Club Modelling Comp 2014

Before I get inot the post title, I'll share what I have been doing since the last post. The S wagon's display track was finished. I oversaw Lachlan finishing his model of Stephenson's Rocket ready for the comp. I did go back to the 73 class and discovered one of the lightboards was having a problem. Further investigation found that the headlight was not turning on when power applied when it had tested OK before. It would appear as though somewhere along this tortuous affair one of the PCB tracks may have internal damage. So I bypassed the PCB traces altogether and soldered the headlight wire directly to the LED. Presto it now works! Now I just have to wire everything up to the decoder, shoe-horn it into place, and pray that there is enough room with all those wires to have the shell engage with the chassis.

Back to the Club Modelling Competition. Well it was a reasonable turnout, with 21 entries reducing to 17 as a result of last minute withdrawals. Some very nice work done. But the best result in my opinion was from my son Lachlan. He not only won the President's Award for a mentored model, but also won the Rollingstock Minor category that was judged by three judges. He even beat me by a convincing score! That was a really big surprise for him, and he was suitably chuffed. Now he is planning out next year's options, many of which are grandiose, so I will have to be the voice of reason (as much as any Dad is to a 10 year old!)

Well done, Lachlan from Dad.

 So now heading to the Xmas-New Year period. Whether I get to finishing that 73 before the end of the year, time will tell. I would really like to.