Another model to be added to the Barry Railway roster. This is destined to be modified into a class G.
LBH’s TVR Iron Van in S7 has at last sprouted buffers and will soon find its way to the paintshop.
Week ending 28 July 2024 Read More »
Monday and a select few at the club. Rhobat continues with the Barry class J fitting a replacement cab and bunker. The first version was rather flimsy and a poor fit but the new one is a bit better. It’s not yet glued in place.
Tuesday was a quiet evening. Away from the clubroom I have been painting the doors and windows for the terrace, adding variation in colours. Some of them need toning down.
Also on display this week we had a lovely Black 5 that The Welsh wizard has for sale and a Saint belonging to Don. Yes, we know the tender is wrong.
Week ending 21 July 2024 Read More »
Monday at the club had the usual tidying up theme. Inevitably lots of bits were thrown in my workbox at the end.
The only major problem with Pavilion End at the show was the failure of a point mechanism. Its position was too difficult for an immediate fix so the drive has been positioned to come from the rear of the layout instead from under the platform. The next steps are to connect a servo onto the other end, connect the drive, disguise the tube and reposition the ground signal.
On Tuesday Luke came with some lovely NG stock from Bachmann. The loco represents the Alice class from Dinorwic Quarry and the wagons are very good too.
We took the cliched opportunity to contrast two locos, both to 7mm scale – Dave’s 42xx and Luke’s Quarry Hunslet
Friday and a much better attendance than the usual four. There were 8 of us plus one visitor.
On Pavilion End the wire-in-tube drive has been connected up and hot glued in place. It curves around so that the servo can be close to its controlling circuit board to make plugging in easier. The turnout has been tested and all is satisfactory.
When he wasn’t installing point servos TAFKASTYS spent some time grinding away on the goods shed for T’yn y Coedcae blending in some new stonework. With 9 bodies present space was at a premium, so the corridor is being used to work out how to recycle ex-LMJ legs into supports for Luke’s shunting layout, advised by Wagonman.
Week ending 14 July 2024 Read More »
It has been a quiet week with little of photographic interest. So it’s thanks to Wagonman for providing the pictures this week. The BLS railway electric loco is in HO scale, produced by Roco. Built in the late 50s by Brown Bovery the prototype lasted in service until relatively recently. And not content with the one Hawksworth push-pull coach that runs on Pavilion End, Al is now starting a second one. This one will be in a slightly different livery.
Week ending 19th May Read More »
Some people just can’t resist a purchase. The Wickham trolley and trailer from Ellis Clark in 7mm scale certainly looks tempting and Wagonman did succumb. Its finely detailed and surprisingly, very fast. Its definitely not DCC controlled – where would you put the chip?
Well, there really is a version sold that does have DCC and sound!
Week ending 12th May Read More »
Taking Bwthyn y Rhosod (TLFKAByR) to the Thornbury Show went well, though the start was a bit eventful. After assembly we couldn’t find the cassettes for the fiddle yard – and yes, we’d left them behind. So LBH volunteered to go back to get them. Preparations continued until we found that there were more items we didn’t have. By this time we calculated that LBH would be on his way back with few chance to turn around so SteveN set of on another trip to collect items.
With nothing else missing Bwthyn y Rhosod was ready to go and was soon attracting plenty of attention.
The view the visitors don’t get to see is the one from the fiddle yard through onto the layout. We didn’t have any major problems, though Paul W had to tie the hook back onto the crane.
We were over-staffed on Saturday with about 10 of us present. Could it have been because no show is complete without a meal on at least one evening? We patronized the Wheatsheaf on the town.
Thornbury Two Trips Read More »
Modern technology has played a part in railway modelling at the Newport club for quite some time, going back to things like diode matrixes to control movements. The trend continues with Templot being used for layout design and resin parts being used to provide the required result. Here Rhobat is converting a L&Y 2-4-2 tank into a Barry Railway class J, which was very similar. There is also a different cab needed, to come later.
Preparations for moving Bwthyn y Rhosod over to Thornbury for the show were largely completed on Tuesday. Here the gang are separating the boards and packing them together ready to transport.
This week we have been preparing Bwthyn y Rhosod for its trip to the Thornbury Show. It is successfully erected, connected up and tested. The stock is now being trialled and coupling settings adjusted.
Also Morgan has been putting together some 4mm Dingham couplings for his 00 stock.
Luke’s Mainline and City stock converted to P4 has been put together as a rake and decisions made on couplings and the right gap between the coaches. Unfortunately the rather neat magnetic couplings provided too big a gap. We settled on the medium gap.
Week ending 28th April Read More »
Monday TAFKATYS came with a loco under repair for Luke. It is now running better and needs pick-ups. This provided a lot of online discussion about suitable pickup material and we even wandered as far as harpsichord strings.
After a couple of fruitless searches the running in boards for ABB have finally been found. They were inside one of the villas which had been packed away. Obvious when you think about it !!?
Wagonman has now completed the Birdcage brake coach. It is finished as in departmental use.
On Friday more coaching stock from Wagonman appeared. The first is not a model of Australian stock but a Slaters Midland coach pose to show the fiddly brake blocks so far fitted to only one axle. Earlier thoughts of producing the fully lined MR livery have been abandoned and this coach will appear in Departmental colours. Below are two shots of the nice handrails on the GN full brake last seen 7th April – more fiddly work.
The roof of the GN full brake also provided challenges. The brass had to be cut out for the lights to be fitted, then filed individually to size to take the castings which were not quite identical.
Luke’s shunting puzzle layout was brought to the club as it needed to fiddle yard attaching, Resident wood guru Paul🥇 provided the necessary skills.
The fiddle yard is a sector plate with a traverser at the end for running the loco around.
Week ending 21st April Read More »
Pavilion End made its third appearance at NEWGOG but improved by additions to give more of a South Wales feel since its first outing. The coal train is headed by 4248, shedded at Ebbw Jct, the mixed freight is behind 666, and ex-ADR Victory tank, and the workman’s train now has three 4-wheeled coaches with real (or dubious) stories.
Ty’n-y-Coedcae was also at the show and also sported a Victory tank from an earlier era (and dubious colour). There is plenty of stock to make the yard look busy. What is stored in the fiddle yard is always of interest, particularly the Cambrian brake van – a very nice model.
And the surprise event of the day was the 1200 mm free-fall plummet.
The Ty’n-y-Coedcae entry was a Minerva Victory tank, which despite the fall, the most serious damage was this dent to one buffer. It says volumes for Minerva’s build quality.
