Sunday, 6th April 2025. 

That's........

10AM- 4PM , Sunday 6th April 2025

Where

Staplegrove Village Hall, 

214 Staplegrove Road,

Taunton.

TA2 6AL 

The event is held on the ground floor only and is fully accessible. 

Please note, the Village Hall is located within a residential are so please park with due consideration given to local residents. 

LAYOUTS. 

The Running Shed-7mm-Ian Statham.

Ian flys the 7mm flag this year with his 7mm micro layout depicting the interior of a Western Region engine shed and features his lovely builds of Western Region locos. Subtle interior lighting really showcases his locos in a typically gritty but nicely subdued manner. Some lovely figures and interior fittings add to the ambience. If you think you can't fit a 7mm diorama into the house or model large GWR locos in 7mm, think again. 

Juniper Hill Tip- 4mm 00 gauge by@46444 aka Mark Branson. 

Mark brings his new London Transport inspired cameo layout along this year.

Set somewhere in Hertfordshire, just off the Metropolitan Libe, near Watford, you can find a site called Juniper Hill Tip. Owned by London Transport, waste permanent way materials are brought out of London, along with hot ashes for disposal. Expect Red Panniers and old ex Metropolitan Railway E Class locos shuffling about this quiet backwater.............but beware the sneaky Sentinel waiting in the wings.......The end is nigh for steam, I tell ye !!

Helland Wharf-4mm 00 Gauge- by @Mike_Walker

Mike, inspired by the work of well known photographers such as Peter Gray has modelled this well known location on the Boscarne Junction to Wenford Bridge line. Mike has devised a rather cunning operating schedule which has rung the most out of what is a very simple track plan, surrounded by a very faithful depiction of the immediate area. Expect Beattie Well Tanks in a protypical setting and no doubt other equally typical motive power appropriate to the 1960s period. 

Trerice-4mm P4 by the late Iain Rice and exhibited by Jerry Clifford...@queensquare 

Jerry has forsaken his usual 2mm F/S contribution to bring us Trerice, Iain Rice's well known and arguably seminal China clay cameo layout. A personal favourite of mine and inspiration to many. I don't think I need to say any more than that.

Bethesda Sidings-4mm 00 F/S @Captain Kernow aka Tim Maddocks

Bethesda Sidings’ represents the goods yard of Capel Bethesda, using the road bridge that carried the lane to Penybont over both the goods yard connecting line and the main line to Rhayader as a scenic break.

The layout is goods only and a variety of typical W.R. motive power appears, such as pannier tanks, 14XX tanks, and the occasional Ivatt 2-6-0 or a ‘Dukedog’.

As the layout is set in the post-November 1962 period, trains from the Vale of Radnor Light Railway are authorised to run over BR metals from Vale of Radnor Ground Frame into the goods yard, so a variety of industrial and light railway types will be available.

Abergain- 4mm EM Gauge by @Abergwaunaka Graham Tierney. 

Graham will be recognised by many visitors as a member of the Cardiff 4mm Group who have brought us many fine Welsh pre-grouping EM Gauge layouts over the years. This is Graham's own layout which depicts a joint Taff Vale/GWR coastal terminus in West Wales set around 1922. Expect a good selection of pre-groupagery including a rather tasty Taff Vale Railway Steam Railmotor. 

Juniper Hill-4mm 00 presented by @wiggoforgoldbut originally knocked together by @46444

Alex now has custody of Mark's lovely little Juniper Hill micro layout.  Based around a Northamptonshire ironstone quarry line, this delightful layout appeared in the May 2014 edition of BRM. 

Based on a  a 3 ft x 7inch shelf found in the garage and using some SMP track and a couple of PECO Code 75 points which Mark had to hand at the time, the idea behind Juniper Hill was that it shoukd represent the end of a Quarry system where loco's could take water. Also present is a store which acts as a view blocker and provides a bit of operational interest. Another example of how a small layout can provide the space starved modeller with a working layout. 

Templegate Wagon Works - 7mm @Bungus the Fogeyman 

Dave brings us his Micro layout which demonstrates how we all can accommodate a 7mm layout, despite a lack of space. Dave's build, as is often the case for me, arises from a particular loco. In this case it's Dapol's excellent 08 shunter. Go on, you know you want to do it. Have a chat with Dave, buy a 7mm wagon and it's downhill from there...........

DEMONSTRATORS 

Stu, aka @Stubby47 will be there to discuss your requirements for a bespoke building or two. He'll also be demoing a selection of buildings by Railway Laser Lines, who are localish to Taunton.

Stu will also will have some of his own kit designs they are ( or will be) producing . He

can offer a custom building service for this lovely range of buildings and accessories. If you struggle to locate him, he'll be once again lost under a mound of chocolate cake crumbs. 

Martyn aka @mullie will be returning with something small and East Anglian and once again be sharing how he achieves such lovely colouring on his models. 

Chris, aka @Gilbert will be able to advise on various couplings and will possibly have other bits with him relating to his ongoing projects. 

Simon aka @Not Jeremyonce again brings us a selection of Big Boys Toys in Gauge 1 as operated on his garden railway at his country seat. 

Corbs aka @Corbs/ @RapidoCorbscomes to SWAG'25. No idea what he's doing, but he has a table. I'll be as surprised as you are ! 

James Daniels also joins us. James models in EM Gauge and has a penchant for producing ridiculously small but perfectly running locomotives from etched kits ( I can see him and our own CK getting on like a house on fire !). He'll also have his first layout, a test build in EM ( Obviously !) with him which will illustrate how small a project can be both fulfilling and provide a bit of stress relief when needed. Ask him about anything.....but he's not very good on football. 

Last, but by no means least Phil Parker @Phil Parker will  have a selection of his builds along with his recent NG7 layout as featured in BRM..

CATERING DEPARTMENT. 

There will be a kitchen running on the day offering hot and cold drinks, a selection of hot snacks and cake......lots of cake. 

TRADERS. 

Please give some thought to anything you might want to be able to pick up from the traders on the day. Please consider contacting them prior to the weekend and arrange to collect on the day. 

Lord and Butler. 

Peter @Lord and Butler Model Railways will be along with a good cross section of items from the shop, both new and some previously loved nuggets. 

247 Developments. 

Brian @247 Developmentsis a long time supporter of the event and will have his usual selection of hard to find detailing parts, etched products along with his ever expanding range of 3D prints. 

Taff Vale Models. 

This year we welcome Julian and Sue who provide finescale model railway kits, motors and related components under a number of labels.

Dragon Models: Locomotives and Welsh railway rolling stock, mainly 7mm/ft. scale, some 4mm/ft. too.

Celtic Connection: A range of fascinating non-Welsh prototypes from the rest of the UK in 7mm/ft. scale.

Taff Vale Models: Any new kits produced since we took over Dragon Models will fall under this brand. The brand also covers 12volt DC 5 pole skew wound motors together with etched gearboxes and other components.

Camkits: A range of finescale 4mm kits of pre-grouping Cambrian Railways stock.

Mudmagnet Models- Another long time supporter of SWAG, Richard returns and brings with him his range of 3D printed essentials to add that little bit of extra detail to your layouts. However, a quick look at his website reveals Richard is more than a dab hand at 3D printing. Have a look to see what else he offers. 

BRING AND BUY

Exhibitors and visitors are encouraged to raid those 'roundtoit' shelves and cupboards and offer those little nuggets for sale. Remember, 10% of the selling price will be payable to support future SWAGS. 

☆Please note.......purchases can be made either by cash or card..☆

Please download and complete the below form prior to accompany any items for the bring and buy stand. 

SWAG2025 Bring and Buy Form-Extremly Very Final Form Rev3.docx

ENTRY IS FREE...............

Yep, this is still a free to enter members day. However, there are running costs associated with the event which are getting increasingly challenging to meet. 

To help with this, there'll be suitably labelled receptacles dotted about the hall.

PLEASE donate a few coins into these at your discretion, you'll be helping to ensure we can maintain the funding to guarantee the continuation of this event. Once again future events will be funded by way of the catering, a percentage from the sales in the bring and buy department and , yes,  any donations made. 

We will still see a post event donation made to charity but the priority remains to safeguard the event itself. 

For ongoing updates on the event, please see the main thread, here.......

Be there or be square. 

Rob. 

More than 20 top quality layouts in various scales and gauges , with well-known traders from around the country.

Skilled demonstrators to advise and show you how!

LIST OF LAYOUTS-TBC

TRADERS

Aspire Gifts & Models

Bill Hudson Transport Books

Blacksmith Models

C & L Finescale

Cheltenham Model Centre

Crécy Publishing

Dart Castings

GLR Bespoke Services Ltd

H & A Models

K&M Trees

Langley Models  

Model Railway Developments

Model Railway Solutions

Modelstock

Ron-Lines Model Railways

Roxey Mouldings

Severn Models

Squires Model & Craft Tools

Sunningwell Command Control

Transport Treasury Publishing

Travelling via Car

Barton Peveril College is about 1½ miles from M3 Junction 13 or M27 Junction 5 and will be AA signed from shortly after the junctions.
Please use SO50 5BX for SatNav.  (The college post code will take you to the back entrance of the campus)

Travelling via Train

Both Eastleigh and Southampton Airport Parkway stations (London Waterloo line) are about a 25 minute walk, or by bus as below.

Free Heritage Bus

Southampton & District Transport Heritage Trust (www.sadtht.co.uk) will be providing a free bus service between Eastleigh and Southampton Airport Parkway stations and Barton Peveril College.  The service is expected to run approximately half hourly from about 9.30am

Travelling via Bus

Bluestar Route 2, (Southampton – Eastleigh – Fair Oak) from Eastleigh station, stops in Derby Road near Tennyson Road.  It is a short walk along Tennyson Road to the back entrance to the college. Every 15 minutes on Saturday, half-hourly on Sunday.

Bluestar Route 5, (Eastleigh to Romsey, Saturday only) from Eastleigh station, stops outside the college, infrequent service (every 2 hours).

The show is being held today Saturday 9th December 2023 from 10.00 to 16.00 at Newton Abbot Library in the Passmore Edwards Centre in Market St.

cheers

Been a while...

[turns lights back on and dusts off cobwebs...]
 

In an effort to get back on track and now I’m not chasing a locomotive restoration every weekend, I thought it was about time that ‘Castle Tours’ organised another ‘RMWEB Modeller’s Tour of Didcot Railway Centre’.

it will be an all access tour, with full behind the scenes tours and I’ll try to supply you with some interesting and possibly true anecdotes and information to amuse, entertain and inform.

In partnership with a certain Mr Ball, who intends to make his presence felt on these shores, he has requested Sunday the 14th August.

I have no idea as to the locomotive roster at this point in time, but a completed Pendennis Castle should at least be on display (yay!). Normal entrance fees apply unless I get a large enough group and I can ask for a group rate.

Is anyone interested in a little walk around nearly 200 years of railway history this summer? If you could let me know here so I have and idea of numbers, I would be very grateful. I don’t know about you lot, but I’m really looking forward to reviving this tradition!

All the best,

Castle

Hi All,

This year’s Castle Tours outing is a whole weekend extravaganza so hold on to your hats! The plan is to do a two day event - making it worthwhile for those who have some distance to travel hopefully. The dates are Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May. Here’s how I see it happening:

Saturday 25th May - Modellers Tour of Didcot Railway Centre

My usual ‘all the trimmings’ extended and behind the scenes tour of the entirety of Didcot Railway Centre. This will include the unrestored carriage and wagon stock, the carriage works, then locomotive works and anything else you need to look at, measure, photograph and so on. The GWS collection is your oyster!

The plan is for you to get there just after the centre opens, get your rides, shopping and food sorted out. We will meet up at the main entrance at 12:30hrs and we will then tour the centre under the direction of myself and some of my fellow volunteers from the No. 4079 restoration project. We usually go through until about 16:30hrs or so.

Normal steam day entrance fees apply. Parking is best done by grabbing a place opposite Didcot Parkway Railway Station which is cheaper and more convenient than the Network Rail alternative.

Sunday 26th May - Fawley Hill Railway

You’ve seen it on television, now see it for yourself!

Fawley is the remarkable collection of the late, great Sir William McAlpine. It Includes one of the greatest railwayana collections ever assembled by one man and one of the most amazing garden railways you could possibly imagine. Locomotive No. 31 has been owned by the McAlpines since her construction by Hudswell Clarke in 1913. It was used to build among other projects, the original Wembley Stadium and the Empire Exhibition and was retired in 1960 as the last loco in use by the McAlpine firm. Instead of being sent for scrap, Sir William had it delivered to Fawley and built a railway around it. Also resident is a class 03 Diesel No. D2120 (03 120) which is of the lowered cab variety for use on the Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Line and was constructed at Swindon in 1959. There is also a pair of Planet type diesel shunters very similar to the latest kit release by Narrow Planet too!

The railway they run on its travels through the McAlpine Estate and there are dozens of architectural treasures as well as a wide range of exotic animals that run wild through the grounds. The piece de resistance is the climb back to the station which is the steepest adhesion worked railway incline in the UK at an almost torturous 1:13. The sound of No. 31 working up the incline at full regulator is once heard, never forgotten. Just like at Didcot, you are free to take as many rides as you like. The doors open at 11:00hrs, the first couple of trips usually being 03 powered. The last trip up the hill by steam is usually about 16:00hrs and a couple of diesel trips will follow before the toys go away for another day...

A £10 donation to pay for fuel and maintenance on the railway is requested from a visitor to Fawley. Free parking is available in large quantities.

The places for this trip are strictly limited to 50 and as Andy Y and his cameraman have already taken 2 (yep - it’s going to be a BRM DVD too!) and our signalbox tourguide Stationmaster Mike has to be catered for as well, that leaves 46... Please remember that Fawley is a private site and the home of Lady Judy. As such it is only accessible via a pre arranged visit such as this.

Over to you good people!

All the best,

Castle

Sunday March 24th 10am till 4pm

Hardwicke Village Hall, Green lane, Hardwicke, Glos GL2 4QA (just off M5 Jct 12)

Test track (2rFS DC/DCC), layouts, refreshments, Bring and Buy, Trade support, Refreshments.

Admission £3.00 and concessions

Arguably the story starts a little earlier than that. Way back before the days of RMweb most of the content relating to the hobby in the UK on the internet was solely text-based; Pat Hammond's MREmag, a few e-lists, Yahoo groups, BRM's forum and a smattering of personal sites. Most of these had little in the way of imagery and it was that which was the motivation behind RMweb; it's very much a visual hobby, we make things to be looked at and we need to look at things to learn so the idea was to create a forum which facilitated the uploading of images directly to the site. I floated the idea on BRM's forum at a time of apparent dissatisfaction and I believe 250BOB was the first to give a nod of interest so I disappeared off and set things up and made the site live on the 15th March.

Initially I used Snitz forums software so things looked somewhat different than they do now:

The snapshot above from the Wayback Machine shows how things looked and how things were roughly a month on from the start including names old-stagers may recall. Initially much of the activity came from BRM forum members with most retaining 'dual-nationality'. RMweb was simply doing something slightly different at the right time as co-incidentally a couple of other forums started up not long after. RMweb grew in activity levels despite the apparent lack of categories in the picture above as participants started to upload images of their own workbenches and layouts and so the hobby on the 'net started to become a bit more alive.

Social networking was in its infancy at that stage, Facebook was merely a year old and used by a few American colleges, many people didn't have broadband yet, let alone the speeds we're now used, and many used search engines other than Google. I don't think many would have foreseen using RMweb on a mobile phone, let alone a tablet. A lot has changed in 10 years.

Roughly a year on from the start the site had grown more sub-forums and there's probably even more names which you may recognise in the image above including folks who are still here. Growth caused problems; despite claims of hosting companies their servers always gave performance issues when things got busy or the site continued to grow. Initially the site was hosted on 1&1 but their technical people could never offer any explanation as to why there was a problem let alone what could be done about. I changed the hosting to Pipex; bad move! I think the site spent as much time down as it did up some weeks in the short-lived RMweb2.

We certainly had some characters around at that time, the industry looked upon it as a bit of a wild west town where the bad and lawless had regular gunfights but I think that's probably somewhat of a fearful and exaggerated perspective as there was a lot of good going on.

Maybe the site could have continued to grow using Snitz software but I could see there was more potential elsewhere so a change to phpboard software was made and a further move to UK2's hosting. The site probably starts to look a little more familiar by this stage and the following pic shows how things were two years from the start.

Yes; even more recognisable names! It's probably because the principal colour had changed to blue that it looks a little more familiar too but around this time there was a development in that RMweb was preparing to move out from the darkness of the internet into the real world. As users became more familiar with each other and an interest in meeting up the first Members' day was held in 2007 at Mickleover with thanks to Mike Bellamy and the guys from the club.

Members Day's were, and still are, a chance to get to meet fellow modellers and the tradition is still there with Captain Kernow's marvellous organisation of the Taunton Members' Day, the next one coming up on the last Sunday in April.

And so the years roll on, as membership and activity grew it was impossible to keep an eye on everything (whilst working full time all over the country) and a team of moderators grew to help maintain content, sorting things that were posted in the wrong areas, answering technical questions and removing the worst excesses of behaviour. Costs of hardware and software rose to match the growth in membership and as it was very much a shared community we were very graciously kept afloat by the generosity of a percentage of site users and it's those people who are responsible for RMweb still being here today as I couldn't have covered those costs on my own. Thank you all!

The phpboard software became increasingly flakey and the hosting had moved to Jim in Ohio but the big change came in October 2009 when I switched to the current software, Invision Power Board, as this gave the potential for integrated blogs and image galleries within the site and a more active community. The old site on phpboard software is still accessible here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/

Again there was sustained growth with the new features and pressures on servers would again arise but at least Jim understood the needs of a busy site and the hardware grew. The only problem was when there was an issue and the time difference in being able to resolve any glitches.

Back in 2011 my former employers were going through another game of musical chairs and I was quite happy to leave the conventional world of employment and dedicate more time to the running of the site and develop more content seeing the birth of the Modelling Inspiration as a pdf magazine as an add on. However at this time I knew that we'd need to take a big step forward in terms of hardware and support to continue to grow but I knew that was a bill too high to try and share with the membership so commercial considerations were going to come into play one way or the other. At a time when I was looking at how to make the site financially sustainable a circle starts to be completed later in 2011 when I received an approach from Warners. Initially I was understandably sceptical; what would this mean for the future?

A little like the scene in Local Hero where Fulton Mackay sits with Burt Lancaster on the beach Warner's MD, Stephen Warner and the publisher, John Greenwood came to visit and we sat and talked in the conservatory and the grains of sand weren't important, it was the stars above.

Obviously there was going to be a trade off and increased advertising content would have been an outcome either way but an agreement was reached where there was a solid future path. Thanks to word leaking out within the industry there was another approach from another publishing house; that fell at an early hurdle when they couldn't meet some of the conditions of continuity which were a test of how things may be at a future stage.

And so we moved into an era three years ago where some prophesied the end of RMweb as we knew it and we continued to grow. The stability of the site and performance improved when a decision was made to move the hosting to Dediserve in Ireland, a business which had a clear sight of what was needed as one of the directors happens to be a member here. Thanks to them we've never had better performance and still the site grows. Over the years I've made many acquaintances and some very good friends and I count myself very lucky in this respect. I work with, and have worked with, some lovely people too; again that's a fortunate thing to have these days. From a casual comment RMweb has grown from nothing to the third busiest site (according to Alexa.com) in the railway modelling in the world (behind Model Railroader and Kato's sites). That feat is down to everyone who has been involved with the site over the years and the way the site is run. Never has a day passed by when I haven't been here, not because I have to but because I want to; even when there's been the most malicious of activities it needs to have plates spun to keep it moving onwards; that's 3652 days on call (maybe I'll get a day off one day) whether I'm on holiday (as I have the past week but I can't tell people that because some just try to use it) or even on honeymoon sat on a balcony over a piazza in Florence sorting out a problem. And there I wish to thank my marvellous wife who's had to put up with RMweb, my mood at any given time and who has fed several hundred of you at Members' Days in the Mids.

During today (Sunday) I'll be announcing some additional content for the site, two distinct challenges, a puzzle to tax the grey matter with a great prize for the winner and discussions about what the future may look like.

Did I foresee what it would become? Absolutely not and it was never intended to be this way.

The World Famous* RMWEB Tour of Didcot Railway Centre Sunday 29th July 2018

A bit later than normal - sorry everyone! The final ok was granted by management on Saturday and I was a bit busy on Sunday with other things steam engine so here we are! For those that haven’t been before, my team and I will show you the whole of Didcot Railway Centre, taking you behind the scenes and giving you a chance to look at anything and everything you want to see as far as is possible! You can make prior requests to see things either before, during or after the tour and we will do our very best to let you see, photograph and / or measure what you need to! There will be trains running that day (when I know the roster, I will let you know - there will be a guest engine on site) and we will also tour Radstock Signal Box, the Carriage & Wagon Works, the Carriage & Wagon Storage shed and the locomotive works as well as all the normal visitor attractions. We have a great time and we also get to meet our fellow RMWEBBERs and put faces to names! We ought to give you a little sample of what is to be seen - how’s this?

The plan will be for you to get in as soon after we open as possible and take your train rides and have a spot of lunch, visit the shops, etc and we will meet up at the entrance kiosk by the main gate at 12:00hrs. From there, we will do our tour and we are usually done by about 16:00hrs after tea (the main motive fluid for railway preservation, coffee is substituted by some) has been drunk and the world has been put to rights. There is parking across the road from Didcot Parkway station and the centre is accessed through the underpass in the station itself. The other way to get there is of course by train!

So - I will ask the question I ask every year - who wants to come and have a look in the largest and greatest GWR toybox in the world?

All the best,

Castle

*After OTBL and his good lady joined us last year, I can definitely claim this now! They have the longest distance travelled so far for the tour - it will take a bit of beating! Can we do it?

Well, it's that time of year where Castle offers you a look round the great GWR toy box that is Didcot Railway Centre on Sunday 30th July 2017! All the usual treats are on offer including in an in depth tour through all our exhibits and workshops, the unrestored wagon and coach collection, the annual special guest appearance by Stationmaster Mike in one of 'his' signal boxes and a chance to look at anything you want that isn't moving or on a running line. I don't currently know what the rostered motive power will be but I will let you know when I know! Anything that is moving or on a running line can be viewed after the toys have been put away at the end of the day by just asking and being prepared to hang around a bit afterwards! If there is something special you would like to see, measure or photograph for current or future projects then please let me know and I will see what we can do. The answer is nearly always yes, no problem!

We are also entering into intercontinental visitor territory as we will be welcoming Mr On The Branch Line and his good lady to that little corner of an Oxfordshire town that is forever GWR. So, if you want to come and have a first look round, meet up with fellow RMWEB members, see how we have progressed on some of our restoration work up close and / or just come a long to have a good look at the premier collection of GWR rolling stock with knowledgeable guides (and me!) then book a spot by either posting a reply here or sending me a PM.

We usually start up by meeting at the main gate at 12:00hrs so everyone can have a ride on the trains before hand and then go all afternoon until about 16:30 - 17:00hrs. Children are welcome and in fact are encouraged as long as the supervising adult looks after them as we will take you behind the scenes.

I look forward to see you there for some 12":1' scale fun!

All the best,

Castle

Nos. 4079 and 7202 (amongst MANY others!) await your inspection!

On behalf of the organising committee, I am pleased to announce the line-up for the 2017 RMWeb Members Day at Taunton on Sunday 30^th April 2017.

As ever, the venue will be Staplegrove Village Hall, 214, Staplegrove Road, Taunton, TA2 6AL. The event will be open for RMWeb members and their guests only from 10:00 hrs and will close at 16:00 hrs.

List of Layouts

7mm

Palins Yard -  http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88451-a-quickie-out-of-doors/

Sherton Abbas - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131-wenlocks-blog/

4mm

A Cartoon of Helstonish - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/115712-a-cartoon-of-helstonish/

Canute Road Quay - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/114980-canute-road-quay/

Sheep Lane - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/94613-the-sheep-chronicles-a-slice-of-mutton-post-1867-page-75-onwards-the-continuing-adventures-of-norman-lockhart/

Tinner's Forge - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/118324-tinkers-forge/

The SWAG Module Project

2mm

Sykes Yard

Demonstrators

Jerry Clifford will be bringing "a little 2FS demo/display plank plus a selection of part built, finished and converted RTR to give an idea of what can be done in 2mm".

Phil Parker will be bringing "a load of past Hornby and BRM magazine projects".

John Farmer will be bringing 'Netherhope'.

Retail therapy

Chris Trerise of KMRC will again be attending with a display of current and future special/limited edition models - http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/

Dave Harding of The Model Shop, Exeter, will be back with us again this year, with his usual range of R-T-R items and other bits and pieces. Why not try giving him a call in advance of the event, he’s happy to bring items up for ‘special orders’ –check out his website here - http://www.trainsandtrack.co.uk/

** New this year - Bring & Buy stall ** - Phil Copleston wil be proving details soon

Catering - details to be confirmed

Saturday 29^th April

This year the majority of the Saturday is free for those who wish to come down to Somerset early, to spend time as they wish. Heritage railways such as the West Somerset Railway and the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway are close by, for example.

I can also confirm that Taunton MRG have once again agreed to open their clubroom at Bishops Lydeard station specially for us from 1700 to 1900 hrs on the Saturday, with the usual warm and friendly welcome.

** Please Note ** 

The SWAG weekend this year synchronises (clashes??) with the WSR Steam Gala weekend,  For those who happen to be interested you will find some details here -

http://www.west-some...ing-steam-gala 

But the really IMPORTANT NOTICE is in respect of our Saturday visit to the Taunton MRG's layouts Tamerig and Bath Green Park.  Because of the gala these layouts will be open to public visitors over the Gala weekend therefore if you are visiting on Saturday late afternoon/evening as an RMweb member please do not present yourself at 'the hut' before 17.00 (unless you want to be part of the ordinary public access).  It has been arranged with Taunton MRG that they will close to the 'ordinary public' just before 17.00 on the Saturday and re-open immediately after 17.00 for us lot.

No doubt the gala weekend might have some impact on car parking as well

After visiting Taunton MRG we will continue to The Lethbridge Arms, Bishops Lydeard.  More information on the pub can be found here http://www.thelethbridgearmspub.co.uk/index 

Updates:

Edit 1: Removal of Titfield Thunderbolt (my mistake...)

Edit 2: Added Phil Parker & John Farmer as Demonstrators

Looking back at some previous years there appears to be an event called RMweb Live, presumably for all us members to get together. Is anything happening this year?

Thanks

Liam (SVRlad)

Clicking on the image for an issue opens the magreader software, this does have some bugs with zoom and loading and is not compatable with ipads/iphones so there is also a text link to the pdf file just beneath it.

What's in it this month?

Hi All,

It's back! I have again agreed with our centre manager and Andy Y that we could have another day to meet at Didcot to have another one of my traditional 'access all areas' tours of our site. I have entertained people of all ages on these tours so it is open to my fellow RMWEB members and family members of all ages!

The date decided upon was Sunday 31st July 2016. Locomotives could include, Railcar No. 22, Railmotor No. 93 and large Prairie No. 4144. I will update the loco roster as we know what is happening on site!

Saint No. 2999 Lady of Legend is looking very impressive at the moment and is not that far off. County No. 1014 County of Glamorgan should be sat on its wheels by then too. Churchward Saddle Tank No. 1363, 72XX class No. 7202 and Sodor railways No. 1 have seen much effort and all show noticeable progress. No. 4079 Pendennis Castle will also now look a vast amount more impressive as she now sports (albeit temporarily) her boiler and is in the final stages of her restoration. We will also be able to see behind the scenes in the Carriage and wagon department too!

The new 'Controlling the Trains' exhibit building, in conjunction with the Swindon Panel Society is now making major leaps forward, not least of which is the delivery of said panel! I had a look this afternoon and it is an impressive beast...

As before, I will do a proper modellers tour where I will take you behind the scenes and enable you to look in all the workshops and stored collections of vehicles. If there is anything that you specifically want to see, measure, look at, go inside of or crawl over then let me know and we will see what we can do. The only obvious restrictions would be on any stock or items on the running lines of course - squashed patrons don't go down well with management... However, if you don't mind waiting until after the trains are put back in the box for that vital item that needs measuring I am sure that something can be arranged. It's been done before!

As per last time, the signalling box key will find its way into my pocket so there will be an opportunity to go and have a look at the box and the incredible level of authentic restoration achieved with this building. I will also steal a carriage key from somewhere so we can inspect the interior of some of the vehicles not normally accessible to visitors.

The plan as always would be to get yourselves to Didcot and take any rides in the morning and I will take an early lunch and start the tour at 12:30hrs, meeting you at the entrance kiosk at the top end of the site. I would like to put a cap on the group size of 50 as any more than that and it gets a bit confined in the various works. I will rope in my fellow GWS tour guides again too!

So then, who wants another look in the best GWR toy box in the world?

All the best,

Castle

As usual, the venue will be Staplegrove Village Hall, 214, Staplegrove Road, Taunton, TA2 6AL. The event will be open for RMWeb members and their guests only from 1000 hrs and will close at 1600 hrs.

List of Layouts

7mm scale

‘Lapford Gate’, a new layout by Devonbelle (Paul Stanford). The name of the layout gives you a clue as to where it is set. I believe that this will be its first public outing.

1/35 scale

‘The Patiala State Monorail Trainways’ by Stubby47 (Stuart Hilton). I always thought that Brian Harrap had a virtual monopoly on the strange and unusual, but Stuart is really giving him a run for his money with this unusual prototype. As the name says, it’s a monorail, and it used to run in India between 1907 to 1927. Best say no more here, everything you could want to know about Stuart’s project can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/103045-the-patiala-state-monorail-trainways/

‘S’ Scale

‘Tresparrett Wharf’ by Maurice Hopper. Maurice’s superb work will be familiar to many of us who have seen some of his previous layouts at shows in the South West and elsewhere. More information on this L&SWR layout, and Maurice’s other projects can be found on his RMWeb blog here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1391-maurices-blog/

4mm Scale

‘Hounslow Sidings’ by Ray Norwood. Ray is no stranger to our RMWeb exhibitions, and you may remember his exquisite ‘Yard Shunter’ layout a few years ago. This time he’s bringing the well-liked ‘Hounslow Sidings’ for us to enjoy. More information can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79299-hounslow-sidings/

'Vintners Yard' - this rather lovely goods yard in EM gauge with an urban feel is presented by Eric (Burgundy). More information can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/59637-vintners-yard/page-2

‘Streetley’ – by Tomparryharry (Ian). This is a classic 48 x 12" inglenook puzzle, with eight wagons only in use. A photo of Streetley can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/85090-latchmoor-road/

‘Dovington Camp’ by the Clevedon & Portishead Armchair Modellers. This is a brilliant contemporary era military-themed layout, which will surely be well known to many of you. More information can be found here - http://www.claphammodelrail.com/dovington%20Camp.html

The Taunton Modular Layout - once again our intrepid modular maestros will be there in the small hall with the excellent modular layout. Mike (Sidecarracer) is in charge this year and promises an interesting line-up once again.

2mm scale

‘Polpendra’ by ‘Bridgiesimon’. Those of you who came to Taunton last year will no doubt remember ‘Hobbiton End’. This year Simon brings his lovely ‘N’ gauge Cornish branch terminus based in Mid/North Cornwall around 1958-62 to Taunton. More information can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/43113-polpendra-cornish-branch-in-n-1958-62/

‘William Smith’s Wharf’ by Jerry Clifford. The master of 2mm fine scale returns to Taunton with his latest creation, which to my admiring eye looks virtually complete. Jerry describes the layout as follows:

The ‘Wharf’ is the latest, and smallest, addition to the series of layouts based on the fictitious North Somerset Light Railway (NSLR) as it might have looked in the 1920s. The name derives from William Smith (1769-1839), one time surveyor to the Somerset Coal Canal (SCC) and father of English geology. In 1812 Smith opened an ill-fated quarry at Kingham on Combe Down along with a tramway leading to a wharf at Tucking Mill. In reality the venture failed contributing to Smith’s bankruptcy due to serious faults in the rock. Needless to say, in my version of history the venture was a great success such that when the NSLR arrived in 1905 it justified a siding and wharf to transport the valuable, high grade, Oolitic limestone all over the country.

The model, all two feet of it, can be used as an extension to my Tucking Mill layout or exhibited in its own right. As usual inspiration is taken from real locations, the wharf scene is a nod to the stone wharf at Biccslade in the Forest of Dean whilst the scene at the front represent the bridge and canal cottage at Monkton Combe on the SCC.

More information on ‘William Smith’s Wharf’ can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/52042-tucking-mill/page-18

‘Z’ gauge

I’ll probably get into trouble for describing this as a ‘Z’ gauge layout, for this is the tiny ‘Mini-ZOB’ layout that sits on Brian Harrap’s very own ironing board. Although Brian has brought this little delight before, I thought it would be rather agreeable to see it once more. If we’re all very well behaved between now and the date of the show, Brian might agree not to come in his lederhosen.

Displays and demonstrators

Silhouette cutter demonstration by Rod Cameron (10800).

2mm fine scale display by Jerry Clifford

Kernow Model Railway Centre- Chris Trerise of KMRC will again be attending with a display of current and future special/limited edition models – http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/

David Brandreth will attend again with a display giving details of the Missenden modellers weekends.

Retail therapy

Dave Harding of The Model Shop, Exeter, will be back with us again this year, with his usual range of R-T-R items and other bits and pieces. Why not try giving him a call in advance of the event, he’s happy to bring items up for ‘special orders’ –check out his website here - http://www.trainsandtrack.co.uk/

Simon Castens (aka ‘Not Jeremy’) of The Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop and Wild Swan Publications will again be attending with a selection of Wild Swan books, together with a selection of the latest railway titles from other publishers. His website can be found here - http://www.titfield.co.uk/

Check out the latest Wild Swan title on the last weekend of the Somerset & Dorset line here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/108000-somerset-and-dorset-swansong/

Catering

Following earlier worries about covering for the catering this year, I’m very pleased to say that Madeleine and I have found a way for her to once more lead the catering team with Michelle (Mrs Pugsley) and a small number of kind volunteers who came forward following the original appeal (you know who you are and we’re very grateful indeed!).

The catering team will, therefore, be working hard in the kitchens once again to keep us all fed and watered. We are anticipating the usual selection of delicious pasties, chicken & ham pie, home made cakes and other refreshments to be available.

Any profits arising from the catering operation and any other aspect of the Members Day will again be donated to The Railway Children charity.

Saturday 23rd April

The majority of the Saturday before the event is free for those who wish to come down to Somerset early, to spend time as they wish. Heritage railways such as the West Somerset Railway and the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway are close by, for example.

I can also confirm that Taunton MRG have again kindly agreed to open their clubroom at Bishops Lydeard station specially for us from 1700 to 1900 hrs on the Saturday, with the usual warm and friendly welcome. ‘Bath Green Park’ and ‘Tamerig Central’ will again be operational.

After visiting Taunton MRG we will continue to a local establishment (details t.b.a.) where I will be making a party booking. I will post up information on the venue as soon as possible.

There is one final announcement to make regarding this event, which has been posted on a separate thread here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/108723-taunton-members-days-the-future/

Edit 01 - to add the details of the Modular Layout (apologies for leaving that out of the original version!)

Edit 02 - to reflect the correct scale of The Patiala State Monorail Trainways as 1/35 scale

Edit 03 - to add in 'Vintners Yard', which should have been included in the original line up earlier this afternoon, but slipped through my checking net due to inefficiency on the part of the proof reader

Edit 04 - to add in the mention of the Missenden Modellers display

As mentioned previously, I have now booked the pub venue for the meal on the Saturday evening, 23rd April 2016.

We will first of all meet, as planned, at the Taunton MRG premises at Bishops Lydeard station from 1700 to 1900, and I have then booked the usual side room in The Cross Keys, Norton Fitzwarren. Those who have been to this venue before will recall the arrangements, no doubt, but there is a side room to the left of the bar area (as you enter the pub), which can accommodate 21 - 25 of us.

The pub's menu is here - http://www.fayre-square.com/pub/cross-keys-taunton/c5680/menu/

The pub have said that if you are able to book your meal with them in advance, this will be a great help on the night. If you wish to do this, please can you do so direct with the pub (I don't need to know what you've ordered!).

What would help, though, is if everyone attending could send me a PM to say whether they are joining the pub party.

Many thanks.

I've enjoyed doing these events immensely, but both Madeleine (CTMK) and I feel that the time has now come to let someone else take the reins, so I am now offering the opportunity to run this event to whoever would like to form a new exhibition management team. Andy York is aware that I am now standing down. We started doing this in 2008, so this will be the 9th such event that I have run.

I would be very happy to pass on all details of booking the hall and any other hints and tips, should anyone else be interested in running this event from 2017 onwards.

I do hope that someone else comes forward, as I believe that many people have derived enjoyment from both exhibiting and attending these events.

Would anyone interested in taking this event on, please PM me, with a copy to Andy York.

Many thanks.

The next Taunton Members Day will be on Sunday 24th April 2016. I'm not yet in a position to announce the line-up, but there is an important announcement as regards the catering arrangements, which is really a request for help.

For the last 8 Members Days, the catering has been run by Madeleine (CTMK - 'Mrs Kernow') and Michelle (Mrs Pugsley), ably assisted at various times by a number of other kind souls, including some partners of other RMWeb members.

For personal reasons, Madeleine is no longer able to run the catering operation and would like to hand the reins over to someone else, and Michelle has also indicated that she would like to step down.

Essentially this boils down to the fact that we will need a new catering team in place for the 2016 event, or face a radical change in the catering offered at the event.

The way I see it, we broadly have four choices from next year onwards (this has been discussed with Andy York):

1) A new team is formed up, perhaps consisting of existing RMWeb members and/or partners

2) An outside catering company is brought in, at whatever cost, to provide whatever version of catering we can afford

3) I get in a selection of pre-made 'supermarket' sandwiches, which we would sell at cost on the day, with a couple of the regular volunteers providing teas and coffees

4) No catering at all, everyone brings their own food and drink

In all likelihood, only Option 1 would enable us to continue with the existing offerings of pasties, chicken & ham pies, homemade cakes etc. Unless the new catering team wanted to supply their own pasties etc., I can still arrange to provide pasties and chicken & ham pies from the existing source here in South Devon.

Unfortunately Madeleine won't be able to attend at all next April, but Michelle has kindly agreed to 'show the new team the ropes', in the event that we are able to find a new catering team under 'Option 1'.

In all other respects, I will continue to arrange and run the model railway exhibition part of the event.

So I now really have to hand this over to your collective wisdom, to have a think about things, and hopefully some will be able to suggest a new catering team, so that we can remain with 'Option 1'.

Please could any serious offers of how a new catering team can be formed (recommend at least 4 persons who are happy to work together) be sent to me by PM.

Many thanks.

The BRM/RMweb 'build a loco' challenge.

There will be three entry categories into which projects can fall.

• Scratchbuild/Kitbuild
• Modified RTR
• Static display

The challenge will run to the end of the year and the challenge is supported through the pages of BRM.

The RMweb Modular Challenge

To boost the RMweb Modular Project the challenge is to build a BritMod-OO module or several, an accessible form of community modelling and a way to produce something whatever your budget or space constraints which may preclude building anything larger.

As ever, the venue will be Staplegrove Village Hall, 214, Staplegrove Road, Taunton, TA2 6AL. The event will be open for RMWeb members and their guests only from 1000 hrs and will close at 1600 hrs.

List of Layouts

7mm scale

‘Kelly Bray, by Paul Cambridge  (aka ‘PD&SWJR). Paul will be bringing one of his boards from his home layout ‘Kelly Bray’, more details of which can be seen here - http://paulcambridge55.wix.com/kellybray7mm  This will be as a static exhibit, although Paul will also be bringing a selection of stock and buildings from the other baseboards for display. This Members Day will be the first public outing for ‘Kelly Bray’.

5.5mm Scale

‘Hobbiton End’ by ‘Bridgiesimon’ – every so often you come across something truly original, and this layout surely fits that bill! Simon has built a most convincing example of how Tolkien might have portrayed a railway in Middle Earth. In Simon’s own words - The story is that life in the Shire has settled down afer the Battle of the Ring (Lord of the Rings) but deep under the Blue Mountains something new was stirring, something that would change their lives for ever. The Dwarfs have harnessed the power of flame and water to develop Middle Earth’s first railway system. The scene modelled is the station and yard of Hobbiton End, the terminus of a short branch line off the main route through the Shire built to connect 2 large Dwarf communities.

The layout has been built to a scale of 5.5mm to the foot to match the 28mm scale wargaming figures widely available, this has opening a vast range of figures and accessories for the project, an iceberg of resources I feel I have only touched the tip of so far. Track is Peco 009 and is powered by a Gaugemaster transformer and controller, no these Dwarfs are not yet digital! The stock, all scratchbuilt, is all fitted with Greenwich etched couplings with under track magnets for delayed action uncoupling.

As you can see, there is still a lot to be done as this layout is still at a relatively early stage of its development with several plans for future detailing and stock development.

This looks like great fun and more information can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/35993-hobbiton-end/

4mm Scale

‘Wheal Elizabeth’ by Andrew Ullyot (aka ‘Ullypug’). I’ve been trying to persuade Andrew to bring this lovely example of his work to a Taunton Members Day for a number of years, but hitherto events have conspired to prevent this, but I’m really pleased to say that it’s now happening. This layout is deservedly popular at exhibitions and on RMWeb, so arguably needs no further description, but here is the thread on RMWeb - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3297-wheal-elizabeth/

‘Abercynon Fach’ – by ‘Brian T’. This is a superb and atmospheric evocation of the Welsh Valleys, which Brian describes as a ‘compressed version of Abercynon shed’. This layout is a classic illustration of how ‘small can be beautiful’. More details here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68515-abercynon-fach/

‘Tipham’ – by Steve Sims and the Plymouth & District MRC. ‘Tipham’ is set in the BR (E) area of East Anglia during the early 1960s. The Beeching Axe has been wielded and the branch line is in decline. Passenger services will be withdrawn very soon and goods services are also being run down. However, the remaining services produce a variety of small steam locos, shunting locos and a railbus.  More details can be found here - http://www.plymouthmrc.co.uk/tipham.htm

‘The Modular Layout’ – once again the small hall will be mainly occupied by the Marvellous Merchants of Modular Magnificence, led again by the indomitable determination of Mike ‘The Stationmaster’. This year again features more new modular developments, plus the return of some of the popular favourites. You can catch up on a bit of the history of the development of our Taunton Modular layout here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/122-swag-modules/

3.5mm scale/P87

'Coevordsekade' by Maurice Hopper. Maurice has kindly agreed to bring his new P87 layout and exhibit it as a ‘work in progress’ and like much of Maurice’s previous work, is designed to be transported in the most compact way possible, making arriving at a show by public transport a real possibility! Work on the baseboards can be found on Maurice’s blog here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1391/entry-15584-baseboards-complete/#commentsStart

A further blog entry describing how Maurice has made a start with tracklaying can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1391/entry-15767-coevordsekade-progress-with-my-dutch-p87-layout/

2mm scale

‘Tucking Mill’ – by Jerry Clifford. This gentleman and his exquisite 2mm finescale layouts hardly need any introduction, so deservedly popular are they on RMWeb and elsewhere. Jerry’s own description for ‘Tucking Mill’ is thus - The North Somerset Light Railway was opened under the auspices of the Light Railway Act in 1905 to serve the coal mines of the Cam Valley, its route for the most part following that of the Somerset Coal Canal. The eastern terminus, set in the beautiful Horsecombe Vale, served the tiny hamlet of Tucking Mill.

The former flock mill, adjacent to the rapidly silting up canal, now served the Fullers Earth works whose products were sent out all over the country. Timber, for use in the local collieries, was also despatched from the station.

The gated private siding led to a wharf where high quality oolithic limestone was loaded, being brought down by tramway from the quarries on Combe Down.  Bath stone for buildings was in great demand in London and elsewhere.

The model sets out to depict the station as it might have looked in the 1920s. Freight receipts are just about sufficient to keep the railway in profit, although the meagre passenger service is hanging on by its fingernails. The layout is built to the finescale standards of the 2mm Scale Association, with almost everything being either kit or scratchbuilt. If you have any questions about the layout or 2mm modelling in general, then please don’t hesitate to ask.

More information on ‘Tucking Mill’ can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/52042-tucking-mill/

‘William Smith’s Wharf’ by Jerry Clifford. Now here is a Very Special Offer – two layouts from the master of 2mm finescale for the price of one! Operated in conjunction with ‘Tucking Mill’, Jerry describes his latest creation as follows:

The ‘Wharf’ is the latest, and smallest, addition to the series of layouts based on the fictitious North Somerset Light Railway (NSLR) as it might have looked in the 1920s. The name derives from William Smith (1769-1839), one time surveyor to the Somerset Coal Canal (SCC) and father of English geology. In 1812 Smith opened an ill-fated quarry at Kingham on Combe Down along with a tramway leading to a wharf at Tucking Mill. In reality the venture failed contributing to Smith’s bankruptcy due to serious faults in the rock. Needless to say, in my version of history the venture was a great success such that when the NSLR arrived in 1905 it justified a siding and wharf to transport the valuable, high grade, Oolitic limestone all over the country.

The model, all two feet of it, can be used as an extension to my Tucking Mill layout or exhibited in its own right. As usual inspiration is taken from real locations, the wharf scene is a nod to the stone wharf at Biccslade in the Forest of Dean whilst the scene at the front represent the bridge and canal cottage at Monkton Combe on the SCC.

‘Boghouses’ by Rick Squirrell (aka ‘Gwiwer’) – words almost fail me at the dedication of some RMWeb folk, and this one probably ‘takes the biscuit’, as this must be the farthest-travelled project yet exhibited at any RMweb event. Although well-known for his substantial OO gauge home layout ‘Penhayle Bay’, I have to emphasise that not only does Rick live in Australia (yes, that’s Australia, the large continental land mass on the other side of the world), but that Rick is actually building this layout for our Taunton show, transporting it all the way to Blighty, and then bringing it safely back to Australia again afterwards! Rick describes the layout as follows:

Boghouses has seen better days.  It probably never had any glory days and might always have been more of a glory hole.  Having never been flushed with success as a facility in 2015 it struggles along papering over the cracks of lost opportunity. 

It lies somewhere in the East Midlands where worked-out coal mines lay as dormant as those who once spent hours below working them.  Repurposing hasn’t yet reached Boghouses whose sparse and scattered population are mostly unemployed.  Even the local pub closed down years ago.

The only traffic at Boghouses nowadays is the occasional train of scrap or spoil - the Boghouses Waste dump.  And the solitary DMU which plies up and down the line that was reopened to passengers in the 1980s after a vigorous campaign but which has also failed to live up to promises.  There are more trains than passengers some days ………

Boghouses, presented in N-gauge, has been built from nothing in just a few days.  The underlying structure is a pair of cork notice boards retaining their plastic borders for rigidity and sourced from the local office needs superstore.  Constructed in Australia it has been designed and brought over specifically for SWAG Staplegrove 2015 and will return to Australia afterwards.  It is therefore making its one and only UK appearance.

‘Milton Street’ by Richard Chapman. This is a small yard set in the 1970s/1980s featuring diesel shunting action. Unfortunately I don't have much more information on Richard's layout at the moment, but Richard is a skilled modeller in more than one scale, so this should be another good one.

Displays and demonstrators

Modelling trees and other scenic features by John Farmer. John will be bringing a selection of his amazing 4mm scale trees and will also be demonstrating how to apply static grass using the latest Noch ‘Grassmaster’

Modern Image 3-D printed components – by Simon Paley. Although Simon's signalling interlocking demo will not now be available by the time of the Taunton Members Day, he will nonetheless be happy to answer questions on the subject of modern colour light signalling as being used & installed on Network Rail. Also on Simon’s stand will be a display of his Modern Image 3D Printed Detailing Parts, along with the scenic board of ‘Newgate Lane’, his new ‘OO’ Modern Image layout, which will be displayed as a DCC diorama with full sound, built to display the 3-D detailing parts in a scenic area and to demonstrate ‘Modelling the Modern Railway’.

David Brandreth will be returning with his display and publicity material for the popular Missenden Modellers breaks - http://www.missenden...dellers.org.uk/

British Railway Modelling – our friends at Warners will be attending the event with a stand and all the latest news - https://www.model-ra...co.uk/Magazine/

Kernow Model Railway Centre- Chris Trerise of KMRC will again be attending with a display of current and future special/limited edition models - http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/

Retail therapy

Dave Harding of The Model Shop, Exeter, will be back with us again this year, with his usual range of R-T-R items and other bits and pieces. Why not try giving him a call in advance of the event, he’s happy to bring items up for ‘special orders’ –check out his website here - http://www.trainsandtrack.co.uk/

Simon Castens (aka ‘Not Jeremy’) of The Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop and now Wild Swan Publications will again be attending with a selection of Wild Swan books, together with a selection of the latest railway titles from other publishers. His website can be found here -http://www.titfield.co.uk/

Rumney Models - Justin Newitt will be at Taunton with a selection of his excellent etched wagon chassis kits for sale, and will also be demonstrating their construction

Catering

The Ladies of the RMWeb catering team will again be working hard in the kitchens to keep us all fed and watered. We are anticipating the usual selection of delicious pasties, home made cakes and other refreshments, including some of the cake recipes that featured in our 2015 cake poll! The new lunch option of a delicious chicken & ham pie will also be available, for those who may wish to try something other than a pasty (or as well as a pasty, we know who some of you GBs are out there!…)

Any profits arising from the catering operation and any other aspect of the Members Day will again be donated to The Railway Children charity.

Saturday 25^th April

This year the majority of the Saturday is free for those who wish to come down to Somerset early, to spend time as they wish. Heritage railways such as the West Somerset Railway and the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway are close by, for example.

I can also confirm that Taunton MRG have once again agreed to open their clubroom at Bishops Lydeard station specially for us from 1700 to 1900 hrs on the Saturday, with the usual warm and friendly welcome. ‘Bath Green Park’ will again be operational this year.

After visiting Taunton MRG we will continue to The Lethbridge Arms, Bishops Lydeard, where I have made a party booking. The details of the pub evening can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98050-taunton-2015-the-saturday-evening-meal-on-25th-april/ . More information on the pub can be found here - https://plus.google.com/101222832684721166739/about?gl=uk&hl=en

Important note for those looking for overnight accommodation:

Please note that The Lethbridge Arms has a number of B&B rooms, so if you are intending on coming to the meal on the Saturday evening and haven't yet booked any accommodation, why not give them a try?

Edit 1 - Sunday 01/3/15 - to correct venue for Saturday evening meal to show The Lethbridge Arms

Edit 2 - Tuesday 10/3/15 - to include more information on 'Coevordsekade' by Maurice Hopper

Edit 3 - Sunday 22/3/15 - amending Simon Paley's demo details

Edit 4 - Monday 13/4/15 - amending to remove Bracty Bridge, as unfortunately Marc Smith cannot now attend with the layout

Edit 5 - Thursday 23/4/15 - amending to remove Silhouette cutting demo, as unfortunately Rod Cameron (10800) cannot now attend the event

Thanks to all of the layout owners below who have offered their layouts to make it very much an RMweb centered event!

Earls Court

OO – Terry Tew

 

Image courtesy of Chris Nevard / Model Rail

 

If you think you haven’t got space to model a London terminus think again! Terry has captured the confined atmosphere of a secondary terminus with a combined Western region and London Midland feel in little more than four feet with some excellent buildings featuring loads of small detail. Within the layouts there’s small variations in level between the dairy headshunt and the platform roads which includes live rail stock from the LMR.

 

 

Fourgig East

O – Ian Mellors

 

 

Ian Mellors will be known to many RMweb readers for his ‘Summat Colliery’ layout and previous RMweb events. Fourgig East is a contemporary heritage railway in ex-GWR country showing how O gauge can be achievable on a budget. The trackwork is hand-built from Marcway components; the hand-built signals are driven by MERG servo motor kits. The layout features a camping coach derived from an old Lima Mark 1 with a fully detailed interior. The locos and rolling stock have been cheaply sourced secondhand items with additional detailing proving that modelling can be fun rather than just buying boxes. Keep an eye out for ‘Ivor the Engine’!

 

 

Kinlet Wharf

N – Wyre Forest Model Railway 

 

 

Kinlet Wharf depicts a representative section of the West Coast Mainline in a contemporary guise. The overhead wiring and catenary is finely modelled and the canal sections in the foreground contribute to the plausible setting of this crowd-pleaser where there’s always something worth watching.

 

 

Lochnagar

OO – Mark Miller

 

 

Lochnagar is a fictional fishing port branch-line terminus in North East Scotland. The Layout is based in the late 1970s and early 1980s ‘Blue’ era and features a mixture of passenger and freight operations that would have been typical of that location and time.

 

Locos that can be seen operating on Lochnagar range from the station pilot class 08 Shunter through to locos typical of Scotland such as class 24s, 25s and 26s.

 

 

Loughborough Road

OO – Alan Paley

 

 

Loughborough Road is a 1900 – 1930 ‘could have been’ Midland Railway terminus in the Nottingham suburb of West Bridgford with LNWR running powers giving rise to the appearance of MR, LNWR and LMS stock on the model.

The 00 layout is a fiddle yard to terminus scheme built on a slight curve – there are lots of comments that there are no straight lines but the curved track disguises three straight baseboards joined at angles. The time period is 1900 to 1930 allowing the use of Midland, LNWR and LMS passenger and goods stock. Layout operation requires thought and planning – and the use of a station pilot – to shunt goods vehicles into and out of the limited goods yard. Stock and buildings are mainly kit bashed and are currently DC operated. 

 

 

Much Murkle

 

OO – Nick Wood

 

 

GWR BLTs may have had a reputation as an overdone cliché but they are still an inspiration for many fine layouts and Much Murkle is a great example of an operationally interesting layout built to a fine standard with accessible products.

Much Murkle may sound similar to Much Marcle, the home of Westons Cider, and is indeed based near Ledbury with a cider factory which was a ‘must have’ on Nick’s layout. Look out for the variety of goods wagons prototypically sheeted.

 

 

Orchard Road

OO – Richard Slate

 

 

Orchard Road TMD is a small shed based in Devon on former Southern Region lines depicting the years 1975-1983 when a decent variety of diesels could be found in the liveries they were meant to carry! A small maintenance shed and fuelling point are the focal point of the layout which was built to house an increasing collection of locos and a foray into the world of DCC.

 

 

Ravensclyffe

OO – Andi Dell

 

 

This massive project based on the London Midland region around The Potteries is still work in progress but allows viewers to see the construction of a major layout with its split levels, reception sidings, disused station, electrified lines and a MGR loading facility at the mine. Look out for the operating barrier crossing!

 

 

Ropley

N – Tom Everitt

 

 

Modelling a preserved railway rarely seems to be done well but this project replicating the yard and station at Ropley on the Mid-Hants Railway includes some very fine modelling and appropriate use of stock to make an engaging model which is making its first appearance at RMweb Live.

 

 

Torrington

OO – Darren Rees

 

 

Remarkably this was Darren’s first exhibition layout project and superbly captures Torrington station in its latter years which remarkable attention to detail whilst capturing the feel of the North Devon prototype. Darren’s weathering of locos and stock will be of interest to visitors. September 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the last running of the Atlantic Coast Express which was named by a Southern Railway guard who ended his days at Torrington.

 

 

Vale of Oxbury

N – Carl Wood

 

 

Set in the Western Region, early 1960s, a freelance design inspired by the track layout at South Brent, Devon but located in Carl’s mind in the Wilts, Oxon / Berks area. There’s plenty of Swindon Work’s finest products from Kings to Westerns. Southern visitors are welcome from nearby as Carl has a soft spot for their locos as well.

 

The layout is 12‘ by 4’ built on three boards from birch ply, supplied by Brilliant Baseboards, it is exhibited at an height of 4‘6”  with code 55 Peco Track, DCC control throughout. Double track Main line, Branch line, small yard with Goods & Engine Shed with Turntable. Rail served Dairy. 8 track Fiddle Yard to store 16 trains.

Last year Vale of Oxbury won the best layout title at the International N Gauge Show. Look out for some superbly weathered locos!

 

 

Victoria Bridge

N – Will Jarman

 

 

This scenic model uses modern modelling techniques with a 3D printed model, designed by Will, of Victoria Bridge familiar to Severn Valley Railway passengers and walkers along the river south of Arley. This ‘minimum space’ model shows that a lot of creativity and satisfaction can be devoted to a couple of square feet!

 

 

Widnes Vine Yard

OO – Wirral Finescale Modellers

 

 

Widnes Vine Yard demonstrates that the contemporary railway isn’t as boring as we may initially dismiss it with a wide variety of freight and passenger workings in this North-West ‘could have been’. As expected from this group of modellers the signalling and operation is of great interest. You’ll find one of the crew manning the computer at the end of the layout which allocates which train is to be brought through with the operators driving according to the signals and route set.

 

 

Yard Shunter 

OO - Ray Norwood

 

 

Ray’s 8’ x 2’ goods yard demonstrates the massive potential for a small home layout which can keep the interest going for many years with a track-plan that allows for the maximum operability within a relatively confined space. There’s hours of work taken with weathering the rolling stock and the scenic in addition to the C+L points and trackwork. The layout is DCC controlled for maximum flexibility in managing incoming and outgoing shunting.

 

 

03:24 08-08-1963 (The Great Train Robbery)

O – Luton MRC

 

 

A director of the National Railway Museum once commented that good modelling has a part to play in recording history in a way that cannot be done in the real world and so it is here with Luton MRC’s O gauge group depicting the events of the early morning just over 50 years ago when the high value packet carriage of the Glasgow to Euston onvernight mail train was robbed of £2.6m. The diorama tells the story of the night’s events in an educational form and does not glamourise the characters or events. The light and sound presentation takes place in a blackout gazebo to recreate the night-time scene and has already raised several hundred pounds for the Railway Benefit Fund which works to support ill or injured ex and serving railwaymen in recognition of the injuries received by the driver from the activities of the criminals.

 

There's still more layouts to come once Ts and Is are crossed and dotted!

I'm planning a detailed survey to build up the best picture of what the hobby actually looks like. We regularly hear prophesies of doom but there's evidence the other way too so I'd like us to be able to find out more information such as:

Where are the modellers?

What are the demographics?

What scales/gauges do they model?

What are their interests e.g. modelling or operations

What do they do within the hobby? e.g. Box-openers to scratchbuilders

What do they do for themselves?

What do they think of the changes the hobby is going through?

Are they going to spend more or less?

Are they going to model more or less?

What do they want from manufacturers? (not a wishlist!)

What do they want from retailers?

What do they want from publishers?

What do they want from clubs or societies?

What do they want from exhibitions/events?

What are their other interests?

The results should be interesting and hopefully useful but I'd like to include some thoughts from yourselves. I'd like to get this set up around the end of the month.

None of the responses will seek any personal data and is not used for any other marketing purposes other than analysis of overall data/patterns.

It's back! I have again agreed with our centre manager and Andy Y that we could have another day to meet at Didcot to have another one of my traditional 'access all areas' tours of our site. I have entertained people of all ages on these tours so it is open to my fellow RMWEB members of all ages!

The date decided upon was Sunday 26th July 2014. Locomotives could include, Railcar No. 22, Railmotor No. 93, pannier No. 3650 or large Prairie No. 4144, which should be fresh from overhaul and nicely run in by then (the replacement front end steam pipes are being picked up next week and the paint is going on as weather temperatures permit...). I will update the loco roster as we know what is happening on site!

Progress on our project locomotives including Saint No. 2999 Lady of Legend, County No. 1014 County of Glamorgan, Churchward Saddle Tank No. 1363 and of course, my personal favourite, Castle No. 4079 Pendennis Castle will be there to inspect as will the impressive output of the Carriage and wagon department. Amongst others, the rebuild of 1902 4-wheeler Dean 1st / 2nd composite coach to Dia. U is looking amazing in skeletal form and the the long awaited refit of the interior of 1932 Collett Super Saloon No. 9113 Prince of Wales to Dia. G61 is also underway.

There are many upgrades to the infrastructure of the railway centre at the moment too and progress on building the new 'Controlling the Trains' exhibit building, in conjunction with the Swindon Panel Society is underway as are a number of upgrades to the Railmotor shed. The Ex Wantage Road bus garage is largely complete now and awaits fitting out.

As before, I will do a proper modellers tour where I will take you behind the scenes and enable you to look in all the workshops and stored collections of vehicles. If there is anything that you specifically want to see, measure, look at, go inside of or crawl over then let me know and we will see what we can do. The only obvious restrictions would be on any stock or items on the running lines of course - squashed patrons don't go down well with management... However, if you don't mind waiting until after the trains are put back in the box for that vital item that needs measuring I am sure that something can be arranged. It's been done before!

As per last time, the signalling box key will find its way into my pocket so there will be an opportunity to go and have a look at the box and the incredible level of authentic restoration achieved with this building. I will also steal a carriage key from somewhere so we can inspect the interior of some of the vehicles not normally accessible to visitors.

The plan would be to get yourselves to Didcot and take any rides in the morning and I will take an early lunch and start the tour at 12:30hrs, meeting you at the entrance kiosk at the top end of the site. I would like to put a cap on the group size of 50 as any more than that and it gets a bit confined in the various works. I will rope in my fellow GWS tour guides again too!

So then, who wants another look in the best GWR toy box in the world?

All the best,

Castle

Here are the details for the Saturday evening meal, prior to the actual Members Day on the Sunday.

This year we will be returning to The Lethbridge Arms at Bishops Lydeard after visiting the Taunton Model Railway Group and their Bath Green Park layout at Bishops Lydeard station.

The visit to the model railway clubroom will be from 1700 to 1900 hrs, after which the intention is to retire immediately to The Lethbridge, which is a mere 5 minutes walk from the station.

I have booked the whole dining room for our party, which can accommodate anything between 20 - 30 people with ease. There will be a private birthday party in another part of the pub, but that event and ours will be 'partitioned off' and we should have the dining room, plus a portion of the adjacent bar area, completely to ourselves.

To make things easier on the organisation front, this year I have done things a little differently, as the pub have offered a set menu of two or three courses, for a fixed price. This is how the DRAG group do things for our annual post-Christmas dinner, and it seems to work pretty well.

I will show the details of the set menu below, but the way this has to work is as follows:

1) Choose which courses you would like

2) Ring or e-mail the pub with your choices (e-mail is preferable - familyschofield@hotmail.com), giving your name and telling them that you are part of the Maddocks party

3) Please ensure that you e-mail your food order to the pub no later than Monday 20th April

4) The pub has asked that we all pay for our food on the night, rather than in advance, so we will all be individually responsible for settling our own bills when we are there

5) Send ME a PM just to say that you are coming to the pub evening. I don't need to know what you are eating (or whether you are eating there, for that matter!) - I simply need to know overall numbers (any members on here who also belong to DRAG will notice the slight difference in these arrangements)

The details of the set menu are as follows:

• Country vegetable soup
• Venison pate with Melba toast and red onion marmalade
• Filo tiger prawns with a sweet chill sauce
• Garlic and cheese mushroom bake with warm crusty bread

• Pan fried sea bass with potato dauphinous and lemon cream caper sauce
• 8 oz sirloin steaks with grilled mushroom and tomato, rocket and Parmesan salad and rustic chips
• Goats cheese nutroast with Parmesan and rocket salad and balsamic glaze
• Chicken bolantines  stuffed with sausage meat wrapped in parma ham, served with crushed new potatoes and red wine jus

• Baileys cheesecake
• Hot cinnamon waffle crunch with vanilla ice-cream and toffee sauce.
• Cheese board
• Apple and rhubarb crumble with hot custard

I hope that these menu choices will be OK for most, if not all of us partaking of the Saturday evening pub gathering. If you would really prefer to order something individually from their normal menu, please contact the pub separately to get details of their standard menu, place your order and just let me know that you are still attending the event.

Information on The Lethbridge Arms can be found here - https://plus.google.com/101222832684721166739/about?gl=uk&hl=en

You can contact the pub on 01823 433467 but they would prefer orders to be e-mailed through on this address - familyschofield@hotmail.com

Many thanks.

The fiendish puzzle is this, a crossword populated by numbers rather than words; there's a clue for each answer which should be the number of a loco which is an answer to the clue. Some are dead easy and some a little more challenging.

The puzzle and clues can be downloaded here Crossword Puzzle.pdf as it's quite likely people will want to print it off and scribble all over it.

The winner will be the person who completes the most of the puzzle correctly, if there is more than one correct completion a draw will be made from those correct entries.

You can find whichever form you like to record your answers and send them back to me by email to info@rmweb.co.uk or via PM by the end of Saturday 21st March.