Category Archives: Warrington 2011

Warrington October 2011

This was Mauch Chunk’s second Exhibition with the Merseyside MRS team and the first off our home turf. We exhibited nearby (about 20 miles away) in Warrington at the Warrington MRS’ annual exhibition, making transport and organisation relatively easy.

The layout generally ran very well: Paul and Chris cleaned wheels all weekend and Ian cleaned the track almost continuously! Paul had modified the electrics over the year to separate the electrical supplies to the two sets of tracks, so that shorts only affect one track. He had also modified some kit built by another club member (Derek Jones) that enables us to run locos that draw more power. As a result disruptions from shorts and overloading the system were reduced. As well as our CNJ stock – brass and plastic – We again ran Paul’s Philadelphia F3s and our two BLI Mikados (hat have not yet been turned into CNJ M3s).

The sound-chipped Mikados and F3s proved very popular with all the visitors, not just the youngsters. The new lighting gantry designed and built by Chris, and allowing us to lose the central pillar (see the Merseyside MRS October 2011 exhibition photos) worked very well, and gave a clear panoramic view of the model. New fascia and pelmet improved the look considerably as well.

There are five of us now in the Mauch Chunk PA team – from L to R in both relevant photos: Chris Bennett, Gordon Young, Dave Williams, Steve Hales and Paul Rees – although we couldn’t coordinate a smile from all of us in a single photo! We were also ably helped out by Bob Powell from the club, Ian Clark who is ex-club and Nigel Baker who was visiting Steve.

Here’s a selection of photos of the layout over the Exhibition weekend. I’ve used a retouch tool to lose the baseboard joins so apologies to the purists – but they just look better.