A Mickey Mouse Layout

 We're going try something daring in Glasgow next weekend - running a guest loco!

This is always fraught with risk, especially on a layout with extremely tight curves and using Kadee couplings where it pays to make sure everything is set to the same standards.

However, with the extra train capacity in the fiddle yard extensions, and with a question mark about the usefulness of the Dukedog, I thought it would be prudent to ask the Medical Director if he fancied bringing along his sound fitted Ivatt 2MT - a class sometimes nicknamed a Mickey Mouse, I know not why - because they were also to be found on the Cambrian at this time.

This particular engine 46334 did not work the Cambrian under BR ownership but is well known for doing so in preservation having been called to substitute for a failed Standard 4MT when steam first returned to the coast in the mid-1980s.

I expect the greatest challenge with this loco will be the Medical Director’ idiosyncratic technical set up.

In common with much of his fleet this loco operates in the reverse of what you might expect.

Select forward on the controller and the loco goes backwards, and vice versa.

Who is going to be the first among the crew to forget this minor detail?