THE SCALEFOUR SOCIETY

Crewe Area Group meeting 19th April

2009-05-01T11:16:00.008+02:00

Our April meeting was once again at Tony Montgomery’s house. This time we met to have a play with Tony’s latest purchase. He has brought Ambergate.

Ambergate way originally built by John Webb with help from his friends in the Leamington and Warwick MRS. It had passed through another set of hands before Tony snapped it up off Ebay. For those wanting more background to the layout there are still details to be found on the Leamington and Warwick MRS website. The picture above was taken at our meeting with most, but not all, of the layout occupying most, but not all, of Tony’s living room. Denise is so understanding.

Many of you will remember Ambergate which was once a regular on the exhibition circuit. The more knowledgeable among you will now be saying, but that was EM not P4. And your would have been right a few weeks ago, but not any more. Since making the purchase Tony has been busy converting most of the visible area track work from EM to P4. Some of us did wonder how he would get on with this. As the track is soldered up on riveted ply sleeper, the plain track was never going to be to much of a problem. The question was, how would he get on with the point work!

To test it out a number of members brought along various P4 Locos and stock, all of which trundled back and forth over almost all of the track work available with little apparent difficulty. This includes the four double junctions on the 15′ x 20′ part of the layout erected. There is in fact a fifth double junction on the complete layout, but Tony was apparently disinclined to indulge in the demolition necessary to get that baseboard attached to the rest of the layout in his living room. Denise is only so understanding. In the event, in terms of track holding this was a triumph.

There are other issues however which may account for the layouts reputation for periods of inactivity while the operating crew looked puzzled. The key feature of Ambergate is that this was a triangular station, a feature fully reproduced by the model. So the layout is one giant double track reversing loop, with complications. The solution to the electrical polarity issues that arise from this track layout is remarkably cleaver, but logically opaque. We spent a happy afternoon sorting out a variety of “what happens if” scenarios when the points, electrical section and polarity controls were all operated together. We now understand exactly why previous generations of operators may have looked puzzled, but in the end we could get locos to go where we wanted and to travel in the right direction, expect for the loco which was wired up the wrong way round.

Tony has had a long term aspirations to model Buxton station. He now intends to combine this with much of Ambergate, which is prototypically logical. The whole thing is intended to occupy a palatial railway room to be built in one corner of their garden. He also plans to go DCC which may simplify the electronics a bit but will still pose some interesting electrical conundrums. We await future progress with interest.

Pictures as always by John Sherratt, the second one shows a 4F and a Class C 0-8-0 proving it all works.

Twelve months on...

2009-04-24T09:55:00.006+02:00

Yes it hardly seems that a year ago we formed as a group. Regular monthly meeting, well attended and if someone isn't coming I get an email and a totally hopeless excuse, usually work or something equally feeble.
This month was no exception, Bernie Baker has bought shares in Hornby Railways as hes' added 13 chips to his fleet of converted locos. What makes this special is the action of these engines, very, very smooth and beautifully weathered. Bernie has worked wonders on some of these machines as I've always been a little suspicious of RTR conversions, not usually a candle to a good built chassis. But Bernie's are right up there and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.

The two panniers and the two 56xx run equally as nicely. Alistair Stannard has been as equally busy, producing some very nice rolling stock to run on Belle Vue. Rod Hall has been really busy building a stock of plate wagons and hoppers all with sprung under frames and really looking the business. Rob Foot has been producing some very elegant lineside additions, some water cranes.

All in all, the group is now well established with many arm chair modellers now producing some very fine work. We have not gained any more new attendees but, on the other hand, we have not lost any members from our inaugural meeting either. Everyone who attends, contributes during the evening. A very healthy state of affairs, so my thanks to all the members for their support, but one big thank you to Dave Hagger, who has helped so much in getting this group going and continues to help with the monthly meetings.
The next meeting will be the end of May...

New Area Group

2009-04-21T22:41:00.005+02:00

North East of Scotland (Grampian) Area Group (Proposed New Group)

We wish to consider setting up an Area Group based on a reasonable travelling distance around Aberdeen. The group is intended to be a meeting of like minded modellers sharing ideas and techniques details of which would depend on the interests and wishes of those participating.

An initial meeting is planned for some time in the early summer.

Interested? Please contact: John Anderson: 01224 743503
j.anderson177 at btinternet.com
or Peter Heald: 690c Great Northern Road, Aberdeen, AB24 2GG phone: 01224 684002 e-mail: pj.heald at virgin.net

Fylde Area Group

2009-04-16T20:47:00.006+02:00

On the 9th April we had the usual run and natter meeting, this time I took the camera to the meeting and have a number of photographs to post. The meeting was well attended with 10 members present Martin Walmsley brought along a number of interesting locomotives shown below, some very local to Preston:

An LMS jackshaft shunter 7080-7119 built from 1939, a derivative of the design from English Electric (Dick Kerr) works in Preston in 1934.

A LNWR box tank, which worked Greenbank sidings north of Preston before the Kitson's displaced them, the yard had very tight radius turnouts, apparently these short wheelbase locos has to be escorted (coupled to another locmotive) through the station area to avoid them disappearing off the track circuits.

Now that Preston has been convered to DCC, we also had a visit from a nice, sound fitted, class 20 (used by Graham Seed at the Scalefour North demo stand the previous weekend)

Also nicely sound fitted was an early Type 2 (class 25) sat in the carriage siding on tickover.

Our next meeting (run and natter) is back to the usual third Thursday, 21st May. Please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information.

Fylde Area Group

2009-04-01T22:18:00.002+02:00

On Thursday 19th March, we had our usual meeting attended by 10 members.

This month was a talk and presentation by (myself) Mike Norris on 'P4 Track Construction', I do not intend to write my own review, but if any one would like to read a review one is present in the March 2009 HMRS Points newsletter. I will also be presenting this talk again for the Manchester Model Railway Society on September 11th at Dean Hall Manchester.

Needless to say this did lead to an extensive discussion after the talk with many experiences aired, problems discussed and the permanent way generally put to rights by the gang.

Our next meeting (run and natter) is not on the usual third Thursday but on Thursday 9th April. Please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information.

Layout Visit for Crewe Area Group

2009-03-26T19:40:00.009+01:00

The 8th of March saw the members of the Crewe Area group assembling for our monthly meeting in the very appropriate surroundings surrounding member Dick Petter's magnificent layout. Dick has a most enviable layout room in the properly converted loft of his house giving "all the comforts of home" standards of accommodation in which to enjoy his hobby. The layout takes up a good proportion of the space, so the meeting was conducted in the areas which remain. No lounging in arm chairs on this occasion. Joining us for the day was editor John who had taken time off from his Snoozitorial duties to pay us a visit.

Those who've met the group layout, Knutsford East, at exhibitions may remember that it represents the junction of a proposed but never built branch from the LNWR Crewe to Manchester line to the Cheshire Lines Chester to Manchester line at Knutsford. Dick's home layout represents the other end of this branch where it leaves the main line at Chelford. The plan was that once the P4 Challenge was over and that flush of exhibition invites has died down, Knutsford will takes its place in Dick's loft attached to Chelford. Knowing Dick I'm sure there is a way of doing this but I can't say it particularly obvious how it would all fit in!

Chelford is already well developed but, I'm sure Dick would say, as yet incomplete. Progress has been rather stalled by the need to get Knutsford up to standard and keep it that way. Now that we appear to have a year off from the exhibition circuit, it seem that there are some new green shoots of development in the form of the production of a very workman like set of signals. There is also much evidence of a heroic LMS stock building program. The layout features a two track main line oval which allowed us to circulate a number of visiting loco's and other items of stock for their owners edification and delight.

Chelford is built into its room and is not intended to be displayed anywhere but at home, so the attached photos may be the only way you are likely to get a look at this very attractive layout. That is unless you decide that you are actually resident within striking distance of Crewe and you wish to join the group! Photos by John Sherratt as normal.

Editor John Surveys the seen, one suspects he is considering the possibility of a future Snooze article.

Chelford Station Buildings look most attractive. No sign of the cattle market though.

Just a small selection from that heroic stock building program. The C13 is an interloper which has presumably come up the branch to Knutsford which runs across in font of the turn table.

Fylde Area Group

2009-03-12T21:00:00.002+01:00

On the 19th February we held our usual monthly run and natter.
There were 7 members in attendance, including a visitor 'Andrew Fowler' who is modelling a 'OO' layout of the Preston East Lancs extension (Preston East Lancs Goods to Todd Lane). He was keen to pick everyones brains for tips and hints, maybe he will become a Scalefour society member one day - it was be good to see someone several years younger showing such an interest.

The next meeting is Thursday 19th March, for a talk/discussion on 'P4 track Construction' by Mike Norris. Please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information.

Fylde Area Group

2009-02-07T21:11:00.002+01:00

On the 15th of January we held our first meeting of 2009. 10 members were present and we spent most of the evening in various topics of conversation, including Salt and Mustard vans and where they travelled and debated why was gunpowder sent to Bishopsgate (G.E.) goods depot circa 1928.
We also had a visit from a Barton Wright 4-4-0 which was reportedly having pulling problems, following a series of investigations identified a problem with 4 wheel truck, which was lifting the front of the loco and therefore the leading driver, significantly reducing the traction effort.

The next meeting is Thursday 19th February, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information.

Risborough and District Area Group

2009-02-02T22:23:00.000+01:00

Aylesbury Station and Shed
Saffron Street retires from the exhibition circuit at Railex on the 23rd and 24th May first ambitious plans were drawn up for a replacement P4 layout, the problem being the time it would take to get to a finished state therefore a smaller layout that could be built in a shorter timescale would be built as a test bed to a larger layout postponed to a later date. Various ideas for a depot or a yard were discussed before the idea of modelling Aylesbury shed were developed. At first it was thought that just the two road shed and Risborough branch platform could be modelled but after discussions putting the two main through lines and associated platforms would add increased operating potential.
The model will be built without compression but will be cut short at the south end through the platforms and at the north end just after the public footbridge. The layout will be only nine foot in scenic length by two and a half feet wide, with cassette fiddle yards at either end. The layout only has five turnouts two on the mainline for access to a loading dock and three to the loco yard including a quite interesting catch point built into one of the turnouts.
Those unfamiliar with Aylesbury the station and engine shed had quite a varied development. The shed opened at first as a GWR single road broad gauge shed and following extensions and rebuilding with a saw tooth roof ended up as a two road shed by the 1890s. The ownership of both the engine shed and the station from 1894 being shared with the Great Western, Great Central and Metropolitan. In the late 1950s the Midland region of BR took over and therefore the range of locomotives and regions we can run in very extensive, for example we can run locos as diverse as GWR 14XX and Parrie tanks to LNER A3s, V2 and tank locos, plus LMS Royal Scots, Jubilee, and B.R. standard locos. Unfortunately BR diesels are a little less varied but photographic everdence points to class 24s, 25s, 40s and Westerns.
We plan to set the model in the period 1946-1967, with various alternative details drop ins to account for some of the changes in this period. Also we have deigned the layout to be viewed from either side, time will tell which provides the best viewing.
We hope to have the basis of the layout complete within twelve months with the entire track in place and the engine shed and some other buildings finished, although the layout is built to P4 standards one of the main platform lines has no turnouts in the so therefore we can accommodate EM gauge through this line.

Naggers monthly meet

2009-01-29T23:32:00.005+01:00

Our first meeting since November with the Christmas break ruining our run. However, most of the Naggers turned up, and those that didn't, sent excuses. Some of these were highly suspicious!
As ever, Mr Steffan Lewis produced a wealth of goodies that he's going to be putting on display, once Maindee East is back up and running.
Bernie Baker brought a brace of diesels with him. A Warship (Lima conversion) and a GWR railcar, both of which performed admirably. The Warship had been given the 'unloved' treatment, and Bernie has really captured this look.

Dave Hagger, brought a brace of Bachmann Mk1's that had been converted using a method shown to him by Chris Pendleton. They ran smoothly and steadily and took about 25 mins each to do.

At the beginning of the year (07/01), some of the Naggers ventured across the 'bridge' to Newbury to play with Mr Mick Wakefields layout 'Grantham' - what an absolute thrill. We were treated to seeing Chris Pendleton's Deltic strut its' stuff , and trust me this engine can really strut! Breath taking power and smooth operation, exellent stuff! Micks' layout is a scale mile around, so Chris put an A4 on, with 9 behind and wound it up, last timed for the mile at 156 mph! P4, don't you just love it!! Thanks to Rod Hall for arranging the visit and thanks to Mick for his hospitality. A big thank you to Chris for taking on all comers with the barage of questions that were thrown at him. For a better view of this visit see:
http://www.freewebs.com/nagnag/

The Orginal and Best and Still Hard At It

2009-01-13T13:20:00.012+01:00

Sunday 11th January saw another of the regular monthly meeting for the Crewe Area Group. This month it was my turn to act as host so most of the Crewe area crew turned up as for a pleasant afternoon chin-wag over tea/coffee and chocy biscuits, ably purveyed by my lovely wife. As a previous Blog gave an excellent back view of the group I felt it appropriate that on this occasion you should get the benefit of a front view.

Talking of lovely, the days main entertainment was provided by Don Roland's explanation of the production of his model of the Forth Hotel which is pictured here. It seems he has been doing a bit of sub contracting for the East of Scotland 4mm Group's Burntisland layout. This building stood on the quay at Burntisland, having been the Manse before the railway arrived (or at least the middle bit was), then a railway hotel before the fourth bridge and finally railway offices. In expanding their layout it seems Burntisland will be quite a bit larger than its original 18.83 challenge incarnation because this build has a significant footprint in its own right. Quite what a member of the Knutsford East team is doing producing a model for them north of the border is a question that is perhaps best left un-answered, just remember you saw it here first guys. Don enlivened our afternoon with tails of exactly how be built this excellent model with no more than a ground plan, a few ceiling heights and a few photos.

We also welcomed a new group member, Adrian Prescott. Actualy he has attend some of our meeting before but on this occasion he chose to commit himself by paying his sub. He also brought along a model of an LB&SCR loco in an entertaining mud coloured livery. Regional prejudices aside, it looks a very nice job. It is pictured her with another new CLC coach from Dick Petter. Here in lies a tale. The three CLC coaches which run on Knutsford that I produced, like this one, from Bill Bedford kits, made up six inches over width. This one has been corrected, leading to suggestions that I might like to saw my three in half longways. Hum, well see.

My thanks to John Sherratt for the photos.

Fylde Area Group

2009-01-10T17:38:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year!

On Thursday the 11th of December, 10 members were treated to Tony Miller's talk and presentation on 'LNER Goods Traffic'.

We were shown the justifications for goods traffic and detailed background to the traffic flows, especially private owner coal traffic (including anthracite which could run anywhere). This led to details of the LNER wagons built specially for coal traffic, from Diagram 9 through to diagram 188 and the original NE hoppers from 12 to 20 tons (and eventually 40 ton hoppers). Followed by steel traffic around Scunthorpe and Frodingham and some of the specially constructed (war time heavy metal) wagons. Tony then covered details of various yards around the system including the rebuilding of Grimsby fish dock. He then focused on the rebuilt yards just before the 2nd WW at March Whitemoor, then on to Wath and Mottram.

A most informative and enjoyable evening was had by all present - Thank You Tony.

The next meeting is Thursday 15th January, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information.

More Brinkley Boards

2009-01-03T22:07:00.006+01:00

Further progress as at 13.00hrs today. Chris and Morgan admiring their handiwork.

The main line has been laid on the new regraded incline... will any loco, apart from my Peak, lift Morgan's coaches... will Graham's locos now storm the bank... ?

Featured in the foreground are the three new loco inspection pits positioned in front of the site of the three road shed - detailing including water cranes etc to be added later.The nearest rectangular hole is the site of the shed and will hold the shed track base which will be fabricated out of plasticard in a similar style to the pit roads.
The two new boards add 2.5ft to the layout, give additional space in the shed yard and enable the gradient on the incline to be changed from around 1 in 38 to 1 in 60.

The new Midland coal stage will be positioned between the tracks at the far end of the board... where the chisel and hammer are positioned, whilst to the left in the photos is the extended headshunt for the goods yard.
Cheers, Robin

Brinkley Boards Update

2008-12-31T00:26:00.001+01:00

Latest News from the Glevum Area Group

Morgan, Chris & Robin spent yesterday tracklaying!!!!

Yes the new Brinkley boards now have some track and just to prove it here is a photo of one of the PW gang with board 4.

In view is Graham's 3 way turnout plus a length of flexitrack to the turntable.Further progress now includes track on the main line and the shed access road including the crossover.

Morgan has also done a sterling job on the new shed roads and associated inspection/pits - any chance of a photo Morgan?

Wishing you all a Happy New Year,

Fylde Area Group

2008-12-04T20:10:00.002+01:00

On Thursday 20th November, we had a 'Run and Natter' meeting attended by 10 members. Although a lot was discussed, including the program for next year, which will be printed and available at our next meeting, nothing much was running!

On Saturday the 15th November the layout was visited by the East of Scotland 4mm Group, 8 members attending, most of whom had travelled down for Edinburgh for the day, including Jim Summers - the former editor of the Scalefour News who was instrumental in getting me to put pen to paper to write about the layout in edition no. 154. Also among the visitors was a former Flyde group member Bob Hetherington. After 4 hours of operating Preston, it seemed all had enjoyed themselves, I will be looking towards arranging a reciprocal visit at some point in the new year, thank you to David Orr for the invitation. Also thanks to my mentors David and Anthony who help newbies get to grips with the operation of the layout.

The next meeting is Thursday 11th December, (NOTE not the third Thursday), please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and this meeting is a talk by Anthony Miller 'LNER Good Traffic', followed by a hotpot supper.

Fylde Area Group

2008-11-13T21:18:00.003+01:00

On Thursday the 23rd August, one of our members 'Arthur Kimber' gave the group a talk 'Railways & Memories of North West Durham'. It was well patronised with 10 members being present.

Arthur covered the area where he grow up and presented many of his own photographs, Arthur was born in Swalwell on the North Eastern from Consett to Dunston and Scotswood, starting there he covered the local industry and how his father really provided the imputus to his interest with railways.

He told us about all the lines in the area and covered many of the locations between Blaydon and Gateshead King Edward Bridge, including the Tanfield railway and Garesfield wagon way.

There were many photographs of the loco sheds at Bowes Bridge, Blaydon, Gatehead and Borough Gardens, including the loco allocations in 1947. Also numerous shots of other locations where provided including the Dunston Staithes, Derwent Hough Staithes, Dunston Power station and Vickers Armstrong.

In all we had a very informative and enjoyable evening - Thank you Arthur.

DRAG test track progress

2008-11-02T14:43:00.005+01:00

The straight boards are 90% finished, with just sealing and painting to do essentially before track laying can start. Nine of them were erected yesterday for the first time in Brian's railway shed, four of one side of five and all five of the other side - the missing one is away with our member Denis who is going to be producing the matching curved boards (five at each end).

Conversions abound...

2008-10-30T22:23:00.006+01:00

29 of October was the last monthly meet of the Newport Naggers. In all 12 members present with another 6 detained for health or business reasons. Bernie Baker has been at it again, this time hes' P4'd one of the new G2's from Bachmann. I have asked Bernie to write this up as a 'how to' for the NAGNAG website.
This runs amazingly smoothly. Bernie also brought down a brace of converted 56xx's, really nice.
Rob Foot also brought his Hymek and ran it over Belle Vue with 6 Ironclads on the back...lovely.
Not to be out done Hubert Messing brought his converted Lima parcels car along as well.

The noble men of NAGNAG have been invited to Newbury for an evening of fun and steam type stuff, thanks to Rod Hall for arranging this for us.

Bernie's converted 56xx's on the entrance to the extended shed area of Belle Vue. More work is being carried out to Belle Vue by the Naggers, but we still need more ideas...come on lads!

So, with the extension to the head shunt now in place, this means that larger items can be run into the shed area - like a brake down crane...anyone know if theres one being designed?

Rob also had a DMU as a work in progress; Steffan, Alistair and Bernie look at a problem that Rob didn't know he had untill it was pointed out to him. Robs now trying to put a central pivot into a bogie where there isn't one at the moment.

An enjoyable evening with more progress being made, which is always a good thing.

My thanks to Newport MRS for allowing us to host this monthly meet at the club rooms.

Next meeting 26 November, when hopefully some of the Glevum group will be joining us for the evening.

Mike Garwood

WEST YORKSHIRE AREA GROUP

2008-10-28T23:14:00.001+01:00

Our October meeting at the "Thatched House" raised ten members of the Group. Keith Bradbury had brought the interior to be fitted into one of his coaches, complete with lighting (its wiring neatly fitted into a false ceiling), pictures and mirrors on the compartment partitions, and upholstered seats; they looked comfortable but we didn't try them. Also on show was a trestle brought by James Moorhouse which can be adjusted to counter any possible deviation of floor level just as long as he remembers to take his spirit level.

We did some planning ahead, the most important part of this being the fixing of a date to visit Mike Norris's Preston layout on Saturday 25th April 2009. A few days before this, 17th April, our regular third Tuesday of the month meeting, Mike is coming to give us a talk on the layout. The venue for this meeting is not yet decided, but hopefully I will have sent another report to Scalefour News before this.

Our default meeting night is still the third Tuesday of the month, and our default venue is still the Thatched Cottage. Any local members or any member visiting the area is very welcome to join us, but please contact me to be sure that we have not arranged a visit to some othe local attraction (railway, of course). My phone number is (0113) 2679385.

Jim Harrison

Fylde Area Group Meeting

2008-10-18T20:57:00.010+02:00

The 18th of September was our usual run and natter meeting, with 10 members in attendance.

We were treated to 14768 Clan McKenzie, HR Clan Class loco being built by John James as a commission, which I later saw fully lined out and painted at Scaleforum the following week.

We also saw some test etches form Ian MacCormac, in both 4 mm and 7 mm scales of an LBSCR 1865 Craven 1st, very fine.

Next we had an interesting (if somewhat unlikely) comparision between an early coach and a Clan class of 1919, the coach being bearly the size of the clans tender, this shows just much the railway had developed in 50 years.

The next meeting is Thursday 23rd October, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and the meeting is a talk by Arthur Kimber 'Railways and Memories of North West Durham'.

Fylde Area Group Meeting

2008-09-12T11:17:00.004+02:00

On the 17th of July we held a run and netters meeting (before our short summer recess), with 7 members in attendance. As usual modelling matters far and wide were discussed but John James did bring along a wonderful model of a Brassmasters G2 (here seen on the Through lines at - an ideal locomotive for Preston).

The next meeting is Thursday 18th September, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

NAGGERS monthly meet.

2008-08-28T22:29:00.006+02:00

NAGNAG members met at the NMRS club rooms and as usual was well attended.

Alistair Stannard brought some of his fabulous buses to show.
Alistair and Dave Hagger have taken on a conversion of a Bachmann Hall. This is after last month when it was discovered that the Hall due for surgery was infact not a candidate for such drastic changes, but now a willing victim has stepped forward and is to under go 'a change' or two.

Rob Foot has promised to convert a Heljan Hymek, he was hoping to have it to run this week but, the wheels did not arrive in time, never mind, always next month.
Bernie brought some more of his experimental wagons and conducted some more tests on sprung and rigid chassis. Has to be said the wagons really did look the part, all weathered and looking run down. Those that were sprung performed faultlessly.

Discussion was given to finance and other topics which are detailed on the NAGNAG website.

All in all a very interesting evening, enjoyed by all.
My thanks to everyone that contributed and again to our hosts NMRS. Next meeting 24 September.
Mike Garwood

9 DAZE IN JULY

2008-08-07T04:24:00.009+02:00

No typo with the heading - we're all in a daze after lots of activity last month.

In order to further progress the extensions to Burntisland 1883, we hired our normal location (village hall, Dechmont) through local resident Richard Darby. And there for 9 days the layout remained erected for anyone interested to come along and make advances to it. And many did.

To digress, in true Ronnie Corbett fashion, I should say at this stage that progress to Burntisland 1883 isn't as straightforward as it may seem since the East of Scotland 4mm Group (or "Scotland East" in Scalefour Society parlance - sorry I've digressed again) are based in anything but the East of Scotland (or Scotland East).

Contributors to the extensions - so far - have been based not only in areas that can be described as the East of Scotland but going outwardly extends to Glasgow, the Borders, the Inner Hebridees, Cumbria, Shropshire, Berkshire, and Ceredigion (that's in Wales for the geographically challenged). Some from these far-flung outposts even made the trip up for the adventure in July.

So making all parts of the jigsaw fit isn't as straightforward as would first be imagined. However the jigsaw is indeed coming together.

The major item to be accomplished during the week was the laying of approach track to the goods ferry. Using Templot, this was built as a single unit and getting this laid was key to other envisaged activities, at one end of the layout at least. With that complex piece of trackwork laid, track could then extend westwards and eastwards. T'was not all plain sailing as the pained expressions in the attached image testify.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the room, others were busy finalising track for the goods ferry, wiring up and mounting a host of tortoises and D clamps, a number of other wiring matters, chairing track, adding scenery, finalising building of boards, to mention but a few.

The present position with the layout is that virtually all boards are built just the passenger ferry pier to go, most of the track is laid, and the back is broken on the wiring front.

The layout looking from the east now looks like this :
And from the west like this :

Of course all these extra metres of sidings and track will look awfully empty without an additional wagon or 2. To this end we had a wagon building session some months ago run by Simon de Souza. Possibly inspired by that session, Ian Terrell has worn out many a Swann and Morton blade to produce some fine dumb buffered stock : Still a long way to go, but lots of progress made to date. Next milestone will be getting engines running across all of the new track, and then on to scenics. However, that will all have to wait until after exhibiting at Hawick on the 23/24th of August, where a slightly extended version of the original layout will be on display.

Thanks to Jim Summers for most of the photos.

Fylde Area Group Meeting

2008-07-12T22:24:00.005+02:00

On the 19th June we held a run and natter meeting, attended by some 9 members. The evening was mainly spent discussing modelling topics rather than running, but overall an enjoyable evening was had by all.

Tony Miller did bring along a number of his wonderful hand painted coal wagons, many local to the Preston area, particular impressive is the 'Preston Industrial Co-Operative' wagon. These were hauled round the layout by my Jinty 7472 (a Preston engine - often nicknamed at the time 'City of Preston').

On Wednesday the 2nd July a number of members travelled to John James's house for an inaugural run of Benfieldside following its re-installation and rewiring, again a most enjoyable evening was had by all and we are all looking forward to another session.

The next meeting is Thursday 17th July, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

Cumbrian Area Group 2nd Meeting

2008-06-27T16:41:00.004+02:00

From being a gleam in Stephen Paulin's eye, the Cumbria Area Group (yet another CAG!) seems to have developed wings, and looks to have a secure future. The second meeting on 7th June was better attended than the first, with a total of seven attendees. After lunch at the Crown Inn, we repaired to Ian Everett's house to play trains. This was supposed to be a serious operating session but it must be admitted that it was more like train ping-pong. The object of the operator of the fiddle yard at each end of Clecklewyke's scenic section seemed to be to fill his opponent's yard with trains, whilst obeying full block regulations, using correct bell codes and running his trains at scale speeds. Two photographs show Phil Tuer and Sephen Paulin at the controls - it would appear from Stephen's expression that he is winning?
Ian's wife Betsy produced some excellent scones for tea, some of which were eaten by the Area Group members, although the majority had been scoffed by Ian and Betsy's border terrier.
A third picture shows more details of Clecklewyke, which will be exhibited with Area Group members' help at Halifax on 27/8 September and at Workington on 22/3 November - two alternatives to Scaleforum and Warley if our northern friends find those too far.The next meeting of the Area Group will be at Stephen Paulin's house on Saturday 2nd August, where there will be a demonstration of split-chassis* loco building. More details from Stephen at s.paulin@merseymail.com

A Worth While Event...

2008-06-26T22:33:00.003+02:00

The Naggers of Newport met on Weds 25 June, the evening was designed to be a show and tell evening. Instead it turned out to be one of the more memorable modeling evenings, as ideas on chassis construction were floated. Steffan Lewis gave a fabulous talk on how he constructed his chassis, including some great tips on dealing with eronious wheels, hopefully an article will appear on the NAGNAG website in due course.

Bernie Baker brought along some RTR conversions that hes' been working on and some wagons...just one or two...the conversions ran smoothly, some of the wagons less so. But isn't that the point, to find out what works.

Robert Foot brought along some really nice buildings that he'd scratched for his home layout, just wished I'd taken a photo!

The rest of the Naggers sat round and pulled Bachmann mk1's to pieces, with a view to repainting and springing the coach bogies, using Bill Bedford's sprung coach bogies.

An absolutely cracking evening, lots learned, as well as done. Thanks to everyone for entering into the spirit of things.

Next meeting 30 July.

Mike Garwood

Fylde Area Group Meeting

2008-06-16T23:11:00.003+02:00

On the 15th May we held a run and natter meeting, which was well attended by some 13 members, including a visitor brought down from Segbergh Cumbria by Alan Fell. Our visitor was Henry Wilson, an antiquarian, secondhand and new book dealer with focus on transport and industrial history, recently moved to the area. He proved to be a popular contact by several members, trying to track down some of those elusive research articles.

Also visiting for a run on the same day was Ian Everett's Austin Seven, which had unfortunately suffered a rather nasty rough shunt on the way to Preston.

The next meeting is Thursday 19th June, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

NAGNAG inaugural meeting

2008-05-22T21:01:00.003+02:00

Well, the days slipped past and letters were received, emails returned and come the appointed hour, members turned up!

A big thank you to everyone that made the effort to attend. In all 16 members attended the first meeting, with another 3 members on holiday, but wishing to participate in the group. What a result!

There are a number of diverse modeling interests, ranging from the Brecon & Merthyr line to the S&D, to Alexandria Docks in Newport. Era's range from the 1940's to late 1960's...plenty of scope for the future. Everyone had the opportunity to talk in the group and express what they wanted out of an area group, the most common theme being 'support and encouragement'. Whilst a noble sentiment, the group must have something to support and encourage over, so with this in mind, the next meeting (yes, there really is going to be a next meeting!) is based on a show and tell evening.

My thanks to everyone at Newport MRS for their help and for letting the group use their club rooms.
A special thanks to those who gave up their time when they had/should have been preparing for Railex this weekend.

Next NAGNAG 25th of June, it feels great to be able to say that!!
If you want to join the group and see what we are about, then mail me at nagnag@scalefour.org

Mike Garwood

CAG do it in rubber, and resin

2008-05-19T16:43:00.005+02:00

The Crewe area Groups May meeting took place in member Tony Montgomery delectable new home. Subject for the day was a demonstration by guest Adrian Prescott of his resign casting techniques.

Before our very eyes Adrian produced crisply cast resin parts and made the whole process look very simple and straightforward. So to prove it wasn't all smoke and mirrors he then had untrained volunteers successfully producing castings from his preprepared moulds. He gave practicable advice on what was and what was not doable in this medium all of which made a great deal of sense.

At least one member was suitably inspired to wonder if here lies the answer to the production problems related to the long trains of bogie limestone hoppers we don't have running up and down on Knustford East.

Adrian instructed us on both mould production and their use to produce the final castings, but as the rubber moulds take 24 hours to cure, practicals in mould making didn't form part of the show. This months photo (by Ron Dickinson) shows Adrian sitting in front the the minimal amount of equipment he used to so ably demonstrate his craft.

The rest of the meeting was taken up with further discussion of the production of point rodding stools from the Colin Waite etchings parts (anybody with concerns about their eyesight may need to give this one a miss) and whether the was any real practical difference between the chimneys fitted by Gorton to O4s and D9s. Oh happy days.

HR meets GWR at DRAG

2008-05-14T14:48:00.007+02:00

We welcome to our little band Steve Stubbs, formerly of the northeast and member of the Calder Bridge team. Although he lives in Taunton, not previously regarded as DRAG territory, it is 'only' 40 minutes away from Teignmouth.

Steve brought along some exquisite kit- and scratchbuilt Highland Railway stock which soon found unlikely haulage in the form of David Mead's very-nearly-finished scratchbuilt 42xx 2-8-0T.

Fylde Area Group Meeting

2008-05-10T21:23:00.003+02:00

On the 17th April we were given a talk by Terry Tracey (a 3mm scale local modeller), this was about his current model project 'Allhallows'.

Terry took us through the history and development of this pre-war Southern railway station built as a branch off the South Eastern and Chatham line from Gravesend to Port Victoria. Following this he showed us slides of his layout and explained the progress so far. It seemed the Southern railway wanted to develop a seaside resort (effectively in the Thames estuary) and this was the location chosen, once the railway was built war interrupted the plans, but post war austerity saw Allhallows as the lowest priced 'seaside' ticket available from London. To this end long expresses were provided with many thousands or people making the journey to nowhere, as the expected developments at Allhallows never materialised, but it still did not seem to deter the desire to get out of London.

To support the talk Terry brought along many of the original signalling diagrams, which included locking tables (most rare) for many of the stations along the line and also included some of the stations altered to support the new branch.

Many thanks to Terry for a very interesting evening.

The next meeting is Thursday 15th May, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.

West Yorkshire Area Group

2008-05-06T21:14:00.003+02:00

Scalefour North 2008 is now behind us. Our thanks go to all who helped over the weekend, as the regulars could not have done without them. Cakes provided by Heather and Philip Hall went down well in the "staff" tea room.
Our society publicity penetrates Europe and led to a visit by a none member OO scale modeller (British LMS period) from Switzerland who had timed his holiday to take in Scalefour North. He came on both Saturday and Sunday, and we take this as proof that we are doing something right. Possibly he was impressed by the usual high standard of modelling on show, and will join the Society.
We still use the Thatched House pub near Wakefield as our regular meeting venue on the third Tuesday of each month, but vary this to provide a mix of visits to members homes and other places of interest. Anyone wanting to join us should contact me for confirmation of date and place of our next meeting.

Jim Harrison

Canadian Area Group

2008-05-02T01:25:00.006+02:00

The Great British Train Show

Brampton, Ontario, April 26 & 27 2008

Tom Kidd supervises at Nether Upton

Mark Stapleton shunts at Upper Leaside
S&D "Jinty"leans into a curve
"Christopher", a Riceworks Buckjumper with Scannell CSB suspension built by Mark

Views of the exhibition hall:

Last weekend, the 26th and 27th of April, was the big event of the year for British outline modellers in Canada; The Great British Train Show put on by the Platelayers Society was held in Brampton, Ontario. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only all British railway show in North America. There were 52 exhibits including 22 layouts, 23 traders, 4 clinics and 3 miscellaneous displays. Included among the layouts was one P4 example "Nether Upton and Upper Leaside Light Railway" built by Mark Stapleton and David Knight. Other S4 soc members present were Dr Tom Kidd and Phil Insull who helped with the layout operation and Graham Evans, new to the Society who joined us for a chat. Some pictures of the show in general and the P4 layout in particular are to be found above. The next GBTS will be in 2010, last weekend in April.

CAG April Meetings - Things get hairy!

2008-04-30T21:08:00.013+02:00

The April 13th meeting took place in Don Roland's railway room.

The objective of the day was to demonstrate the wonders of the Noch Electrostatics grass planting system. You know the idea, electrostatically charge some fine fibres of grass coloured material and shoot it onto a glued surface where the charge will keep it standing on end while the glue dries. That nice Mr Noch provides both the clever device which generates and applies the charge, and the grass fibres. These come in a variety of garish shades but by judicious mixing it is possible to achieve a realistic colour for your chosen season. The secret seem to be not too much green but plenty of yellow and brown. To work it appears you need the target to be electrically earthed to the charge producing gun, requiring either a conductive target layer, like aluminium foil with a base fibre mat glued on top and/or a good soaking with electrically conductive glue sold for the job (looked and smelt like PVA, with added salt perhaps?). Wire the gun to the foil/glue layer, shake away and lo and behold things got hairy.

This exersize was duly performed on a section of Don's Central Cheshire line Alpraham Sidings which we have all been enjoying so much in MRJ recently, and as in the MRJ, John Sherratt provided photos of the event. I regret that on this occasions the photos did not do justice to the results so instead I leave you with a shot of the much to be envied general environment of the Central Cheshire line, mostly obscured by an, always to be preferred, back view of a fair percentage of the group.

April 27th also saw a layout meeting hosted by Dick Petter. This was held to ensure we are getting on with the tasks we must complete before Knutsford East reappears at Scale Forum in September. Signalling was much to the fore. Our current signal operating mechanisms have not worked as well as we would have liked, sometime not at all, and Phil Bourne had a new generation of mechanism on display. Another signalling job required is the completion of the point rodding. The design of the rodding runs has been done by our own in-house professional signalling engineer Tony Walker, in pursuance of the S4 ethos of getting it all right. To complete this design there is, among other things, the small mater of the construction of large numbers of point rodding stools. We all now have our quoter, even if, like me, you managed to forget to go to the meeting!

Also on view were bits of two new Loco's. That is a D9 and an J10 (both LNER/ ex GCR) suitable for Cheshire Lines use.

I leave you with further pictures, again courtesy of John, one of Phil's magnificent new mechanism and another of the chassis of the D9 (an 4-4-0 for those not up to speed on LNER class numbers). This comes from Dick's hands and as always exhibits engineering values most of us can only dream about.

First Meeting of Cumbrian Area Group

2008-04-25T23:42:00.003+02:00

Six potential members of a Cumbrian Area Group met at Stephen Paulin's house in Kirby Stephen on Saturday, 12th April, 2008.

After being impressed by the authenticity of his 12in/foot scale model of a Midland Railway house - Stephen is trying to get it all right - we repaired to a most excellent pub beside the remarkably intact ex-NER station for a superb lunch before returning to Stephen's house for tea and a natter.

In our company were Stephen and his wife, Cherry; Phil Tuer and his wife, Sheila, from Carlisle; David Beale from back o' Skidda' and Ian Everett from Askrigg. We discussed our interests and ambitions. Stephen showed some lovely BR wagons and LNWR buildings. Phil admitted to modelling in EM but nevertheless we listened as he talked about his interests in Cumbrian railways and the fascinating complexity of the early railways in the Workington area. He also showed some lovely etches of Furness Railway "squirrel" seats which will be available in both 4mm and 7mm scales. David talked of his intention to model a station based on the MR in Yorkshire and had brought a beautifully made chassis for an MR 2F 0-6-0, built from a Gibson kit. Especially notable was the neat way he had converted it to split axle pick up. Ian brought two
sixth-scale models of his two exhibition layouts, Clecklewyke and Humber Dock. They had demonstrated their worth by the fact that neither layout followed precisely these cameo models - each design had been modified before wood had been irrevocably cut or track laid. He also had a nearly complete London Road kit for an NER G5 0-4-4T.

Despite being scattered within a 30 or so mile radius of Stephen's house we agreed to continue with the group and to try to encourage more members. The group also agreed to join forces to help Ian exhibit Clecklewyke at the Workington exhibition, which is on 22/23 November 2008.

We decided to meet again at Ian's house in Askrigg at 12 noon on Saturday 7th June, where we will play with his two train sets and no doubt sample the wares of the excellent Crown inn. Brian Lewis of C&L will also be there and will talk about the services and products he provides. Anyone in the area will be very welcome. For more details contact Ian on 01969 650180 or ian@ianeverett.free-online.co.uk.

SLAG at Scalefour North

2008-04-25T15:31:00.002+02:00

Three members of SLAG motored up the M1 to Wakefield with their layout St Merryn carefully (and tightly!) packed around them, for the annual celebration of P4 modelling that is Scalefour North. A largely hassle-free journey set the tone for the weekend; and after a calm setting-up operation on the Friday evening we looked forward to a weekend of driving trains and informed chat.

On the Saturday we were joined by two other members of SLAG, and by Brian Pearce who had been recruited some months ago (and undergone his driver training) to augment the team when playing away from home. Layout (and operators) performed well over the weekend, though one member was heard to admit to being “bruised” after 30 minutes of operating, acknowledging that driver training and practice was a necessity rather than a luxury!

Some very nice comments about the layout were received, and it seems that visitors largely enjoyed what they saw. For our part, we left with a list of twenty or so “things to address” before taking the layout on the road again, but all of them are comfortingly minor.

The social side of the weekend was a great success, as is normal for Scalefour North. Thanks to all the Team for a great weekend.

SCOTLAND EAST AGM WEEKEND

2008-04-20T21:01:00.021+02:00

Contrary to what the heading might suggest, our AGMs aren't (generally) protracted enough to last a weekend. The AGM was held on the Saturday - as always accompanied by a bring and buy sale, awards for modelmaking, and whatever else can be squeezed in. The Sunday on this occasion was onward progress of Burntisland in the shape of a wagon making masterclass run by Simon de Souza. Both days attracted a significant percentage of membership participation

The AGM was conducted with formality, frivolity, and good all round banter. The committee were all available for re-election and happy to continue - not surprisingly this was proposed and seconded just as quickly as the speed of sound allowed. Despite a lot of expenditure associated with the extensions to Burntisland 1883 we remain in a very sound financial position, a fact that could be determined from treasurer Ray Paul's relaxed demenour before delivering his report.

The modelmaking prizes attracted a fair clutch of entrants, most noticeably on the loco front. Despite that preponderance, the prizes went to Fergus Duncan for some dazzling trackwork for the ferry extension, Ray Nolton for a nifty little NB coach, and John Crompton for a clutch of part-built Irish wagons. A delightful 7mm French railcar submitted by Richard Chown won absolutely nothing - not because anyone is bigotted against 7mm - simply because it didn't conform to any category of prize on offer. So as a consolation to Mr C, here's an image of it (also showing several locos that had their constructors leaving empty handed).

The bring and buy had a good number of items for sale and many a transaction took place. Give it 5 or so more years, all these unmade kits will be back on sale again to other buyers with great intentions. Such is the lot of the finescale modeller/hoarder - but who'd have it any other way?

Sunday saw some further activity towards the build of Burntisland ensuring that new boards built by Richard Darby matched up perfectly with the existing boards and newly constructed track - which they did.

However, the main feature of the day was a wagon building masterclass lead by Simon de Souza with the aim of increasing mineral stock much needed for the extended layout. The chosen subject was an NB outside framed coal wagon.

In true Blue Peter fashion, Simon produced one that he'd prepared earlier - looking both virginal and brassy at the same time, it was something for the gathering multitude to aspire to. As it turned out Simon had to conduct 2 Sunday sermons for the morning and afternoon shifts.

Everything seemed to go swimmingly well thereafter with some throwing together wagons at a speed that I can only dream off. At least 10 group members started attacking plasticard sheets with great gusto.

Most of the group just knuckled down and got on with it. Meanwhile, after lengthy debate Jim Summers and Simon remain at loggerheads but still the best of friends over the shape of planking on the fixed end of the wagon. Just another day at the office for us in the East of Scotland really.

NAGNAG inaugural meeting

2008-04-09T21:49:00.004+02:00

Hi, my name is Mike Garwood (5883), I have volunteered for the job of coordinator for this P4 group of modelers in South Wales. The meetings will initially take place at Newport Model Railway Society club rooms (http://www.newportmrs.com/), its' planned that the first meeting will take place on Wednesday 21 of May at 7:30 pm. I hope as many of you as can, will attend. Hopefully NMRS will have their P4 layout up - Belle View. What format will the group take...no idea, thats for them that attends to decide, I'm just the referee - no, I don't wear black! I look forward to seeing you all on the 21st. A google map should now be below this, to show you how to get to the club rooms...oh yes, the area group name -
NEWPORT and GWENT NEIGHBORHOOD AREA GROUP...NAGNAG.

View Larger Map

Fylde Area Group

2008-04-08T22:27:00.009+02:00

Our meeting on the 20th March was again well attended with 12 members present.

There were the usual wide range of topics under discussion. But as promised in the last update I would include some photographs of visiting locomotives of which there were several.

Bob Ellis brought this delightful NER Class P 0-6-0 No 1823

John James bought a wonderful LNWR Super D - such a perfect engine for Preston and I was able to fully appreciate the detail having had a run behind 49395 at the West somerset Steam Gala the week before!

Arthur Kimber showed us his progress on two etched locomotives he has been designing;

NER 290 Class J77

NER T/T1 Q5

The next meeting is Thursday 17th April, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a talk by Terry Tracey on 'Allhallows' a Kent SR station and model.

Fylde Area Group

2008-03-19T20:58:00.003+01:00

The 21st of February saw out planned 'Internet and Video' night replaced by a 'run and natter' session due to decorating works. The meeting was well attended by 9 members and one visitor (a local 3mm modeller and a regular operator of 'Preston' - Terry Tracey).

A variety of topics were discussed as usual and a number of visiting locos made an appearance, also on the night my Stanier 2-6-4T made its inaugural run (see picture), I will try to get more pictures of other visiting loco's for next months update.

The next meeting is Thursday 20th March, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information.

Next months meeting is a talk by Terry Tracey on 'Allhallows' a Kent SR station and model, the date for that meeting is 17th April.

33s, a 45 and 2 B7s

2008-03-11T10:42:00.007+01:00

DRAG last night saw the arrival of Rod's newly acquired and converted green 33/0 (Heljan limited edition from Kernow Models), here seen running light past John Farmer's part-finished 153.

There followed a revenue-earning turn on an unfitted goods piloted by Tim Maddocks' blue 6572.

Mark Bushby's 45xx leads a short WR passenger

Meanwhile, David Mead, Brian Pearce (hidden), John Farmer and David Browne discuss work and progress on board design and construction for TT2, with copperclad timbering laid for one of the B7 crossovers in the foreground.

(One day I'll get the hang of formatting text around pictures in these - it never seems to go where I want!).

Rail 2008 Report

2008-03-09T17:41:00.003+01:00

Brought over from the UK by Iain Rice and former Society Chairman John Chambers, 'Hepton Wharf' represented the Scalefour Society at the 'Rail 2008' Exhibition in Houten in The Netherlands this weekend (7th-9th March); with assistance or hinderance by members of SNAG the Netherlands Area Group. You can see meore pictures on the SNAG webpages.

Cumbria Area Group Inaugural Meeting

2008-02-29T14:28:00.003+01:00

Area Group Organizer Stephen Paulin has arranged an inauguaral meeting for this embryonic group to take place at his home The Station Master's House, Midland Hill, Kirkby Stephen on Saturday 12th April at 12 noon. The plan is to have lunch at the Black Bull in Nateby followed by a general discussion on what people would like to achieve with the group and then to try and plan some further meetings. If everybody brings a modelling project we could have a discussion on those too. MAP
Anyone interested in coming along can contact Stephen at either: s.paulin@merseymail.com or Stephen.Paulin@silverbeck-rymer.co.uk Further details on the Blue Sheet.

SNAG at Rail 2008

2008-02-28T11:29:00.002+01:00

Members of SNAG the Scalefour Netherlands Area Group will be attending and helping out with the UK layouts appearing at the Rail 2008 Exhibition at Houten on 7th-9th March.
More details on the SNAG section of the Scalefour Society website.

ALL POINTS COVERED

2008-02-17T23:58:00.010+01:00

Another hard weekend's work has been completed in the East Of Scotland with yet more work done towards extending Burntisland 1883. The west end of the layout now seems some distance off when viewed from the east end.........

No-one was quite sure how that new three way point would perform but everyone had their own ideas ............
Everyone ..........except Allan Ferguson who was still booging on down to the freebie Lenny Kravitz CD given away with Saturday's Daily Mail. Don't such rags realise the impact on serious finescale modelling?

On Saturday we had a visit from some of the West of Scotland group keen to learn how a layout should be built. Their excuse for venturing east was to measure up the SRPS' signal box at Bo'ness. However no-one was taken in by that as the SRPS are well aware of what their box measures.

Saturday was rounded off with an inter-group quiz with questions set by our own David Goodwillie - no bias there then. The steam questions were very hard, but the diesel questions harder still. As usual our Alasdair Taylor was the runaway winner with a score of something like 13 out of 40.

That's the working weekends finished for the meantime but a number of the group will be meeting up next weekend at Modelrail in Glasgow where Blackston Junction will be exhibited. Jim Summers will be dividing his time between that layout and also manning the Scalefour Society and the Caledonian Railway Association's stands - some guys don't let the grass grow under their feet.

SNAG Bijeenkomst

2008-02-10T23:37:00.000+01:00

The latest meeting of the Scalefour Netherlands Area Group (SNAG) took place on 10th February at the home of Gerco van Zetten in Bodegraven. There was a very good turn out and we had a most enjoyable afternoon. Activities included: a tour of Gerco's workshop including a chance to look at some of his wonderful P87 loco's and rolling stock; a DVD of Den Bosch 98, featuring Wim's 'Pippin Lane' Vincent de Bode's 'Flintfield' and Iain Rice's 'Bodesmeer'; we also had many interesting discussions and several members brought along their recent creations to show the rest of the group, including Jos Blatter's latest etchings, jigs and tools.
Attention now moves to the Rail 08 exhibition next month in its new location in Houten, where there will be several visitors from the UK. For details see http://www.rail.nl/
The picture above shows Wolter (nearest the camera) and clockwise: Piet, Wim and Dave discussing plans for a new station building. For more pictures follow this link to the meeting report on the SNAG webpages.

Fylde Area Group

2008-02-07T20:43:00.000+01:00

The 17th January saw our 'Run and Natter' session with a smaller that usual number of members, down to 9 members, but in view of the weather this could be classed as brilliant!

Anyway there was a wide variety of locos 'on trial' with a large contingent of LNER locos from Arthur, a number of which had run on Preston before. We also saw a new GWR loco (don't know the class - sorry!) from Peter which had suffered some chimney reshaping due to an accidental drop during weathering, butI think a good night was had by all.

A note that our next meeting planned to be a Video and Internet night, will actually be a 'Run and Natter' meeting due to overrunning engineering works (well decorating actually), so please bring items of interest and stock/locomotives to run.

Next meeting Thursday 21st February, please contact mike Norris (details on Blue Sheet) if you require additional information.

CAG makes it bigger. See it at Rochdale

2008-01-24T00:53:00.000+01:00

The Crewe Area Group layout Knutsford East Junction will be on show again, this time at the Rochdale show on 2^nd /3^rd Feb. If you come and have a look you will discover that, like Burntisland, we’ve been growing, just not so much in our case. We’ve extended by just 2 feet and almost all of it went into the fiddle yards. For this you should blame our defensiveness about being limited to 4 coach trains on what was prototypically a 6 to 8 coach railway. Given the extra length, 5 coach trains are now possible - must build more coaches! In addition, the planned retreat of the scenic break at the station end will also maker it possible to see, without the use of a mirror, more of the wonderful detail Ron Dickinson put into the station ticket office. There is also some muffled talk of 8Fs and trains of hoppers heading for ICI Northwich full of limestone, but best not hold your breath for that one.

Those who scrutinise layouts from the ground up will also notice that our Dexion underpinnings have transmogrified into a custom built steel structure. This has kept Dick Petter p/gainfully employed cutting drilling and tapping many yards of square steel tube over the last few weeks. A thoroughly well engineered job it is too, just as you would expect from Dick. Our thanks to Tony Montgomery who now has his Dexion back, so that’s one less excuse for not progressing your own railway empire Tony.

P.S. Don Rowland is one of our members. He has been in hospital over the Christmas period, but is back home now. I’m sure I speak for all S4 members in sending him our best wishes for a quick and full recovery.

Burntisland 1883 Gets Bigger

2008-01-22T20:25:00.000+01:00

Recently, the whisper on P4_talk was that future extensions to Burntisland 1883 might be little more than a pipe dream. Oh, no, no, no, no.

Those industrious fellows in the Scotland East Area Group, having considered and poured over plans for the next 2 extensions for months…and months… have started turning all that planning and preliminary building into action.

Over the last weekend, the boards were erected for one of the extensions, underlay laid, and most of the track built for it.

Activity was at such a feverish pace that on day 2, Richard Darby returned from a romantic overnight stay in Glasgow with lady wife to remark that the heat in the hall was stifling. You’ll see from the accompanying photo that, not only had the layout lampposts started to wilt with the heat, Allan Goodwillie had also wilted into deep slumber despite that fire alarm ringing loudly in his right ear (apparently dreaming of having finished Burntisland's second station pilot. Now, that was a pipe dream).

KAG - Eridge rebuilding gets under way

2008-01-21T12:26:00.000+01:00

Some progress over the weekend at KAG on rebuilding the group layout Eridge after problems with baseboard sagging on Mk1.

Templot plan cut to give 1.5" margin from the sleeper ends and used as a template for cutting the trackbed surfaces from 6mm Russian birch ply. The two further boards have already been cut (each 8ft long) - Mike is marking out the third. Simon keeps his wine rack in the garage hence the handy use of bottles as weights to hold the track plan down!

First two boards with transverse ribs in place (8" deep).

First board with side frames glued, pinned and clamped in place. This is the only one where the sides themselves are curved - the others will have rectilinear boxes (and triangles on the wider bits) with longitudinal strengtheners as well, so there will be some bits where the trackbed overhangs the box-frame sides slightly (not sure what the bottles were being used for at this stage!).

The trackbed boards will sit on wider trestles or goalpost-type supports at 4ft intervals (but with the board joins mid-way between supports to avoid any tendency to sag from that point). Scenic add-ons will plug in from the sides, probably built on super-lightweight carcasses made from foam board shaped to fit.

Tea for TT2

2008-01-14T17:21:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 12 January six DRAG members accompanied by several Workmates and the most macho collection of power tools I've seen outside of daytime television descended on Brian's garden workshop to start (at last) on putting together the first boards for TT2 (the MkII test track). Using John Farmer's MDF and angle-iron jig, one team made short work of all the side pieces and longitudinal strengtheners for 10 straight boards of 1000mm each, whilst another team took advantage of the reasonable weather in the morning to carry on batch-cutting. The ends had already been made up into matched pairs with pattern-makers' dowels by John in traditional Blue Peter fashion. Finally we glued and screwed one complete board. Thanks to Brian & Jane for their hospitality and to Jane especially for the excellent lunch.

Another session in the near future should get the straight boards finished so trackbed preparation and tracklaying can commence. The curved boards will need a visit to Denis' workshop to make use of his specialist router.

Later the same evening many members took part in the annual post-Christmas DRAG dinner at the Pig & Whistle near Totnes, arranged as ever by Tim Maddocks. Regular meetings for 2008 start again on 14 January, continuing on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

Fylde Area Group

2008-01-13T21:38:00.000+01:00

The 13th December saw another Fylde Area Group meeting again well attended although winter bug had taken its toll on a couple of members.
This meeting was an illustrated talk by John Sykes (EM Gauge Society and HMRS member), 'GN Lines in the West Riding' - this was a follow-on talk from the one John gave us when he focused on the area of his own model as Ingrow (G.N). , this this time John has spread the net to the entire are of the GN in West Riding. He provided us with an overview of the line concerned, with photos of many of the express (EP), ordinary (OP) and excursion passeneger trains. With details of special locomotive transfers to cover excusion traffic. We were then shown details of the goods and marshalling pilots, with shed rosters and logding turns, followed by a typical loco diagram and passenger working. Many Thanks to John for such an interesting and detailed presentation, clearly he is very knowlegable well researched on the Great Northern.
This was followed by a hotpot supper provided by Elaine (my wife), everyone leaving close on midnight, exchanging best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Our next meeting is Thursday 17th January for a 'Run and Natter', please contact Mike Norris (details on Blue Sheet) if you require additional information.

2008-01-09T22:47:00.000+01:00

Our president, Jim Summers cuts the ribbon and officially opens the Bristol Group test track on Tuesday 8 January. One of the new Heljan Falcons, converted to P4 is just about to pass through.

The test track is a circle approximately 12' in diameter, with four roads to fill with stock, so we have something to pull!

East Yorkshire Area Group

2007-12-13T23:50:00.000+01:00

Work continues apace on the East Yorkshire Area Group's layout Botanic Gardens, and wiring up of the plain track and pointwork on the entrance to the coal yard is aproaching completion. James Wells has been busy building more loco stock (a Class E (J71) from a using a Mainline body and Mainly Trains chassis kit) so at least we'll have several options to test the trackwork!

James has also started a couple of new blogs on his own activities: more details soon! There is also a thread on the Botanic Gardens project on the RMweb model railway web forum.
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12258&highlight=botanic+gardens

Further updates (and possibly images) after the Festive Season...

WEST YORKSHIRE AREA GROUP

2007-12-11T16:25:00.001+01:00

Our meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month, this month being 18th December. If no visit or other arrangement has been made, we now have a default venue, the Thatched House pub at Stanley, a village just North of Wakefield, on the East side of the A642. Any member reading this is welcome to join us. We usually arrive around 7.45 - 8.00 pm. At the moment the first part of our meeting is taken up with arrangements for Scalefour North, so if when you arrive you don't recognise anyone, just listen around for people talking very seriously about things that really matter. A note of caution here. The telephone directory lists a Thatched Cottage, a restaurant. You will not find us there as we don't trust our table manners.

This is my first attempt at a blog, so if anything comes up on the Society Blogs page, I will be as interested as anyone else. I have every hope of learning how to add pictures and becoming as competent as other contributers.

Jim Harrison

DRAGging towards Christmas

2007-11-28T00:54:00.000+01:00

No let up in activities down here in Devon as we rapidly approach Christmas - a large number of us made our way to the Taunton show in mid-October, as you'd expect, and our regular meetings every fortnight have continued to attract a dozen or so members.

Two weeks ago, because some members had not yet seen it, John Farmer brought along the boards for Swaveney, the 1970s layout of the late Nigel Hunt that DRAG have taken into care with a view to restoration and possible return to the exhibition circuit. The layout represents a small terminus on the M&GN, and was possibly the first P4 layout exhibited that had been built by individuals - Nigel and Andy Rush mainly - rather than a group. We believe its last show was York in 1977. The trackwork and wiring are in reasonable condition, but the scenery is a bit tired-looking and some of the buildings are suffering a bit from age.

However, we need to avoid being distracted by this project until we have finished the Mk2 test track. So far much has been designed and many components have been purchased, but we are yet to actually build any of it. Hopefully this will have started before Christmas when we visit one of our members in East Allington near Kingsbridge, who has a wood workshop facility, to kick-start construction.

Meanwhile, on the social side, we are looking forward to our annual dinner at a pub near Totnes in mid-January.

Fylde Area Group

2007-11-22T22:33:00.000+01:00

The 15th of November saw another Fylde Area Group meeting well attended, 13 members discussing a variety of topics with a number of locos to run on the layout.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 13th December (not the usual third Thursday) when we will have a presentation by Dr. John Sykes on 'GN Lines in the West Riding' followed by a hotpot supper.

Please contact Mike Norris (details on Blue Sheet) if you require additional information.

Crewe Area Group Has Lunch

2007-11-19T00:33:00.000+01:00

As we meet on the second Sunday of the month, it should come as no surprise that today (3rd Sunday in Nov) we held our annual lunch at the Crewe Arms locate hard by the station and with a 66 ticking over outside the gents loo just to get us into the feel of the thing. Our ladies are invited to this event as a thank you for all that support and forbearances during the rest of the year, and as one occasion when a day out on the hobby provides refreshments a cut above cantean fare!

Talking of exhibitions some of the normal suspects are seen here behind the Kutsford East at the recent Manchester show.

Next Month. Xmas pies a Tony's, definitely 2nd Sunday this time Always a popular event and always with a railway to play with, if you ask nicely

Craven Group Layout at Bolton this weekend

2007-11-01T20:39:00.000+01:00

If you can get to Bolton, Lancs, this weekend, Heath End will be there, slightly more advanced than at Scalefour North. The Exhibition details can be found at http://www.bdmrc.org.uk/ and the venue is St. James' Church of England School and Sports College, Lucas Road, Farnworth, Bolton, BL4 9RU

Fylde Area Group

2007-10-27T22:24:00.000+02:00

This months talk by member Graham Seed was very interesting and well received. Graham brought his test track and Lenz system, along with a cordless phone to show how easy it is to control several locomotives at once. After a brief introduction we were quickly into CV's (configuration variables) , demonstrating how easy it is to get motors running right by listening to the motor and watching for surges in the movement of the locomotive. It was amazing to see just how much entertainment can be had running four locomotives up and down 5 foot of track when there are three drivers!

Next meeting - Run and Natter - 15th November - please contact Mike Norris for further details.

EYAG expand!

2007-10-22T23:03:00.000+02:00

The East Yorkshire Area Group increased their membership by 50% recently when Dave Burman and Chris Leach were joined by James Wells, a talented young (well, compared to the other two of us!) modeller. His enthusiasm has spurred us all on to greater efforts. The picture shows, l to r, Dave, James and Chris standing by the group's under-construction NER layout, Botanic Gardens, which is hosted by the Hull Model Railway Society.

Craven Scalefour Group Congratulate You!

2007-10-18T20:46:00.000+02:00

Our current complement, as picture shows, are , back row, L to R, Paul Hatherley, Roger Courtenay, Roger Cox [secretary], front, L to R, Allan Smith, Paul Severs, Howard Lorriman. We will be exhibiting our circle 'Heath End' at the Bolton show on November 3rd and 4th. Our next 'social' meeting is at Roger's [see Blue Sheet] at 7.30 p.m., Monday 29th October, new blood welcome! For more on our layout and individual models, see Cravenscale Blog at http://cravens4ag.blogspot.com/. Paul S

Hull Town Docks at the Leeds Show

2007-10-18T00:41:00.001+02:00

Jim Harrison AGO of the West Yorkshire Area Group will be exhibiting his layout 'Hull Town Docks' at the Leeds Show, held at Leeds Grammar School on Saturday 27th (10.00am-6.00pm) and Sunday 28th (10.00am-5.00pm). The school is situated on the east side of Harrgate Road (A61) at the northern boundary of Leeds. Would any members attending the show please introduce themselves to Jim. Picture courtesy of Jim Summers.

North East Finescale Group Meeting

2007-10-12T14:42:00.000+02:00

Some pics of our meeting last Friday. This was hosted by David Boorman on the 5th October 2007 and will forever be known as the 'Fish & Chips' meeting. The meeting was held in the Community Room of Orchard House in North Shields. The picture shows from left to right: Bob Jones, Dave Dunn, Paul Moore, Barry Nicholson, John H Wright, Tony Cormack, David Boorman, Mick Simpson and Yvonne Simpson.

Glevum Area Group

2007-10-12T13:40:00.000+02:00

The Glevum Area Group's website: http://glevums4.mysite.orange.co.uk/index.html has recently been updated.
Changes include some preliminary details of the changes being made to the group layout "Brinkley" and also progress on "Lydmouth". The latter is being built by one of our group for the DEMU challenge.

Uckfield Model Railway Club Exhibition

2007-10-11T22:36:00.000+02:00

The Uckfield Model Railway club exhibition takes place on the 20th and 21st October with two P4 layouts: Dartly and Cheddar, plus a presence from the Wealden Area of the Scalefour Society.
Follow this link for more information: http://www.uckfieldmrc.co.uk/exhib07f.html

Fylde Area Group

2007-10-11T22:34:00.000+02:00

Next Thurday 18th October, sees one of our members, Graham Seed proving us with a talk/discussion on slow speed running using DCC.
Graham was one of the DCC demonstrators at this year Scalefour North and is well known for his slow runnign locomotives.
Please contact me directly (phone number on Blue Sheet) if you need details to attend.

DRAG - testing, testing

2007-10-09T12:36:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, just getting used to this blog thingy!

Down here in the southwest we had our regular (fortnightly) meeting last night, with the usual set up of the Mark I test track on which a variety of stock circulated through the evening. Various natterings continued in other corners of the room concerning things like getting on with the new improved Mark II test track and helping Andrew Eaton with some conceptual ideas for his home layout based in the Black Country in the 1920s.

We also discussed Scaleforum of course, and I am pleased - nay, gloating - that 80% of the DRAG membership made it there. Some are shown on this photo, looking remarkably chipper given that this was about six in the morning on Exeter St Davids station! Tim Maddocks did a great job in organising cheap group tickets so that everyone got up for around £27 a head, and still giving six hours or so at the show on the Saturday. Brian & Jane Pearce and myself were up all weekend anyway on official duties, and three other members made their own way.

Narrow gauge at Scaleforum 2007

2007-10-07T13:30:00.000+02:00

We had a great weekend in Leatherhead with Borth-y-Gest. help was at hand from S gauge modeller Leslie Bevis-Smith (and I was amazed at the number of SGMRS members who attended - they claimed to be there to take the 4 out of our title....)
The real business of showing S4 narrow gauge on 7.83 gauge was a a pleasure, and doubled by being awarded the MRJ Chalice for James Spooner, seen here in action on the layout. Sound and smoke are all genuine - no digital computer trickery at all.... Thanks to all for a great weekend. Paul

Invitations sent. New authors signed up

2007-10-07T01:13:00.000+02:00

A total of 44 invitations have now been sent out to the Scalefour Society Area Group Organizers and/or their designated representatives so that they can become authors on this Area Groups News Blog, I've also invited the Society's Webmaster and Scalefour News Editor to join. So far: Mid-Devon; NorthEast Finescale and Craven Area Groups have signed up, so I'd like to welcome David, John and Paul and say that I am looking forward to reading their posts.
Now we can go live to the rest of the Society and really raise the profile of the Area Groups and keep the membership fully informed of all the excellent modelmaking that's going on under the auspices of the Area Groups.

New Area Group Pictures

2007-10-04T23:04:00.000+02:00

As I wait for more pictures to arrive for the Scaleforum Retrospective that I'll be putting together I have news of more Area Groups that have updated their entries on the website.

Manchester (with some photos to come), Weston, Dukeries and the Norfolk & Suffolk who have sent some very nice pictures of their layout 'Coldfair Green'. (See right)

An Area Group at work

2007-09-26T18:35:00.000+02:00

Here is a picture of the East Scotland Area Group taking part in a group tutorial on turnout building last Saturday. Jim Summers tells me that they emerged with eight sets of points plus some other trackwork by folks not in the picture. "Not a bad total and better than watching the football." Jim concluded.

Picture by Simon Wall.

Further Updates

2007-09-22T13:17:00.000+02:00

Both the West Scotland Area Group and Sarum Finescale web entries have now been updated. With Scaleforum almost upon us I have sent further reminders to the groups that have still not updated, so hopefully there will be some more news this week.

Fylde Area Group latest

2007-09-14T00:48:00.000+02:00

I've now almost completed the process of contacting all of the Area Groups asking them to revise and update their website entries.

Of the 44 groups: 23 have been updated, 5 were updated during the year before I started this, 11 more have been contacted and I'm waiting for a response and there are 5 that I'm having problems with.

I've just uploaded the latest revision; by Fylde Area Group:

http://www.scalefour.org/p4areasdets.htm#Fylde

Area Groups Update

2007-09-10T00:05:00.000+02:00

I have just uploaded revised entries for both the Bristol Area Group and the Crewe Area Group
Many thanks to Tim Venton and Will Litchfield. Hopefully we will be seeing some pictures soon.
There is also a small amendment to the entry for the Netherlands Area Group following today's most enjoyable bijeenkomst (get-together) in Amsterdam.

South Yorkshire Photos

2007-09-02T13:44:00.000+02:00

South Yorkshire Area Group have now had some pictures added to their entry on the Society website: http://www.scalefour.org/p4areasdets.htm#SYorks

Area Group Progress

2007-08-27T19:05:00.000+02:00

In the last month considerable progress has been made with the Area Group coverage on the Society website. http://www.scalefour.org/p4areas.htm
AUSTRALIA (EAST), CANADA, CRAVEN (LANCS/YORKS), CUMBRIA, DEVON (MID), DEVON RIVIERA, GLEVUM, LINCOLNSHIRE (NORTH), LONDON (SOUTH), LONDON(WEST), MIDLANDS (WEST), NETHERLANDS, SCOTLAND (EAST), SOUTHAMPTON, SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA), TEESSIDE & NORTH YORKSHIRE, WARWICKSHIRE (SOUTH), WEALDEN, YORKSHIRE (EAST) & YORKSHIRE (SOUTH) are all now up-to-date; some with pictures added and more promised.

HAMPSHIRE & SURREY BORDER, MIDLANDS (EAST), NEW ZEALAND, READING, SCOTLAND (NORTH EAST), SOMERSET and ULSTER have all been removed as defunct.

AUSTRALIA (WEST), BRISTOL, CREWE, ESSEX, KENT (EAST), WILTSHIRE (NORTH), BUCKINGHAMSHIRE (NORTH), and CHESTER & WIRRAL are all groups that have been contacted but I still need to chase up for information.

Which leaves: FYLDE, ISLE OF MAN, LONDON (NORTH), MANCHESTER, THE NARROW GAUGE STUDY GROUP, NORFOLK/SUFFOLK, RISBOROUGH & DISTRICT, SHROPSHIRE & HEREFORDSHIRE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WESTON, YORKSHIRE (WEST), DUKERIES (NOTTS), NORTH EAST FINESCALE, SARUM FINESCALE (4MM), SCOTLAND (WEST) and SUSSEX (MID) that have not yet been contacted.

I have also added a clickable maps section to the site: http://www.scalefour.org/areagroupmaps.htm

Craven Area Group Blog

2007-08-13T16:31:00.000+02:00

Craven Area Group now have their own blog which you can view at: http://cravens4ag.blogspot.com/

Southampton Area Group pictures

2007-07-25T14:34:00.000+02:00

Southampton Area Group have also sent me some pictures of their layout Southwark Bridge which I have uploaded to the Society website.
http://www.scalefour.org/p4areasdets.htm#Soton

East Scotland Area Group pictures

2007-07-25T14:22:00.000+02:00

East Scotland Area Group's entry now has pictures added, see: http://www.scalefour.org/p4areasdets.htm#EScot

Area Group Co-ordinator

2007-07-15T12:45:00.000+02:00

I have volunteered to take over the role of the Society's Area Group Co-ordinator from Deputy Chairman Richard Hall. This will hopefully dovetail with my work on the Area Group pages of the Society's website.

Area Groups Update (edited extract from P4talk)

2007-07-12T18:00:00.000+02:00

I just thought that I would let you all know that I have recently taken on the task of trying to bring the Area Groups section of the Society website up to date.
From the existing information on the Blue Sheet and the website we appear to have 50 Area Groups although it's clear that some are not much more than a one man contact point.
After working my way through the information already available on the site I have classified the groups as follows:
1) No information about the group on the site;
2) Information is time expired and out of date;
3) Limited content or information;
4) Otherwise good but not updated for more than two years
5) Recently updated;
6) Completely up to date.

I have initially attempted to contact the Area Group Organizers for the Areas that have no entry of any kind on the website along with one or two others.
I have now finished tidying up the pages and have added at least a name and link to the Blue Sheet for more info for every group that has no other entry as well as adding the info that I have received so far. See:
http://www.scalefour.org/p4areas.htm and
http://www.scalefour.org/p4areasdets.htm

I believe that it is very important for the Society and the service that it provides to its members that the Area Group information on the website is kept fresh and as up to date as possible. I shall continue to attempt to make contact with the Area Group Organizers that I have not spoken with yet as we really need to be providing more information, especially to new members and getting this right will help.

Unfortunately the vast majority of Area Group entries on the website have not been updated for more than two years and more than half of all the Groups have had nothing about themselves published in Scalefour News during the last five years, so any helpful input will be appreciated.

Area Group Webpages

2007-06-24T17:42:00.000+02:00

I have started work on updating the Area Group information on the Scalefour Society website and have initially been in contact with the Area Group Co-ordinators for Essex, West London and Lincolnshire (North).