Well CS2 survived the ‘Beast from the East’ with hardly any of that fine driven snow getting in.   We had another busy Wednesday with a good turnout at CS2 and at the ‘greasy spoon’.  Work continues on the Holly Junction and Tottington Hall.   South Junction has gained an extra operating signal.  Tracklaying has commenced on the so far un-named N gauge layout – though it won’t be ‘Bangor’ – apparently.

The Summit is all packed up ready for its trip to St Neots.   This is not a venue we’re familiar with and it’s quite a trek cross-country from Somerset.   There will be a full update on layout progress next week together with our impressions of the show.

If anybody reading this is going to the East Anglian MRE this weekend then please come and say hello – we like a chat and are always happy to answer questions!

Lots of work going on in CS2 this week. Dave from Shepton Mallet visited
again.  Good to see Gary back and Halston Road populated with modern image stock.  Paul and Olivia continued sorting out Yeovil Town for automatic operation.  Tottington Hall made a welcome return from its successful first outing and was reunited with the rest of the baseboards.

Holly Junction has a new sideways extension made and now painted.

The front scenery has been removed from The Summit for maintenance purposes. It is unlikely to be replaced before the outing to Huntingdon in 7 weeks time.  Volunteer(?) positions for operator/roadies are still open for this show…   Jim’s new Class 60 was running in and got better the longer it ran. Julian’s Jinty went well too.

Ballasting continues on the diesel depot – Ratcliffe Road.

The curved edges of one of the new big Evercreech New boards was fettled into a better shape.  A visit to Avon Plywood in Keynsham answered some questions about the plywood we use. They offer a cutting service if we provide a CAD file (.dxf) to them, and we will see how much it would cost for a couple of Heyno Junction end boards.  Also it seems Birch ply is more expensive, but the best for what we are doing.   Some large scale contour maps have been ordered for the area around Evercreech New. These along with photos of the area will help to give us the topography around the viaducts on the new baseboards.

The new N gauge layout has legs and a name – Kingsdon Central (KC).    Work continues on the baseboards.  Levelling of the boards will begin next week.

We hope that you all had a good Xmas and are looking forward to the New Year.

Saturday brings us the West Camel Winter Show at the The Davis Hall, Howell Hill, West Camel, Yeovil, BA22 7QX starting at 10am. We will have Gas Works there so please come and support (and operate and chat and say how wonderful we are).

Yesterday a very select subset of the membership met at CS2.  Work continued on Yeovil Town (YT) with Paul H, Olivia and Nikki working away on the telephone exchange to work YT. Looking forward to the demo on that. Paul also installed a roof bucket to catch drips.  Richard was installing a worktop in HoJ.

Young Peter continued to get Tottington Hall Estate Railway  ready for its debut on the 13th January at Ilton for more detail see here.  Dick got his diesel going properly and ran his newly acquired milk tanker on The Summit.  The N gauge chaps cleaned the component parts of their legs, made a jig for welding them together and will hopefully have a complete set ready for next Weds. They thought that having them chrome plated would be a good finish for the legs. A bit flashy eh.

Simon and DaveS continued with EN baseboards. The picture shows the extended outer gussets which will provide support for the curved face and cross members. The latter will now no longer need bracing.  Lightening holes will be cut when the outer face is attached.  Weight however is not a problem as the board will never need manual lifting as it will be on castoring wheels.  For reference there are two boards this size both 12′ 8″ long (corner to corner) and 4′ 2″ wide – that’s if everything has gone to plan!  The board in the photo has room for scenery plus Pecking Mill Viaduct, the other board is identical apart from having a different drop on the end boards to allow a full length and height representation of Prestleigh Viaduct.

A Healthy, Happy and Productive New Year to you all, and hopefully we’ll meet at least some of our followers at the shows we will be attending over the next year in West Camel, Ilton, St Neots, Aylesbury or even in CS2 on Open day!

In three weeks time the West Camel exhibition will be over and Gas Works back in CS2. But first we need to get Gas Works there and we need four operators. Saturday 30th December is the date and we’re assuming 10am – 4pm.  Charlie Bishop, the organiser will be in touch soon.  We need transport and volunteers to load/unload/operate.  Please don’t be shy in coming forward, it’s good to support our near neighbours.

AllanH has sent us some pictures of his 00 gauge layout ‘Kingsferry’ which uses the GWR terminus of Kingsbridge for inspiration.  The layout is quite simply already stunning and further progress has been made since the photos were taken, including adding the goods shed.  The stock is an interesting and carefully selected mix, some of it kit-built from eBay with mostly ready-to-run locos.   More pictures and information on this cracking layout can be found here.

Progress continues to made on the very large baseboards that will join Evercreech New to the fiddle yard built for The Summit.  The boards are the size of a car and there has been speculation that these are the largest portable baseboard sections in the UK, but we have been assured that they are not!  The plan is to pivot the boards vertical and move them on wheels.  Loading into the lorry will be via a ramp constructed from scaffolding boards.  Tickets will be made available to interested spectators nearer the time and counselling will be provided to the combatants willing or otherwise.  The picture shows the board for the Pecking Mill Viaduct end; the Prestleigh Viaduct end being similarly advanced.

A couple of weeks ago Holly Junction was rent asunder with the aid of a small and largely volunteer army.  Considerable progress has since been made in bridging the resulting gaps.  Allegedly it was mooted that the fiddle yard should be a lifting section for ease of access until the full implications of this proposal dawned on the potential victims.  The plan now is that a trolley should be provided to speed entry and exit from the heaving centre of operations.

In other news, board construction for the N gauge layout races ahead and in fact will shortly be gaining legs.  The automation of Yeovil Town continues with a much-anticipated demonstration planned for early in 2018.  Trains continue to be run on The Summit which was featured in the Christmas edition of Hornby Magazine, but sadly not on the included DVD.   South Junction has been re-assembled and is operational after its third trip to Taunton, with replacement of the two remaining original scratchbuilt slow action point motors in hand with Fulgarex units.