Markmiller2008

Hi All Finally got my hands on my 56019 late last week after a bit of a mare with it arriving. It is simple superb! One quick question and I feel I may already know the answer to this, having seen a photo of a factory fitted sound one, the screw holes on chassis are for the Speaker retaining bars. Now I'm fitted my own sound to the loco with the ESU Speaker that comes in the sound fitted ones and just wondered if the retaining bars for the speakers will be available as a spare? Great job though guys on the loco. Mark

Southgate Park had two successful (with some slight issues) end of 2023 shows at Showcase and Redditch. Those of you at Showcase will have hopefully seen our sunday open day, photo below for fun. Since Showcase i carried out a quick job on one of the fiddle yard boards, with Southgate Park having changed a little bit with the removal of DMU services, our shuttle sidings were no longer needed. We have extended three fiddle yard boards to allow some down trains to run in longer formations, Relatively easy job with removal of three points and plain lining with flexi track. We carried out a relay of the final part of the LUL section as we found the LU stock wasn't running very well over it, at Redditch we ran our first 62 stock train back and forth! We have a busy 2024, starting with a very last minute addition to the show list on the 14th Jan with some familar DEMU faces operating the layout. List of shows below. Sunday 14th Jan- Burnham and District MRC exhibition, Weston Super Mare https://bdmrc.co.uk/14-january-2024-exhibition/ 22nd/23rd June- EXE MRS Show, Exeter 17th/18th August- Loughborough Model Railway Exhibition 2nd/3rd November- Spalding Model Railway Exhibition. 2025 will reveal an exciting plan, i won't say any more yet but prepare for a difference! Mark

DMU Group (West Midlands) Five Car Restoration Fund The DMU Group (West Midlands) is pleased to announce an exciting new fundraising campaign which aims to raise £100k to cover all planned works to return the 5 car 1950s/60’s Diesel multiple units to full working order including a full repaint. JustGiving Page https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/svr-dmu Back Story. The DMU Group (West Midlands) was formed on the Severn Valley Railway in the 1990s, since then it has maintained and operated a 5-car DMU on the railway. During this time it was regularly used for day-to-day diesel turns, evening fish and chip trains, Christmas carol trains, and featured at diesel gala events. Due to some major overhaul work required including door locks, bogies, and engines which were exacerbated by the effects of the Covid pandemic, the DMU has not been available for service since 2018. However, thanks to a dedicated small team of volunteers who have continuously been at work on the units. The return to service of a 2-car DMU is hoped for by Winter 2023, with a staged plan to return the other 3 cars into traffic in the near future. At a time of increased fuel costs, the 5-car DMU is a vital asset to the SVR. Powered by Leyland 680 engines and weighing around 28 tons per vehicle, it gives high fuel efficiency, with a high passenger capacity equivalent to 6 mark 1 carriages, including disabled access, toilets, and bar facilities. With the unique feature of panoramic views of the Severn Valley. In June 2023 the group received confirmation of their registration as a Charity – number 1203594. In becoming a registered charity the Group gains the official oversight of the Charity Commission protecting our assets for the benefit of the public and ensuring that the Group's fundraising income is spent on the preservation and maintenance of the Group's DMU. Thus giving donors confidence in where their money is going and allowing the Group to benefit from Gift Aid which can enhance donations by 25%.

Well the layout is certainly taking pace ready for its attendance at DEMU Showcase in two weeks time. One thing I was keen to add after removing the crossover was a signal box and that was definitely the right decision to make, a trip to my local model shop to collect our Prefab signal box and now we have something that looks very much like Woking. Shane has worked on the signals to repurpose them on the new track layout, these are Tom’s orignals just slightly rebuilt. The retaining wall replacement is now 99% complete, just a few little touches to finish off. Hopefully some exciting developments will be announced soon. Watch this space

Shane and I had a layout day on Tuesday, with the aim of reducing the amount of jobs still to do before DEMU Showcase which is our next outing. We started off with finishing the base work for the new retaining wall, this will be clad this weekend all being well. Then moved onto the next stage of the platform 4 works, the sides and plasticard tops being done. I’ve since started to paint it, more coats required. Shane fitted the third rail which is pretty much complete on the mains, just the new platform area to finish. Shane’s working on modifying the signalling gantries etc to suit the new changes and is still working away on stock for the layout too. Next job we’re hoping to get done will be the testing of the LUL section, this “may” be operating at Showcase if all is well.

We’ve been busy already since Doncaster. Part of our rolling improvement plan to keep the layout in as best of condition as possible for the foreseeable has seen us crack on with an area I wasn’t too happy with. Since we’ve had the layout the retaining walls below the Royal Mail building and opposite the sidings have been getting worse. So yesterday with the help of Shane, we removed the whole area for replacement. This will be a fairly simple job to complete, also gives access we need to get the LUL running. However what we’ve also started (well I have today) is removal of the unused crossover directly at the end of the platform. Our plan here is to ease out the curve and shorten the platform by half a coach length thus making the operation of the layout a bit easier with smoother curves. As you can see from the second photo, the prep work is nearly done, just new cork, track and ballast to complete. Mark

Last week we finished off the relay, fitted the 3rd Rail and the AWS ramp on the Down line, Up Line still needs one painting and popping in place. Hopefully there will be some additions to the LUL detailling in the next couple of weeks, Timb3D have produced new cable bridges and cable runs which will vastly improve the look of that area, hopeful to have these added by the time Doncaster comes around. The LUL will remain trainless for another show as we just havent had the time to sort it, Showcase may well see that up and running, time will tell. Looking forward to Donny in three weeks time with a guest operator getting us out of the doggy dos as we were looking rather low on operators. Mark

A Month Today is The Doncaster show Lots going on behind the scenes. We tackled the trackwork relay last week, which we (Shane) thought would be an easy job. New cork underlay, track down and ballasted. However when we placed new lengths of track out we could see that one board had a very obvious sag in it. In the space of around 200mm there was a 4mm difference in the levels. To put that into context, if scaled up to full size that would equal a fall of 1ft in approximately 50ft distance. Fortunately we had sufficient cork of various thickness so we could pack it where required. It was weighted down and given 24 hours for the glue to set fully. This gave the new track enough support. All ballasted just some finishing weathering and new 3rd rail to be fitted. Just confirmed is our third show this year in September at Redditch. Mark

Monday night me and Shane took out the roller coaster track in the station area which had been causing some issues. By doing this it will reduce the number of joints in the track which will aide the running of the layout in that area as well as removing the bumps that had occurred from the cork lifting. The plan is to relay and reballast with weathering being carried out in stages to look like it’s a replacement that’s just happened, can anyone help with what Speed restriction boards (Commencement and termination) would have looked like for our timeframe? Mark

We’re still here in the background at a slower pace than usual. We have two confirmed bookings for 2023 and one more which we’re waiting to hear back from. The first of these is the Warners Show at Doncaster in February and we’re making some improvements to the layout ready for then. First of the layout has been reduced in height, at Stafford we felt sorry for a chap in a wheelchair who must have really struggled to see the layout, some advice from Mick Bryan at Warley and an early December work day saw the chop being taken to all the layout legs. Next job which we’re doing and would have already started if not for the arctic temperatures last week is, in the station platform area there’s a bit of a ski jump due to the cork and age having some effects on the track work. We shall be taking the area back to the baseboards shortly for new cork, track and ballast. Shane’s been working hard on another Plastic Pig (Class 442) to complement the one he’s already done. After Donny, we will look at some other improvements, maybe including getting the LUL operational for 2023 show number two which will be DEMU Showcase. Mark

Evening all Over the weekend we had a pre Stafford layout test, we’ve made some reliability tweaks with some autofrogs being added instead of manual microswitches on point frogs and some general improvements to other bits too. With the exception of the BRM Shoot with Andy and Phil the layout hasn’t been up in its entirety since Statfold. We were pleased that as soon as we connected up the layout there were no shorts, one dead section from a loose wire and a couple of point decoder changes were the only issues. Looking forward to a good show to close off the 2022 calendar for us and we then will look forward to a busy 2023.

Well we are still here, the layout has apart from brief trip out (more of that shortly) been in its crates since we returned from Statfold in April. At Statfold we were approached by Phil Parker of BRM, a few months later at a photoshoot later, Southgate Park features in the current (Sept) issue of BRM. On the back of this we also received our first confirmed invite of 2023 to Doncaster by Warners, two other shows are in the pipeline too just waiting on paperwork before we confirm these however another one is a high profile show. Back to the layout, in preparation for its next outing at Stafford in September we have identified some reliability mods to the layout, autofrogs replacing the manual and constantly failure microswitches for the point frogs, point frogs on the scenic board to be wired into our DCC Concepts point decoder and a set of legs for the one corner board that was missing some which caused some issues at Statfold. Stock wise, Shane is working on a refurb of his 5WES Class 442 that he built a number of years ago, new cabs and a repaint is on track for an appearance at Stafford. Mark

Well given that Shane (wolf27) is an expert in all things RTC and has a RTC coach in those colours, i'd think that Hornby are basically making things up

We're off to Stafford in September should anyone want to see the layout in the flesh. Hopefully some new additions to appear for that if @Wolf27manages to get them done! Mark

Some photos from the weekend. Mark