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Glenngary tramway


jayvid
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  • 3 weeks later...

Its been a very busy three weeks in the Norman household so sorry for the delay in this update but here goes.


The Diesel Gala at the NYMR  proved to be a very quiet affair due to the Saturday clashing with the Armed forces day spectacular in near by Scarborough and a forecast of wind and rain for the Sunday.


The new back scene seems to have transformed the model dramatically and was well received by those who had seen it before and after. For sometime the SDRM club members had been saying the model would benefit from some form of backdrop but I was unsure how it would look or be achieved. It just goes to show that sometimes you can be too close to the subject yet not see what others can !


The new rear mounted video screen was ideally placed and proved its worth during the weekend as we can be singly manned but still take the opportunity to sit and rest tired feet whilst still keeping watch on proceedings out front.


The only problem of the weekend was the new smoke unit in the top station decided to take the healthy option and quite smoking so a new one is on order.to be fitted before the next outing.


Two new videos are available on my YouTube channel.


The first is a SDRM club visit to the North Bay  Railway in Scarborough with club members having the opportunity to drive the loco.


 



 


And the second a visit to a nice little narrow gauge line at the Wolds Way Lavender Farm near Malton North Yorkshire


 



 


 


Gary


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  • 4 weeks later...

Day to day living has continued to preclude any chance of modeling and with the SDRM clubs annual show fast approaching Dianne and I managed to attend a club night  last week. Once we got the usual banter on the lines of " Would you like to fill in a membership form and meet rest of the team" out of the way it was catch up time.

With 2 weeks to go to the annual show all the planning undertaken by the event committee starts to come together and club members get to know there individual roles. The publicity team have been hard at it for the past few weeks visiting retail outlets, holiday parks and the odd pub or three spreading he word. Last years show exceeded all expectations so this year the exhibition manager has pulled out all the stops to do even better !

The club chairman has started a thread on the show over in the Exhibitions tab on this site. On there you will find all the details you may require about the venue and layouts attending etc.

​As a club member and layout owner inclusion in the annual show is never guaranteed or expected  so to be invited for our sixth year is extremely satisfying. The small footprint of the tramway probably works in our favor in this respect.

 ​Each new season we take the trams out  we try to have something new to see, so with the addition of the backdrop we come to this years show with our biggest transformation to date.

If you are visiting the SDRM  show at the Pickering  Memorial hall on the 22/23 August don't forget to come and have a chat and a drive on the up and downy thingy in the foyer.

Enjoy the show

Gary

Edited by jayvid
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  • 2 weeks later...

Back home following the SDRM annual show at Pickering. Three words sum up this years event Friendly,Busy and hot ! It was nice to see old faces again and meet many new ones. Attendance was high again with the stands kept busy for most of the weekend.Saturday was a very warm and humid day and the catering team handed out well in excess of 100 bottles of chilled water to traders and exhibitors on that afternoon alone,and much appreciated they were too ! Sunday had a nice breeze blowing through the venue so much so that the flags on the tramways flagpoles stared moving quite realistically. 

The trams ran faultlessly all weekend despite the high temperatures with just a couple of minor maintenance tasks to do before the next outing. We chose to run the green cars ( Carli and June) as it would have been June Normans  81st birthday during the week .

The recent changes made to the overall look of the trams seems to have prompted no less than four possible invites to other shows plus the club have booked us again for next years event.

 

Gary

Edited by jayvid
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi everyone

I am sat at home laid low with the bad chest and cough most of Yorkshire seems to have at the moment , so video update 4 is on hold until i can string more than a dozen words together without a 2 minute coughing fit ! . The first three videos have been available for a week or two but it has been difficult to know how they have been received as there has been no feedback good or bad. YouTube have a number of views counter but for some reason on some videos it under reports as i have been present at viewings on 3rd party computers that have not been counted,so this does not give an accurate picture. Each video takes about six hours to produce which I enjoy doing  ( slow going as I am still learning to use the video editing software) but if members don't like them in this form then I can go back to doing them as before . We have now passed the 5000 views milestone on this thread so its seems people are still interested in the topic and for that  i am truly  grateful.

Following our our return from the last of this years Pickering Station mini shows the only maintenance job to be done is to rectify a broken wire on the led string around the top station roof. One problem we have encountered  since the fitting of the back scene is that when we are sat at the back of the layout we cannot see if anyone is stood at the front. It was hoped that the drivers eye view camera would have sufficient field of view to serve both purposes,but this  is not the case. To allow us to monitor the output from the drivers eye camera at the rear of the layout a small video screen was employed, fortunately this has the ability to accept  two video inputs so a second camera has been ordered and will be mounted in the motor/ winding room with a view out of the window. The angles are such that the camera can be set to one side and not be obvious when looking at the winding gear from outside.  For those who are interested videos of SDRM layouts and "Visits " are also available on my YouTube channel .

 www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbJDe21MJLy3YuR7SFfROQ

 

 

Gary

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Last weekend (7th /8th November)  we attended our final exhibition of 2015 courtesy of the Barnsley Model railway club.  This was a perfect way to round off our show commitments for this year ,with our hosts making us most welcome. We were kept busy most of the time  but when I got the chance Dianne manned the stand so I could record some of the sights and sounds the show had to offer.

 

 

 

The first of the videos from our recent visit to Wales is now available and is of  the Centre for Alternative technology (CAT) Funicular railway. This system is water balanced and one of the steepest in the world.

 

 

The trams will now receive a good service and touch up where required. Next years program of events will be posted in the exhibitions tab on the Glenngary tramway website as and when they are confirmed.

 

http://www.glenngarytramway.co.uk/#Homepage

 

Gary

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  • 1 month later...

13 December 2015

 

End of term report.

 Can it really be a year since the last report !

 2015 has seen us attend six events with fourteen exhibiting days plus setup days. The system has covered around 12,000 metres during the year. We have had two parts fail this year one major and one minor. The major componant was the combined motor and gearbox which slowly ground to a halt over the course of an afternoon but was diagnosed and replaced after close of business ready for the next day. The minor item was a newly fitted smoke unit not crucial to operations.

During the course of the year the trams have undergone the biggest upgrade to date with the addition of the rear cliff face, This addition has prompted a lot of interest from exhibition managers for possible future invites . Dianne and I still both work so any invites to shows have to be juggled with work commitments and we can soon use up our holiday days ( roll on retirement ). 2016 has two confirmed dates in the diary with others still to be sorted.

The Glenngary Tramway website continues to be updated as does the facebook page and the Rmweb blog has now passed the 5500 hits mark.

The you tube channel has been slowly growing with some videos doing better than others, relevant ones are posted on Rmweb but the others have to rely on people stumbling on them amongst the thousands posted daily. The tramway update videos have received no feeback whatsoever  and considering the time they take to produce them it remains to be seen whether  i will  continue with them. Those of you who have seen update 5 will know of the new layout we are building. the baseboard has been made and legs attached.The track layout is in the process of being worked out.

 

The latest visit video is available below

 

Thats about it for 2015  we hope to be back in 2016 and would like to wish you all the compliments of the season

 

Gary and Dianne

Edited by jayvid
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  • 1 month later...

The first post of 2016 brings mixed news, due to reasons beyond our control we have been unable to confirm any additional outings for the trams for the coming season.
This leaves us at present with only two outings this year, The SDRM annual show in August and The Great Electric Train show in October. On a more positive note we can confirm that we will be at the Lincoln show in 2017, the conversation for this started in late 2014 so it just goes to show how far ahead some exhibition managers are working. We at the SDRM club are working hard on our 2016 show but 2017 and 2018 are also being planned as well.The clubs exhibition manager has indicated he would like us to attend right through to 2018 which will be the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Scarborough And District Railway Modellers Club.

We will continue to try and find  some work for the trams but this may prove to be a rather quiet year for us but time will tell !!!

The last video I posted, The Talyllyn Railway, does not appear to work on all viewing devices this is down to copywrite limitations on the audio track .sorry about that but Pc and laptops should be ok.

 

A new video which will  work on all platforms is posted below it took forever to put together I hope you enjoy it.

 

Gary

 

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  • 1 month later...

27/02/2016

 

We now have a clearer idea of the events we will be attending during 2016. Sarborough and District railway modellers club have been asked again by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to provide a selection of layouts for display in the education centre at Pickering Station on a number of Gala weekends. We will be kicking off proceedings with two  consecutive 3 day weekends on May 6,7,8 and May 14,15,16. (Late spring steam gala ).  Further dates will be added in due course.

The trams will start the new season pretty much as they finished 2015 as the last batch of upgrades weren't implemented until towards the end of the year.

I have made a short  Glenngary tramway Promo video for exhibition managers and included it with our details in the Exhibition layout database on this site ( an excellent resource ).

 

 

A second video is of the  Welsh Highland Heritage Railway Porthmadog Station

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The trams continue there winter slumber as we eagerly await our first outing of the year in May. Club nights see us working on Diannes 009 gauge quarry layout (a big test of the eyesight going from gauge 1 of the trams to 009 of the new project).

We know the dates of the proposed outings for later in the year but getting confirmation is proving frustratingily illusive but as soon as we get it we will let you know.

Two videos are now available

 

the first is a re-edit of the trams pictorial walkthrough brought right up to date.

 

 

The second is the  Llechwedd slate quarry deep mine funicular

 

Edited by jayvid
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  • 4 weeks later...

Our programme of events for the coming season has now been confirmed and is as follows

6/7/8 May           North Yorkshire Moors Railway. late Spring  steam Gala  week 1

13/14/15 May     North Yorkshire Moors Railway. late Spring  steam  week 2

9/10 July             North  Yorkshire  Moors Railway. Classic Vehicles Weekend                                                               

20/21 August     Scarborough  and  District  Railway  Modellers  annual show.  Pickering  Memorial  hall.

1/2  October       North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Autumn Steam Gala

8/9 October         Hornby  Great  Electric Train show.  Gaydon

As Dianne and I still work this  program of events fit in nicely with our other commitments. The trams will shortly be brought out of storage and given a full shakedown test at home before the first outing.

A few weeks ago Dianne was on a visit to Essex and took time out to film the Southend Cliff lift . This has now been edited and is available below.

I have finally got round to doing Update 7 this one deals with the evolution of tramcars “Gemma” and “Dianne”. Previous updates are available on my Youtube  channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/glenngarytramway

Gary

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Trams have been retrieved from storage and we have spent the day servicing and testing them for their first outing of the season. The top station mounting has been modified to enable us to run different tramcars on consecutive days at shows, this has previously been impractical due to the time it took to set up the micro switches etc. A complete set of new batteries were required for the tramcar lighting and other effects ,only £20 ….Sob. And that’s on top of the £70 for cards and flyers and we haven’t turned a wheel yet!  

We kick off with two consecutive weekends (6 – 8 & 13 – 15 May 2016) at the NYMR in Pickering North Yorkshire for their Scottish Branch line Gala, this replaces the advertised Steam Gala cancelled due to the visiting locomotives becoming unavailable for reasons beyond the NYMRs control.

Two new videos are now available on the Youtube channel ,viewing figures have been low so no need to queue.

 

 

Gary

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  • 4 weeks later...

With the first of this year’s SDRM mini shows held at the North Yorkshire moors railway now behind us, the rebranded Spring Steam Gala became the Scottish Branch Line Gala. Held over two consecutive 3 Day weekends attendance was on the whole good but with quieter interludes between train arrivals .

The modifications done to permit us to change the tramcars more easily proved a success and we ran different sets of cars each day, the display lighting being adjusted to compliment the cars on duty.

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During a quieter moment a timer circuit was tested which controls  the 12volt supply to the smoke unit .  Instead of the smoke unit running all the time (if switched on) it now turns on as the cars start to move and stops as the cars reach the creep point on approach to the stations , the result is the smoke slowly diminishes as the cars slowly pull into  the stations. The effect is much more realistic .

 

The Gala shows were filmed with the intension of it forming the Glenngary tramway Update 9 but a change of plans has seen it uploaded under the SDRM banner. Update 9 will appear in due course .

The second video is of the Central tramway here in Scarborough.

That’s all for now

Gary

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  • 4 weeks later...

Over the last couple of weekends we have had the opportunity to visit two very different railways, Both manned almost entirely by bands of dedicated volunteers . The first is west Yorkshires  Shipley Glen cable Tramway back up and running following  trackbed  damage from the  extensive floods at the end of 2015.

The second is The Bowes Railway situated in the Durham coalfield. This  listed site is a fascinating  mix of railway and coal mining  and tells the story of how the coal that had been extracted from deep underground was moved from high in the hills to the river Tyne via a series of cable hauled inclines. The venue has struggled for funding over the years but the small band of volunteers keep this important part of our industrial heritage  alive.                                                                                                                                                                               

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  • 4 weeks later...

Following yet another bad chest infection resulting in a 2am trip to A&E,  the outcome of which was a short high dose of steroids that  worked wonders and the cough that I had endured for 2 years disappeared overnight.  BUT ,coming off the steroids produced the mother of all hang overs lasting 3 days.  Dizziness being the main problem so we had no option but to pull out of this weekend’s SDRM mini exhibition at Pickering Station. This is the first event that we have failed to attend and the decision was not taken lightly. So our next outing will be the SDRMs annual show in August details of which the clubs chairman will be posting shortly in the exhibitions tab of RM web.

Work on Dianne’s slate  quarry  layout (Evan Quarry)  continues, I have taken some pictures but have yet to persuade her to let me post them.

The video viewing figures continue to improve so we will look at some new venues to visit in the near future.

That’s all for now                                                                 

Gary

(cough free for now)

Edited by jayvid
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  • 4 weeks later...

With 2 weeks to go to the Scarborough and district modellers annual show preparations are well under way. Details of layouts attending are being posted by the clubs chairman in the exhibitions tab on this site. We shall be in our usual position in the entrance foyer of the venue, please come up and say hello.

 

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Work on Dianne’s new layout (Evan Quarry) has continued with some key decisions being made. The layout is in 009 scale and following testing will be DCC controlled, initially using the Hornby select system as we have one spare. One overriding factor of the layout is the weight when complete – to solve this we have being experimenting in how to represent slate without actually using real slate. Initial experimentations have proved realistic in their appearance so feel we are on the correct path. The picture below is a mock-up of the first loco and some lightly loaded wagons with the scenery behind partially complete.

 

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Two new videos have been uploaded, the first being a trip to Beamish and the second features the North Bay railways new steam loco “Georgina”.

 

 

 

That’s all for now - Gary

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  • 3 weeks later...

This year’s  Scarborough and District Railway Modellers Annual show proved to be very busy for Dianne and I on the Glenngary Tramway Stand. The number of “ I drove the trams “ cards issued rising from around 150 last year to just over 200 this time .

As usual the Pork and apple pies provided by the catering team were in great demand!!

A video of this year’s event is now available below

 

 

The photo shoot we did with Chris Nevard last year has now appeared in print and an extra bonus is that it will be current until the next issue is published in spring 2017.

 

Gary

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The Glenngary Tramway left the  confines  of Yorkshire  for only the second time to make its longest journey to date to the National  Motor Museum in Warwickshire. The purpose of this  200 mile trek was to  attend the Great Electric Train show 2016, a fantastic venue and show !

This event marks a big step up in terms of visiting numbers and we were unsure how our presentation would work in a less intimate setting. Even with a small crowd looking on were able to allow the youngsters to drive the trams  etc .

Unfortunately we had no chance to do any videos but Dianne did do a whistle stop tour to get some stills  of the layouts where crowds permitted.

We would like to thank the Hornby team for the invite and the chance to attend such a large prestigious  show.

 

 

 

Gary

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  • 2 months later...

End of term report.

2016 was a year of highs and lows, the lows centred around my recent poor health which now appears to be down to a run of bad chest infections and a resultant bout of pneumonia. For whatever reason this episode left me with a distinct tremble of the hands .Thankfully this has slowly reduced over the last few weeks  to be only noticeable if I get very tired or stressed. So it will come as no surprise to say that work on modelling projects had come to a standstill.

The Glenngary tramway had started 2016 fresh from having the back cliff face upgrade so other than routine maintenance nothing had been planned for this season. The big looser has been Dianne’s new layout Evan Quarry with virtually no progress to report.

The highs this year have included the trams appearing in Model Rails Great British model railways Vol 4  and exhibiting at Hornbys  Great Electric Train  Show.

The program of events for 2017 is now taking shape and I will post these shortly when they have been confirmed but it looks like we will be venturing further afield than we have done so previously.

The Youtube channel continues to grow in both content and viewing figures with the last of the 2016 videos being uploaded last week and the final one Below.

It just remains to say Thank you for your support be it on Facebook, Rmweb, Youtube or at Exhibitions.

 Dianne and I would  like  to wish you all the very best for 2017

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