What we are up to – Page 14 – Newport Model Railway Society

Week ending 1st December

25 November 2024 / ABB, B&MR, Llanastr, Loriot, Manning Wardle, Model T railcar, South Wales Wagons

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

18 November 2024 / B&MR, Loriot, Lyne Road

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.

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Week ending 17th November

18 November 2024 / Lowmac, Lyne Road, South Wales Wagons, Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae

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.

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Pictures from an Exhibition

10 November 2024 / Open Day

*To everyone’s surprise Llanastr was the first layout to arrive.* *(it wasn’t always thus – see here)*

*Luke organised the day and managed some operation time as well.*

*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.*

*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…

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Week ending 10th November

6 November 2024 / Open Day, South Wales Wagons

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.

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Week ending 3rd November

30 October 2024 / South Wales Wagons, U class

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

26 October 2024 / 3D, Bachmann, Dinorwic, South Wales Wagons

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.

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Pavilion End at the Pavilion End

21 October 2024 / cricket, PE, Sophia Gardens

The Cardiff Model Show took place on the 19th and 20th October at Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground. We took the Chairman’s layout Pavilion End so that it could finally be at the . . . . . , well to be accurate in cricket terms, deep backward square leg.

Here’s the classic shot of the layout from the driver’s viewpoint. The coal train is departing now that the arriving train is in the platform. The pannier tank 5750 has propelled the District Inspector’s saloon up the branch and will now wait for a path back down to the main line.

At the back of the layout is the factory. Here the works shunter is delivering a new piece of equipment to the boiler house. A remarkably clean Iowerth Pritchard is having his morning tea and will leave the unloading to others inside.

Back at the platform the branch B-set has arrived.

Pannier 3603 has pushed the brake van right through the platform to get it behind the full coal wagons. The loco will next return to the front of the train and push it onto the brake van ready to carefully descend the valley.

Yes, the water crane is looking a bit droopy.

Finally a couple of shots of the cricket team itself. Late withdrawals have left just seven players, but it’s too late to cancel. Can they win with just seven? Yes, it can be done, ask Mr. Chairman. (Beware – a ball by ball account lasts 55 mins)

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Week ending 20th October

16 October 2024 / ABB, Talyllyn, U class

Monday was a quiet afternoon following the trip to Statfold Barn. To keep himself amused Mr. Chairman painted up some 4mm figures to go on ABB. One point noted at Scaleforum was that some locos did not have a crew on the footplate, or even a cab floor. Some of those in the picture are not true enginemen but in the cab of a tank engine are you going to notice?

Tuesday was better attended and Wagonman brought along the latest project – a SR U class mogul from a David Andrews kit. As you can see the tender went together well. This will be one of those engines that ran on the MSWJ line wandering south down to Andover and eventually Southampton.

Turning to narrow gauge, Luke has worked on a couple of purchases. The tiny diesel has had new pickups and after a bit of fettling and track cleaning began to run very well. The Talyllyn loco, Dolgoch, has been stripped ready for a repaint, though there is still work to do. Both of these are to 7mm scale running on 00 track.