ESNG meeting – 6 December 2018

Posted on December 8, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Only a couple of pictures tonight, as I spent too much of the evening talking.  16 persons present and it was good to welcome visitors Steve, Ken and Martin.  Plenty of trains were on the move…..

 

So, a couple of links to make up for the lack of ESNG pictures (probably a whole lot more interesting, anyway.)

First, a video (in German) about the large model of Stuttgart station, and how it was moved after the owner’s death.  I liked the shots of them carrying bits of the layout out of its home in the depths of an S-Bahn station.  Parts of the layout have been shown as static exhibits in recent years at the Stuttgart show.  It will soon be a historic record, as the station is being replaced by an underground through station set at 90 degrees to this one. Some of the extensive yard have already been redeveloped.

Secondly a link to a site on Middle-Eastern railways.  Not an area we hear much about – at least about its trains – and a lot of magazine to read.

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Letchworth show 2018

Posted on December 6, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

From the Cha(I)rman…..

Spent the day with Sean and his layout Leonard at the Letchworth show. Nice one day show in a school with 3 classrooms and two hall. Plus a couple of items in passageways.

And here are a selection of the photos that he sent to me…

Leonard looks as good as ever…

      

Barental, SBB….

 

Brownsville, USA….

Passage Lane TMD….

Silkstone Shed….

Tigley Yard….

Billingborough….

 

Signa Dale….

Spilsby (with a fine turntable fiddle yard)…..

 

Whitecross Street….

And the rest…..

 

 

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Links….

Posted on December 4, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Great Eastern Railway 1  Posh German car 0…..

Steam locomotive hits car at Sheringham level crossing

A steam locomotive hit a car in a crash at a level crossing.  The 1912 Y14 locomotive ploughed into the silver Mercedes near Sheringham railway station, Norfolk, at about 11:30 GMT.  It is thought the motorist was heading to a nearby golf club at the time of the crash, which badly damaged the car.

The engine – built in 1912 – had been travelling at 8mph to Weybourne to hook up with a dining car, a North Norfolk Railway spokesman said. ‘Train emerged victor’.

A possible, if rather morbid, idea for a layout?

London’s forgotten railway: The 19th-century train that transported 2,000 corpses a year

For anyone who likes their history, London’s transport network has plenty of curious, lesser-known quirks in its back catalogue. Lately, we’ve delved into the Tube – the world’s oldest underground railway network – and the unique tiling that varies between stations, as well as the famous stop that commuters can no longer use.

Next up we have the now-defunct train route that for nearly 90 years had one purpose – to transport dead bodies out of the city centre. And at up to 2,000 a year at its peak, there were a lot of them.

The Necropolis Railway was in operation from 1854 to 1941, and ferried corpses almost daily from London’s Waterloo station along a 23-mile direct route to the newly-built Brookwood Cemetery near Woking in Surrey. It was a solution to the grim reality that London’s graveyards had run out of space. While the capital’s population was exploding, so was its death toll.

“It was pioneering; it was revolutionary,” writes historian John Clark, who authored The Brookwood Necropolis. “As far as I know, it was the first use of the railway for a dedicated service from one private station, directly into a cemetery at the other end.”

It’s club night on the LNER?

LNER train ‘was 100mph above’ speed limit

A train travelled at 120mph (193km/h) on a section of track with an emergency 20mph (32km/h) speed restriction, investigators have said.  The Aberdeen to London King’s Cross service went through the section at Sandy South Junction, Bedfordshire, on 19 October.

The speed restriction was imposed on 18 October because maintenance staff had found a crack in a set of points. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) is investigating.

Finally an excellent source of early BR diesel locomotive photographs…

BRITISH-DIESEL-AND-ELECTRIC/PRE-TOPS-DIESEL-LOCOMOTIVES

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Stuttgart 2018 #3

Posted on December 2, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

My last set of photographs from Stuttgart (unless anyone else sends me some.)

We’ll start with the visiting Japanese module, accompanied by the students who built it, plus Mr Kato himself.  A well observed little model – I especially liked the river with its weir and bank protection (professional interest again….)

     

Ian Redman was exhibiting a lot of his “Small’N’Working’ micro layouts, together with three of his West Sussex conspirators.

We wondered how he got this one – in a full sized gun case – through customs.

A local modeller also had some dioramas and small layouts on show.  This is a bit smaller than Ian’s case, but is a very nice German version of the classic ‘Gum Stump and Snowshoe’ switchback layout.

But the beauty of this design is that the case itself slips into a continuous run fiddleyard board, allowing a minimum space shunting layout or a larger continuous run.

 

The T-track boards were there, as usual.  Here we are under Big Ben….

And the usual suspects could be found on the N-m layout.

Mark’s ‘Magic Roundabout’ must be the penultimate in fiddleyards (only penultimate, as their must be something stranger out there.)  Trains can arrive from any one of eight layouts and depart on any of the eight.  But no through running is possible onto another layout.  Automatic control means that (most of the time) you just press a button to change tracks.

 

The interchange between standard and narrow gauge was just behind the ESNG area.

Duncan’s 3D printed narrow gauge diesel is to scale, despite being dwarfed by the transporter waggons in the background.

And after the ‘Magic Roundabout’, we have the ‘Bermuda Triangle’.

It wouldn’t be Stuttgart without a train stuck in the helix….

And last of all, the nicest stock boxes that I have ever seen.  They are based on a commercial wooden box, but this mortice and tenon construction is rather fine.  The boxes stack and have trays inside for the stock.

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Stuttgart 2018 #2

Posted on November 30, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Wandering around the exhibition, I found a lot of new modules that I hadn’t seen before, and a good number of old friends.  I tried to take photographs mostly of modules new to me, and also of those with interesting scenery.  There was an discussion on modular layouts on N-Gauge Forum that expressed the view that modular layouts were usually made up of flat sheets of plywood.  I hope that these photographs show that this is far from the case!

One criticism I do have of the modules below is that the addition of a backscene would make them even better.  However, it’s even more difficult to obtain a visual continuity between modules with a backscene in place, and when you are operating a 40′ length of railway, backscenes can make it very hard to see what is happening down the line.

The first few shots have a civil engineering flavour, appealing to my professional interests.  I especially liked the run-of-river hydropower station, that even had a fish pass modelled (to the left of the gates.)

       

This is a wonderful model of the currently disused station of Canfranc, on the France-Spain border.  The prototype is fascinating, located in the middle of nowhere, and never receiving the amount of traffic that it was

There was some excellent modelling in this run of single track modules.  You realise how big a lighthouse really is.  They also included some animation such as rotating rotors on the helicopter, and submarine that emerged from the swamp….

     

And some of the well presented buildings from around the layouts….

       

Some more extreme contours….

And a couple of trains to complete the day.  I find that train photos are often difficult to get right at Stuttgart, partly due to the expanse of the modules, and I’m afraid too that there is a tendency to drive too fast (no names mentioned except the Italians…..)

 

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Stuttgart 2018 #1

Posted on November 28, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Home from Stuttgart, and the lounge is again full of railways.  They will go upstairs to the loft tomorrow, when I have a little more energy.  We had another excellent week at the Stuttgart N-Club International meet.  On the whole, the layout behaved very well, though there were a few electrical issues needing rewiring as we went along.

Today, we have a some pictures of the ESNG modules.  Wednesday was spent setting up.  Or rather, most of the day was spent freezing in the hall with all the doors open, and waiting for the French junction to arrive, so that the Austrians and ourselves could add our twig off the branch.  If we could get here through the French fuel protests, surely they could?  We left the hall at 8pm with a few problems unsolved, but a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast meant that we had soon got things moving, and were carrying out some final running tests.

It was Terrier week for ERIC.  I brought along my collection of Dapol tank engines, in a range of liveries.

   

Pride of place went to ‘Earlswood’ on the turntable.  We even sold three ESNG wagons at the show – though I’m not sure whether the Hon. Treasurer can handle Euros….

A long American goods train crosses Derek’s Channel ‘Tunnel’ from Europe, changing from right hand to left hand running.  I’ve nicknamed this board the ‘Eddie Waring’ board, after the great rugby league commentator who was a great fan of the ‘Up and Under.’

The same train passes my airfield.

The layout crossed my new bridge module and turned through Derek’s corner board.  My bridge needed a little fettling at first, but settled down to run reliably.

We also took my clubhouse board.

A few vehicles brought the bridge to life.  I have to decide whether to glue down these American vehicles, or change them between shows.  The bridge could be in almost any country, but the lack of fences by the track does suggest the USA.

Allan explains the joys of modular modelling, whilst that long goods train passes itself on the end loop of our section.

Ian looks as if he has been operating for too long and is getting confused.

Past our modules, Ollie had a run of his boards.  He managed to get a little modelling done through the show.

We were joined by Richard from the West Sussex group, who added his N-mod ‘Crosswater Village’ to our modules.  Packed full of detail, this little layout always had a train on the move.

   

We were linked to the outside world by a junction under a mountain.  I know that this is Austria, but putting a double junction underground didn’t seem the best idea!

Beyond the junction came the Victoria Falls bridge.  (‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’)  You can just see the bungee jumper…..

Next post, we’ll look at some other modules.

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Stuttgart – 2013

Posted on November 26, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Last of these old pictures – 2013.

                                 

Hopefully next week there’ll be a report from 2018!!

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Stuttgart – 2011 & 2012

Posted on November 24, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

First 2011…

   

And then 2012….

                          

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Stuttgart – 2010

Posted on November 22, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Whilst I am in Germany, I thought I’d post some old Stuttgart photographs taken prior to me starting blogging.  We start with my first visit in 2010.  Some things look just the same.  Some of us look rather younger…..

                                 

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Off to Stuttgart

Posted on November 20, 2018 by snitchthebudgie

Off to find a tin parrot at Gatwick later, for ESNG’s annual pilgrimage to the Stuttgart N-Club International meet.  A full report will appear next week, but here are a few pictures of ESNG from past years.

Beer is always important…..

In those days we had enough strength to lift the gate….

They said they were ESNG members – but I have my doubts, unless Mr Apps was trying to collect the subscriptions again….

2015 was the high visibility year – you could spot these two a mile off….

It was also the last time my Michael came out to the show with me…. (Please ignore the Chairman in the background.)

Did I mention the beer……

And last year.  We were just a twig off a branch, but the usual suspects were there….

I don’t normally have a shopping list for Stuttgart, having resisted buying any European models (even a Flying Hamburger) in previous years.  However, I’ll be looking out for a second-hand Roco BR-80 tank engine.

And why would I want one of these?  The chassis fits in a white metal USA tank kit that I picked up from BH Enterprises at a recent show.

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