A very quiet Sunday, perhaps due to the Bank Holiday weekend? Just the five members, though we were livened up by a visit from Michelle, age 4, who enjoyed the trains running. And we did manage to run a few!
We managed to have three mail trains running at one point…. More than the Post Office will manage later this year.
SECR goods….
China Clay….
Various goods….
And passenger…..
And Brian’s video….
Pure tourism today. But worth a post, as Ron’s photos show just how pretty the Isle of Wight can be when the sun comes out.
Sunny. Spent today travelling round island by bus. Treated ourselves to a 3 hour ride on the summer only Island Coastnet bus from Ryde to Yarmouth via Bembridge. Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor. Blackgang Chine. Freshwater Bay and Alum Bay. After a refreshment break took bus to Newport for bus back to Ryde via Godshill, Shanklin, Sandown and Brading.
Ryde
St Helens
Sandown
Shanklin, including the Bus Station where buses stop on two sides of the supermarket!
Ventnor
Blackgang Chine. No doubt our intrepid travellers were attracted by the barrel…..
On the military road, approaching Freshwater Bay and the Needles. I think that this is my favourite part of the island – it’s so different from the rest of the area.
Yarmouth
Next time, we’ll visit the IOW Steam Railway.
We pause from travels for an ESNG update. No working party yesterday, as we seem to have completed the urgent repairs. So we gathered at 7pm, and in the end 10 members made an appearance. However, it was one of those evenings when people seemed more interested in talking than running trains. No problem – that’s part of being a club – but there were still some interesting trains to watch go by.
Derek brought along his Hong Kong Kowloon-Canton set. I have fond memories this from 1992, watching it heading north as I drove parallel to it on the Tai Po Highway. I have a set, too, and I recall that unusually for Kato, it is reluctant to stay on the track.
Plenty of long USA goods trains from Simon….
And shorter ones from Terry….
To finish, slightly shaky SECR elegance from Neil….
And Southern class from Chris….
Allan and Ron seem to like islands – last time it was Man and this time it’s Wight. We’ll spend a few days wandering around the island, starting with boats and a few trains.
Travelled by train to Lymington for ferry to Yarmouth and then across island by bus to Ryde for our hotel.
Lymington. The most interesting way to get to the island?
Yarmouth….
Ryde…
Hotel room view at Ryde and the other way to get to the island….
Some trains. Lucky to see one as the service is so bad at the moment, and the whole line will be shutting down for a while for essential work. Shame, as these new renovated underground trains look very smart and should have been ideal for the line.
Finally, how the transport network on the island looks now….
And how it was (and I wish it still was.)
My NCI airfield module was a bit basic really. It was built in a rush to take to Stuttgart, and I wanted to upgrade it before it went to TINGS and then to Stuttgart again. In particular, the tarmac was printed cardboard standing, and it was obvious that the oil stain patterns were repeated several times. And there was a large step in the tarmac where the glue had failed.
So I tore up the tarmac and replaced it with Walthers Parking Lot. Expensive for some sheets of plastic, but it has a good concrete texture and well moulded shallow joints. With a bit of weathering it looks better than before.
The fencing is still a bit basic, but will have to suffice. There was one damaged area, so I added a demonstration. Placards outside the wire and a few police. Inside are the men with balaclavas, guns and dogs.
Way back, I’d bought some resin kits for airfield compressors and the like. I then lost them. Finding them again at the back of a bookshelf, I made them up and added the tiny decals. A length of wire drilled and superglued into resin and tarmac should hold them in place.
To complete the scene, I’ve added a couple of cars. It’s all a bit multi-national, with UK bobbies, German special forces, and a US station commander and cop car. But I like it.
Aircraft are three 1/144 drone kits. Two little Reapers and the enormous Global Hawk. Rather fiddly to build and there are a few missing decals where things went wrong. But they look OK. The drones do give the demonstrators something to get excited about. The end result is a satisfying upgrade to the old airfield and a very acceptable cameo to take to the shows.
As a little light relief, in parallel I’ve built a 1/35 Tamiya Austin Tilly WWII utility vehicle. Like most Tamiya kits, it fell together. I didn’t worry too much at getting the exact green finish – just a fun build. And also a modelling recommendation – black thin superglue that is idea for seam filling on plastic kits. I saw this used on YouTube, and it works as well as it did there. The black colour makes it easy to see where you have added it, and where you have rubbed it down.
They let Ron out of the KESR booking office for long enough to see the Tenterden bus rally. I do especially like the London Transport line up.
This is an interesting video. I always wondered how the children of an engineer could develop such good artistic abilities! Mind you, impressive as this US club layout is, it’s rather ordinary compared with some layouts on the UK exhibition circuit.
And a little humour to round off this little post (with a few old favourites!)
A toasty hot afternoon (the following day was the hottest of the year to date), but seven regulars met to run a few trains, talk a lot, and drink tea – except Brian and I who enjoyed the flask of ‘real’ coffee left over from the church service in the morning. We also had a good afternoon running, with few derailments and just a number of ‘slip’ trains leaving bits behind.
Simon ran a long train of box cars. Not quite up to Mr Rowlatt’s Japanese standard, but getting there.
A variety of European trains from Richard and Brian.
And Brian’s mail train.
Mr Apps ran his bargain box crane, a Bexhill purchase. Definitely a good find.
I tried to get a picture of the trains, but the camera chose to focus on the Treasurer. Can’t think why!
And I took the Blue Pullman for a run. It’s still one of Farish’s best models.
And thank you Brian for the video of proceedings.
A second batch of layouts from Bexhill, with some interesting ideas.
Bletchinghurst (OO) seems to be at most shows at the moment, but I appreciated a chance to look at it closely, without the barriers, and appreciate some very nice modelling. Liked the hops!
Egdean (O) has a distinctly wintery feel. The owner’s first attempt at snow covered ballast was not a success as it went yellow! It was removed, and a coat of white paint over the ballast did the trick.
So to Compton Fawcett (O). I liked the way that the small passenger terminus is set slightly above the parcels depot. It gives credibility to the way things are laid out, and an excuse for two single tracks off to the fiddle yard.
Interchange sidings make good layouts, with plenty of shunting. Chelwood Exchange (OO) does this well, set in the green diesel era.
Some tidy OO9 modelling in Westhay.
Lastly, Downlands is a fairly typical N gauge ’roundy-roundy’. I think the challenge in N at the moment is to avoid building another layout like this and doing something a little different.
And Bohetherick Ferry (On16.5); interesting to have a layout under construction, but with some interesting features like the operating swing-bridge.
Having left Bexhill, we trundled along the coast (it’s a long was from Bexhill to Arundel) to visit the Gaugemaster sale. We were all very restrained with our shopping, but came away with some odds and ends. Canny man that Mr Apps – offered to buy us another cup of coffee when they were free!!! At least we were too late for the bacon rolls and avoided another ketchup explosion.
All in all, a very pleasant day out.
A morning (that turned into most of the day) out to Bexhill with Allan and the Derek’s seemed a good idea. We had a pleasant run down to the show along the leafy, and mainly secondary, roads. The Bexhill show was well worth the visit, with plenty of good layouts to view. I saw several layouts there that I had seen before, but behind barriers. It was good to be able to inspect them close up. It was a friendly show, too, and I spent some time chatting to some of the layout owners. As is sometimes the case, I’ll start with a few of my favourites (that has very little to do with quality!)
I loved Rixworth Green (P4). Southern Railway with light railway leanings and loosely based on the KESR Bodiam station (note castle on backscene.) Talking to the owner, I was amused to find that he built the layout and then thought about the scenery for seven (!) years, till it clicked and he finished the little line.
Hallam Town is 2mm fine scale and a Minories. What is there not to like (at least when they stopped trying to run standard N gauge stock on the line!)
I had seen Plant City (HO) before, but it was good to have a long talk with the owner. Miami based switching, this is a model of a real location. It is scale width, but compressed in length – and is still a long layout giving a very open feel and room for plenty of industries – and alligators.
Hastings Tramways (OO) is a small end-to-end shuttle, and very well presented.
Portsea (TT) is a familiar layout, but is always worth a look. A model of Portsmouth Town and Portsmouth Harbour station, there are lots of excellent EMUs to look at, as well as some very well observed scenery.
A well laid out show in several rooms – and a good seating area for refreshments. We did have a little excitement there, when Mr Apps had an incident with the brown sauce, that exploded over the front of the serving area. Never a dull moment at ESNG!
Rest of the photos next time.
A working afternoon followed by a running evening, with 7 members present. The ‘working’ afternoon mainly involved tea and chat, but we did manage to trip down some point motor operating pins that were catching some locomotives. We also admired Mr Atfield’s prototype mini-modules.
After fish and chips, I gave my new Rapido SECR wagons a run. The six-wheeled brake van is especially attractive. Some of the open wagons are recent Farish models, and they go together well.
Yellow peril by Allan!
Definitely Rapido night with Chris’ very detailed caboose…
And lastly, Terry’s Ivatt tank engine.
 | Allan Dawes on On my workbench – module… |
| “Stuttgart 202… on Stuttgart 2025 – 4… | |
 | Jonathan Caswell on Stuttgart 2025 – 4… |
 | Chuckster on Brockenhurst show 2025 |
 | snitchthebudgie on Potpourri #1130 |
esngblog 