Our last meeting of 2024 fell on a Monday. not many of us wishing to forfeit New Year’s Eve at home. LBH was very proud of himself for successfully changing a failed encoder in his NCE PowerCab,
Luke made a start on his first kit-built standard gauge loco, an 0-4-0T from a Connoisseur kit, which will be built to Scaleseven standards. Before long the footplate was assembled.
Paul S made a frame to allow Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae to be transported more safely.
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.
Monday saw us welcome a prospective new member, Dennis, who enlivened the afternoon with a sick 00 engine and memories of Mountain Ash NCB. Amongst other activities Rhobat was working on his etched brass Hunslet; Mr Chairman the short wheelbase wagons and LBH fettling Llanastr track work. No pics to show though, sorry.
Tuesday was a Zoom session and time for the Christmas Quiz. Steve Bell entertained us first with a short video of a preserved line in Japan, complete with shunters wearing white gloves. The quiz tested us on railways of all sorts in Wales, e.g. name five current stations in Wales that contain the letter J? Steve finished off the session with history and pics of the Knoxville to Sevierville short line in Tennessee.
Two of us snuck in on Friday evening before Storm Darragh could do its worst.
LBH tested the fettled trackwork on Llanastr with his three B&MR locos with (ahem) acceptable results.
Luke added motor and pick ups to the chassis for the Model T based railbus.
And LBH tested out his newly-converted-to-S7 Peckett E class and fitted it with a DCC decoder. It will be named Alma and operate at the works shunter on the Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae Tar Works. Its DCC code is naturally 1854. Conversion to S7 was undertaken by Colin Dowling.
Later its dome-safety valve was fitted and now it needs weathering.
Two members’ layouts were at the Warley at Statfold show; Bernie’s Orfe Quay and LBH’s Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae
Orfe Quay
A general view of Orfe Quay
The Metro tank also ran on Hadley Town. Built by the late Vic Halliwell, it had run on the layout many years ago, soon after Paul Jones built it.
Bernie would like to thank Alastair for all his help, together with Pete Rigby and Michael Sykes of EMGS for their help at the end.
Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae
Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae erected and ready for operation.
On loan from the Tanat Valley, GWR 2-4-0T No 1179 approaches Rhyd-y-Gwern halt with a short rake of B&MR four-wheel coaches.
A Victory class, a Minerva product, wheels reprofiled for Scaleseven but awaiting a repaint, eases a short freight through Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae in the Caerphilly direction. 1197 again, this time with a close-coupled GWR setSome TVR stock, painted by Dave Studley and borrowed from Wagonman
And some even stopped to look!
Thanks to the volunteer operators, Luke, Rob, Rhobat, Andrew J and Alastair. for operating and their compsany on a great weekend,
Fiji
As well as having show halls, Statfold also has the real thing. A special train for exhibitors was organised.
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.
Many shoulders to the wheel one Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae on Monday
Paul 🏅🏅made a removable shelf for the Tar Works siding on Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae. The split in the sleepers is a quick conversion from 0 gauge to S7!
Elsewhere Mr Chairman made up sprung inside-bearing units for S7 wheel sets for some wagons and Andrew J ground the old 0 gauge axles out, while LBH attended to some areas that were tight to gauge.
Conversion of this little beauty will have to wait for a few weeks though.
Tuesday’s Talk featured a presentation on Rhobat’s proposed layout. With the aim of keeping it simple and achievable it will be in 00 with a through mainline and a few sidings. It will be called Silstwn and is based on Gileston on the Barry Railway. Following on from that in a similar vein Andrew N ran us through his list of ‘Welsh stations that would make good models’. Then LBH had some additional pics gleaned from the internet.
Monday saw us getting things straight in the clubrooms, having quickly dumped ABB off after a long and fraught journey back from Scaleforum. LBH erected Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae in the vacant space in preparation for its trip to Warley at Statfold in a couple of weeks time.
Mr Chairman gave a casual glance to a 3d-printed smokebox/tank/fittings component for a TVR Class V from Taff Vale Models and pronounced himself very satisfied with the result.
Fred has done a great job finishing off LBH’s ADR No 14, here see posing at Rhyd-y-Gwern Halt.
LBH made a couple of additions to Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae in the form of a water crane (which still needs to be bedded in) and a storage tank in the Alma Tar Works.
Wagonman has completed a BR(WR) Autocoach in 0 Gauge.The trailer is a Hawkesworth A38 from an Orion kit – (now marketed by Ragstone) – finished in the lined crimson livery adopted from 1957- W223W was allocated to Gloucester in 1964 and was used on the final Gloucestershire Railway Society tour of the Cirencester and Tetbury branches before the railbus services ceased – also would have been a regular on the Chalford auto-service which finished in October 1964.
Here’s the same coach with its more modern partner. It is correct for the final service on the Chalford autotrains out of Gloucester. Loco 1472 was also at 85B at this time
Also from Wagonman is this composite coach from a Haywood Models kit. It will be used as the centre car of a three coach set suitable for secondary services.
Next on Wagonman’s list is a corridor connection – here we see it opening and closing.
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 tookthe 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.
Not many model photos from Monday, despite a good attendance.
TAFKATYS has made some progress on the Goods Shed for Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae and it is seen here in situ. Don’t be misled by the cerise hue; it’s an effect of the light passing through the curtains during a rare spell of sunshine.
A review of period images of south Wales’ pubs, principally here showed that rendered pubs were generally painted a very pale colour, probably while with the lowest 3-4 foot being a dark colour, probably black. Hence the repainting we see here and the mock up of the finishing,
The regular reader will notice the name change, chose to reference the Abergavenny location and its association with Crawshay Bailey, Junior.
Mike E brought along a whitemetal kit for a Midland 2P – a typical S & D loco. it was something unearthed from a cupboard. You can see the date on the wonderful instructions. Mike claims probably bought it about 20 years ago.
On Tuesday Mr Chairman continued to battle with the 4MT. A new hole has been drilled in a more convenient spot for the wires and leaving space for the connecting plug and socket. (under the centre axle)
But bits keep coming adrift. The black locating tab by the rear axle came off and resisted both butanone and superglue. It’ll have to be araldite next.
By Friday the low level light black paint had been applied, but it’ll need to be toned down before we’re finished.
And the lean-to, which will eventually be at the other end of the terrace, gained corrugated-iron roof.
For the row of houses a start has been made on some of the details. The chip shop frontage has been put together and awaits priming.
The ‘fret’ to the right are the parts for doors and windows of a single house. The door is three layers and the windows two. The glazing will be two separate pieces attached to the back, and I haven’t worked out yet how to do an open window.
The wiring is nearly complete on the 4MT with a plug attached to the tender sub-chassis. Having done some fiddly soldering in there I was keen to give it a test run. I thought trying to get the last two wires in (from the tender pickups) was pushing my luck. The test was successful, it still runs smoothly.