March 2020 Meeting

The 009 Society

West Midlands Area Group

Report of Area Group Meeting at 7.30pm on Monday 9th March 2020

by Angela Baker, Model Reporter

After the record excesses of last month’s 25th anniversary bash, we settled back to an almost dignified attendance of 21 persons for our March area group meeting. But there was still plenty of narrow gauge business to conduct, so that’s what we did.

Peter Hardy’s test track offered the usual dependably dignified service. Will King gave another run-out for his Saltford Models vertical boiler large Penrhyn Port class 0-4-0 loco, now sporting black livery and a highly dignified Victorian driver. Will also ran his WHR Vulcan 0-4-0T by Spooner & Co, a Brian Madge custom chassis with a Robex 3D body currently in red-oxide primer. Again awaiting the road with dignified patience was Peter Hardy’s white metal ‘Linda’, now with ‘tender behind’ – a Dundas kit with one of Peter’s ‘own-brand’ scratch-built chassis (hopefully Peter’s locos do at least get a test run when they’re at home!) Similarly side-lined was David Churchill’s Groudle Glen consist of 2-4-0T (white metal body with Minitrix chassis by Brian Clarke) with a brace of brass coaches, all permanently coupled for pick-up purposes – a 1990s acquisition from the 009 Sales Stand given some judicious DC fettling. In the RTR division, Steve Metcalfe’s more recent Fourdees Bowater Bagnall 0-6-2ST ‘Triumph’ was running with dignified smoothness after a spot of motion fettling by our Resident Locomotive Clinic Superintendent Ben Powell. Almost missed, but not quite, was Will’s tiny brass LNWR baggage cart from London Road Models, a nifty accessory which didn’t get a run as it happened to be at least 10mm gauge and wasn’t motorised (nor likely to be).

Not yet ready to go anywhere near a test track was Steve Mann’s Golden Arrow kit of the Welshpool & Llanfair Earl/Countess loco, a deadly serious combination of white metal body castings and daunting etched brass chassis components, plus Tenshodo motor. This was nothing like ‘still-in-the-metal’ – it was still in the box. Much debate ensued as to alternative assembly strategies such as sub-contracting. Steve had made more progress with two very nice Dundas wagon kits – a GVT goods van and Corris guards van No. 6 in Talyllyn livery sourced from ‘Rails Along the Fathew’ by Ian Drummond.

In our occasional library zone, David Churchill showed his newly acquired ‘Sentinel Locomotives and Sentinel-Cammel Railcars’ by John M Hutchings and Richard Johnson offered two volumes for the browsing thereof – ‘The Stonebridge Railway’ written and autographed by Roger Waring and ‘The Snailbeach District Railways’ by Andy Cuckson. Definitive works all, well-thumbed on the nite.

Our metre-gauge department was comprehensively covered by John Davies, who presented a fleet of his scratch-built locomotives on a length of 12mm gauge track, including ‘Secundus’, (now in black livery), a Marne Corpet-Louvet 0-6-0T in ‘pomme-verte’ livery (that’s apple-green to you and me), a Cote d’Or Corpet-Louvet 0-6-0T in sexy light-grey-n-black livery (as per Chemin de Fer de L’Ouest) and still-in-the-brass ‘Cambrai’, a Corpet-Louvet 0-6-0T used on the Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway, all of which have adapted Berliner Bahn chassis. Supplementing that lot was a Gem Beyer-Peacock 2-4-0T IOM loco, which will become No 6 ‘Fenella’ and a sizeable selection of assorted kit-built IOM passenger and freight rolling stock (3ft gauge, which is MUCH closer to 12mm track at 4mm scale than metre gauge, by all accounts).

Conducting kitchen duties as effectively as their loco-kit productions were Peter Hardy and David Churchill – thank you gentlemen.

We meet at Moorfield Hall, Hartshill Road, Shard End, Birmingham, B34 6QX from 7.30 to 9.30pm. There is a nominal charge of £3.00 to cover the costs of hall hire and refreshments. Our next meetings will be held on 6th April (first Monday, to avoid Easter Monday), 11th May (back to second Monday) and then 8th June 2020. If you have any queries, please contact Julien Webb at julienwebb@westmidlands009.co.uk

Update from Julien Webb, group coordinator:
 
Since publishing this report the Covid-19 virus has rather more of an effect than anticipated, and we have therefore taken the decision to postpone the meetings scheduled for April 6th, May 11th and June 8th to try to reduce the spread of the virus amongst our members, their families and the wider public.
 
Hopefully we will be able to resume our monthly meetings from Monday July 13th, but if this is not the case we will inform our members via e-mail (if we have you address), update the calendar pages and post a message on our website, and we hope to be able to keep this website up to date with all the things we have been up to instead of going to our meetings, model railway shows and full-size railway events. As always, I can be contacted at the usual e-mail address (above) if you would like further information of the groups activities including updates as to future planned meetings.