Tuesday 30 December 2008

Brinkley Boards Update

Latest News from the Glevum Area Group

Morgan, Chris & Robin spent yesterday tracklaying!!!!

Yes the new Brinkley boards now have some track and just to prove it here is a photo of one of the PW gang with board 4.

In view is Graham's 3 way turnout plus a length of flexitrack to the turntable.Further progress now includes track on the main line and the shed access road including the crossover.

Morgan has also done a sterling job on the new shed roads and associated inspection/pits - any chance of a photo Morgan?


Wishing you all a Happy New Year,

Thursday 4 December 2008

Fylde Area Group

On Thursday 20th November, we had a 'Run and Natter' meeting attended by 10 members. Although a lot was discussed, including the program for next year, which will be printed and available at our next meeting, nothing much was running!

On Saturday the 15th November the layout was visited by the East of Scotland 4mm Group, 8 members attending, most of whom had travelled down for Edinburgh for the day, including Jim Summers - the former editor of the Scalefour News who was instrumental in getting me to put pen to paper to write about the layout in edition no. 154. Also among the visitors was a former Flyde group member Bob Hetherington. After 4 hours of operating Preston, it seemed all had enjoyed themselves, I will be looking towards arranging a reciprocal visit at some point in the new year, thank you to David Orr for the invitation. Also thanks to my mentors David and Anthony who help newbies get to grips with the operation of the layout.

The next meeting is Thursday 11th December, (NOTE not the third Thursday), please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and this meeting is a talk by Anthony Miller 'LNER Good Traffic', followed by a hotpot supper.

Thursday 13 November 2008

Fylde Area Group

On Thursday the 23rd August, one of our members 'Arthur Kimber' gave the group a talk 'Railways & Memories of North West Durham'. It was well patronised with 10 members being present.



Arthur covered the area where he grow up and presented many of his own photographs, Arthur was born in Swalwell on the North Eastern from Consett to Dunston and Scotswood, starting there he covered the local industry and how his father really provided the imputus to his interest with railways.



He told us about all the lines in the area and covered many of the locations between Blaydon and Gateshead King Edward Bridge, including the Tanfield railway and Garesfield wagon way.



There were many photographs of the loco sheds at Bowes Bridge, Blaydon, Gatehead and Borough Gardens, including the loco allocations in 1947. Also numerous shots of other locations where provided including the Dunston Staithes, Derwent Hough Staithes, Dunston Power station and Vickers Armstrong.



In all we had a very informative and enjoyable evening - Thank you Arthur.

Sunday 2 November 2008

DRAG test track progress

The straight boards are 90% finished, with just sealing and painting to do essentially before track laying can start. Nine of them were erected yesterday for the first time in Brian's railway shed, four of one side of five and all five of the other side - the missing one is away with our member Denis who is going to be producing the matching curved boards (five at each end).











Thursday 30 October 2008

Conversions abound...

29 of October was the last monthly meet of the Newport Naggers. In all 12 members present with another 6 detained for health or business reasons. Bernie Baker has been at it again, this time hes' P4'd one of the new G2's from Bachmann. I have asked Bernie to write this up as a 'how to' for the NAGNAG website.
This runs amazingly smoothly. Bernie also brought down a brace of converted 56xx's, really nice.
Rob Foot also brought his Hymek and ran it over Belle Vue with 6 Ironclads on the back...lovely.
Not to be out done Hubert Messing brought his converted Lima parcels car along as well.


The noble men of NAGNAG have been invited to Newbury for an evening of fun and steam type stuff, thanks to Rod Hall for arranging this for us.



Bernie's converted 56xx's on the entrance to the extended shed area of Belle Vue. More work is being carried out to Belle Vue by the Naggers, but we still need more ideas...come on lads!



So, with the extension to the head shunt now in place, this means that larger items can be run into the shed area - like a brake down crane...anyone know if theres one being designed?



Rob also had a DMU as a work in progress; Steffan, Alistair and Bernie look at a problem that Rob didn't know he had untill it was pointed out to him. Robs now trying to put a central pivot into a bogie where there isn't one at the moment.



An enjoyable evening with more progress being made, which is always a good thing.



My thanks to Newport MRS for allowing us to host this monthly meet at the club rooms.









Next meeting 26 November, when hopefully some of the Glevum group will be joining us for the evening.


Mike Garwood

Tuesday 28 October 2008

WEST YORKSHIRE AREA GROUP

Our October meeting at the "Thatched House" raised ten members of the Group. Keith Bradbury had brought the interior to be fitted into one of his coaches, complete with lighting (its wiring neatly fitted into a false ceiling), pictures and mirrors on the compartment partitions, and upholstered seats; they looked comfortable but we didn't try them. Also on show was a trestle brought by James Moorhouse which can be adjusted to counter any possible deviation of floor level just as long as he remembers to take his spirit level.

We did some planning ahead, the most important part of this being the fixing of a date to visit Mike Norris's Preston layout on Saturday 25th April 2009. A few days before this, 17th April, our regular third Tuesday of the month meeting, Mike is coming to give us a talk on the layout. The venue for this meeting is not yet decided, but hopefully I will have sent another report to Scalefour News before this.

Our default meeting night is still the third Tuesday of the month, and our default venue is still the Thatched Cottage. Any local members or any member visiting the area is very welcome to join us, but please contact me to be sure that we have not arranged a visit to some othe local attraction (railway, of course). My phone number is (0113) 2679385.

Jim Harrison

Saturday 18 October 2008

Fylde Area Group Meeting

The 18th of September was our usual run and natter meeting, with 10 members in attendance.

We were treated to 14768 Clan McKenzie, HR Clan Class loco being built by John James as a commission, which I later saw fully lined out and painted at Scaleforum the following week.



We also saw some test etches form Ian MacCormac, in both 4 mm and 7 mm scales of an LBSCR 1865 Craven 1st, very fine.


Next we had an interesting (if somewhat unlikely) comparision between an early coach and a Clan class of 1919, the coach being bearly the size of the clans tender, this shows just much the railway had developed in 50 years.


The next meeting is Thursday 23rd October, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and the meeting is a talk by Arthur Kimber 'Railways and Memories of North West Durham'.







Friday 12 September 2008

Fylde Area Group Meeting

On the 17th of July we held a run and netters meeting (before our short summer recess), with 7 members in attendance. As usual modelling matters far and wide were discussed but John James did bring along a wonderful model of a Brassmasters G2 (here seen on the Through lines at - an ideal locomotive for Preston).



The next meeting is Thursday 18th September, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

Thursday 28 August 2008

NAGGERS monthly meet.


NAGNAG members met at the NMRS club rooms and as usual was well attended.

Alistair Stannard brought some of his fabulous buses to show.
Alistair and Dave Hagger have taken on a conversion of a Bachmann Hall. This is after last month when it was discovered that the Hall due for surgery was infact not a candidate for such drastic changes, but now a willing victim has stepped forward and is to under go 'a change' or two.



Rob Foot has promised to convert a Heljan Hymek, he was hoping to have it to run this week but, the wheels did not arrive in time, never mind, always next month.
Bernie brought some more of his experimental wagons and conducted some more tests on sprung and rigid chassis. Has to be said the wagons really did look the part, all weathered and looking run down. Those that were sprung performed faultlessly.


Discussion was given to finance and other topics which are detailed on the NAGNAG website.


All in all a very interesting evening, enjoyed by all.
My thanks to everyone that contributed and again to our hosts NMRS. Next meeting 24 September.

Mike Garwood

Thursday 7 August 2008

9 DAZE IN JULY

No typo with the heading - we're all in a daze after lots of activity last month.

In order to further progress the extensions to Burntisland 1883, we hired our normal location (village hall, Dechmont) through local resident Richard Darby. And there for 9 days the layout remained erected for anyone interested to come along and make advances to it. And many did.

To digress, in true Ronnie Corbett fashion, I should say at this stage that progress to Burntisland 1883 isn't as straightforward as it may seem since the East of Scotland 4mm Group (or "Scotland East" in Scalefour Society parlance - sorry I've digressed again) are based in anything but the East of Scotland (or Scotland East).

Contributors to the extensions - so far - have been based not only in areas that can be described as the East of Scotland but going outwardly extends to Glasgow, the Borders, the Inner Hebridees, Cumbria, Shropshire, Berkshire, and Ceredigion (that's in Wales for the geographically challenged). Some from these far-flung outposts even made the trip up for the adventure in July.


So making all parts of the jigsaw fit isn't as straightforward as would first be imagined. However the jigsaw is indeed coming together.

The major item to be accomplished during the week was the laying of approach track to the goods ferry. Using Templot, this was built as a single unit and getting this laid was key to other envisaged activities, at one end of the layout at least. With that complex piece of trackwork laid, track could then extend westwards and eastwards. T'was not all plain sailing as the pained expressions in the attached image testify.


Meanwhile, in other parts of the room, others were busy finalising track for the goods ferry, wiring up and mounting a host of tortoises and D clamps, a number of other wiring matters, chairing track, adding scenery, finalising building of boards, to mention but a few.

The present position with the layout is that virtually all boards are built just the passenger ferry pier to go, most of the track is laid, and the back is broken on the wiring front.

The layout looking from the east now looks like this :
And from the west like this :

Of course all these extra metres of sidings and track will look awfully empty without an additional wagon or 2. To this end we had a wagon building session some months ago run by Simon de Souza. Possibly inspired by that session, Ian Terrell has worn out many a Swann and Morton blade to produce some fine dumb buffered stock : Still a long way to go, but lots of progress made to date. Next milestone will be getting engines running across all of the new track, and then on to scenics. However, that will all have to wait until after exhibiting at Hawick on the 23/24th of August, where a slightly extended version of the original layout will be on display.

Thanks to Jim Summers for most of the photos.

Saturday 12 July 2008

Fylde Area Group Meeting

On the 19th June we held a run and natter meeting, attended by some 9 members. The evening was mainly spent discussing modelling topics rather than running, but overall an enjoyable evening was had by all.


Tony Miller did bring along a number of his wonderful hand painted coal wagons, many local to the Preston area, particular impressive is the 'Preston Industrial Co-Operative' wagon. These were hauled round the layout by my Jinty 7472 (a Preston engine - often nicknamed at the time 'City of Preston').









On Wednesday the 2nd July a number of members travelled to John James's house for an inaugural run of Benfieldside following its re-installation and rewiring, again a most enjoyable evening was had by all and we are all looking forward to another session.



The next meeting is Thursday 17th July, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

Friday 27 June 2008

Cumbrian Area Group 2nd Meeting

From being a gleam in Stephen Paulin's eye, the Cumbria Area Group (yet another CAG!) seems to have developed wings, and looks to have a secure future. The second meeting on 7th June was better attended than the first, with a total of seven attendees. After lunch at the Crown Inn, we repaired to Ian Everett's house to play trains. This was supposed to be a serious operating session but it must be admitted that it was more like train ping-pong. The object of the operator of the fiddle yard at each end of Clecklewyke's scenic section seemed to be to fill his opponent's yard with trains, whilst obeying full block regulations, using correct bell codes and running his trains at scale speeds. Two photographs show Phil Tuer and Sephen Paulin at the controls - it would appear from Stephen's expression that he is winning?
Ian's wife Betsy produced some excellent scones for tea, some of which were eaten by the Area Group members, although the majority had been scoffed by Ian and Betsy's border terrier.
A third picture shows more details of Clecklewyke, which will be exhibited with Area Group members' help at Halifax on 27/8 September and at Workington on 22/3 November - two alternatives to Scaleforum and Warley if our northern friends find those too far.The next meeting of the Area Group will be at Stephen Paulin's house on Saturday 2nd August, where there will be a demonstration of split-chassis* loco building. More details from Stephen at s.paulin@merseymail.com

Thursday 26 June 2008

A Worth While Event...


The Naggers of Newport met on Weds 25 June, the evening was designed to be a show and tell evening. Instead it turned out to be one of the more memorable modeling evenings, as ideas on chassis construction were floated. Steffan Lewis gave a fabulous talk on how he constructed his chassis, including some great tips on dealing with eronious wheels, hopefully an article will appear on the NAGNAG website in due course.

Bernie Baker brought along some RTR conversions that hes' been working on and some wagons...just one or two...the conversions ran smoothly, some of the wagons less so. But isn't that the point, to find out what works.

Robert Foot brought along some really nice buildings that he'd scratched for his home layout, just wished I'd taken a photo!
The rest of the Naggers sat round and pulled Bachmann mk1's to pieces, with a view to repainting and springing the coach bogies, using Bill Bedford's sprung coach bogies.

An absolutely cracking evening, lots learned, as well as done. Thanks to everyone for entering into the spirit of things.
Next meeting 30 July.


Mike Garwood

Monday 16 June 2008

Fylde Area Group Meeting

On the 15th May we held a run and natter meeting, which was well attended by some 13 members, including a visitor brought down from Segbergh Cumbria by Alan Fell. Our visitor was Henry Wilson, an antiquarian, secondhand and new book dealer with focus on transport and industrial history, recently moved to the area. He proved to be a popular contact by several members, trying to track down some of those elusive research articles.

Also visiting for a run on the same day was Ian Everett's Austin Seven, which had unfortunately suffered a rather nasty rough shunt on the way to Preston.




The next meeting is Thursday 19th June, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

Thursday 22 May 2008

NAGNAG inaugural meeting


Well, the days slipped past and letters were received, emails returned and come the appointed hour, members turned up!

A big thank you to everyone that made the effort to attend. In all 16 members attended the first meeting, with another 3 members on holiday, but wishing to participate in the group. What a result!

There are a number of diverse modeling interests, ranging from the Brecon & Merthyr line to the S&D, to Alexandria Docks in Newport. Era's range from the 1940's to late 1960's...plenty of scope for the future. Everyone had the opportunity to talk in the group and express what they wanted out of an area group, the most common theme being 'support and encouragement'. Whilst a noble sentiment, the group must have something to support and encourage over, so with this in mind, the next meeting (yes, there really is going to be a next meeting!) is based on a show and tell evening.

My thanks to everyone at Newport MRS for their help and for letting the group use their club rooms.
A special thanks to those who gave up their time when they had/should have been preparing for Railex this weekend.

Next NAGNAG 25th of June, it feels great to be able to say that!!
If you want to join the group and see what we are about, then mail me at nagnag@scalefour.org

Mike Garwood

Monday 19 May 2008

CAG do it in rubber, and resin

The Crewe area Groups May meeting took place in member Tony Montgomery delectable new home. Subject for the day was a demonstration by guest Adrian Prescott of his resign casting techniques.

Before our very eyes Adrian produced crisply cast resin parts and made the whole process look very simple and straightforward. So to prove it wasn't all smoke and mirrors he then had untrained volunteers successfully producing castings from his preprepared moulds. He gave practicable advice on what was and what was not doable in this medium all of which made a great deal of sense.

At least one member was suitably inspired to wonder if here lies the answer to the production problems related to the long trains of bogie limestone hoppers we don't have running up and down on Knustford East.

Adrian instructed us on both mould production and their use to produce the final castings, but as the rubber moulds take 24 hours to cure, practicals in mould making didn't form part of the show. This months photo (by Ron Dickinson) shows Adrian sitting in front the the minimal amount of equipment he used to so ably demonstrate his craft.

The rest of the meeting was taken up with further discussion of the production of point rodding stools from the Colin Waite etchings parts (anybody with concerns about their eyesight may need to give this one a miss) and whether the was any real practical difference between the chimneys fitted by Gorton to O4s and D9s. Oh happy days.

Wednesday 14 May 2008

HR meets GWR at DRAG




We welcome to our little band Steve Stubbs, formerly of the northeast and member of the Calder Bridge team. Although he lives in Taunton, not previously regarded as DRAG territory, it is 'only' 40 minutes away from Teignmouth.








Steve brought along some exquisite kit- and scratchbuilt Highland Railway stock which soon found unlikely haulage in the form of David Mead's very-nearly-finished scratchbuilt 42xx 2-8-0T.








Saturday 10 May 2008

Fylde Area Group Meeting

On the 17th April we were given a talk by Terry Tracey (a 3mm scale local modeller), this was about his current model project 'Allhallows'.

Terry took us through the history and development of this pre-war Southern railway station built as a branch off the South Eastern and Chatham line from Gravesend to Port Victoria. Following this he showed us slides of his layout and explained the progress so far. It seemed the Southern railway wanted to develop a seaside resort (effectively in the Thames estuary) and this was the location chosen, once the railway was built war interrupted the plans, but post war austerity saw Allhallows as the lowest priced 'seaside' ticket available from London. To this end long expresses were provided with many thousands or people making the journey to nowhere, as the expected developments at Allhallows never materialised, but it still did not seem to deter the desire to get out of London.

To support the talk Terry brought along many of the original signalling diagrams, which included locking tables (most rare) for many of the stations along the line and also included some of the stations altered to support the new branch.

Many thanks to Terry for a very interesting evening.

The next meeting is Thursday 15th May, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

Tuesday 6 May 2008

West Yorkshire Area Group

Scalefour North 2008 is now behind us. Our thanks go to all who helped over the weekend, as the regulars could not have done without them. Cakes provided by Heather and Philip Hall went down well in the "staff" tea room.
Our society publicity penetrates Europe and led to a visit by a none member OO scale modeller (British LMS period) from Switzerland who had timed his holiday to take in Scalefour North. He came on both Saturday and Sunday, and we take this as proof that we are doing something right. Possibly he was impressed by the usual high standard of modelling on show, and will join the Society.
We still use the Thatched House pub near Wakefield as our regular meeting venue on the third Tuesday of each month, but vary this to provide a mix of visits to members homes and other places of interest. Anyone wanting to join us should contact me for confirmation of date and place of our next meeting.

Jim Harrison

Friday 2 May 2008

Canadian Area Group


The Great British Train Show
Brampton, Ontario, April 26 & 27 2008

Tom Kidd supervises at Nether Upton
Mark Stapleton shunts at Upper Leaside
S&D "Jinty"leans into a curve
"Christopher", a Riceworks Buckjumper with Scannell CSB suspension built by Mark


Views of the exhibition hall:




Last weekend, the 26th and 27th of April, was the big event of the year for British outline modellers in Canada; The Great British Train Show put on by the Platelayers Society was held in Brampton, Ontario. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only all British railway show in North America. There were 52 exhibits including 22 layouts, 23 traders, 4 clinics and 3 miscellaneous displays. Included among the layouts was one P4 example "Nether Upton and Upper Leaside Light Railway"  built by Mark Stapleton and David Knight. Other S4 soc members present were Dr Tom Kidd and Phil Insull who helped with the layout operation and Graham Evans, new to the Society who joined us for a chat. Some pictures of the show in general and the P4 layout in particular are to be found above. The next GBTS will be in 2010, last weekend in April. 



Wednesday 30 April 2008

CAG April Meetings - Things get hairy!

The April 13th meeting took place in Don Roland's railway room.

The objective of the day was to demonstrate the wonders of the Noch Electrostatics grass planting system. You know the idea, electrostatically charge some fine fibres of grass coloured material and shoot it onto a glued surface where the charge will keep it standing on end while the glue dries. That nice Mr Noch provides both the clever device which generates and applies the charge, and the grass fibres. These come in a variety of garish shades but by judicious mixing it is possible to achieve a realistic colour for your chosen season. The secret seem to be not too much green but plenty of yellow and brown. To work it appears you need the target to be electrically earthed to the charge producing gun, requiring either a conductive target layer, like aluminium foil with a base fibre mat glued on top and/or a good soaking with electrically conductive glue sold for the job (looked and smelt like PVA, with added salt perhaps?). Wire the gun to the foil/glue layer, shake away and lo and behold things got hairy.

This exersize was duly performed on a section of Don's Central Cheshire line Alpraham Sidings which we have all been enjoying so much in MRJ recently, and as in the MRJ, John Sherratt provided photos of the event. I regret that on this occasions the photos did not do justice to the results so instead I leave you with a shot of the much to be envied general environment of the Central Cheshire line, mostly obscured by an, always to be preferred, back view of a fair percentage of the group.

April 27th also saw a layout meeting hosted by Dick Petter. This was held to ensure we are getting on with the tasks we must complete before Knutsford East reappears at Scale Forum in September. Signalling was much to the fore. Our current signal operating mechanisms have not worked as well as we would have liked, sometime not at all, and Phil Bourne had a new generation of mechanism on display. Another signalling job required is the completion of the point rodding. The design of the rodding runs has been done by our own in-house professional signalling engineer Tony Walker, in pursuance of the S4 ethos of getting it all right. To complete this design there is, among other things, the small mater of the construction of large numbers of point rodding stools. We all now have our quoter, even if, like me, you managed to forget to go to the meeting!

Also on view were bits of two new Loco's. That is a D9 and an J10 (both LNER/ ex GCR) suitable for Cheshire Lines use.

I leave you with further pictures, again courtesy of John, one of Phil's magnificent new mechanism and another of the chassis of the D9 (an 4-4-0 for those not up to speed on LNER class numbers). This comes from Dick's hands and as always exhibits engineering values most of us can only dream about.

Friday 25 April 2008

First Meeting of Cumbrian Area Group

Six potential members of a Cumbrian Area Group met at Stephen Paulin's house in Kirby Stephen on Saturday, 12th April, 2008.

After being impressed by the authenticity of his 12in/foot scale model of a Midland Railway house - Stephen is trying to get it all right - we repaired to a most excellent pub beside the remarkably intact ex-NER station for a superb lunch before returning to Stephen's house for tea and a natter.

In our company were Stephen and his wife, Cherry; Phil Tuer and his wife, Sheila, from Carlisle; David Beale from back o' Skidda' and Ian Everett from Askrigg. We discussed our interests and ambitions. Stephen showed some lovely BR wagons and LNWR buildings. Phil admitted to modelling in EM but nevertheless we listened as he talked about his interests in Cumbrian railways and the fascinating complexity of the early railways in the Workington area. He also showed some lovely etches of Furness Railway "squirrel" seats which will be available in both 4mm and 7mm scales. David talked of his intention to model a station based on the MR in Yorkshire and had brought a beautifully made chassis for an MR 2F 0-6-0, built from a Gibson kit. Especially notable was the neat way he had converted it to split axle pick up. Ian brought two
sixth-scale models of his two exhibition layouts, Clecklewyke and Humber Dock. They had demonstrated their worth by the fact that neither layout followed precisely these cameo models - each design had been modified before wood had been irrevocably cut or track laid. He also had a nearly complete London Road kit for an NER G5 0-4-4T.

Despite being scattered within a 30 or so mile radius of Stephen's house we agreed to continue with the group and to try to encourage more members. The group also agreed to join forces to help Ian exhibit Clecklewyke at the Workington exhibition, which is on 22/23 November 2008.

We decided to meet again at Ian's house in Askrigg at 12 noon on Saturday 7th June, where we will play with his two train sets and no doubt sample the wares of the excellent Crown inn. Brian Lewis of C&L will also be there and will talk about the services and products he provides. Anyone in the area will be very welcome. For more details contact Ian on 01969 650180 or ian@ianeverett.free-online.co.uk.

SLAG at Scalefour North

Three members of SLAG motored up the M1 to Wakefield with their layout St Merryn carefully (and tightly!) packed around them, for the annual celebration of P4 modelling that is Scalefour North. A largely hassle-free journey set the tone for the weekend; and after a calm setting-up operation on the Friday evening we looked forward to a weekend of driving trains and informed chat.

On the Saturday we were joined by two other members of SLAG, and by Brian Pearce who had been recruited some months ago (and undergone his driver training) to augment the team when playing away from home. Layout (and operators) performed well over the weekend, though one member was heard to admit to being “bruised” after 30 minutes of operating, acknowledging that driver training and practice was a necessity rather than a luxury!

Some very nice comments about the layout were received, and it seems that visitors largely enjoyed what they saw. For our part, we left with a list of twenty or so “things to address” before taking the layout on the road again, but all of them are comfortingly minor.

The social side of the weekend was a great success, as is normal for Scalefour North. Thanks to all the Team for a great weekend.

Sunday 20 April 2008

SCOTLAND EAST AGM WEEKEND


Contrary to what the heading might suggest, our AGMs aren't (generally) protracted enough to last a weekend. The AGM was held on the Saturday - as always accompanied by a bring and buy sale, awards for modelmaking, and whatever else can be squeezed in. The Sunday on this occasion was onward progress of Burntisland in the shape of a wagon making masterclass run by Simon de Souza. Both days attracted a significant percentage of membership participation

The AGM was conducted with formality, frivolity, and good all round banter. The committee were all available for re-election and happy to continue - not surprisingly this was proposed and seconded just as quickly as the speed of sound allowed. Despite a lot of expenditure associated with the extensions to Burntisland 1883 we remain in a very sound financial position, a fact that could be determined from treasurer Ray Paul's relaxed demenour
before delivering his report.

The modelmaking prizes attracted a fair clutch of entrants, most noticeably on the loco front. Despite that preponderance, the prizes went to Fergus Duncan for some dazzling trackwork for the ferry extension, Ray Nolton for a nifty little NB coach, and John Crompton for a clutch of part-built Irish wagons. A delightful 7mm French railcar submitted by Richard Chown won absolutely nothing - not because anyone is bigotted against 7mm - simply because it didn't conform to any category of prize on offer. So as a consolation to Mr C, here's an image of it (also showing several locos that had their constructors leaving empty handed).

The bring and buy had a good number of items for sale and many a transaction took place. Give it 5 or so more years, all these unmade kits will be back on sale again to other buyers with great intentions. Such is the lot of the finescale modeller/hoarder - but who'd have it any other way?

Sunday saw some further activity towards the build of Burntisland ensuring that new boards built by Richard Darby matched up perfectly with the existing boards and newly constructed track - which they did.
However, the main feature of the day was a wagon building masterclass lead by Simon de Souza with the aim of increasing mineral stock much needed for the extended layout. The chosen subject was an NB outside framed coal wagon.

In true Blue Peter fashion, Simon produced one that he'd prepared earlier - looking both virginal and brassy at the same time, it was something for the gathering multitude to aspire to. As it turned out Simon had to conduct 2 Sunday sermons for the morning and afternoon shifts.


Everything seemed to go swimmingly well thereafter with some throwing together wagons at a speed that I can only dream off. At least 10 group members started attacking plasticard sheets with great gusto.

Most of the group just knuckled down and got on with it. Meanwhile, after lengthy debate Jim Summers and Simon remain at loggerheads but still the best of friends over the shape of planking on the fixed end of the wagon. Just another day at the office for us in the East of Scotland really.



Wednesday 9 April 2008

NAGNAG inaugural meeting

Hi, my name is Mike Garwood (5883), I have volunteered for the job of coordinator for this P4 group of modelers in South Wales. The meetings will initially take place at Newport Model Railway Society club rooms (http://www.newportmrs.com/), its' planned that the first meeting will take place on Wednesday 21 of May at 7:30 pm. I hope as many of you as can, will attend. Hopefully NMRS will have their P4 layout up - Belle View. What format will the group take...no idea, thats for them that attends to decide, I'm just the referee - no, I don't wear black! I look forward to seeing you all on the 21st. A google map should now be below this, to show you how to get to the club rooms...oh yes, the area group name -
NEWPORT and GWENT NEIGHBORHOOD AREA GROUP...NAGNAG.

View Larger Map

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Fylde Area Group

Our meeting on the 20th March was again well attended with 12 members present.

There were the usual wide range of topics under discussion. But as promised in the last update I would include some photographs of visiting locomotives of which there were several.


Bob Ellis brought this delightful NER Class P 0-6-0 No 1823


John James bought a wonderful LNWR Super D - such a perfect engine for Preston and I was able to fully appreciate the detail having had a run behind 49395 at the West somerset Steam Gala the week before!

Arthur Kimber showed us his progress on two etched locomotives he has been designing;

NER 290 Class J77


NER T/T1 Q5


The next meeting is Thursday 17th April, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a talk by Terry Tracey on 'Allhallows' a Kent SR station and model.