Well I had a great time at Bolton apart from spending an hour trying to find the damned place.
Some of which was my fault
. I had printed directions but hadn't taken a note of the name (only that it was a sport centre). Having found Chorley old road after taking a wrong turning and upon asking someone if they knew where the sports centre was on Chorley new road he looked as if I had asked where the alien encampment was on the 3rd ring of Saturn and sent me off on the way to Chorley new road.
Needless to say given his reaction we didn't end up where we wanted. A second enquiry got us onto Chorley new road and little did we know at the time exactly where we needed to be but still no evidence of a sports centre. A third enquiry took us out of Bolton and we turned back once we crossed the boundary. Finally I asked a postmans who while he didn't know the sports centre told us exactly where we were in relation to the directions and we finally got there. Chris by this time was exhausted so the first job for her was a brew and a sit down.
While Chris recovered I had a wander around and found the bring and buy. I had frantically scoured the drawers and cupboards the previous week for 4mm remnants to eBay so I had raised a little cash for the trip. On the bring and buy came the first bargain of the day.
For £95 I picked up an NER/LNER kit by Rising Star which includes Slaters drivers and Alan Gibson bogie wheels and a couple of photo's of the loco (One in NER days and One in LNER days).
Having struck up a conversation with a guy while having a a bew myself (Chris on her 3rd by this time
I found out that this is the range of kits now marketed by Slaters. A quick look on their site when I got home told me that the current kit price is £132.88 without wheels so I was quite pleased with my deal. On examining the kit when I got back it has Slaters coupling rods in it so I think that this may be a Slaters supplied kit (it came in a Kodak photo paper box).I expected the kit to be quite basic but was pleasantly surprised to find it has quite a few lost wax castings although the etches show their age they would be no different from scratch building as long as they fit somewhere near.
The next buy was a JPL models APOC tank wagon kit. Which at £29 as opposed to £54 Slaters one I had been fancying (admittedly no wheels and although the tanks are nickel the rest is white metal), I class as a bargain too.
This had now cleaned me out completely but I was happy enough. With Chris recovered we had a wander around and Chris started looking at the various buildings and line side items on the Skytex stand. They had a special offer of an engine shed, lean too office, a coal stage and water tower for a £100 (giving a saving overall of £24). It wasn't clear what the coaling stage and water tower were so we asked. The lady behind the counter was struggling so she asked the boss he showed us a big square water tower and large coaling stage complete with crane. The lady in the meantime had got out all the components which were a tiny plain coaling stage and a cylindrical water tower (much smaller and presumably much cheaper).
To try to keep the story short enough that you don't go to sleep Chris ultimately bought me the offer the boss had shown us so I now have a few buildings to start the layout. When I got home I priced them up n the Skytrex website and we saved £67 on list so all in all a good day.
If anyone wants photo's of the Skytrex stuff let me know and I will take some.
I quite enjoyed the layouts and despite carrying the camera around all the while I didn't get around to taking any photo's. What I did get through some enquiries of a few of the layout owners is some indication of what can be fit into the space I have for my layout without over crowding it.
