ESNG meeting – 21 April 2021

Another Wednesday, another meeting…..

Missing Mr Dawes tonight, due to his usual anti-social working hours.  We started with just the six of us (plus Phil’s cat at one point)……

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Paul was busy rebuilding his station again.  Otherwise the topics were the usual wide-ranging selection, from the weather, pubs on the South Coast, football and the short-lived European Super League.  We even mentioned trains here and there.  Brian had a new bus, and Peter’s tram is working again (though a wheel has fallen off the other one – a bit like Croydon, really.)

We were joined towards the end by Graham, who had been cutting the grass (in the dark?) and Maxine, who doesn’t log in for too long in case she falls asleep with all the scintillating conversation about trains. 

As usual, here’s Paul’s take on the evening.  We talked about more topics than I remembered!

ESNG Zoom meeting number ‘quite a few’ took place this evening. Not too many participants, but the technical hitches were much reduced and no cats made their presence felt either. The usual wide range of topics were discussed including the rise and demise of the European Super League, model Japanese temples and shrines, importing products from overseas, preserved railways and their reopening after lockdown and the lack of Peco track at retailers. My layout was not in operation owing to ongoing engineering work which I carried on with throughout the meeting. I should complete it within the next few days and then I can sort the electrics out.

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Maybe one more Zoom meeting, and then six of us should be able to meet up and perhaps even run a train or six.  I’m looking forward to it!!


Prototype for everything department – when you mess up the road markings on the layout?

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And for no reason, except that the Southern Railway utility vans are probably my favourite non-passenger rolling stock.  All because I had two Hornby Dublo ones, I guess.

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From the members…..

Allan commented on the photo that I recently posted…..

Do like the closing photo of the two class 31’s.  Hand brake not put on fully. They rolled down the siding in Cricklewood and through a set of buffers and ended up on the North Circular Road. Luckily no vehicle or pedestrian got hurt. Both locomotives were cut up on site.

Good job it was the middle of the night.  Only time that you will find the North Circular empty!

Brian seems to have become interested in long trains!

The fact that a ‘jumbo freight train’ with 40 wagons has been trialled on the West Coast mainline, is a mere snip of thing compared to this US giant with eight locomotives:

And nearer home……

The Hump Master’s Longest Train Leaving Hamburg Yard – there’s an N Gauge challenge:

And back out to Asia for something completely different…

Made in 2018, this is a short film from the BBC Travel Show about the ‘Last Steam Train in China’ – and the benefits it has brought local people:

This is probably easier to model in the average house!

And my contribution.  A 2mm Fine Scale 9F with working reversing valve gear?  Some model!!

And the real thing….

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A royal modelling challenge

Writing this today, after Prince Philip’s funeral, I’ll raise a glass to an impressive man.  I do wonder, though, who will be the first to model his hearse.  I think this is even more impressive – designing your own Land Rover hearse conversion.

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Perhaps one of the most interesting un-modelled railways is the Necropolis railway, that carried coffin and mourners from a small station adjacent to Waterloo to the Brookwood Cemetery.  It ran from 1854 until 1941, when the London terminus was badly damaged in an air raid and rendered unusable.  Services were provided by the LSWR and then the Southern.

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To close this depressing theme, I’ve always had a soft spot for that classic tune, “St James’ Infirmary.”

Folks, I’m goin’ down to St. James Infirmary
See my baby there;
She’s stretched out on a long, white table
She’s so sweet, so cold, so fair

Let it go, let it go, God bless her
Wherever she may be
She will search this wide world over
But she’ll never find another sweet man like me

When I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches
Put on a box-back coat and a Stetson hat
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain
So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat

An’ give me six crap shooting pall bearers
Let a chorus girl sing me a song
Put a red hot jazz band at the top of my head
So we can raise Hallelujah as we go along

Folks, now that you have heard my story
Say, boy, hand me another shot of that booze;
If anyone should ask you
You just tell ’em I’ve got those St. James Infirmary blues

I’m not sure that my funeral will be that exciting!

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Covid-19 diary – Kuritu II – 8

My last Tomytec temple building arrived today.  It took a whole 30 minutes to build, and I was able to lay out the buildings on the baseboard to get a reasonable appearance.  I’m sure that this doesn’t match how a Japanese temple is arranged, and it’s a bit cramped, but a little amble around Google Maps shows them shoe-horned into all sorts of small urban areas, as well as the larger shrines in expansive grounds.  So Rule 1 applies…..

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I was also pleased to pick up a couple of temple wall kits from Plaza Japan, arriving in the same package, so I will be able to surround the temple appropriately.  Next task will be to fit the foam board to raise ground levels in the temple grounds.


Martin has also been busy.  A fiddle yard all laid and working, and the first structure on the scenic side of the layout.

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And to close, a little inspiration…..

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Potpourri #1022

What have we got for Wednesday?

Facebook often features Japanese modelling, bonsai style.  Tiny dioramas with exquisite detail, such as this one.  These little scenes might be just the way to have a quick change from your main project, and also to show off a model that otherwise wouldn’t have a home.

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And a charming ‘O’ gauge micro.  Just a little bit bigger, but still very buildable.

Of course, you could go for live steam in the garden.  What could possibly go wrong?  (Reminds me of the usual ESNG club night???)

Moving to the prototype, I can remember that great episode of ‘Supercar’ (dates me) that included the London to Brighton in 3 minutes video.  Well, here’s London to Southend in three minutes.  I watched this to bring back 1981 memories of reverse commuting from London to Benfleet to work on Canvey Island, building the Thames Tidal Defences.  Canvey was (and no doubt still is) and interesting place – the soil underfoot was so solid that the ground actually went up and down (slightly) with the tide.

And here’s the modelling challenge for the week.  An elephant towing a Walrus!  I love this photo!  Maybe it’s a candidate for a Bonsai diorama?

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And a little cameo to provoke conversation at exhibitions (whatever they are.)

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Covid-19 diary – Kuritu II – 7 – Downtown

I’ve had two or three days solid modelling, and the layout shows some real progress.  Having played around with the buildings, I chose what seems to be an interesting layout, and one that allows those with entrances on both sides to be used to best advantage.

I then added pavements and tarmac, leaving ‘holes’ for buildings with deep base plates.  There are a few pavement joints that are not very good, but I suspect a strategic person or two will cover those in due time.

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And this is the end result.  Just a little fettling, and a touch of paint needed on the scenes.  Some of the original Kuritu buildings show some natural weathering, and one or two came apart and needed gluing back together.  However, I wanted to keep the original structures to keep the something of the character of the original layout.

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And what to do with the other half of the layout?  I had a very pleasant hour building the Tomytec temple buildings.  Precoloured, and with painted details, they are designed to clip together – but a little solvent helps hold it all together.  Here is the pagoda.

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I’m waiting for a final building delivery to finally lay things out on the layout, and create the scenery, but it may look something like this…..

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While I wait for the postman, I may return to Minories, or build the lighting ‘box’ to sit above the layout – both to provide illumination and some of the dust off.  And there are still some cherry trees to plant around the edge of the layout….

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ESNG meeting – 7 April 2021

Paul, as ever, sums it up better than I can!

Another enjoyable ESNG Zoom meeting with some interesting technical hitches thrown in for good measure. One participant disappeared with the remaining members believing he had exploded before returning in to view unscathed. Another member then vanished and never returned, before another made intermittent contact with very few words being understood to such an extent that one member asked for a translation tool. Topics under discussion included buses, 3rd rail insulator pots, The Isle of Wight, vaccination programs, trains for farm animals, new model railway items and broken down trams. I didn’t have any trains running owing to extensive engineering work currently blocking all lines in my lounge with no diversionary routes available either.

Alan just seemed to disappear – plaintive text appeared…..

Have we been cut off….. My screen’s gone blank with wording….. Just a moment?

Don’t know what happened.  So will call it a night.  Screen still saying ‘Just a moment’.  So good night everyone.  You can talk about me now….. LOL.

The topics were indeed wide ranging.  And up to nine members appeared online.

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Just what we need to control a line of N-club modules?  And look at that reduction in price!  No thank you, London Transport Museum shop.  Mind you, the track layout at Ealing Broadway looks rather interesting.

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Interesting to see that the prototype considered storing its trains neatly on top of each other – just like our blue boxes?

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ESNG at work – Martin’s new layout

Martin has been sending me pictures of his new layout, that’s coming on well.

Tracklaying – that’s where all the Peco track has gone?

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Cobalt point motors

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Baseboard joints

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DCC bus and good tidy (and labelled) wiring!

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Admiring progress with some stock in place….

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In fact, it’s coming on so well, that trains are running!

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Potpourri #1021

Another Monday – it’s a Bank Holiday, too, but it’s strange how one doesn’t notice such things when one’s retired!

We’ll start with a couple of pictures that show why Japanese railways are strange, sorry, unique….

I can’t imagine this working on Southern Trains, or any other European railway for that matter!

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And here’s an unusual passenger to add to your layout:

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And a few culled from the ESNG Facebook group – thanks, guys….

April 1 redux…..  From Amtrak….

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And Southeast Trains….

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Not sure about this one.  It may be all too real?

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Health and safety special….  The Schienenzeppelin in Berlin, June 1931. A train on the way to Hamburg passes the newly arrived rail zeppelin at Spandau main station.

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Plus ca change?  A streetcar conductor in Seattle not allowing passengers aboard without a mask, during Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918.

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Track laying issues?  Another derailment coming into the fiddle yard…… (This is VIA Canada, I think, with a train of ex-UK coaches.  No wonder it derailed!)

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And what to do if you’ve got a spare Kato #4 and Kato #6 – maximum speed 5mph?  A real site somewhere in Pennsylvania.

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Covid-19 diary – Kuritu II – 6

A little more progress on the layout, despite the distractions of fine weather and gardening.  I’ve started the ballasting, and the tram depot has taken shape.  Also on its way are the first two buildings on one end of the layout.  These low-relief buildings seemed a good way to use some of the background buildings from the original Kuritu.

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One of the original features of Kuritu was the temple on the rural side of the layout.  I wanted to keep something of this if I could, so I thought that I would upgrade the buildings to keep with the rather nice Japanese garden from the original layout.  I haven’t spent much on this layout – it’s all recycled really – so I ordered these buildings from PlazaJapan.  Excellent service, just a week to get them here.  But then some fun with the Post Office.  They were due for delivery on Thursday – and nothing arrived all day.  I then get a notification on Friday morning – Good Friday – that they tried to deliver at 7am and there was no reply.  Well, I would have been asleep by then, but I suspect this was just a holding message, to make me rebook the delivery.  So I rebooked it – Tuesday!  But mid-morning Saturday, there was a knock at the door, and the parcel had arrived.  I’m not sure what was going on – blame Bank Holidays and covid, I guess.  But these three look very nice, pre-painted, and just needed a little weathering of the roofs and some matt varnish to tone down the plastic look.  A nice simple modelling task for next week, as the UK temperatures plummet!

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I will continue with the ballast, pavements, buildings, and get some ground cover in place. 

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