what are people doing on their layout right now

[Newportnobby]

Just received 48m of 50x25mm treated timber in 4.8m lengths. The delivery guy seemed to think I was going be repairing as roof 

Gadzooks! I would have thought the same

[KevTheBusDriver]

Not quite 'right now' but on Thursday... at last Saturday's open day, a Farish Class 24 stopped dead and refused to move. Stripped down, the motor had 2 'dead spots' so would only run if spun by hand to start! New motor (£22 plus VAT) ordered from Bachamnn on Sunday, arrived Wednesday, fitted Thursday, re-assembled 24 runs silent and smoooth!

[chrism]

Not doing anything new at present, just pottering around finishing off things on Furness Junction that were only "sort of" finished.

Firstly, all the buildings are now properly wired in - so the array of croc clip leads that were powering the lights have gone at last 

I've also split the 12v DC supply to give the coaling tower its own dedicated supply - all the LEDs I put in the buildings (and I dare say there will eventually be more) were sucking too much out of the power supply and making the tower unreliable, especially the uncouplers. It's still not perfect so I need to look at one of the magnet and reed switch locations so that the cradle landing at the bottom will always shut off the power rather than the motor running on and wrapping the hoist cables around things they shouldn't.

While I've been fiddling with the wiring, I've extended the control panel to accommodate studs/LEDs for some additional points I installed some time back - I think they've been adequately tested now 
I've also added switches in the control panel extension for the wheel drop and I'm now working on a little semi-automation for that - primarily to prevent parts being moved when others are in the wrong location, which would  jam or distort the parts. I'm also looking at putting a limit switch in to prevent the platform being dropped too far and jamming that mechanism.

At the Club, we've completed the wiring on Lakeside and put it to one side for now as we have some mods to do to Haverthwaite before its next outing, probably Workington next autumn. We're going to hack saw the fiddle yard off the back and remake it as a separate pair of baseboards. That will a) make the main boards easier to transport and b) allow the fiddle yard to be used with any layout, like Lakeside or (in the future) Greenodd. We can also, we think, fit in a couple more loops in the fiddle yard and bring the Backbarrow Iron Works spur around to the main fiddle yard instead of having just a couple of sidings - that should reduce the amount of stock handling to switch from raw materials or empty wagons going to the iron works and full ones coming back out.
We also want to revise the legs to make them easier to transport and sort some plywood sheets to which the main baseboards can be bolted, turning it into a large "box", again for easier transporting with less risk of damage.
Although one of our members has a Transit van, which we did use to take it to Barrow, it would be nice to be able to get it in a car (or if need be two cars) so we aren't reliant on that member being available.

[AndyRA]

Finally completed a long term project of recreating the Forder's Sidings to Kings Cross 'Brickliner'. Got enough second hand Farish Freightliner flats from Rails of Sheffield to make up a 10 vehicle train. One of the reasons it took so long was I had to make up thirty loads to put on them, then make up the labelling to go onto them, running to around 180 individual transfers to stick on.

[Newportnobby]

That must have been a labour of love, Andy

[crewearpley40]

That must have been a labour of love, Andy

Totally agree there mick.

Impressive with the Class 25s, Manchester Pullman stock and BOC tanks too. Evocative and brought memories