Is the show draging?

If things are getting a bit slow at the train show  (just after lunch on Sunday) then here is something to keep the operators awake. ( From Alan Cox via the 2mm mailing list. apologies Alan)

There is always shunting scrabble (usually played at shows to avoid
boredom)

Wagons have a letter tacked on the non public visible side. Trains of
wagons arrive and the goal is to send back completed words with the
highest score. Wagons are also arranged so that common wagons have common
letters while Z, Q etc are unusual one offs.

I'm sure that there would need to be a few more rules than this (I've been informed that this is about it). Maybe the scrabble set to draw the letters out for the incoming train.

Wharf part II

Well, a bit of progress this week.

I've decided to add a 3rd track to the wharf as it just didn't look busy enough. this was just in the form of a long siding with the extra point laid in front of the ones that were already there.

'From the dry end'

'From the wet end'

This looks much better than what was previously there. I will use at least part of the new siding to model so activity scenes with wagons being unloaded etc. maybe even a couple of small steam cranes.

A start on a wharf

(And we are back. Work and summer got in the way).

I've made a start on the wharf. The base is a bit of 6mm ply 100mm wide and about 4' long. 2mm thick balsa wood sheet has been laid across this so that I can scribe the planks in. The track has come from my aborted layout in a box file (one of may bits of track I've 1/2 built over the years)

The extra width of the wharf has meant that I can lay another siding to add another shunting track and provide some more space for a scene or 2.
To get it inlaid was a bit of a mission. I've decide to model an old style wharf (pre-WW2) with the rails on top of the planking.
The balsa wood sheet was glued at the sides of the ply sheet. I then traced out the positions of all the sleepers and cut them out. It really didn't take that long, honest.

The track was then positioned to check that everything sat in the right places.

Once I make sure everything is running OK and I come up with a point throwing system that I can hide (and after I have scribed the planks) then I'll glue everything down.