Author name: David Hagger

Mid-May missing

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Posts have been a bit rare recently so here’s an update to cover mid-May.

The track in the colliery on Cwm Carno is extremely difficult to reach when in its usual horizontal position. So a chunk of polystyrene was carved to shape to support the layout vertically, leaning against the wall, making access much easier. The track work is being replaced with stronger components to hopefully make maintenance infrequent. It’s back to copper clad timbers and long lengths of nickel silver rail. Sticking the sleepers down when near vertical needed clamps. Then the layout went back horizontal to check and adjust the alignment and flow of the stock rail.

Frecclesham showed signs of age later on at the Thornbury show, with wiring and servos causing minor problems. With a number of invitations being received we decided to upgrade some components to ensure future reliability. Here is TAFKATYS at work, and currently not swearing.

Mid-May missing Read More »

08 May

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Not many of us there on Friday, but two locos were present for the camera, both in 7mm scale. The saddle tank is from the Gwendraeth Valley railway and was built by Wagonman from an Agenoria kit. The little shunter was a bargain at just under £100 from Accurascale / Heljan. It runs very smoothly and is destined to be a second works shunter on Pavilion End, after a repaint. Hopefully it will be battery powered, radio-controlled but there is not a lot of space for all the bits.

08 May Read More »

Frecclesham at the Bristol Show, Thornbury

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The show at Thornbury was a good weekend away for us. We managed to get get Frecclesham erected, tested, fully stocked and running in 1hr 15 mins. We had run two sequences prior to the doors opening. There was just one electrical niggle to sort out.

Naturally we celebrated in the usual way but by Sunday morning supplies were low. But Don saved the day.

The arrangement of stock in the following photo may be the result of the celebration, or it might be just clearing space for track cleaning.

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Preparing Frecclesham

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Frecclesham has been assembled to ready it for the Bristol Show at Thornbury. With the track cleaned Wagonman brought along the Lyme Regis set and other coaches for checking. He also brought this charming Terrier – one of his collection of four of these engines. All performed properly.

A new addition to the rolling stock on Frecclesham is the dark maroon pull-push set hauled by D1 0-4-2 tank 2296. The loco has been available for some time and acted as a standby, but finally it has its own stock. At the other end of the locomotive scale is Bullied pacific ‘Croydon’ which is just performing its run-round. All three shots emphasise how a back-scene is valuable in ‘suspending disbelief’.

Preparing Frecclesham Read More »

Do you remember cassettes?

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But it was not the tape kind, but the modelling kind that created a lot of activity Tuesday. The materials had arrived for Cwmcarno’s fiddle yard cassettes and was sorted and stacked ready for construction.By the end of the evening one had been glued together and weighted down to set.

Also for Cwm Carno Mike E arrived with the splendid near complete screens for the colliery.

Not to be left out Ty’n y Coedcae was receiving materials to upgrade its fiddle yard cassettes. The original ones were very close to the sides of the stock and damage was occurring, especially to the foot boards fitted to its early coaches.

From Monday we see work in progress on Rob F’s workbench for his 7mm Slaters kit of a diagram 04 four plank wagon.

Also on Monday we took advantage of it being both dry and light to check that Cwmcarno would still fit inside Peggy.

Luckily it does.

Do you remember cassettes? Read More »

Deadline !!

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For the Scalefour Jubliee Challenge we have to show that all the track works, by the end of March. Here are two of the videos showing most of the running. All routes were videoed but these are just a selection as they are sizeable files.

Deadline !! Read More »

Pavilion End at Ally Pally

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First a couple of photos from the show showing PE in action.

Behind the scenes there were plenty of bodies as we were overstaffed for PE but happy to be away as a group. Unusually we didn’t have Jaffa Cakes as part of our provisions but Welsh cakes were a good substitute. Luke had spare time to work on some wagons for Cwm Carno.

By the end of Sunday six wagon bodies had replacement chassis. On PE no. 4248 ran the coal train for the whole show without any problems.

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Friday 13

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Further work on Cwmcarno fiddle yards included darkening the run-in sections as they could be visible from certain angles, as well as glueing and weighing down the transition to the cassettes.

The remaining retaining bolts for the fiddle yards were araldited in place, some harder to get at than others, and one near impossible.

Two years ago Luke bought this model of Talyllyn’s Dolgoch at the AllyPally show. It has since been re-chassised, detailed and repainted, and is ready for the Sodbury Vale’s show at British Aerospace Filton.

Also prepared for a show is Pavilion End, ready for the 20th-22nd weekend.

Friday 13 Read More »

Noisy !!

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Arriving at the centre on Friday 6th we found we had the company of a pack of Cubs who I guess were going to have a ‘sleepover’. There was a lot more energy in the building than usual !!

In the clubrooms Luke sorted through some 4mm coaches that might have got to run on LMJ and put together to form the Newport – Brecon service on Cwm Carno. A pannier tank or Collett Goods would be a more typical locomotive.

Noisy !! Read More »

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