Rodney Hall – Page 7 – Newport Model Railway Society

Lundi/Montag

4 March 2024 / ADR Wagons, Bolster wagons, Frecclesham, Lyne Road, Poppy, Prickley Pear, Railcar

Wagonman unveiled a Fulgurex HOm Aigle-Sépey-Diablerets Swiss railcar (if that’s an acceptable translation of Automotrice and Triebwagen). The prototypes were built in 1913 by SWS and AEG and the model, in brass and steel is an absolute delight and the flush glazing a tour-de-force.

LBH continued with the suspension units on one of the ADR two-plank wagons, fixing the bases with epoxy and using a Poppy Axle Spacing jig to get the axles parallel. He also managed to fix the wandering leaf springs before the glue cured.

Paul🥇called in on his way to work, Andrew N decided how to hide the visible turnout operating mechanisms on Frecclesham (see 26th Feb post) and Andrew J applied undercoat to the sides of the rails on Lyne Road.

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Another Tuesday

27 February 2024 / Frecclesham, Wagon compensation

This Tuesday saw us welcome a prospective new member to the club, Welcome Kevin!

The main thrust of the evening was checking that Frecclesham could be operated, and that operators could still operate.

LBH performed a simple conversion of a cattle wagon to ScaleSeven, using a rocking unit with internal bearings (from First Class Kits) on one end of the wagon only; the other end is unchanged.

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Monday Monday

26 February 2024 / 31577, Frecclesham

Four of us present, TAFKATYS managed to return from a skiing holiday with all limbs intact and worked with MrC preparing Frecclesham for Ally Pally. Rhobat continued work on a crane for Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae and LBH on the ADR two-plank wagons.

The conversion of Pol Sands to Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae made available a typical Southern Railway concrete line side hut, which became earmarked for use on Frecclesham to hide some point actuators after it was deemed that the World War II pillbox wasn’t quite up to scratch. However, given the relative sizes we shall need to be a bit inventive in order to make it work. Watch this space.

The Wainwright D class engines are very elegant and look good with the Birdcage set. These coaches have been improved by the addition of magnetic couplings which makes forming the set so much easier. Also the couplings have been shortened for a more realistic close-coupled appearance.

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Friday 23rd February

23 February 2024 / ADR Wagons, Frecclesham, Prickley Pear

A quietish Friday with cleaning underway on Frecclesham .

With the scenic side of Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae largely attended to and the baseboards disassembled while Frecclesham is readied for its trip to Ally Pally LBH reverted to type and went back to building wagons. This time he is trying the Prickley Pear wagon springing units for some ADR two-plank wagons. The solebars on the wagons will need to be eased slightly to allow the rocking units to move.

Another visitor to Frecclesham was Luke’s Dapol Terrier. This also ran successfully and tested the now adjusted turnouts. Luke also was busy removing accumulated dust from the surfaces with a trusty brush and vacuum. Hopefully you can see the difference it makes in the last picture where the darker area below the ground signal has been swept clean.

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Back to DCC?

16 February 2024 / BPRC, DCC, Manning Wardle, Minerva

The space available for a battery in a Manning Wardle Class K has proven to be too limited so it is reverting to DCC and thus pickups will be required. Unfortunately the perfectly good OEM ones were removed and have gone astray so some new ones will need to be fabricated.

*Fitted with a DCC decoder and reunited with its body, it ran but not well and LBH will need to give a bit more attention to the pickups.*

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Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae Lineside

5 February 2024 / control panel, Lineside, Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae

Andrew N turned up with a couple of items for Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae – a gradient post showing how the line climbs from the valley floor towards Caerphilly and a milepost in true B&MR style denoting 5 3/4 miles from Bassaleg.

Also from Andrew, but not photographed, were some components for the Facing Point Lock.

Elsewhere, out of shot, Rhobat continued with the yard crane and LBH wired up the west fiddle yard.

MrChairman worked on the cabling from the control panel to the Alex Jackson coupling magnets.

The relative simplicity here contrasts with panels 20 plus years ago when one could hear the phrase “knit me a control panel, Nellie” when work was in progress.

A bit more linesidary sprouted up on Tuesday, in the shape of a fixed lamp, that was installed at the halt to show drivers where the halt was in the hours of darkness.

Fred produced a running-in board for the halt, setting it off well.

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Lifting the horizon

30 January 2024 / Backscene, Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae

As suggested on the post of the 29th (was it only Monday?) raising the backscene by just a couple of inches paid dividends. The 3-d model and the 2-d back scene gel together better now. Hopefully some of the shadows will disappear when the lighting is set up and the backscene gets flattened out a bit.

Looking West

Looking East

A lone Bedwas coal wagon, not far from home, poses in a couple of locations in front of the backscene.

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Let there be light

30 January 2024 / Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae. Lighting

Paul🥇has finished building and fitting the lighting enclosure. Now LBH needs to wire it up!

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Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae Goods Shed

29 January 2024 / Goods Shed, Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae

Regular readers may have noticed an empty area in the east (Right-hand) end of Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae, this is the space that has been set aside for the Goods Shed.

TAFKATYS is casting it and here is the progress so far.

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