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.