In June St. Martin’s Wharf” returned from a very successful appearance at the Shepton Mallet Show, where it won a trophy for the best scenic feature.
All credit to Bob Alderman who created the layout – and to the members who renovated it!
At our annual competition the Chairman’s Cup was won by a 7mm modeller. Well done Keith S, for his ex-GWR MOGO.
The Ernie Phelps Cup for Locomotives was won by John M for his 7mm scale LNER D16/3
The Brian Draper Memorial Cup for Rolling Stock was won by Dave Haines for his 7mm scale GWR Dia E57 Lav Tricomposite Coach
Highly commended – Pete’s 4mm scale EM Gauge SR 15T Brake van and Trestrol, and the Coker Cup for Railway Related Items went to Keith B for his hand built points on Heyno Junction.
Dominic has made plenty of progress on Coombe Town. Firstly the station showing the signal box with its glazing and the platform buildings. The headshunt is now ballasted, and he has completed the majority of the sculptamold landforms. The signal box has also received its final large windows today – the next final major exterior piece will be the porch. He is now happy with the general approach to take for Heyno Junction box so will make a start on the actual model there once the size is confirmed with Keith.
The second is an overall view of the layout, to give an idea of the progress to date.
There has been much debate around the lime works at the rear of the station and Allan has taken it upon himself to organise the narrow gauge quarry wagons for the works. After much deliberation, he has ordered the above tippler wagon from Smallbrook Studio.
This is a photo of the lime works that Allan took when the layout was still in Julian Birley’s ownership. Some ‘bright spark’ had the idea of placing Prestleigh Viaduct just to the right of the road bridge necessitating some adjustment to the position of quarry and lime kilns to make it all fit again.
This month some ‘proper’ modelling, followed by ‘virtual’ modelling.
Allan has finished another of his 7mm scale LMS coaches, this lovely example, from the single window with square corners would be a period II corridor third – from another Sidelines kit.
Obviously relishing the challenge of turn-of-the-last-century intricate livery paintwork, Dave Haines has produced the next 7mm scale coach for his “Wellsy” layout. This one is a 58 ft long luggage tricomposite, originally built in 1899 for the Birkenhead to Folkestone/Deal through trains run with the SER. They turned out to be very useful as through carriages all over the system so they built twenty of them in the end. They had six lavatories so it’s surprising there was any room left for passengers let alone their luggage! It’s all plastic except for the Slaters bogies (the long wheelbase version that Dean used for his later coaches) and a few fittings, scratch built using David Jenkinson methods and painted using Ian Rathbone methods.
A few evenings work by Peter has dramatically improved the 4mm scale EM Gauge Accurascale Chaldrons that he bought a while ago. Subtle weathering has bought the detail out from the original plain black satin finish.
Over the last month Andrew has been working on the flyover bridge for Heyno Junction, the club’s OO gauge layout. It is based on the Aynho Flyover on the Chiltern line. The model has been produced in Fusion360 CAD software and he has started to print out the brick base on his 3D printer. It has been really tricky to do the brickwork as the process makes the computer struggle with long waits while the computer worked out the pattern (he could do with a more powerful computer). The first section took over 20hrs to print out and the 2nd section took over 17hrs. He has started to build up the metal work of the bridge into sections so they can be printed out and assembled
Whilst at CS2 Steve gave his 3D printed AW diseasel disaster a run out on South Junction, which it plodded around for about an hour without managing to fall off. This was after its trip to Martin Finney’s Semley where this model to EM Gauge serenely clambered over and through two sets of P4 points in both directions without derailing. During this feat it was noticed that after 18 years the original tyreless AG gearwheel had cracked and slipped on the jackshaft axle leading to a slight ‘hop’ on each revolution. This gear wheel has now been replaced by its previously redundant twin (on a slightly shortened axle) with the steel rim retained, the spokes covered over, balance weight fitted and the flange filed off. Steve hadn’t appreciated that he needed macro mode on his new to him Sony camera (2011) for it to focus properly for a shot like this that he wouldn’t have previously considered any sort of close up.
The glazing pockets on the trial 3D print were not satisfactory as I hadn’t made enough allowance for 3D printed items being a little larger than specified – by about 0.1mm and mainly a problem with holes. Thin bubble packaging film could be slid into the side window and door glazing pockets, but not into the front and rear window pockets. To get round this the pockets are now 0.45mm (for .010″ Plastiglaze), and holes have been added above the affected windows to aid resin drainage during printing.
To aid the printing process a sliver of extra material has been added at the bottom of the body for trimming. The fuel and battery boxes have been boxed in, and braces placed across the base of the bonnet to keep everything aligned during printing and cleaning. This render pre-dates that test run on SJ with the larger gear wheel that has required additional clearance to be added under the gear wheel cover.
Lastly a helpful Western Thunder user posted a very useful and clear photo of the prototype from a new angle from which detail could be added to the gear cover area (speedo drive cable and oilers). I also used it as a reference to develop some artwork for the WD transfers.
A very busy month leading with the news that David had reached the point where he could break cover over his new 7mm Scale 0 Gauge layout Lyme Regis.
The intention was to build this to scale but, large though it still is, it is reduced to 81% of the original. It was always intended to be a project involving others and various modellers are participating in the layout’s construction. Apart from the fiddle yard (next part of the project) the track is laid and wired, most of the buildings constructed and the scenery taking shape. Spoiler – your Future Editor is aware that the flyover bridge at Axminster is on the agenda!
Lyme Regis does, of course, require three Adams Radial tanks (!) the first of which is making steady progress on David’s work bench. Meanwhile, Lyme Regis is having to make do with slightly over-powered locomotives. The layout is designed to be portable so one day…
Dom has made good progress on the station building on Coombe Town – the roof is now fully tiled so it’s mainly weathering and detailing to get it to a finished state. The building really adds to the feel of the station as he hopes members will agree from the attached image.
Dom’s friend was also kind enough to print some office furniture to his design to fill out the offices when he gets to the interior.
Allan asked members for methods to remove the BR lion logo from his unnumbered Dapol Jinty. Only Roger came up with a solution, use IPA – not, as Allan originally thought, Pale Ale! Unfortunately it only partly helped, the rest was white spirit and much gentle scraping. he does not recommend doing this. Fortunately the resulting mark – the logo was embedded in the paintwork – was masked with the M of LMS, as you will see from the attached image, now heavily weathered, next to his 4F. The photos below them show 7316 at Radstock in 1950, and 4417 at Glastonbury, and at Cole in 1962.
This 4mm scale EM gauge Peckett 0-6-0T from a Mercian kit has been built by Adam and was having a running in session on South Junction. It was named ‘The Marshall’ after the late John Marshall who died in 2015. John was responsible for finding both sheds in Martock. He was a Bristolian, hence it being a Peckett.
Pete’s two Hawksworth auto-coaches have been coupled with the magnets directly into the pockets to give just enough clearance between them, much easier than a bar and loop connector.
Finally we have enough auto-coaches to run a 4 coach set with the 16XX:
Dick received his 7mm Ellis Clark Black 5 recently and is very pleased with it. He is still getting his head round all the DCC functions and sounds as he is fairly new to DCC. It can be set up so that the fire needs coal adding regularly, otherwise the engine runs out of steam, but he thinks that is a bit much at the moment. He has yet to add the details and choose a number for it – he is looking for one that worked over the S & D but the Armstrong Whitworth built ones seem a bit rare. 5440 was one but he knows others with that number on their Black Five so is still looking.
Plank Street, Jim’s 7mm scale Forest of Dean themed layout started life in Chicken Shed 2, but has now been re-erected in the garage following an enforced stay in the trailer whilst the space was needed for the storage of the new B&Q kitchen. This has now been successfully installed in the kitchen and some of the old kitchen units are now in the garage with the layout below them. The next task is to construct the laser cut engine shed and water tower purchased from ‘L-Cut Creative’ at the Doncaster show earlier last month, so the Panniers and Jinty (below) can have a roof over their heads – not all at once of course!
And this is the Jinty that Jim couldn’t resist. For sale on the GOG Sales and Wants” site for only £165, DCC and sound fitted.
Some years ago Steve built a Mercian kit for the ex-LMS Armstrong Whitworth 0-6-0 Diesel Electric shunter that all went into War Department use. Four of them ended up in Belgium and there was an H0 gauge etched brass kit produced to model them, and it seems likely that this ‘4mm scale’ kit was derived from that kit. When built (to 4mm Scale EM Gauge), the loco was found to be 4mm too high and 2mm too wide and towered over any box van it met. Steve had ordered a complete spare chassis etch at the time of purchase, and this allowed him to fully articulate the rods and compensate the chassis on the Sharman principle with one fixed axle. Compensated, with a large Mashima, two 16mm flywheels and a High Level Kits Gearbox and once given enough sideways play on the centre driven axle, it ran exceptionally well. As a result, Steve felt that this was a loco that he couldn’t reasonably give up on, despite not needing it for his model of Verwood.
Having modelled the Downton Train Crash coaches from the 1860s, it occurred to Steve that he should now design a 4mm scale body for it that could be 3D printed, one that would fit on the etched running plate after it was cut and shut. Eight days, 77 QCAD drawings and 1500 lines of OpenSCAD script later he was able to produce these renders.
The Roche drawing was the starting point, with close examination of photos to winkle out the many errors in the drawing. The etched running plate has been shortened, though not by much. A bit was taken off the edges, with the valances refitted slightly inboard, and now the width is about right. The overall wheelbase is 60mm when it should be 58mm, and that pushes the brake blocks behind the sanding hoppers, which being in their original positions are slightly too far outboard – but then something has to give. On Western Thunder Adam perceptively described it as a ‘rubber ruler job’!
This masterpiece of the resin 3D printers’ art (by a specialist) is seen perched on the shortened running plate and chassis, with (happily) everything now pretty much where it should be. The glazing pockets for the side windows came out OK, but will only accept packaging film, so they will need to be opened out to allow for the ‘additive kerf’ of 3D printing. The pockets for front and rear cab windows did not form completely as the resin was unable to drain from the deep slots above the windows, so those will need to opened up to the cab so that they will drain. As with the 1860s coaches, flush glazing is a must and adjustments will be made to the model for the mk2 print so that it will accept Plasitiglaze or glass cover slips. There’s nothing that Steve can do to stop it being an ugly brute flush glazed or not!
Still in the throes of modelling season there has been plenty of activity by members of the club.
Dom has been working on the station building on 4mm scale 00 gauge Coombe Town. A couple of images of progress so far, showing the level of interior detail with fireplace in the booking hall. The back wall window and timetables are still to be added.
Externally both chimneys (brick and stone) are now complete and the rest of the roof is coming along nicely.
Allan has been beavering away, stripping and repainting some 7mm wagons that had been donated to the Club. He says: “Members might be interested in the attached pictures of the three wagons and two vans kindly donated to the club courtesy of Roy recently, now repaired, modified, painted and weathered. The ex-GNR fitted vans required amendments to the brake gear as well as some additional detailing before repainting, numbering and weathering.
The wagons also required some modifications to the brake gear and further detailing. The short-bodied PO wagon, originally a ‘blank canvas’, has been given a new identity, but any research into the Nene Brick Co of Peterborough will be fruitless! The lettering comes from the NE sheet of decals used for the vans – well, bricks were made around Peterborough so it is feasible! Unfortunately this wagon is sparse in detail and ‘rocks’ on the track so perhaps it is best permanently retired to the back of a siding.”
In addition, this is a rake of LMS vans which Allan has recently finished.
Steve has been working on a model of Verwood station for as long as anyone can remember, or at least since 1992 when he decided Fordingbridge would be too ambitious. Within the scope of this quest is a selection of trains that ran on the Salisbury & Dorset line.
A while before Christmas one of those K’s Milestone Falcon Class kits turned up on Ebay with hardly any of the dodgy underpinnings that would have been discarded, so he put a slightly cheeky bid in and ‘won’ the thing. He had thought that the generic Hattons and Hornby coaches would be suitable for it, but on having a proper look at them, they seemed too modern for what he had in mind from the few photos of LSWR trains that he had seen from the 1880s. Then he remembered perhaps the most famous train on the Salisbury & Dorset – the Salisbury to Weymouth service that derailed at Downton in 1884. The BoT Accident Report is available on-line, makes fascinating reading and gives a very good description of that unfortunate train, including coach numbers and types that he could cross reference to the first of Gordon Weddell’s superb books. Of the event, that cost five lives and caused many injuries, there are no photos, just a couple of lurid drawings that are inconsistent with each other and with the plan in the accident report. So, if anyone has wondered what a Salisbury & Dorset train looked like in the 1880s, this could be their day.
No.
Description
Compart-ments
Length over Buffers (BoT)
Length over Body
Built
Weddell Page
167
Passenger Guards Van
0
23’8”
20’
1865
52
429
Third
4
~21’2”
19’
1865
56
16
Third
4
~21’2”
19’
1865
56
42
First
3
~21’2”
19’
1865
48
337
First
3
~21’2”
19’
1862
48
22
Second
4
~21’2”
21’
1862
51
43
Third
4
~21’2”
19’
1865
56
99
Passenger Guards Van
0
22’10”
19’
1860
43
Made up into a block set in 1883 at Clapham Junction, but at some point 99 had been substituted for 191 and 16 added probably at Salisbury. 167 was the lead vehicle.
Gordon’s book has drawings and photos of the carriages involved and on Christmas Eve Steve started to use them to 3D model the Third Class coach in OpenSCAD and QCAD as a sort of test to see what was possible. All of the vehicles were modelled in ‘late’ condition as normally photographed, with steps on the ends of each pair of coaches.
Happy with the result, he tackled 167 the passenger guards van. Although a boxy little thing it did come with a ‘caboose’ and the ‘powerful’ Newell Brake that could also brake adjacent carriages. This led him to model the look of that mechanism too, complete with an attempt to portray the curly spoked control wheel and the many bevel gears involved. He then went back to the Third Class coach and gave it the parts of the Newell brakes that I thought it needed.
The First (top) and Second Class (bottom) coaches were next as these had much in common, so were more like tackling one coach. They have a very distinctive look that may be more to do with the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Works than the LSWR since the Brighton had some almost identical coaches. The assumption is that the Second Class coach was braked, and the First Class coaches weren’t. These short coaches were close coupled in pairs to help to stabilise them, presumably in a similar way to the suburban block sets.
Bringing up the end of the train was the van that shouldn’t have been there, an externally framed vehicle that has become my personal favourite, whilst we can be certain that all the other vehicles had Mansell wheels, this one it seems had 3’8″ wheels with eight spokes.
All of these coaches and vans have been designed with glazing pockets built in. They have cosmetic W Irons to support the Newell Brake bars, There should be room for Masokits W Irons (externally or internally sprung), as these short little coaches will definitely benefit from suspension. The interiors are modelled with wooden benches in Third Class through to plush seating in First. It seems that the desk and raised platform in both brakes were enclosed to form ‘dog boxes’. Bill Bedford has advised that these coaches should be 3D printed complete with the underframes and separate roof, but just how feasible this will be with current technology remains to be seen. There is a thread on Western Thunder for this unusual project: https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/downton-train-crash-of-1884-in-em-gauge.12490/
Bringing up the rear (hopefully with brake van and tail light) Peter has built and/or weathered two impressive engineer’s vehicles in 4mm scale/EM Gauge a Cambrian “Walrus” and an Oxford Rail “Pilchard”.
Allan has been busy working on his rake of LMS coaches and the buildings for David’s new ‘Lyme Regis’ layout in 7mm scale 0 Gauge.
His completed model of an LMS all panelled ‘two window’ brake third.
The fibre cement engine shed at Lyme Regis – that green is just as your editor remembers it on railway buildings in East Dorset.
A lovely model of the signal box with partially open sliding ‘Yorkshire’ sash windows and modelled interior. Your editor doubts if the internal walls were brown, though he could believe the floor was.
The station building at Lyme was re-erected at Alresford, but as Allan discovered on a site visit, not without some compression. This stunning model is of the station building as it was at Lyme Regis post-war.
This evocative cameo is from Simon K’s new 7mm scale O Gauge shunting plank ‘Cerne’. The goods shed foreman is clearly contemplating his next move with the contents of the “Beer” wagon.
Two other scenes from Cerne showing the beautifully modelled figures.
Dom. continues work on Coombe Town (4mm scale 00 Gauge) with the station building curently receiving attention.
Much more going on now we’re back in modelling season. At the start of October Half Term, we had a very successful outing of “St. Martin’s Wharf” at Rail-Ex Taunton; the Somerset Club putting on another excellent show in what must be a unique venue. The school dinners were indeed fantastic, and not like they used to be – well, at least in your editor’s experience anyway!
Dave H was responsible to organising its appearance at the show and commented afterwards:
“St. Martin’s Wharf went down very well at Taunton. It looked beautiful and performed well. The switch to DCC meant that it was much more enjoyable to operate than the last time it went out. The main problem we had was invisible muck on the track (which we solved in the end by polishing all the rails with fine emery) and the usual teething problems with AJ couplings. By the end of the show we had a set of stock which coupled and uncoupled reasonably reliably!
Thanks to everyone who helped to get the layout and stock into an exhibitable state, and to all those who helped with shipping it to Taunton and back, or operating at the show. Once we’d set it up and added all the vehicles, people and other bits and bobs it looked stunning. I believe BRM want to come to photograph it one day, so we better make sure the rats don’t get into it again!”
The fully modelled truss bridge…
…and with train passing over.
John has had a major wagon building binge. These are all 7mm scale 0 Gauge wagon kits that have been languishing in a cupboard for many moons, built while taking tea or rain breaks from gardening. This coke hopper is a Parkside kit.
This ex GWR hybar is from a Coopercraft kit. It is loaded with wagon sheets. About 1960 John went to North Norfolk on his bicycle and visited the remains of Melton Constable Works. Ruination was all around me, except one building where six men in protective clothing were making wagon sheets. The canvas was hung up on a rail and was covered with some evil smelling thick liquid, coat after coat, applied with nothing more advanced than sweeping brooms. The drips were drained into a bucket for further use.
This Parkgate is a Slaters kit. What a dirty mucky place Parkgate was when John had to pass through it on my way to my office in Sheffield city centre.
This ex Midland three plank open now works for the civil engineer. It is loaded with ballast – likely to be from Morris & Perry at Gurney Slade by the look of it. This is another Slaters kit.
Finally, this SR six plank open is from a Parkside kit. In the late seventies or early eighties John took the train from Axminster to London for a meeting and parked in the sidings east of Salisbury station in this livery. A bit grubby but wearing this attractive brown. It is loaded with sacks.
Continuing the wagon theme, Pete C has been working on the above in 4mm scale EM Gauge. All are from Cambrian kits. Left to right – Mermaid, SR Walrus waiting lettering and destroying the NATO anti radar black (the black was let down with white), and Oyster modified Shark kit (longer Cabin than a Shark).
Jim has been continuing the wagon theme, but in 2mm finescale of course. The Whale/Seacow project has slightly ground to a halt due to boredom, so his attention has switched to other “gloat boxes”, otherwise known as box files. In one, he found ten completed plastic bodies from TPM (Bernard Taylor) for JUA bogie aggregate wagons, converted from iron ore tipplers for the Merehead to Acton flows with Foster Yeoman. The kits are now available from the N Gauge Society.
One already had the 2mm Scale Association replacement bogie kits fitted and there was a note saying “nine more needed”. Duly ordered, they came last week and all ten pairs of bogies are now constructed. They are a nickel silver etch with whitemetal castings attached and take standard 2mm wheels on 12.25mm long axles (rather than N gauge ones around 14.8mm long). On the next page is a picture of the workbench with one completed wagon and the bogies in various states of assembly. The tiny top hat bearings need filing down so the castings can be super-glued to the etches and a little jig to help with this (the T-shaped things on the left hand cutting mat) is included in the etch, as are replacement ladders and handbrake wheels. Is he Mad or what?
Dom has been constructing the most fantastically detailed 4mm scale point rodding for “Coombe Town” – just needs rust and a little grease…
This is the latest addition for Simon K’s Cerne ‘shunting plank’, a 7mm scale/O Gauge Minerva Siphon G in crimson, renumbered and fitted with battery boxes and dynamo. Then beautifully weathered by Mike B and pictured on his Melcombe Magna layout. Your editor can vouch that when it was delivered to Mike it was the very brightest of bright crimson!
This month some very small models book end some very big models.
This is Dean’s 2mm scale N Gauge Saint Class 2929 St Stephen. This is a Grafar Hall cut and shut with a Langley Saint conversion kit. He still needs to source name plates and cab side numbers. The kit went together quite well but the cab needed a scratch built brass front plate, all white metal joints were low melt soldered without any blow outs, so that was a new experience and a technique he feels he’s got to grips with.
Dave H finished another Shelf Queen while he had Covid – it’s a Slaters kit with some scratch built bits so as to match the rest of the Queens when they are finished. He thought he’d try a kit to save time (and frankly 8 compartment thirds are a bit boring to build), and having the sides ready made did save time, but I think it was harder to paint.
The kit is accurate though and builds a good likeness of the real thing. This is the spoofed “Swindon official photo” which he think matches photos from the time quite well.
The transfers are Tony Reynalds (still available from CPL) and they are streets ahead of anyone else’s for Edwardian coaches. They are waterslide but very easy to apply. This model was started in 2007 then abandoned after I messed up the initial paint job, but then John M suggested dropping it in hot caustic soda to strip the paint off. That worked (lots of bits fell off in the process), and Dave decided to have another go. Main lesson – carve off the top and middle door hinges before spraying the chocolate and cream. They just get in the way and they are completely invisible once painted.
This is the first of five clerestories which will form a fast non-corridor train, topped and tailed by two 40 ft PBVs I’ve already built. The next on the shelf is a 58ft clerestory tricomposite which Dave started building in 2000, making it the longest serving ‘Shelf Queen’ by three years. It just needs lining, lettering, glazing and varnish so maybe it won’t take too long!
Simon K has a ‘small’ 7mm scale 0 Gauge tram layout. Your editor is going to take a wild punt and suggest that it’s a ‘London tram’. Simon comments that ‘The Brief Encounter’ couple look a bit out of focus. As someone who worked for years at Elephant & Castle, Jim couldn’t help chuckle at the destination blind. And no, your editor couldn’t understand why either.
An overall view St Martin’s Wharf looking towards the fiddle yard. This masterpiece was Bob Alderman’s penultimate layout. Inevitably, extended storage had taken its toll so members have been cleaning and fettling it, and also working out how it works. Pete C has found the missing platform bits, and the platform filler is now repaired. The explanatory Colonel Stephens display page has been reworked, the contact details having changed, and it will be laminated.
Dave H is fitting DCC chips to the locos and giving them a service so that they can be reliably controlled by the Z21 and Hudl portable tablets. He has also organised the operating rota for Taunton so that operators can benefit from free admission and, even more importantly, free school dinners!
Jim has been creating some “Whale” bogie ballast hoppers in 2mm finescale. In real life these were a development by BR in 1966/7 of the more common 40 tonne “Walrus” and “Seacow/Sealion” hoppers with extended bodies (eight panels instead of six). They were not a huge success, and were transferred from the Southern Region to the Midlands in the 1980s, making them ideal for my (maybe one day!) 25KV overhead project “Bungham Lane”.
Inspired by an article by Tony Buckton in the May 2010 issue of “British Railway Modelling”, the main difference is Tony carefully “cut and shut” two Farish RTR products. These now cost over £50 a piece new (!!) so I am butchering N gauge Society etched brass Seacow kits which otherwise were mouldering away in the gloat box. No longer available, they require considerable dexterity with a soldering iron, but Jim has loads to make mistakes with!
Seen above one basic bodyshell sitting on the temporary workbench that Jim uses in his study. For comparison above it are (a) a Farish RTR Seacow and (b) a NGS Seacow body. Also in the picture is a photo of the real thing from Gareth Bayer’s excellent website “Wagons on the Web”.
Five basic bodyshells completed – which is as far as Jim has got at the moment!
This month a selection of layouts from our club house and a garden railway.
Ray Hammond’s layout Thursford (M&GN) as set up in the club room. This is a pioneering layout built to S4 rather than P4 standards – so absolutely no compromise on check rail clearance and back to back. This layout is in the capable hands (and care) of Ray’s daughter Susan.
Dick has been thinking about building a garden railway since he bought his first house in 1978. There were two aborted projects at different houses, but now he has retired, he decided to get on with building an O gauge railway. He has built a 36 ft. long shed, (insulated, heated and fully plumbed), that will house a terminus station based on Bournemouth West. From there the line runs out into the garden, around a pond and returns to the shed at a lower level where there are storage roads. The track continues out of the other end of the shed around another pond and then returns the way it came to eventually arrive back at Bournemouth West. There is a link line outside that allows for continuous running. The total length of run is around 4 scale miles. At the moment the station is just track on boards and outside is bare track on concrete block walls. He is running DC control at the moment but intends to move to DCC. Running outside commenced from the beginning of August.
Evercreech New station with buildings by Allan Downes (7mm 0 Gauge). A dedicated team is now working on cladding Pecking Mill Viaduct which will be quite a feature on the layout.
St Martin’s Wharf (7mm 0 Gauge), Donated to the club by Sheila Alderman and being readied for a return to the exhibition circuit.
A view inside our spacious clubroom, Holly Junction (4mm 00 Gauge) foreground and South Junction fiddle yard right (4mm EM Gauge).
Summer is finally here and there is still some modelling being shared.
Dom’s Photo plank is finished and looks superb.
Having trialled the recently cut field look on the plank, Dom has started the landscaping of the area in front of the headshunt on Coombe Town. The idea is to use a similar field look and an open fence to give an open country feel, whilst not blocking the view of the trains much further.
This is the state of play for Allan’s latest 7mm scale coach. Another Sidelines brass kit, this lovely example is a double-window all-panelled brake third.
This is the smart looking home of Wellsey – a 7mm scale model set in Edwardian times and based on the railways that served Wells, The cabin was built in around 2008. Originally it had cantilevered wooden decking outside, but this had rotted and has been removed. Running repairs have been made to the base of the cabin prior to some paving being laid and steps provided. This required some ingenuity as the exact cladding profile used originally is not available off the shelf.
Instead Dave sourced some hand machined and shaped Larch from Devon Sawmills near Taunton. It is a bit rougher finish than the original, but about four times as dense even though it is properly seasoned. He could just about pick up and move one of the 6m pieces on his own, so he repurposed an old car jack to hold it in place while he screwed it on. Dave claims that the original timber is Transylvanian Balsa and is guaranteed to live forever – at least that’s what the tall pale salesman told him as he melted into the twilight.
This is the current state of the railway inside – not much has changed in the last four years because of life’s little challenges. There is a bit more stock now, and (most importantly!) he can run trains round and round. He has painted the track on one board ready for ballasting, and installed one of the superb S4 Society lever frames to work the East Somerset yard so that’s some progress. Which reminds your editor that he has more ballast to make both for Dave and Evercreech New.
A quiet couple of months, part of the reason for the hiatus in blogs, but again with the benefit of considerable foresight things will improve. May is when we have a AGM, and faced with increased costs (electricity and rent) we voted for a modest increase in subscriptions. In other news, work on club and members layouts continues with much effort focused on Evercreech New and Heyno Junction.
Work on the renovation of 7mm scale St Martin’s Wharf continues, and it’s excellent news that Bob Alderman’s lovely brace of Model T railbuses was in the St. Martins Wharf stock box all along – cunningly disguised as something wrapped in bubble wrap. Dave H has fitted a DCC chip in preparation for Taunton and our postponed Open Day. Dave will be fitting the rest of this interesting loco collection with DCC chips over the coming weeks, and Peter C is trying to sort out the wayward trailing axle on the rather nice model of ‘Severn’ (I believe it is a scratchbuilt Severn & Wye prototype) so we can run that too. Most of the stock is in good condition despite its long storage. The layout itself has been running quite happily and (you may wish to look away now) – most of the rat damage has been repaired. St Martin’s Wharf is easy to transport, interesting for us to operate, and we think people will be pleased to see it on the circuit again..
Verwood (set after the war) will need box and mineral wagons in reasonable numbers. Steve saw these on Ebay, but can’t claim them as any sort of rescue (other than from the 00 and P4 mobs) as these LMS vans were all runners and nicely weathered in BR Bauxite, although the underframes could do with more rusty goodness. From the same seller (and stable) were three superbly weathered EM gauge mineral vans that he would also have liked for Verwood, but sadly they went for what he calls ‘silly money’.
Yeovil Model Railway Group (YMRG) 