Here is a brief summary of events for Highbridge since July 2012.
Notes on Dartmouth follow in my next post.
In 2012, Highbridge of 1913 (P4) was in my Victorian pile basement and fully operational. It was never intended for exhibiting as its too large for my small team but is good for playing trains with various chums. Construction had started in early Spring of 1980 . This kept me sane while awaiting completion of the purchase of the run down Victorian pile. At the Easter 1980 MR Exhibition I exhibited just one naked 4' x 2' baseboard with P4 track laid, this was baseboard A and contained the famous track level crossing where S&DJR crossed B&ER. I was delighted to receive an accolade for best trackwork in the show, especially as one of the judges was the late Guy Williams.
Progress on Highbridge lost two years due to mega outbreaks of dry rot in the house and subsequent legal claim against the surveyor. The court case took 10 years to resolve and was a terrific drain on time, money and energy.
A teaching wife, 4 teenagers and a demanding job meant progress was slow but always enjoyable, greatly supported by two loyal friends, Tim and Dave. So we eventually had a working layout, lots of stock, well modelled buildings in the two station areas and cheapo, temporary card buidings around the town. Scenery was/is rudimentary ground cover, not very demanding as we are in the Somerset levels ! Many happy evenings were spent operating, developing a timetable and entertaining friends, while the layout gradually grew towards a finished model.
In October 2015 we downsized ( shut up Tim
) as our large family were long gone. We moved to an entirely different sort of house and garden. Equity release enabled me to have a luxury shed built down the garden to house Highbridge which had been in storage for 6 months.
While not intended for exhibiting I had had enough foresight to ensure transportable baseboards, none larger tha 4' x 2.5' and properly dowelled joints. The shed is the largest allowed on the site, near 5 x 6 M and gave better access around the outside of the oval shaped layout.
We had a grand re-opening in Summer 2016, celebrated by most members of the Bristol Area Group of the Scalefour Society (aka BS4) with Prosecco, cakes and ale and partners. Lots of operating fun ensued for the pre-Covid years. A number of enhancements were installed including the trackwork for the long overdue wharf area.
Since the start of 2020, attendance by friends has been much reduced as my wife is in the highly vulnerable category so ultra precautions have applied. At Christmas 2020 I was clobbered by deteriorating health unrelated to viruses and was unable to do much modelling for 9 months.
Acquiring a pacemaker in September 2021 got me going again. By the end of 2021 I was able to restart limited visiting by friends and many vaccinations enabled that situation to improve, but I still suffer a lot of dizziness which inhibits some activity.
One current project is to repair various faults caused by excess temperature swings. In the Victorian basement the range was 10 to 25 C degrees. Background heating and a small air conditioner were supposed to match that but equipment failures allowed swings between 1 and 40 C degrees. NS rail and BrookSmith rivets or the dropper wires sometimes part company at those extremes
I must do better with climate control !
The other in hand development is to instal my MkIII overhead lighting system. In the 1980 and 90s I had suspended QI spots and flood lights but the UV content caused eye irritation to Dave. The advent of LED clones overcame that issue but lighting was dimmer.
In the new shed, I had added many more led spots and floods but have never been satisfied due to too many dim areas and they are hideous!
Experience with 12v led strip lighting on my Dartmouth model has encouraged me to use these over Highbridge. The latest high lumen strips provide enough light and even spread. A trial rig has proved excellent so the final version is in design right now......in between running trains
Click on your inbox to send a pm . WF
