27th April 2016

This week Gary was able to attend for the first time for a while. As can be seen some of his modern day stock made an excursion from Halsdon Road to run through the Pennines, nothing unusual, and good to see. He also bought with him some redundant picture boards to be used in the club room.

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The welding up of the leg frames for Heyno Junction (HJ) has been completed. Two have had adjustable feet attached, as a template for the rest. The legs will be completed next Wednesday. Then we can sort out their attachments to the boards.
In the HJ workshop board H had its track bed fitted and board G constructed ready for track bed. All these boards now need putting together and on legs so the removable section of fiddle yard can be made.

We have been invited to take Gas Works to the opening of James’ new shop at Hambridge, near the smokery, on 11/12 June 2016. The address is:

DCC Train Automation,

Unit 4 The Courtyard, Bowdens Farm, Hambridge, Somerset, TA10 0BP

On Wednesday we were visited by a possible new member, Paul who models at both extremes, 15 inch and 2mm Fine scale, Hopefully he will pay us further visits as he seemed keen to get involved.

Partial automatic semaphore and colour light signalling using servos controlled from the pointwork setting is now up and running in both directions on South Junction and very good it looks too.  Peter C was still busy with circuit testers but he assured me only to put together a circuit diagram for future reference.

Epsom Show 23/24April 2016

Bob Alderman’s latest creation, St Martin’s Wharf, made its début at the Epsom show at the weekend where it was well received. There are a few operating items to sort out and other than that it ran well for its first outing. Thanks to Graham and Peter Beare for their help at the show and Jim with loading.

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20th April 2016

Another constructive evening for Heyno Junction. Board G now largely complete just the ‘Y’ shaped track bed to fit and fettle. This has now been cut out by Keith this afternoon, a bit of a relief if truth be known.  Dave S has begun putting together a jig for the construction of all the legs.

The remaining books/kits/and models from John M have now gone so we now have more space.
Bob A has packed away his new layout and is now off to be exhibited. Dave S promised not to take his class 40 along this time!!
Paul R was in for a while working on his diesel depot as was John L fettling Holly Junction.

Work continues on Evercreech New with the assembling of servos by James of DCC Train Automation (www.dcctrainautomation.co.uk). The servos will activate the signals and points so the layout will again become a runner albeit for shunting only for the time being.

The youth team were in again this evening running trains on MIRA Roads. They need something else to do until they can help on Heyno Junction. Perhaps they could put Gasworks through its paces?

6th April 2016

Wednesday evening saw a momentous event; the first three boards built for Heyno Junction were fitted together.  Yes although cut and built from plans they fitted perfectly without need for any real fettling!  A real achievement!!  Dave S has now ordered the leg kits and once they are constructed the layout will be free standing,  we will then be able to build more boards starting with the complex board J, which will be a challenge!  Progress at last.

It was good to see some younger visitors running a Warship with coaches on Mira road, they seem to be enjoying themselves.
A couple of Virgins were seen on Holly Junction, one with a large overhang which skimmed a bridge parapet, maybe she needs to trim down??
Bob A continues to work on his new impressively detailed layout this time without a railtour in sight.
There were two visitors during the during the afternoon who viewed the layouts with interest particularly the freight train on summit.  They are potential new members, more are always welcome!  A good attendance this week with 24 members in to Play trains and other activities.  I must bring in something to play with on Gas works  it needs a work up before open Day.
I am away next week, I will not be’ Stuck’ abroad like our chairman so see you in two weeks. Keep up the good work!!

Evercreech New at Evercreech Village Hall

Evercreech New (EN) had its first outing to Evercreech Village Hall at the Remembering The Railway day – 5th March 2016. The show celebrated the 50th anniversary of the closure of the S&D. It was a show worth attending. We gleaned a lot of information about EN from locals. For instance, there was a deep pond behind the platform (signal box side near the footpath). There were earth works behind the kiln so that horse and carts could take their loads to the top of the kiln and drop them in. One old guy’s horse and cart went over the edge! The lady who was in the pushchair (as a child) in one of the pictures turned up. One lady told us of her trips on the footplate (dad was a driver) to school and worked some of the signals. One gent told us that they used to go to the south bound home signal where detonators were left (saved carrying them there) “borrow” some and take them to the quarry where stones were thrown at them until they exploded. We were also donated some pictures of EN as long as we don’t publish them; copyright owner not known. All in all a well worth outing. Thanks to Julian, Steve, Simon and Dick for helping at the show. Good to see Peter and David Sedgman visiting.

Pictures show shots of EN in the hall. One of these show a picture wall which included a map of where the pictures were taken. This last feature was used a lot by visitors and is now available for us to use with EN in the future.

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October/November/December 2015/January 2016

Hello All

With the AGM of the YMRG next week, I will make this my last blog for the website. I have decided to stand down at the AGM and let others take over and move the club on. It has been an honour and a privilege to be the Chairman of the YMRG. So without further ado I’ll waffle on about what we have been up to since the last blog which is not a lot really.

So what’s been going on. Well, we had a successful Ladies Evening in October with twenty-six attendees. This evening is mainly for members to show their appreciation for their partners. But it’s not necessary to bring anyone along. This year we had members bringing no partner and one bringing two! The rest of us just brought one.

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With The Summit (TS) back from its successful début at Telford the planned visit by Avon O Gauge group with their large collection of rolling stock went ahead. An excellent evening was had watching different locos and stock running round TS. TS has also been photographed for the Railway Modeller (April 2016 issue I believe). We have seen the proofs and are pleased with the results. We will put the pictures up on the website after publication. There are a few modification to be made following on from our operating at Telford. The monitors will be repositioned nearer to the control panels for ease of viewing, cameras will be repositioned to see all of the front of the layout and the starter signal on the inside track will be repositioned nearer the road over bridge. A shunting sequence is also being considered. Hopefully the mods will be done before the Taunton Railex 2016 exhibition in October. Then 4 weeks after Railex, TS goes to Warley in November.
Pictures show an incident where goods train was circulating the TS unattended while we watched at the front. “Suddenly” we had the incident with trucks strewn all over the track in the tunnel and a buffer beam left in the 4 foot. Never did get to the bottom of the problem.

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busy_day_on_gasworksGasworks was successfully displayed at Taunton Railex 2015 where it won the Chairman’s Shield. Very pleasing. Picture shows Gaswork’s own “diesel dawn”, a bit over stocked but impressive.

A tarpaulin curtain has been erected at the end of of the main room in CS2. Behind this screen the first baseboard for Heyno Junction (HJ) has been started. It is hoped that this screen will stop the majority of the dust generated finding its way onto the other layouts. Face masks have been provided for members working in that area.

This first board was a test for construction techniques. From this first bit of construction the following decisions were made; use better wood and cut it more accurately. Pictures show the construction of the first board. The spots on the first picture are down to the wood dust in the air.

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Members hard at work!
The first board under construction.

Since then we have constructed a flat board on which the boards will be built on top of full size plans. Angle iron defines the ends of the board under construction. A large saw table has also been built so we can cut the wood accurately. A large capacity chop saw, courtesy of one of the members, completes the wood cutting facilities.

Full sized plans on which the relevant board is built.

South Junction (SJ) has had a few problems lately. Why does a point made on copper clad sleepers and correctly gapped suddenly get a short on it after twenty five years. It appears that a whisker of copper had found its way across a gap after all that time. Other than that trains run each week on SJ.

The Chairman’s Cup competition is going to run this year with judging taking place on AGM evening. An independent judge will be sorting out the wining entry. The competition is to build a 7mm scale 16T mineral wagon from a plastic kit. The main object is to get a rake of empty mineral wagons for use on TS. There are other cups to be won for locomotives, rolling stock and non-rolling stock railway related items. All entries have to have been completed in the preceding twelve months. I think there will be an array of vans too as the excitement of building the mineral wagon has had an effect on the members!

Our librarian continues to sort, reorganise and consolidate the collection. I don’t think anyone needs more than one copy of a particular year’s set of modelling magazines.

Holly Junction continues to develop while trains are run. Lots of new DCC equipped stock keeps appearing and run on the layout.

Welton Down has been out being exhibited. It will return to CS2 after its electrics have been sorted out.

Yeovil Town has had some scenic work done.

Several new members have joined YMRG. This is very pleasing as it shows we have something to offer new members.

Congratulations to Jim Allwood who has been awarded Honorary Life Membership of the 2mm Scale association in recognition of his services rendered over many years.

We will be having an Open day later in the year. If you want an invitation please contact our secretary Ed – details on the website.

Well that’s about it from me. Thank you to all those who have read my ramblings. I’m sure the new chairman will continue with his own style of blog.

Regards to all.

Dave

The Summit at Guildex – September 2015

The final push to Telford started last Wednesday when we packed TS up into several stillages and plastic boxes.  The 7.5T truck was collected on Thursday evening and was at CS2 just after 17:30. Just as a matter of interest we measured the length of the truck. It was 1 foot shorter than the one previously measured. Fortunately we can push against the sides of a real van and by 20:00 we had finished loading.

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After an uneventful trip we arrived at Telford around 13:30 on Friday. We got our tickets and were marshalled into the hall. 15 minutes later the van was unloaded and on its way to be parked. With most of the team of ten members together by about 14:00, as planned, assembly then started. Four and a half hours later we had finished. The longest part was assembly and levelling of the track boards. We will have to find a quick method for doing this.

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For the two days of the show the layout performed without a fault.  Operator error was the cause of most problems. One loco did fail as did a van having its end pulled off in public! Other than that it was compliments all the way. Most pleasing.

At the end of the show we were disassembled, packed up and loaded into the van in two and a half hours. Most of the crew then left for home leaving four members to stay overnight and bring TS back home the next day

YMRG: Summit – Status 23 Oct 2014

Hello All

Boards 3, 4 & 5 have been removed from the front of the layout for sorting out the the ground signals and points. We were a little enthusiastic with the ballasting and need to free them up. The wiring will also be tidied up while we have the chance. It all works, it’ll just look better. Board 5 has been completed.

fettling20timeTwo looms will have additional wires added to them so that the status of the signals on the front of the layout can be seen on the Up and Down control panels by the operators. The operators should also be able to see the state of the front signals on the monitors by the Up and Down control panels.

Although we had set the positions of the cameras to cover the front of the layout, actually mounting one of them in the required position would be difficult. Following a re-arrangement of the end cameras to point towards the ends not towards the signal box, a committee of two decided that, after viewing the changes on the screens, the changes were successful. The cameras are also easier to mount in their new position.

strip20lightingTwo strings of LED lights were obtained, one white and the other warm white. At £7 each they are not expensive. They were mounted in a white piece of guttering. Once we had found a suitable power supply, each 5m length uses 4A at 12V, we were able to light up part of The Summit to a reasonable level. Warm white was used in the gutter and the next try will be with a strip of white and warm white. It was also decided that what ever support and light we use that it will be usable for all other layouts in CS2.

That’s all for now. See you all sometime.

Regards

Dave

Gas Works at Seaton – Oct 2014

gasworks20at20seatonThe Seaton Show has come and gone and a good time was had by the chaps who attended. We had taken the HRCA (Yeovil and District) Hornby Dublo 3 rail layout with us as well as Gasworks. Fortunately we had loaded both layouts the night before as the rain came down heavily in the morning. Unloading layouts in the rain is not a pleasant experience but 6 people make it quick and easy.

The show was dominated by railway related stands, 16 in all with one stand each of boats and dolls houses. New friends were made and we can expect some visits to CS2 from them. Both Gasworks and the HD layouts worked well as did John Meakin who was demonstrating locomotive building.

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The slick dismantling of both layouts at the end of the show and packing of the van saw us back at CS2 and unloaded by around 5pm. For a week or two we will have the HD layout as a visitor.

Regards

Dave