The sun returns to the Czech Republic

From Burgundy, the Longer Tomy Thomas Trains moved to the Czech Republic, where, a year on, a more seasonal sun had returned. We could finally go back to the layouts from the previous summer, and come up with refined versions. Each layout is made up of 9 independent loops.

 

Nice memories from that summer: the layout-making and filming was only interrupted by watching the Cycling Tour of Spain on the television, in other words the perfect holiday.

Volume 5 concentrated on the narrow gauge trains, although as was later pointed out to me by one of the viewers, Victor is also narrow gauge and could have been put in place of Mavis. Volume 4, below, though will serve as a tribute to Murdoch: both on Volume 2 and especially here he is seen performing superbly, demonstrating great pulling power. This would be his swansong, for he suffered severe damage from a leaking battery shortly afterwards. Whether he is eventual repaired or replaced, I fear he may never be as good.

2011: 4 uploads from Burgundy

And so, more by accident than by design, the next uploads would be Volumes 2 & 3 of the Longer Trains series, a year on from Volume 1, but still in Burgundy. Both would use the same layout, made of 4 independent loops, and without any incline, because I had serious doubts about the ability of some of the trains to pull more than 2 or 3 trucks up any sort of incline. Each loop was big enough to accommodate 2 trains though.

Here is Volume 3, which opens with a 2'50 continuous sequence:

I also uploaded 2 shorter clips, each featuring only one train: one was with Neville, pulling 7 tankers, and the other one with the Furano Express. At the time I hadn't been able to find any youtube clips featuring that particular train, although I have seen it cropping up since, usually as one of several trains in a clip.

The Furano Express in Burgundy:

I made the prediction that there would be no more Longer Trains instalments from Burgundy, and so far it has been borne out...

2010: No more uploads.

Later that summer, we travelled to the Czech Republic. We came up with another couple of layouts, but an unusually dark late summer meant that the filming was of such a poor quality that I decided against using it. I have however included a short snippet here:

Of course this would develop the following year into the Volumes 4 and 5 of the Longer Trains Series. Besides, there was also another layout, which we have yet to come back to.

We still hope to redo this, but in the meantime there would be no more upload until the next summer...