Post #16

 Although I haven't as yet started on the baseboard construction other things have ben moving in the background. The shed is still being worked on, firstly to get it ready to contain East Coast Rail and once that is ready then the other half of the shed will get ready for the South Coast Traction Company.

One half of my fleet of cars has been sent off to have DCC decoders fitted as I feel I don't want to go back to the old days of flipping switches to get operating. On an 8' x 4' board it won't take long to go right around. I am also going to get sound decoders fitted to at least two trams so that videos will be more appreciated. As well headlights will be fitted  to them. It looks odd with a big hole sticking out the front. This as well as the lack of interiors and any form of window glazing leaves a lot to be desired compared with todays models. I guess the fitting of the big motors back then virtually restricted the fitting of seats.

I have also sent off to Modelu in England an order for some figures that I think will represent tramway personnel. I am still coming to terms with the small size of the HO models having just left the larger scale of O scale modelling. Received in superquick time, they have been sent to Ian Fainges an incredible figure painter who will make them all look nice. The prescence of the tramway figures hopefully will bring some life to when I start photographing scenes.

The last post I showed a pile of Traction and Model magazines I obtained. I skimmed through most of them and in one issue over fifty years ago was a model traction survey and the results were published.

 

These were the days well before DCC control and I am sure it would have been well received back then. I seem to remember the invention of the Astrac system was basically a precursor to DCC or anyway an improved way of controlling your fleet. I am not electronically minded so I will go with what works today.