Week commencing 16th December

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Monday and Tuesday saw a fair bit of activity at the club with a particularly goos turnout on Monday.

Luke has finished assembling and painting his Loriot and is obviously becoming a dab hand at soldering (despite his protestations).

Wagonman (does he need a new moniker?) is still taking great strides with his mogul.

This is fast becoming the Gozzy Show with Luke making good progress with his Railcars, and, below some Tal-y-llyn coaches from 3d prints

And TAFKATYS has completed the baseboard and legs on his narrow gauge layout.

Week commencing 16th December Read More »

Week ending 15th December

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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.

Week ending 15th December Read More »

Week ending 8th December

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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.

Week ending 8th December Read More »

Week ending 1st December

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Perhaps Storm Bert deterred a few this week, but we had four members present and two guests, Phil and Cory, good to see you.

Dave is still working on the short wheelbase coal wagons and we took the opportunity to pose some of them with LBH’s Manning Wardle Class I, the B&MR’s Lady Cornelia, which was built thirty years ago, on Llanastr.

Not entirely coincidently the image is not so different from this, taken at the Rhymney Iron Works probably in the 1880s

Operating Llanastr at the open day threw up some issues with the track alignment between the baseboards, so after 40 years we thought it might be timely fix some proper dowels. Here is Paul discharging the drill’s battery to this end.

Tuesday and numbers are up to 8 today. But despite the number of people there were periods of studious silence when we were just getting on with modelling. Perhaps that was due to the drill battery going flat so PaulS had less to do.

Luke continues work on his Loriot, now applying buffers and ABB was moved into the workroom for attention to the electrics by TAFKATYS. We are hopeful for some test running on Friday.

Friday and numbers were back to normal, with Fred, Paul 🏅🏅, Mr Chairman, Luke, Wagonman and LBH all making an appearance.

The operation of Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae’s fiddle yards at Statfold proved problematic, with the operators unable to view the front of the layout so see what was happening.

So we’ve decided to try operation from the front. This necessitated removal of the board on the front of the Fiddle Yard above approx 1″ the surface, which Paul did on Friday.

Having got the Loroit to the paintshop, Luke is now working on a model T railcar. Or more exactly a pair of them to work back to back. Here’s the result of the first 30 mins work.

The Southern U class progresses on Wagonman’s workbench. The smokebox, boiler and firebox are now joined as one piece.

Week ending 1st December Read More »

Week ending 24th November

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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.

Week ending 24th November Read More »

Week ending 17th November

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Monday was a quiet afternoon with the few present feeling ‘Open-Dayed-out’.

Tuesday saw more activity. Luke started on a ‘proper’ 7mm model with this GW Lowmac wagon from Connoisseur Models, ably assisted by Wagonman.

LBH was having a good grind at the goods shed for Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae, shaping blocks in the wall.

AndrewJ got on with the fiddley task of getting the signal box for Lyne Road neat and square.

Mr Chairman made a bit more progress with the early wagons.

By Friday there were two wagons to display on Llanastr.

Week ending 17th November Read More »

Pictures from an Exhibition

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To everyone’s surprise Llanastr was the first layout to arrive. (it wasn’t always thus – see here)
Saturday afternoon and set up starts.
and went smoothly.
Luke organised the day and managed some operation time as well.
It brought someone to their knees!
Mike E’s American N scale Roundhouse caught many eyes.
Andrew Smith’s 3d-printed kits of Victorian period wagons in the three major scales garnered a lot of interest.
Morgan’s Shaftesbury Road was well received on its first outing.
Albyn’s Bishops Castle layout attracted a lot of interest.
Proving that we like fiddle yards more than layouts!
Here are some of Andrew’s wagons that Bernie had prepared earlier.
Fiddle Yards can be scenic too as Albyn demonstrates on his Bishops Castle layout.
The tables are turned on Ian of Penbits, as Bryan and Mike man his stand.
Morgan operating Shaftesbury Road
Fred, The Welsh Wizard, and Julian and Susan of Taff Vale Models get a few rare moments of respite.
The EMGS stand with its delightful demo piece .

Some feedback from visitors:
* A very pleasant excursion. Plenty of people to chat with and some interesting layouts and models on display.
* Yes, I enjoyed my visit too. A broad range of scales and settings!
* Cracking day out!
* Shame I was on a limited timescale but enjoyed it. Maybe the 7mm narrow gauge a bit too much…

Pictures from an Exhibition Read More »

Week ending 10th November

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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.

Week ending 10th November Read More »

Week ending 3rd November

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Monday was a little quiet this week and not much in front of the camera.

Nevertheless LBH installed some plasticard floors in the short wheelbase S7 wagons

A few more attended on Tuesday; Fred working on a DJH kit for a D95xx BR(WR) 0-6-0 Diesel Hydraulic, Luke fettling the chassis of TR’s Dolgoch, LBH fettled the old wagons a bit and

Wagonman is making great progress with his ex-SR U class mogul from a David Andrews kit. Moving on from the tender, and having previously assembled the footplate and valences, he annealed the firebox and cab roof to make bending the complex curves easier. This shows the state of progress.

And Luke and LBH discussed plans for the Open Day and the development of the design for the S4 Jubilee Layout

By Friday the 4mm short wheelbase wagon had been primed, showing the detail more clearly. Not surprisingly the correct pattern buffer heads and rams are not readily available. An attempt was made with a standard buffer head and some 2mm brass tube. It needs gluing in properly. Cutting and fettling the short piece of brass required some time on the floor looking for the ones that escaped.

Week ending 3rd November Read More »

Week ending 27th October

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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.

Week ending 27th October Read More »

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