Fylde Area Group

This months talk by member Graham Seed was very interesting and well received. Graham brought his test track and Lenz system, along with a cordless phone to show how easy it is to control several locomotives at once. After a brief introduction we were quickly into CV's (configuration variables) , demonstrating how easy it is to get motors running right by listening to the motor and watching for surges in the movement of the locomotive. It was amazing to see just how much entertainment can be had running four locomotives up and down 5 foot of track when there are three drivers!

Next meeting - Run and Natter - 15th November - please contact Mike Norris for further details.

EYAG expand!

The East Yorkshire Area Group increased their membership by 50% recently when Dave Burman and Chris Leach were joined by James Wells, a talented young (well, compared to the other two of us!) modeller. His enthusiasm has spurred us all on to greater efforts. The picture shows, l to r, Dave, James and Chris standing by the group's under-construction NER layout, Botanic Gardens, which is hosted by the Hull Model Railway Society.

Craven Scalefour Group Congratulate You!

Our current complement, as picture shows, are , back row, L to R, Paul Hatherley, Roger Courtenay, Roger Cox [secretary], front, L to R, Allan Smith, Paul Severs, Howard Lorriman. We will be exhibiting our circle 'Heath End' at the Bolton show on November 3rd and 4th. Our next 'social' meeting is at Roger's [see Blue Sheet] at 7.30 p.m., Monday 29th October, new blood welcome! For more on our layout and individual models, see Cravenscale Blog at http://cravens4ag.blogspot.com/. Paul S

Hull Town Docks at the Leeds Show

Jim Harrison AGO of the West Yorkshire Area Group will be exhibiting his layout 'Hull Town Docks' at the Leeds Show, held at Leeds Grammar School on Saturday 27th (10.00am-6.00pm) and Sunday 28th (10.00am-5.00pm). The school is situated on the east side of Harrgate Road (A61) at the northern boundary of Leeds. Would any members attending the show please introduce themselves to Jim. Picture courtesy of Jim Summers.

North East Finescale Group Meeting

Some pics of our meeting last Friday. This was hosted by David Boorman on the 5th October 2007 and will forever be known as the 'Fish & Chips' meeting. The meeting was held in the Community Room of Orchard House in North Shields. The picture shows from left to right: Bob Jones, Dave Dunn, Paul Moore, Barry Nicholson, John H Wright, Tony Cormack, David Boorman, Mick Simpson and Yvonne Simpson.

Glevum Area Group

The Glevum Area Group's website: http://glevums4.mysite.orange.co.uk/index.html has recently been updated.
Changes include some preliminary details of the changes being made to the group layout "Brinkley" and also progress on "Lydmouth". The latter is being built by one of our group for the DEMU challenge.

Uckfield Model Railway Club Exhibition

The Uckfield Model Railway club exhibition takes place on the 20th and 21st October with two P4 layouts: Dartly and Cheddar, plus a presence from the Wealden Area of the Scalefour Society.
Follow this link for more information: http://www.uckfieldmrc.co.uk/exhib07f.html

Fylde Area Group

Next Thurday 18th October, sees one of our members, Graham Seed proving us with a talk/discussion on slow speed running using DCC.
Graham was one of the DCC demonstrators at this year Scalefour North and is well known for his slow runnign locomotives.
Please contact me directly (phone number on Blue Sheet) if you need details to attend.

DRAG - testing, testing

Hi everyone, just getting used to this blog thingy!

Down here in the southwest we had our regular (fortnightly) meeting last night, with the usual set up of the Mark I test track on which a variety of stock circulated through the evening. Various natterings continued in other corners of the room concerning things like getting on with the new improved Mark II test track and helping Andrew Eaton with some conceptual ideas for his home layout based in the Black Country in the 1920s.

We also discussed Scaleforum of course, and I am pleased - nay, gloating - that 80% of the DRAG membership made it there. Some are shown on this photo, looking remarkably chipper given that this was about six in the morning on Exeter St Davids station! Tim Maddocks did a great job in organising cheap group tickets so that everyone got up for around £27 a head, and still giving six hours or so at the show on the Saturday. Brian & Jane Pearce and myself were up all weekend anyway on official duties, and three other members made their own way.

Narrow gauge at Scaleforum 2007

We had a great weekend in Leatherhead with Borth-y-Gest. help was at hand from S gauge modeller Leslie Bevis-Smith (and I was amazed at the number of SGMRS members who attended - they claimed to be there to take the 4 out of our title....)
The real business of showing S4 narrow gauge on 7.83 gauge was a a pleasure, and doubled by being awarded the MRJ Chalice for James Spooner, seen here in action on the layout. Sound and smoke are all genuine - no digital computer trickery at all.... Thanks to all for a great weekend. Paul

Invitations sent. New authors signed up

A total of 44 invitations have now been sent out to the Scalefour Society Area Group Organizers and/or their designated representatives so that they can become authors on this Area Groups News Blog, I've also invited the Society's Webmaster and Scalefour News Editor to join. So far: Mid-Devon; NorthEast Finescale and Craven Area Groups have signed up, so I'd like to welcome David, John and Paul and say that I am looking forward to reading their posts.
Now we can go live to the rest of the Society and really raise the profile of the Area Groups and keep the membership fully informed of all the excellent modelmaking that's going on under the auspices of the Area Groups.

New Area Group Pictures

As I wait for more pictures to arrive for the Scaleforum Retrospective that I'll be putting together I have news of more Area Groups that have updated their entries on the website.

Manchester (with some photos to come), Weston, Dukeries and the Norfolk & Suffolk who have sent some very nice pictures of their layout 'Coldfair Green'. (See right)