Doesn’t time fly, and despite the lack of updates to this website, much is happening in the largest model railway shed in the west! In July we had a very successful Open Day with fantastic catering, lots of favourable comments and some new members.
A few weeks ago the BBC Points West team visited CS2 to film a feature on Bob Alderman, who had lost his voice through MND, being given his voice back by his son David. A shortened version of the clip is here. It’s a heartwarming story, and there are trains, but not as many as in the longer clip that was broadcast.
In preparation for the upcoming appearance of The Summit at Fareham Railex in early October, Evercreech New has been taken down and The Summit re-erected for some remedial work and to play trains.
Work on Evercreech New continues however ready for its appearance at Taunton Railex in late October. 
Painting of Prestleigh Viaduct continues with the MDF now primed and painted in a mortar colour. The engineering brick colour will be dry brushed on, with individual bricks picked out in green and brown, and finally the mortar runs applied. A test piece is shown showing the stages that will be required to achieve the effect we want. Prestleigh Viaduct was a very scruffy item close up!
Previously it has been stated in this blog that the widened side of Pecking Mill was on the south side which has even sized arches on brick piers. Following perusal of OS maps from before and after the widening it is now clear that the viaduct was widened on the north side where the uneven arches are founded on stone piers. This would explain the presence of what are now obviously the old abutments at the end of the blind arch, the north side being narrower than the south side, and the need to use uneven arch spacings on the north side to make up for the skew of the road crossing. What threw us was use of brick for the original piers and stone for the piers on the widened side.
The card etches for the brickwork on Pecking Mill Viaduct have been drawn up ready for laser etching. However much closer to the bleeding edge of home based technology; the long girder bridge spans for the A371 crossing and short spans for the adjacent occupation bridge have both been drawn using QCad and OpenSCAD. The longer A371 span is the featured image at the top of the page, and a capture of the 3D render for Allen’s bridge is shown above, with the base of the rear girder rebated to fit the plywood trackbed. Both spans are heavily skewed, but in opposite directions. These girders will be printed using stereolithography in a resin bath. The print will include the distinctive walkway supports using details lifted from the surviving girder bridge at Radstock. The walkway support without the upright is behind one of the brick piers due to the extreme skew. The girders at Pecking Mill differ from the surviving bridge at Radstock in that they have a deeper girder, three handrails and a wider walkway.
Also taking shape at the Pecking Mill End is the farm occupation bridge known to a select few as ‘Allen’s Bridge’. No laser cutting for this chap just a pull saw, plane and rasps. There was very little splay on the wing walls to the south, but a much larger splay on the north side.
Tracklaying has started on Heyno Junction, with the right hand picture showing the laser etched mock up of the Heyno Junction trussed girder bridge installed for Open Day. Our ambitious plan is to 3D print the truss frame and bracing to achieve the more open effect of the real thing. An interesting challenge as we only have detailed drawings from the original build – and we will be modelling it after the 1961 rebuilding. This raised the track to put it in a ballast trough, and required the original top bracing to be placed on uprights and otherwise modified to restore sufficient headroom.
Holly Junction has gained a splendid canal lock complete with narrow boat entering; this will lift what is now a canal into a marina complete with suspension bridge over.
Amongst the privately owned layouts there is an update to Kingsferry where the station area is now – allegedly – complete.
In the near future will be a long overdue update on Verwood with some upgrades to the Black Motor, an actual model of the rail-built LSWR loading gauge and a 3D CAD design for the distinctive yard crane, plus potentially an alternative column design for the upcoming Modelu LSWR platform lamp.
Yeovil Model Railway Group (YMRG) 