And we’re back…

Well… it’s been a while!

Just after writing the latest update, I underwent some fairly major surgery on my right hand, after which I was not allowed to use it for three months.
This meant that touch-typing was out of the question, and I really didn’t fancy trying to update the site typing with one finger!

So here’s a quick whistle-stop tour of what’s been happening since February!

Continue reading “And we’re back…”

Winter Blues

With many railways in their ‘hibernation’ season and Omicron still circulating, there hasn’t been much opportunity to get out and about with the Golden Ticket over the last couple of months, so focus has remained on the ‘indoor’ models.

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Happy New Year

Happy New Year from me, Andrea and Luna at Phoenix Hill Railways.
All the best to you and yours for a happy and prosperous 2022!

Due to the rise of the Omicron variant, December has been fairly quiet on the railway outings front, but that has given me a little bit more time to work on the model railways instead.

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Fairlie Wonderful

Two new 009 models arrived for the Bryn Ffenics Railway this week, in the form of Ffestiniog Railway ‘Fairlie’ 0-4-4-0T double locomotives.

These locos were announced ‘out of the blue’ by Bachmann in their Autumn/Winter update and were definitely a very pleasant surprise to the narrow gauge modelling community.
Given they were on shelves just a few weeks later, they’d obviously been under development for several years.

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Autumn Madness

We thought September was busy, but October and early November have been absolutely manic, with the Rail Golden Ticket working its socks off taking us to railway events around the country!

There has also been a spate of exciting model arrivals, along with more due very soon!

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A Bridge Too Far?

Lately work on the various railways has been rather slow…
We’ve been busy with various non-railway jobs (including replacing a fence in the garden), but also with the lockdown restrictions easing, we’ve been able to go out visiting places and seeing people again.

This has included two railway trips, to Didcot Railway Centre over the May Bank Holiday, and a lovely ‘afternoon tea’ trip on the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway.

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Forewarned is 4 armed…

To allow safe operation of more than one train on the Phoenix Hill Railway, we are almost certainly going to have to install a proper signalling system.

Although planning for this hasn’t advanced very far yet, the first signal parts have arrived as a result of a fortuitous find on eBay!

Continue reading “Forewarned is 4 armed…”

Now you DCC me…

Although both the BFR and the future OO and HO gauge railways will be capable of operating analogue stock, I want to run them on DCC whenever possible due to the increased flexibility and functionality.

Consequently, I’m slowly working through my analogue stock and fitting it with decoders.
Those that are DCC-ready are usually nice and easy and just involve fitting the decoder in a socket, however, I have a number of models, often older ones, which have no socket and require hard-wiring.
Over the last couple of days I’ve attempted a few of these conversions.

Continue reading “Now you DCC me…”