Reports and Blog

18 attended the May meeting (Pic001).

Colin Capel brought along a 2091 and 2095 class H0e Diesel locos  along with a couple of bogie coaches and some transporter wagons with standard gauge loads. (Pic002), which due to the curves on the available layouts were restricted to Colin’s length of straight track.

Neil Davies brought along his Kato Unitrack set up (Pic003). On it he ran his Fourdees ‘Little Isaac’ with a Ffestiniog style brake van and some Fourdees wagons (pic004). Neil also showed his now finished Fourdees ‘Secunda’ with his repaired Paul Windle ‘Sirdar’ (pic 005).

Also making use of Neil’s test track was Mike Wall. Mike’s latest purchase was a RNAD Diesel loco in lined maroon livery (Pic006).

Bob Taylor had brought along his ‘test track in a box’. This allowed his Bachmann Blanche in Penrhyn livery a chance to stretch her legs/wheels (pic007).

Dick Johnson brought along ‘Tren Bach’ once more. There seemed to be quite a bit of action on the layout.  I must admit  however that I managed to miss it all and only took a quick snap as Dick was packing up to go home (sorry Dick!) (Pic008).

Mike Bartleet brought along his recently purchased Bachmann NG7 Quarry Hunslet ‘Una’ (Pic009).  Mike also continued working on his On30 oil depot.

Matthew Tozer was another using the meeting to ‘get something done’.  Matthew finished painting up some more 009 Fox Valley railway stock (3d prints from T&S Models). He also had an 0-16.5 china clay wagon for the Harburn China Clay Company (pic 010).

Joseph Jacks showed his current project – a mini Dolgoch layout (Pic011).  This has been inspired by Sven van der Hart’s diorama layouts.  It will give a home for Joseph’s collection of Talyllyn locos and stock.

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17 attended the May meeting (Pic001).

Dick Johnson brought along ‘Tren Bach’. This saw a variety of trains including Dick’s own ‘royal train’. It was double headed in the traditional manner by Bachmann Hunslet ‘Alice’ and an Ali-Shan bogie diesel (Pic002). Andy Foster got the opportunity to run a West Clare Railway bogie diesel (pic003). It had been purchased from 009 Sales, ex Garry Whiting’s collection. Mike Wall made a welcome return to a group meeting. His Minitrains 0-4-0ST Baldwin – the modern version rather than the 1960’s one – running on ‘Dick’s ‘Tren Bach’ (Pic004).

Neil Davies brought along his new test track and gave some of his stock a run. First was a Fourdees ‘Secunda’ on a Kato ‘England’ chassis (pic005). Following was a Sentinel bogie steam railcar from 009 Sales. This was a Model Engine Works print on a Kato chassis from Garry Whiting’s collection (Pic006). There was also a 3 car set that escaped the photographer’s lens.

Ian Willetts made use of Neil’s test track, running a Fourdees 0-6-0ST Peckett (an eBay purchase). Ian also brought his Barclay 0-4-0T (Westcliff Works print on Bachmann Percy chassis). A bogie tank wagon modified from an old Triang chlorine tanker finished of his selection(Pic007).

Another ‘user’ of Neil’s test track was Joseph Jacks. He’d brought along a Fourdees Tattoo in the process of being modified to fit an N drive chassis (Pic008). This joined a Westcliff Works Barclay with N-drive power. With a Narrow Planet RNAD bogie crew van and Ian Willetts’ stock a train was made up (Pic009). Joseph had also brought two home 3D printed models of “Scamp’. This is a 7 1/4 ” gauge scale to 1:15 and running on a Kato 11-109 chassis (Pic010).

Ben Powell’s own modelling has been on hold during his recent house move, but he had purchased a standard gauge Dapol Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST in Marston, Thompson & Evershed livery (Pic011) with an inordinate amount of detail, especially in the cab.

Paul Atkin brought along his cutting mat (Pic012). During the evening he worked on some 009 Society cattle van kits. Also, a 4 wheel coach was made up of parts from an Airfix brake van. This ran on a lengthened 009 Society RNAD chassis.

Also breaking out their cutting mats (Pic014) were Mike Bartleet (right) and Adrian Hall (Left). Mike was working on an On30 oil depot while Adrian tackled the bunk houses from a Sierra West logging camp.

David Wilcox brought along his layout Dolserau and Tony Land. Whilst I missed the main action I did manage to get a snap of the layout (pic015).

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14 attended the May meeting (Pic001).

Dick Johnson brought along ‘Tren Bach’ and put various locos and stock through their paces.  I managed to photograph two of these.  Beddgelert (Fourdees) on a long train of Peco stock (Pic002) and Triumph (Fourdees) awaiting a turn of duty (Pic003).

Steve Holland brought along some of his 16mm scale projects (Pic004). These included Bagnall 0-6-0T Dennis (Pic005), WD Armoured Simplex (Pic006), a deWinton (Slaters kit) (Pic007) and a WD Baldwin as a work in progress (another Slaters kit) (Pic008).

Peter Hardy brought along his test track.  Peter ran his O&K 0-4-2 built from a Meridian / Mosskito kit (Pic009). Also running was ‘Alice’, an 0-6-0T made by modifying a Roco loco (Pic010). Peter also ran a railcar built from the Dundas ‘Eisteddfod’ coach (Pic011) with a Kato chassis. Peter had also brought his lengthened Colin Ashby coaches along with an original for comparison (Pic012).

Neil Davies brought along his current layout project. Set in Sussex, ‘Alfriston’ packs into a pair of 77 litre ‘Really Useful Boxes’ (Pic014). Neil ran his Quarry Hunslet ‘Jack Lane’, along with Joseph Jack’s Fourdees Little Isaac (Pic015). He and John Walker also managed to run John’s DCC sound equipped double Fairlies on Neil’s analogue controller (Pic017 & 18).  Once John and Neil had got the hang of the settings needed on the Gaugemaster Combi the Fairlies chuffed up and down very nicely.

Paul Atkin and Joseph Jacks spent the meeting working on some projects (Pic019). Paul had brought along his now finished tram loco, built using Airfix brake van parts (Pic020).  he was also assembling some 009 Society cattle van kits. Joseph was making up Greenwich couplings for a selection of stock. These included some Snailbeach hopper wagons from Nigel Brookes 3D prints (Pic021), an RNAD break van from the 009 Society kit converted to Statfold Barn Railway format (Pic022) and a Fourdees Isaac (Pic023). With couplings fitted they were ready to join his Westclife ‘Douglas and Snailbeach Skylark (Pic024)

Adrian Hall was also working on a model of Quincey Engine House by Campbell Scale models (Pic025).  This is destined to go on the latest module for his HOn3 layout (Pic026).

Thanks to Neil Davies for his home baked fruit cake and to Dick Johnson for the chocolate flapjacks.

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17 attended the May meeting (Pic001).

Steve Mann brought along the fiddle yard boards from Goodmannton. He needed to modify the section switches so that they switched in the same way as those on the main layout (Pic002). Steve wanted to be safe using his new soldering iron, so Ian Willetts was on hand to assist (pic003).

Dick Johnson brought Tren Bach along and ran a variety of his own stock. These included Quarry Hunslets Britomart, Dolbadarn and Alice. He also had War Department Baldwins Peggy, WHR 590 and Snailbeach No. 4. The latter being caught on camera on a train of GVT stock (Pic004).

Also appearing on Tren Bach were Ian Willetts’ latest purchases from 009 Sales. These were a Tongaat Bagnall 4-4-0T (pic005) and Cliffe Hill 0-4-2T Bagnall.  Both had been built by Paul Windle (Pic006).

Bob Taylor had been busy building a new tanker wagon. He had finished it with a Purple Moose livery (pic007) which also posed on Tren Bach.

David Wilcox brought along his layout Dolserau and ran a selection of stock.  This included a Peco GVT loco pulling a short train of Dundas stock (Pic008) and a Rod Alcock Ruston LBT (Pic009).

Dave Marriott spent the meeting wiring up a number of multi-way D connectors. He did this with quite an impressive set up of clamps to hold everything in place (pic010).

Adrian Hall and Mike Bartleet shared a work table (pic011). Adrian continued working on his HOn3 climax. This was a cast resin kit from Cache Creek (Pic012). Meanwhile Mike worked on a On30 scale water tank.  It was a 3D print of a Chicago & North Western Railway example. ( I managed to miss photographing it  – sorry Mike),

Alec Matthews brought along a new layout with a working title of ‘Toad Hall’ (pic013).  This gave the Japanese-made DHR 0-4-0ST he had bought at NG South a test run with one of his 3d printed wagons (pic014). They were joined by John Davies’ GVT stock (Pic015).

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15 attended the April meeting (Pic001).

Ben Powell had been steadily working through building a Backwoods Miniatures Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 diesel (Pic002).

Ian Willetts had fitted cast brass Penrhyn couplings to his Bachmann Mainline Hunslet.  They worked as well as they looked on Peter Hardy’s test track (Pic003).

Tony Land brought along some of his Kato powered railcars to run on David Wilcox’s Dolserau (Pic004). These included a homage to the Statfold Barn Railway’s rail Landrover (pic005).

Paul Atkin brought along his layout “Brende Lanes End” (pic006) . This saw a variety of stock during the meeting. The Colin Ashby coaches that Paul had built and painted at previous meetings (pic007). There was also a Dapol railbus bash (pic008) and Paul’s freight loco made from a pair of Coopercraft lorry cabs (pic009).

Another layout was Bob Taylor’s “Abandoned”. This was built in an A4 box file. It featured an abandoned cottage inspired by one in the Betws Garmon area.  Bob had used it as a test piece to try out some new techniques. These included using oil paints, static grass and ‘fluffy’ sheep produced in the same way (using white fibres instead of green). The result (pic010) was rather effective.

Mike Bartleet had been continuing work on stock for his Huntsville & Lake of Bays Railway in O (1/4″) scale. The latest addition was a mobile crane (pic011). This used a 4 wheel flat wagon chassis (built to fine scale standards) and a 7mm scale Peco yard crane.

Adrian Hall showed a selection of the 20-30 building he had acquired 2nd hand .  He had reworked them to include lighting and interior details (pic012). Adrian also had a vertical boiler Shay made from a 3d printed body. this was running on an N-scale diesel chassis that he had regauged to 10.5mm for use on his HOn3 layout (pic013).

Matthew Tozer was working on painting some stock (pic014). this included finishing off a pair of 4 wheel tramway coaches with brass balconies (pic015). He also had a selection of vans (pic016). All these had been purchased from Double M Pro, a 3d printer seller on Etsy.

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14 attended our March meting (Pic001 & 002).

John Walker brought along his DCC test track (Pic003).  He ran one of his sound equipped Double Fairlies and his mainline Hunslet Blanche (also sound equipped) with his new Ffestiniog Bowside coaches (Pic004).

Andy Foster brought ‘Hartland’ along. Several group members assisted with the eviction of electrical gremlins (Pic005 & 6). Most of this was achieved, but it was found that the switches operating the points and frog polarity switching had given up after many years of storage. These will need to be replaced at a later date.

Ben Powell brought along a selection of recently built stock for his Gasworks project (Pic007). He also had a review sample of the 70hp RNAD Baguley that Bachmann (Pic008 & 9).

Ian Willetts brought along his latest projects. The first were of some nicely finished GVT coaches from Nigel Brooks 3D prints and one of the Dundas freelance GVT style 4 wheelers (Pic010). He also had (finally!) finished the free 009 Society kit given as part of his joining pack (Pic011).

Paul Atkin brought along his coupling height gauge (Pic012). He used this to fit Greenwich couplings to a variety of stock, including some Colin Ashby 4 wheel coaches (Pic013).

Alan Macdonald brought along his layout ‘Nant Gwrtheyrn’ (Pic014 & 15) for a ‘shake down’ before he starts exhibiting it.

Alec Matthews brought along Darjeelish (Pic016) which has had a few more scenic additions. It also played host to a 3d printed Decauville from Joseph Jacks (Pic017). Joseph  also brought along a 3d printed body and tender for the Statfold Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 ‘Fiji’.

Steve Mann brought along the scenic boards for his layout ‘Goodmannton’ (Pic019) to sort out some rail conductivity issues. These proved to be easier to fix that Steve thought, which allowed Charlie Forbes to run some of his stock (Pic020).

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15 attended our February meting (Pic001).

Trevor Street brought along his latest loco. This was a small vertical boiler 0-4-0 built on a Tsugawa Koppel-A chassis. It had a run on Peter Hardy’s test track pushing a small snowplough (one of Alec Matthews’ prints) and pulling a small van (a Woolwich Arsenal 3d printed kit from Narrow Planet) (Pic002).

Mike Bartleet brought along some On30 stock (Pic003). The loco was a Rivarrossi HO dock shunter converted to On30 with a new cab from Smallbrook Studios. This joined an oil tank car (4 drums on a flat wagon with a roof) and a bogie flat wagon based on a Huntsville & Lake of Bays prototypes. He was also working on building flat wagons from Mount Blue Models laser cut wooden kits.

Dick Johnson brought along ‘Tren Bach”. Running a selection of stock (including the Purple Moose special wagons – Pic004) meant that his Peco model of Princess (Pic005) had it’s first run since before Christmas.

Tim Williams made a welcome visit to the group. He brought along Chwarel Cwm Bach 2.0 for a run and it looks to be progressing very well indeed (Pic 006 & 7).

John Davies had also been busy at the workbench. His latest loco is based on the 2-6-4 Kitson locos built for the Leek & Manifold. John’s scratch built brass body runs on a Berlinerbahn chassis. This started out as a 2-8-2 but John has modified it to a 2-6-4 format.

Joseph Jacks brought along a pair of 3D printed locos (Pci009). First was a Fourdees ‘Little Isaac’ 0-4-2T. It was joined by a Decauville 0-4-0T printed by Alec Matthews (Pic010). Both had been finished in a rather nicely weathered olive green livery.

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15 attended our January meting.

Dick Johnson’s Tren Bach saw Dick’s Quarry Hunslet ‘Holy War’ pulling a rake of Peco special edition vans (Pic001). He also ran the Purple Moose train seen at the last meeting (Pic002).  Maybe it’s awaiting the addition of a beer tent on the layout, perhaps? These joined a train of Egger stock from Ian Willetts (Pic003) that he had lightly re-worked and repainted in a Ford red.

David Wilcox brought ‘Dolserau’ along (Pic004).  This has gained a few vehicles including the RAF St. Athan mountain rescue team (Pic005).  These are based on David’s childhood memories. Amongst the usual selection of David’s stock was a rather nice Knightwing based loco running on a HST chassis (Pic006)

Peter Hardy had built a new bogie break coach.  This uses parts from the Dundas Model kit (Pic007). Peter has painted it to match the 4 wheel coaches built from Colin Ashby parts. These looked rather nice behind “Hobgoblin” (a Bagnall 0-6-2 by Paul Windle – Pic008.jpg) .  The train also ran with Peter’s O&K contractor’s loco (Mosskito kit on Fleischmann chassis with Tramfabriek motor – Pic009.jpg)

Adrian Hall spent the evening working on some HO scale buildings (Pic011.jpg and Pic012.jpg).  These are  being restored from a job lot as part of a larger layout project. Sharing the table was Mike Bartleet.  He was building some On30 stock (Pic013 & 014) based on those that ran on the Huntsville & Lake Of Bays railway in Canada.

Someone else taking the time to work on some projects was Dave Marriott, who was working on some laser cut plywood servo mounts from Megapoints (Pic015).

A layout making its debut at the meeting was Rob Taylor’s 1st layout (Pic016). This wintery scene consists of an oval of track with the tunnel mouths made from Das clay.  The rest of the scenery made up of polystyrene and papier–mâché. The Bachmann ‘Holy War’ and train of 2023 Christmas van and WHR 590 van (both Peco special editions) looked well at home (pic017).

Neil Davis brought along one of the new O-16,5 L&B brake coaches from Lionheart – and very nice it looked too! (Pic018).

Alec Matthews brought along a new work in progress layout. “Darjeelish” is loosely based on the Darjeeling & Himalaya with small cameo scenes from the line (pic019). To go with the new layout Alec has been printing some updated DHR stock.  These included a semi-open milk van, some vans to fit the Peco 10′ and 15′ N scale chassis and Tindharia shunters truck.  There was also a DHR version of his ‘Yorkshire’ 4 wheel diesel  (Pic020) shown with his Vale of Rheidol timber truck and V of R (ex-Plynlimon & Hafan) Bagnall flat wagon. He had also been working on more Vale of Rheidol stock in the form of a loco coal wagon and ex-Plynlimon & Hafan Bagnall open wagon (Pic021).

Joseph Jacks’ Kerr Stuart Skylark made a visit to Darjeelish on a test run after having the body lowered onto the chassis slightly. In the company of a Peco L&B bogie coach and one of Alec’s DHR wagons it looked the part (Pic022).

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19 attended our December meting (pic001&2).

John Walker made a welcome return to the group. He has been out of circulation due to health issues which have meant his move into a care home. Despite rapidly approaching his 97th Birthday John is still active in 009. He recently added a set of the new Peco FR Bow-side coaches to his collection, and ran these with his FR bug boxes behind one of his sound equipped double Fairlies.(Pic003)

Also running on John’s DCC test track was Julien Webb’s Billard A 80 D, a REE Models example fitted with DCC sound.

Dick Johnson brought along ‘Tren Bach’ with the latest addition to his stock. These were some customised Minitrains tankers and a Dundas kit built brake van in Purple Moose livery to match his Peco van, hauled by a Bachmann ‘Holy War’ quarry Hunslet(pic004) .

Andy Foster had one of his Bachmann Baldwins running on Dick’s ‘Tren Bach’ (pic005). Its train included an Ashover coach fresh from Bachmann (pic006). This was a TLO sample brought along by Ben Powell that looked very smart in its Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway livery (pic007).

Andy Foster had also brought along ‘Hartland’ for a further delve into its electrical issues. Ian Willetts (pic008) and Ben Powell gave the layout a good going over. It seems to be a bit more involved that was first thought at the November meeting so a return visit to carry out some wiring work was arranged.

Peter Hardy brought along his test track and ran his extended Colin Asby coaches behind the Mosskito / Meridian Models O&K 0-4-2T that appeared part built at the November meeting (pic009). If only I could work so quickly!

Alec Matthews like Peter had also been busy. New off the 3d printer was a 5 tonne Decauville 0-4-0T to fit the Bachmann Quarry Hunslet chassis. This looked rather nice heading a rake of Alec’s DHR open wagons (pic010). Also new were a pair of 4 wheel steel vans. Based on Leeds Forge designs with options for either fixed or adjustable ventilators (pic011). Alec had also printed a small snowplough (pic012). There was also Alec’s a bogie brake van based on Vale of Rheidol parts (Pic013) and a rather nice clerestory bogie coach (pic014).

With the longer meeting a few members had brought along some projects to work on (pic015). Paul Atkin was painting up a pair of Colin Ashby coaches. Matthew Tozer was working on some more 3D printed good stock for his Fox Valley Light Railway (pic016). Charlie Forbes was putting the finishing touches to the railcar trailer. He had built this at the recent Warley National exhibition as part of the groups 009 modelling demonstration (pic017). Charlie used parts from pair of Modelscene Maudsley bus kits. Also ‘working’ was Dave Marriott, who was building some MERG servo driver circuit boards (pic018).

Steve Mann brought along some of his latest projects. First was a bogie break van based on Dundas Vale of Rheidol parts (pic019). This joined a Permanent Way vehicle made from some more V of R brake van parts on a V of R coach chassis. It is due to have a Hiab crane added (pic020). Steve also had some tank wagons using Road Transport Images cast resin tanks he had bought at the Warley show. he had mounted these on War Department chassis (Pic021). Also running on Steve’s test track was Ian Willetts’ Kerr Stuart diesels. First was a Meridian white metal body on a Farish 03 chassis (pic 022). It joined a Chivers Hudson Hunslet diesel on a sweet-running Farish motor bogie (pic023).

A few things avoided the photographers lens but worthy of a mention. Charlie Forbes’ brought a collection of railcars and one of the ANE Model Ali-shan Forest Railway bogie diesel locomotives. Neil Davies had a selection of Fourdees locos including a ‘St George’ Peckett 0-6-0T, Hudswell ‘Bacillus 0-4-0T, Peckett “Jubilee” 0-4-0ST and Hunslet “Windle” 0-4-2T.

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18 attended our November meting.

Andy Foster had purchased ‘Hartland’ (also known as ‘Jim’s treacle Mine’) from Jim Hart’s estate and brought it along to the meeting for some advice. Apart from reattaching some of the frog polarity switching wires and giving the track a really thorough clean it looked like very little needed doing.  With the help from a number of group members (pic001) we managed to get some faltering running from Andy’s Bachmann WD Baldwin on the layout by the end of the evening.

Matthew Tozer brought along a small selection of 3d printed stock to paint during the evening. There were a 4 wheel Indian style steel van and 4 wheel open wagon from T&S models. Also being painted were a pair of freelance 4 wheel tramway coaches from DoubleM Pro that Matthew had found on Etsy. (Pic002)

Colin Capel brought along the genesis of a new layout in the form of a Liliput 0-6-2 and standard gauge wagons on HOe transporter wagons (pic003).

John Davies had been busy making some buildings in wood (Pic004) with went very well with Colin’s short train (Pic005).

David Wilcox brought along his layout ‘Dolserau’. David has added a new station building based on that at Chirk on the Glyn Valley Tramway (pic006).

Paul Atkin was continuing work on the Kato Mini-Diorama board (pic007). By the end of the evening sported a platform and a small station building (pic008). Paul has given it the name of ‘Snap-it Halt’.

Joseph Jacks brought along his Snailbeach working diorama (pic009). It has has acquired some mine buildings (pic010). Continuing the card theme Joseph had also built a second Skylark from card and running on a Kato tram chassis (pic011).

Ben Powell had been busy with some coal wagons for his new gasworks layout (pic012). Built from Chivers plastic hopper wagons, Ben has painted and weathered them using spray cans. Ben also had his model of Monarch. It did a grand job of hauling the new wagons on Dick Johnson’s ‘Tren Bach’ (Pic013). Ben also brought a set of Bachmann Dinorwic Slate Wagons without sides he had recieved for review (pic014).

Steve Mann had been working on some tank wagons, using Dundas WD wagon chassis and Knightwing oil tanks. These made their debut at the meeting on Peter Hardy’s test track running behind Adrian Hall’s Minitrains 0-4-0ST Baldwin (Pic015). Adrain also ran his Minitrains Porter (pic016) and Plymouth diesel with some Roco mine tubs and a 3d printed brake van (Pic017).

Peter Hardy had started another loco project (pic018). This was a Mosskito (Ex Meridian Models) 0-4-2T O&K Plantation Loco.  Peter has fitted with a Fleischmann 0-4-0 chassis. The chassis had been shortened to fit the white metal body. Also, the motor has been eplaced with one of the core-less motor upgrade kits from Tramfabriek.

Alec Matthews had been busy with his 3D printer! There was a Kerr Stuart Skylark on a Farish 08 chassis modified with RT models parts (Pic019). Second, a heavyweight diesel shunter based on Yorkshire Engine Company. Alec had 2 versions.  One fits the Kato tram chassis (Pic020). The other uses a Narrow Garage chassis from Japan with added 3d printed outside cranks (Pic021). Alec had also printed some Campbelltown & Macrihanish stock (Pic022) that includes a break van, open wagons and a mine hutch carrier (pic023). Also, he had some Vale of Rheidol coaches that included a rather nice semi-open coach (pic024).

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