March 2022 Meeting

From Pete King Guest Editor (thanks for standing in Pete). Always nice to have another viewpoint from within the group.

The previous users of the room kindly left out a table and chairs for us to work on but in the end The Yard remained slumbering in its storage area. It was decided that next month we would bring along the necessary materials and push on with the remaining ballasting.

 

 

David brought his latest toys along to show us and left, at least your blogger, in awe of his excellent craftmanship in loco building.

David has modified a Farish Class 31/1 by removing the head code roof boxes, adding details such as head code discs and repainting as they would have appeared at Stratford Depot complete with “Stratford Bull” around the buffers and pipe work. This work effectively makes it Class 31/0 which is their original form.

The other loco David showed us was a scratchbuilt Class 15. This loco has quite complex roof end shapes as can be seen in the photos. The body is mostly solid brass machined internally with scribed side panels. Underneath is a solid brass chassis. David explained that this loco is an “as and when” job which he works on from time to time

Alan brought along a bag of 10mm loco wheels for Keith to put through the testing process so for any one waiting on this size, they are in the pipeline! 

 

He also showed us some photos of the latest track laying developments on Evercreech Junction. As can be seen this is a mammoth project and, even in its unfinished state, will be quite impressive to see at the Jubilee bash in June.

‘I’m proud to be called a nerd!’ Guardian Wed 23 Mar 2022

There is more in the article - Click here to read 

Next meeting Sunday 10 April 2022

February 2022 Meeting

We were few this month, although restrictons appeared to be easing, or maybe it was just February. Perhaps we had got too used to zoom!

Our conversation rambled around ideas for the future - over cups of tea, of course. There are three major issues that we are mostly thinking about; the first being that we are now few in regular numbers and would welcome anyone who would like to help us operate Lightermans Yard at exhibitions and at our monthly home meetings too. Secondly we would like to share our 2mm expertise by organising regular mini workshops to help members, old and new, develop their own layouts and contribute to a possible new collective layout. The third issue is the question of a new layout. Whilst we still have finishing touches to make to Lightermans Yard, there are ongoing projects to contribute to. This blog has previously touched on two layouts in progress; Evercreech Junction and Brixham. Planning and building a new layout will provide a new and exciting focus for the group.

February's discussion touched on thoughts around the provision of 'drop-in' wheel sets for Dapol diesel units. especially as the wheel turning service is currently not available. We may return to this later.

Apologies for the lack of illustrations for this entry. We will have more to say and see later in the spring!

 

Next meeting; 13 March