A little more progress on the club fiddleyard today. We’ll get there eventually. A brace of Derek’s carried on tracklaying.
I got some wiring completed for the point frogs.
This a most impressive layout. Very realistic scenery, especially the forest.
A very quiet afternoon, with just the four members present. Plus Ron, the ESNG honorary auditor, lured south by the promise of a curry. Excuses from other regulars ranged from the reasonable – I’ve a fence to fix – to the unlikely – I’ve got to watch Chelsea lose a cup final.
But we had a very pleasant afternoon running trains, with a track each. Mr Atfield brought along another new module. This has a number of interchangeable scenery sections to show the area around a station at points in history.
My new modules continued their debugging. The new castors and handles that I’d fitted were most useful in lugging the thing around. I found (or at least a train found) a bad joint, and a bit of wire sticking up above the track. A good test session, and I’ll get on and fix these issues this week. The module looks good end on, watching the trains snake through the curves.
We ran a variety of trains, including Allan’s Inga-Net friendship trains, with wagons gifted or bought at Stuttgart over the years.
And the afternoon did indeed finish with a curry. Can’t be bad! No video from Brian today, but here’s his new fence panel….
Just a few odds and ends today.
Not railway modelling, but some interesting modelling techniques, and I wonder how many of us have followed similar paths in our hobby?
Nice tram layout – OO, but 1200 x 800mm. This could work well in ‘N’.
Shunting, no, sorry, switching in Buffalo. Some tight curves here!
And finally, Caterham station in 1977. Takes you back. A year out of university, I was living in Kennington, near the Oval, and had just met my future (and current) wife. A few years earlier, I would have been playing cricket against Caterham school.
Useless information time. Yes, its 22-02-2022….
Meanwhile, back in the real world, a little more progress on the ESNG fiddle yard yesterday, with track laid on the fiddle yard extension board. I’m also feeling pleased with myself, as I’ve also replaced four fence posts!
Another post of odds and ends.
Beautifully colourised film of LA in the 1930’s. Plenty of Pacific Electric and LA streetcars. Note the dual gauge track, as the two systems were standard and narrow gauge. And I was amazed at just how busy the whole place is. A contrast to pictures of London in that era?
Keeping the USA theme, two very nice American layouts, one eastern, one western.
And returning to the tram theme, the 2021 Crich Model Tramways Exhibition.
After Friday’s weather, Sean drew my attention to this little gem – legless in Croydon again! A tram does appear. Actually, this could be any day of the week…..
Probably safest underground in this weather…
Find the deepest station in London here.
And review the current London rolling stock, with Jago Hazzard’s usual amusing commentary.
More next time!
Wednesday’s meeting was a successful one. No new modules this time, but 9 members plus a visitor. Not least, yet another final meeting for Paul – even though we told him no curry this time!
Another last ESNG meeting, but this really should be it! If everything works out, the flat in Redhill will be professionally cleaned and finished around 3pm tomorrow, I can then hand the keys in and return to Daventry before storm Eunice arrives on Friday.
And it was good to see Peter who was in the area and dropped in. We also discovered that Chris had missed a meeting due to Covid, but good to see him looking well again. And Ian was able to come to the meeting – and keen to pay up his subs for the year. Here we have both usual and unusual suspects.
Graham seems to be wearing his MEGA hat – Make Earlswood Great Again? Paul is looking happy – perhaps it’s the effect of so many ‘last’ ESNG meetings….
On the rails, Michael was running fairly modern UK stock.
Chris had brought along some Southern multiple units, including this ‘Thumper.’
Simon was testing an old Roco model, that ran very well, but will probably be butchered into something American.
Modelling challenge of the day comes from the BBC and Storm Dudley…
Or just use this…..
Bet they can’t do this at Miniatur Wunderland! The prop landings are just sideways….
Many moons ago, ESNG renovated Dreibruken, a 25 year old Swiss layout that was donated to the club. Dreibrucken was a firm exhibition favourite, but the old lady was finally a bit past it and retired. In 2005, Dreibruken appeared in the Continental Modeller, with some lovely photographs by Len Weal. The Continental Modeller generously allowed us to reproduce the article on our web site, and it seems long enough ago for us to also post the photos again on the blog.
My main memory of Dreibruken was how heavy those massive baseboard were. I’m not sure that the current aging ESNG members, 15 years on, could lift them any more. As an occasional operator, I found it confusing as to which tunnel the train was going to appear from….
Thank you RMweb….
A busy Sunday afternoon, with eight members present, including Paul for his last, last, meeting.
My final East Surrey N Gauge Group meeting finished off with a curry to mark my 60th birthday which is a week tomorrow. I should be back for the ESNG open day on April 9th.
The outside, red, track looked very empty without a procession of Japanese trains – currently all in storage in Daventry….
Tomorrow will be my last regular meeting of the East Surrey N Gauge Group. I joined in August 2002 when I moved from Devon to Selsdon Park. There are memories to cherish from my association with the group and I have made many friends as well. I will be staying in touch and will remain a member. There are a number of model railway clubs which I could join when I move north including Daventry, Northampton, Lutterworth, Coventry, and Leamington and Warwick, as well as specialist N Gauge groups in Kettering and Milton Keynes.
Well, at least the last 20 years ended with a curry!
What was exceptional was such a large circuit to play with. With Dave’s (relatively) new boards, and Derek and my new modules, we achieved a 3 x 1 setup. The Treasurer complained that it took too long to walk around the layout.
I was delighted that I had wired up my modules correctly, and trains ran first time. Next job will be ballast and scenery.
Derek’s (Atfield) new module is a drive-it-yourself module for exhibitions (and possibly any club members without a driving licence?)
Trains looked excellent crossing the viaduct.
And Dave’s module can hijack trains off the main line!
Sometimes I worry about Mr Atfield’s imagination….
Simon’s lovely SP cab-forward. With sound, even with DC control.
And a few pictures from Brian….
Next job was to fit end plates to transport the modules and protect the track ends. Nothing clever here, just thumbscrew bolts and retaining nuts. All very carefully marked out, but of course they weren’t as square as they might have been. They will, however, do the job.
Most of the wiring is complete, too. This is for the first board, and I have started the second one. Easier than expected, and I have, I hope, cracked how to crimp the wire to the pins and sockets ready to fit into the plugs. The acid test will be when we try and run a train on it, but I may test that out tomorrow. The two ends of the modules are joined by a bus for each track to feed the track from both ends of the board. I haven’t wired up the points, that will have the frogs switched with microswitches, but this can be done after initial testing – the points should work OK with power passing through the blades alone.
We’ll miss Paul at ESNG meetings. He posted this on Facebook, and it reminds me of club running nights. I won’t name the usual culprits!
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