Yesterday was Narrow Gauge North in Pudsey and the short summary is that Annie and I had a great day.

It’s a show that I always used to trade at with my EDM Models stand but this year I was just there as a demonstrator and in a different location to what was the “usual” spot. The only photo I have is this “just before it opened” shot.

I didn’t get that much done but then that’s not really what the day is about. Those two guest chairs were almost continuously occupied with people discussing what I was doing, having a go at soldering or just generally having a catch up. As the time the 16,5mm gauge Townsend Hook was going round and round on the lower level of the track whilst 14mm gauge Alice went round the top.

There was one major revelation though. I swear by PowerFlow flux for my kit soldering but when you leave the lid of the pot it changes to a brown gungy paste. Still works and absolute treat but it doesn’t look great and it can take a bit of spreading.

Users will recognise this  gungy mess!

This stuff is used for plumbing so it has a party trick for that application that can be a pain for modellers. Once its been heated it starts a conversion from acidic active flux to a rock hard inert crust where the soldering happened to stop it eating your pipes.

However, if done within an hour or so sticking under a hot running tap and it runs off like butter off a knife. Add a bit of amateur science and a scrub with CIF which is alkali and its all clean. I give mine a swim in the ultrasonic cleaner.

Regular users may have a distant memory of when a pot looked like this, smooth, creamy and easy to apply. A Friday night dash to Screwfix was the result of my admitting that the old pot was finally too gungy.

Did I actually make anything? Well yes! As if I didn’t have enough projects on the go I have set about Project Lillian as I have decided to call it. There will be a lot more about Project Lillian in future posts but it has started with my building the running plate and buffer beams from my ex Agenoria Kit SL5 for the Penrhyn Quarry Port Class.

There were three of this flavour of Quarry Hunslet, Gwynedd (316), Lillian (317) & Winifred (364) and they are all still with us. More on Project Lillian and the Castle Diesels another time