Monday, and BYR2 progresses further with holes cut in the ends for access to the fiddle yards. But the big challenge was . . . . . will it fit in the car?
Automatic tailgates will test whether it fits well. After the initial failure, moving the front seats forward a bit and straightening the baseboard, all was well.
Friday was the annual post-Christmas curry and drinks. As normal we went to Hatti for the meal, so with their usual bright blue lighting we didn’t take any photos.
Monday was a normal session, and we wished bon voyage to Mr Chairman who is escaping the next few storms in Florida.
Tuesday saw our Wizard fettling a Peak (I think), LBH messing about ineffectually in his corner,
Luke, having eased the over-tight meshing on his Railcar chassis, gave the gearset a good running in and then assembled the chassis for the non-powered car,
Wagonman made great leaps forward with his Mogul,
And TAFKATYS virtually completed a baseboard and enclosure from a standing start in the evening. Bwthyn y Rhosod II will be a 7mm scale, 16.5 mmm gauge layout, which we hope to see at NEWGOG next year.
A very good turn out on Friday, the final discussions on the baseboard for the Jubilee Challenge were followed by a decision to process with the laser-cut proposal, our Wizard evading the camera while working on a job that shall nor be named, LBH on some telegraph poles for Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae, while we saw …
More progress on the U1 from Wagonman, with some lovely work on the motion.
Ed is honing his card modelling skills and has pushed this preprinted kit almost to completion.
Having progressed Bwthyn i Rhosod II so far adding legs TAFKATYS steps back to contemplate the next step.
Another quiet Monday will only Andrew J and LBH in attendance.
Andrew progressed with his Signal Box for Lyne Road
In an attempt to model the August 1912 delivery of 12 axles of Mansell wheels from Pickering, Wishaw to the Brecon and Merthyr’s works at Machen in the Evans and Bevan coal wagons (numbers 1296, 1297 and 1298 if you must know), LBH has made a start by commissioning 3d prints of the wheels from Andrew Smith of 3D printolutions. Wagons to follow hopefully before too long.
Tuesday was quiet too, the cold snap not helping matter, but work continued on Signal box, goods shed. Southern mogul and antediluvian wagons, but all the efforts evaded the camera’s shutter (do they still have shutters?).
Friday was a tad busier with four members in attendance.
Luke is making good progress with his 7mm GWR Loroit
And at last LBH has an accurate boiler thanks to the efforts of all round good egg Richard Spoors.
Thanks to his efforts a replacement etch was made, which LBH rolled on Friday.
Elsewhere Mr Chairman continued with the short wheelbase wagons and Andrew J worked on the Signl Box.
This Monday saw some more progress on the short wagon. The buffers have been glued in place and the couplings attached. Unfortunately all the handling necessary to do this has dislodged the end handrail. Next it’s on to axleboxes – they are a bit skinny to fit well around the bearings and careful opening out will be necessary.
Further 3D small wagons have been started, though a couple needed some hot water to successfully straighten out the sides.
Tuesday was a Zoom meeting. Mike E took us for an enjoyable trip along the model ‘Amberdale’ using material from the book of the layout written by its creator. The quality of the scenic work and its photography was hugely atmospheric, the result of 62 years of work. We also viewed developments with the Jubilee layout, now named Cwm Carno (temporarily). A 1/8th scale baseboard produced by LBH was explained. The paper mock-up of it included levels and gradients. Luke produced a spreadsheet that will help organise which layouts are erected in the rooms.
Friday was occupied with preparation for the Open Day.
During the week we erected Frecclesham in the Layout Room to check that all was working satisfactorily prior to the Open Day. Thankfully it was.
At the start of the week work started on this and other 3D printed small wagons in 4mm. Below is one of the prototypes.
As 3D prints they arrive with support structure as below. They clean up pretty easily though carefull filing is needed to finish off. They are small, the material is light and adding extra weight for an empty wagon will be a bit of a problem
The hand rails on the ends do not always print well, so some 0.33 NS wire has been used.
Also on Friday Luke was putting together DG couplings for his shunting plank. The Dinorwic quarry wagons are some of the latest releases from Bachmann.
Not to be outdone, LBH is also building some short wheelbase Welsh wagons, this time in Scaleseven.
They are from the same source, Andrew Smith (eBay 3D printolutions) and are in development.
The Cardiff Model Show took place on the 19th and 20th October at Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground. We took the Chairman’s layout Pavilion End so that it could finally be at the . . . . . , well to be accurate in cricket terms, deep backward square leg.
Here’s the classic shot of the layout from the driver’s viewpoint. The coal train is departing now that the arriving train is in the platform. The pannier tank 5750 has propelled the District Inspector’s saloon up the branch and will now wait for a path back down to the main line.
At the back of the layout is the factory. Here the works shunter is delivering a new piece of equipment to the boiler house. A remarkably clean Iowerth Pritchard is having his morning tea and will leave the unloading to others inside.
Back at the platform the branch B-set has arrived.
Pannier 3603 has pushed the brake van right through the platform to get it behind the full coal wagons. The loco will next return to the front of the train and push it onto the brake van ready to carefully descend the valley.
Yes, the water crane is looking a bit droopy.
Finally a couple of shots of the cricket team itself. Late withdrawals have left just seven players, but it’s too late to cancel. Can they win with just seven? Yes, it can be done, ask Mr. Chairman. (Beware – a ball by ball account lasts 55 mins)
Monday was a quiet afternoon following the trip to Statfold Barn. To keep himself amused Mr. Chairman painted up some 4mm figures to go on ABB. One point noted at Scaleforum was that some locos did not have a crew on the footplate, or even a cab floor. Some of those in the picture are not true enginemen but in the cab of a tank engine are you going to notice?
Tuesday was better attended and Wagonman brought along the latest project – a SR U class mogul from a David Andrews kit. As you can see the tender went together well. This will be one of those engines that ran on the MSWJ line wandering south down to Andover and eventually Southampton.
Turning to narrow gauge, Luke has worked on a couple of purchases. The tiny diesel has had new pickups and after a bit of fettling and track cleaning began to run very well. The Talyllyn loco, Dolgoch, has been stripped ready for a repaint, though there is still work to do. Both of these are to 7mm scale running on 00 track.
Preparations for Scaleforum continue at a near frantic pace. However, on Monday Rhobat brought along the decorated samples for his Cambrian 2-plank wagons to be marketed under the Bryngaer Models label. They are in Cambrian and GW livery.
Monday, and after wheel cleaning and track cleaning last Friday it was time to get the stock onto ABB. The fiddle yard is looking quite full.
Tuesday evening was enlivened by this delicious home made orange and almond cake from Luke, which, as you can see was very well received.
Friday morning saw the latest Scalefour News flop onto the front doormat with a view of ABB on the cover. Only four weeks to go now until we take ABB to Scaleforum.
In the evening Luke was preparing his Pos Siyntio for the forthcoming Open Day, Fred and LBH were grappling with a misbehaving 0-6-0 tank mechanism and Mr Chairman was readying stock for ABB.
On ABB in the train seen above the long parcels van is not well suited to the formation. It is tail traffic which moves to the shortish bay behind and it’s a bit too long for that, its colour is too different to the other coaches, but worst the corridor connections make uncoupling with a Dingham loop unreliable. The replacement is shorter without corridor connections, though we might opt for an even dirtier version.
