would stop every 3-4 hrs and clean the rails quickly). The suggestion is that steel is much superior. Ok, apart from the rust, and that was only really a problem 30 odd years ago in the tropical paradise that is England. I'm not really sure what the solution is for this, but I think more pickups are in order. It doesn't solve the problem but does make it go away a bit more. What I can't believe is that you can run a loco picking up on 4 tender wheels and 3 driving wheels on the other side. Its just a recipe for unhappyness as far as I can see. I'll have to do some more thinking about this.