Monday saw five of us at the club; Andrew J was working on Lyne Road, creating a bank at the back of the station area; Rhobat contemplating repainting the whitemetal GWR ex-Barry Class G 0-4-4T we saw back in w/e 15 September while Mr Chairman, Paul🏅🏅and LBH preparing Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae for its trip to Warley at Statfold on Friday. Switchblades were freed up and electromagnet switch cabling corrected. But nothing found its way to the camera.
Tuesday was busy with further preparation for Warley at Statfold. Which meant that Friday’s attendance was just a few of us with again little to report. But here are some pics from the show over the weekend.
With Scaleforum getting closer more attention to preparation of stock, getting the ground surface ready for the terrace and tweaking and practicing the timetable on ABB.
Meanwhile Rhobat made some fascinating finds among his late father’s model collection …
This whitemetal GWR ex-Barry Class G 0-4-4T in OO. Rhobat plans to repaint in Barry Crimson
See the 4 August post for more on the Barry G class or click on Barry in the tags above to get all the Barry related posts.
and this pair of GWR Steam Railmotors, also in OO. Little is known of their origins.
Five of us attended Guildex in Stafford, and LBH made a few purchases:
A pair of S7 wagons, which on later examination proved to be sprung but had become gummed up. A few minutes attention freed up the axleboxes and they ran well.
They came in LMS livery, which LBH is removing to allow repainting in Midland colours.
And this Brecon and Merthyr Composite, superbly painted by Dave Studley. Luckily the conversion to Scaleseven was a quick and simple wheel swap.
Paul S has been sorting out the ground levels in preparation for the planting of the terrace Mr Chairman is working on.
Thursday saw an extra session snuck in, again for preparation for ABB‘s trip to Scaleforum – the throws of signal arms were adjusted, wheels were cleaned, routing macros were corrected, a fiddle yard casette split into two match traffic demands
Friday and Mike E arrived with his latest bargain. Only three of these prototypes were built by the Southern, with both 3rd rail and pantograph pick-up. The pantograph does actually unfold. Also the cab lights turn on, though it’s not apparent in the shot.
Mike E has also designed and fitted laser-cut window frames on the ABB Villas.
Mr Chairman has spent a while on the window furnishings on the terrace to good effect.
Seeing LBH struggling with the boiler fittings on ADR 14, and knowing that it’d be great to run it at Warley at Statfold, our resident Wizard kindly offered to fit the fittings and has also done a wonderful job of cleaning it up and removing LBH’s extensive extraneous solder.
Sunday and Mr Chairman has completed a trial assembly of the terrace.
The Dog Days of 2024 are upon us and things are a tad quiet at the club before we do into a jam-packed Autumn with the club being involved in four exhibitions plus an Open Day – put a note of 10 November in your diaries.
Rhobat and Fred are working together to produce a satisfactory bunker on Rhobat’s BR Class J. The first step is to create a mock-up using the rough cut pieces shown here.
Tuesday and Luke’s shunting plank has been erected on the new legs. After a bit of electrical soldering work we did some trial running.
Also the fence in front of the semis on ABB has been fixed with ground built up around it.
Friday and preparation of ABB continues. While the track and cassettes were being cleaned, the loco roster were in for wheel cleaning. Selecting 1954 as the time period does mean there are a lot of black engines and the picture is a bit reminiscent of Barry scrapyard.
Meanwhile Wagonman is preparing some GWR 9ft coach bogies in 7mm scale. The four of them are supposed to be identical. However, the pairs come from two different manufacturers and in the closer shot you can see that there are differences.
LBH rolled the second boiler for the B&MR Class 36. In the horizontal view you can see one of three temporary straps that were put in place while the internal gusset, seen in the end view, was soldered in place.
Monday and the quest for a Barry Class G continues with a Midland 0-4-4T as another possible candidate. You can make a comparison between the two in the picture.
In case you’re wondering what the Barry Class G looks like, to save you googling it here’s a pic.
Work has resumed on some fencing for in front of the semis on ABB. The view in the pic is from the back. The fencing has been attached to the front brickwork and brass wire glued in to help locate the assembly in position.
Tuesday and the inner face of brickwork now has been trimmed to match the step down in the fence and then stuck on. Some primer next, then attempt to install it.
Luke has had the privilege of wielding Thor’s hammer to persuade the T nuts into these wooden blocks. They are to take the adjustable feet for a set of legs. Then he used it again to get the blocks into the ends of the legs themselves. The modified legs are the further set. With a little adjustment the baseboard was level.
With ABB set to go to Scaleforum as soon as next month, it was time to get it erected in the layout room. Of course we chose the bit where the floor is not completely level so some packing was required.
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.
Friday
The legs for Luke’s shunting layout are too wide for the baseboards so eventually we came up with this solution – insert two new lengths of aluminium inside the existing legs, screw them in place retaining the structure, then cut away the excess. We’ll see next week how successful it is.
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.
TAFKATYS’s latest offering is an ex-NER J23 in 0 gauge based on a Gladiator kit.
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.
One of LBH’s brake vans did not hold the road too well when running at NewGOG and on inspection it was found that the axles were not perfectly aligned allowing the vehicle to rock slightly. It had been built (by a third party) without any provision for springing or compensation, so LBH is trying this somewhat gimcrack arrangement of wire springs bearing down on the axles as there is just a little movement available. He’ll add a load of lead too.
On ABB the area in front of the three sets of semis has never been satisfactory with just a rough bank where a pavement or wall should be. So excavations have started and some brick plastikard cut to represent the wall. Should the wall have a step in it to reflect the step in the houses behind?
We already have some nice laser cut iron fencing from Scale Model Scenery to put on the wall, and the gates look attractive too. The panel size does not match properly to the step in the wall.
The ever productive Wagonman has completed two models that have appeared on this blog. The ex-GNR 6 wheel Brake van has 4 skylights and they are each glazed with 2 pieces of clear plastic. The LNWR Coal Tank is finished in its final format as used on the special train on the MT&A from Abergavenny.
The work converting the L&Y 2-4-2 to a Barry Railway J class continues. The bunker and cab section has not fitted as smoothly as the tank section with sawing, grinding and filing required to get it as far as shown below.
And congratulations to Paul 🏅🏅on being awarded his second Royal Medal, this is for driving King Charles’ train, and goes with the earlier one he had for driving his mam’s. Apparently there is no truth in the rumours that he also drove for King George VI.
The long term dissatisfaction with the area behind the station building may be over. This laser cut terrace from Intentio seems to be filling the space in a better way. The shop on the left is a chippy, and the space to the right will have a pub, also laser cut. The name for the pub is not confirmed yet, but could be The Sheward Arms, although looking at the picture above maybe The Two Gongs might be more fun.
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.
