SRfanJV

It's has been a while since I last updated you regarding our 60th anniversary show. I can now confirm that our show will take place at our usual venue of the Michael Herbert Hall, Wilton, South Street. SP2 0JS. We are also sorry to announce that Dewerstone has had to withdraw from exhibiting at our show this year due to unforseen circumstances. We will announce a replacement as soon as we can.

Since we put both Bodmin General and Wadebridge up over Christmas, it has been very busy. A huge amount of progress has happened on Wadebridge and we are really are moving forward on all counts. First, some rectification work. We were very aware prior to putting Wadebridge up fully that the reverse curve on the East fiddle yard was going to cause problems. Simply, it was too tight at one end. As per the previous post, Keith has worked on this and now we have a fully working curve that the manor and moguls run through consistently. A video of this is shown below: Next. Historically, we have used wooden 9mm dowels to align our baseboards. However, over the years, I have got so fed up of the them splitting or breaking that I had enough. A good friend of mine had stock of some metal threaded dowel which we normally use to screw in the lighting posts, but they are suitable for dowels as well. I have now fitted these to the layout and the board heights and alignment is so much better. Now that the board alignment has been sorted, it has allowed me to focus on getting the backscenes fitted properly. Again, I have used the thread dowels to support these. However, they have been used properly this time and driven into the wood. Once fitted, the backscenes were simply screwed in using threaded cheese head bolts. There is still one more board to fit the backscene onto, plus some fettling, but it makes a big difference to the over all look of the layout. Above: Please ignore, the state of the cabling, this will be sorted in due course. At the other end of the layout and after a break of about 4 years, I have returned to looking at the scenery on the town board (board 6) The level crossing gates have been taken back to bare metal to allow further detailing upgrades to be made, such as brackets, lamps and the support rods. Whilst doing this, I have also made up new bits of fencing that surround the gates as per the countless number of photos I have of that area. I am now in the process of installing drain covers, which in reality were the covers of the level crossing gate control gear. I have also started to cut out the wooden step boards on the Padstow side of the gates. Finally, loco detailing. It's important on a project such as this to keep things moving on all fronts. Therefore, I have started the process of detailing a second T9, but this time I have started on the tender by lining it out. I had not attempted 2mm scale lining before, so I am very very pleased with how it has come out. However, the loco is going to be a different animal to line. The first photo shows the lining before adding the black pin stripe. This helps to make the lining look thinner and more prototypical. Then next photo shows how it ended up once finished. You can see that the lines are now much thinner. I'll leave you with a shot of things to come perhaps....

Oh yes. I love that Jerry. It doesn't always have be serious! 😀 Thanks, Josh.

Happy New Year to all followers of Bournemouth West. You'll hopefully be pleased to know that in-between Christmas & New Year we had Bournemouth West set-up again to allow for further testing, familiarisation and scenic enhancements to take place. The first modification has seen Jeff rebuild the station wall at the end of the layout. This was originally held on by screws which weren't very aesthetically pleasing. The picture below doesn't show it in the best light. However, you'll have to trust me that it looks much better and is now fixed without the use of screws. Jeff has also put new capping bricks on as well as a new piece of fence on the left hand end. The other major piece of work has been the creation of a new backscene. The old one was badly damaged with dog ended corners etc. Ken has done a marvelous job of making new ones out of MDF. Below shows two of the new pieces being fitted. Now that the trial fitting is complete. These are going to be handed over to one of Kevin's neighbours who conveniently is an artist. Once complete, they should give a new fresher feel to the layout. All other work has focused on the stock. The previous owners were re-knowned for their attention to detail in terms of correct running numbers of loco's and rolling stock. As such we are endeavouring to follow suit. Recently I have renumbered Jeff's Ivatt to 41312 which was a regular Ivatt 2 from 1964. For this, I used Fox Transfers waterside transfers. This loco is going to act as one of the station pilots meaning that it needed automatic uncoupling capabilities. Therefore, I ordered some Preci coupling motors and with kind assistance from Roger Sunderland got these fitted. As we use D&H sound chips in some locos we needed to work put how to get the automatic function working. We enlisted the help of a specialist from Germany who specialises in D&H and ESU sound decoders. The result was well worth it and we ended up couplings working as shown in the video below. Just a few more to do now. More locos have been detailed and weathered for use. We are nearly there on rolling stock Only one more rake is now required to fulfill the sequence of movements. In the winter months a lot of weathering to the rolling stock will take place. This, and detailing to locomotives including crews, route discs and fire irons etc. Finally, Craig Tiley from the Railway Modeller visited us to photograph the layout for an upcoming feature piece about Bournemouth West in the Railway Modeller Magazine. It was great to have him with us for the day. We also had a little fun after familiarisation with the real sequence and appropriate stock by holding a 'what if' running session. Essentially if Bournemouth West remained open, what stock may have run down there. It was fun while it lasted, but rest assured normal service will now resume.

What a few days it has been! Bodmin General and Wadebridge have been set up in their entirety for the first time in 10 years and we did have trains running on both layouts. It was a mammoth 4 days that saw us take over a hall in Salisbury to set up both layouts and the very well known Bournemouth West. Below is what both layouts looked like set up together. Bodmin General was looking its usual self and it was nice to get this running again after 13 months in storage. A few detailing repairs were completed and plans made to finish off the station building and forecourt area. The main body of work took place on Wadebridge. Keith took time in sorting out the reverse curve that joins up Bodmin to Wadebridge in the fiddle yard area. The curve on Wadebridge's fiddle yard was too tight for the moguls to navigate, so he removed it and has put a new piece of track in. This seems to have remedied the issue . Here is a view of both fiddle yards together. We left the roof off of Bodmin's fiddle yard. You may note the line running down the back of Wadebridge. This joins up to Bodmin Road which is currently stored awaiting more scenic attention. Whilst I was browsing photos of Wadebridge on Ebay , I stumbled across the shed plate below. I thought that would make a nice additional piece for the layout. It will eventually be placed on the lighting gantry directory above the Engine Shed. We also had a visit from Craig Tiley the editor for the Railway Magazine as he was in attendance taking shots for a future article on Bournemouth West. We have discussed the possibility of having Bodmin General and eventually Wadebridge getting an article in the magazine which would be fantastic. Now that Wadebridge is back at the clubroom, we will now focus on getting the backscenes fitted properly and I am very much looking forward to progressing the project in 2024. Buts that is all for now, I wish everyone a very happy New Year. I'll leave you with a couple of other photos.

Hi Ade, Thankyou for your kind words. We would have loved to open up to the public, but this was very much a working session. There were power tools and wood working machines etc in use making it completely unsuitable for the public on this occasion. Rest assured there will be opportunities to view all of the layouts publicly in the future.

Another month has gone by, but there has been a decent amount of progress on Wadebridge. Plus Bodmin General has also been set-up again. More on that later. On Wadebridge, Keith is now down to the final few point motors in terms of connecting them to their respective turnouts. He now has 4 left out of 34. I don't think he'll be wishing to do anymore for quite a while! Neil has made the new bridge base which takes the track over Polmarla Brook using 3.6mm birch ply. This will be permanently fitted once I have sealed the river bed and put in the base layer. Gordon then swooped in and cut a new piece of Cork for the bridge and the surrounding area. Neil then returned to working on the removable point motor cover on board 5. This has not been progressed in many months after some damage occurred, so it's good to finally get this moving again. Once everyone had left the club last night, I disassembled the whole layout and boxed it up. It's probably the first time that it has been boxed up in over 6 years. Why has this been done you may ask? Well, in-between Christmas and New Year, Bodmin General and Wadebridge are going to be set up in a hired venue in Salisbury along with the very well known 4mm model of Bournemouth West (which is also part of our club) to allow testing an further progress to be made. It will be the first time in 7 years that the entirety of Wadebridge will be set-up and painfully nearly 10 years since it was last joined up to Bodmin General. However, we are excited to get things moving along. Watch out for many more updates next week following the progress we make. In the meantime, I wish all of our readers, followers and members and fabulous Christmas.

Whilst Keith has been busy adjusting all of the point motor throes on board 3. I have finally finished wiring up the 13 motors on board 4. In doing so, all 28 motors are now operational which is a big milestone. Some still need the rod and spring system to throw the points, but we are getting there. Down on board 6. I have finally repaired the level crossing gate mechanism. These gates have been scratch-built in brass. The control board for the servo's is a MERG kit that has been put together. This powers 4 Tower Pro SG90 servos. Once painted up again and detailed, these should be a real focal point in the town part of the layout.

The last couple of months has seen varied amounts of progress due to work commitments and holidays. However, we have now managed to get all of the point motors on board 3 working again and testing has taken place. There is one issue to rectify which is a microswitch in one of the MB1 point motors not switching. We have had this issue before so we'll look into that. To enable the changeover to MB1 motors away from solenoid motors on the scenic part of the layout. It has been necessary to change all of the point switches on the control panels from non bias sprung switches to normal DPDT switches. This has taken time and more expense than you first think. Wiring has taken a while and the process of tidying it all up is now underway. Another large job to sort was that the LEDs used to change via a microswitch on the old point motors. However, this is now redundant so all of the wiring was removed and the changing of the LEDs occurs directly via the new switches. It's like Blackpool Illuminations in low light! Finally, board 4 which has 13 points on has now had all of the new MB1s installed. The task of wiring the. Up and attaching the rodding to the points has now begun. We are currently complete on 5 out of 13 motors.

The Salisbury & South Wilts Railway Society is pleased to announce the initial details of our planned 2024 Exhibition. 2024 sees the club celebrate its 60th Anniversary and we hope to provide you all with another great show. Our 2024 show will take place on our usual weekend of Saturday 18th May & Sunday 19th May. We are currently in discussions regarding the venue, and I will update you all as soon as possible once those discussions have concluded. The opening times will be 10.30 - 16.30 on both days. Please see below for the current booked exhibits: 1. St Ruth - 2mm Finescale 2. Penworth - N gauge (Finescale) 3. Dewerstone - EM gauge 4. Lochty - EM gauge 5. A Really Useful Railway - 00 gauge 6. Gorsaf Llanbobble - 5mm gauge 7. Worton CT EST Railway - Finescale O gauge/narrow gauge 8. Over the Top - 1/35th scale 9. Penbooney - N gauge 10. Norge - HO 11. Threwn - 009 Traders: 1. Wheels of Southsea 2. Portsmouth Model Centre Other Exhibits: 1. S&SWRS club sales stand 2. Audio-visual Display (TBC) Please note that these are subject to change as we are still a long way off from our 2024 show. Sadly we were due to Host Brighton East, but this layout has had to be withdrawn due to unforeseen circumstances. Further exhibits will be announced in due course. For the Latest News on our 2024 show, please visit our website at: http://sandswrs.co.uk/exhibitions/salisbury-south-wilts-railway-society-exhibition-2024/

Ashlands is finally starting to look like a layout again instead of a dumping ground due to the recent work that has taken place. I have placed a lot of the detailing and structures back on the layout after giving it a good clean and a hoover. Hopefully, more progress can be made on the scenery as the winter approaches. Although not strictly NCR, I gave my Britannia and Std 5 a run which have just been fitted with loco specific sound files. These are from the excellent Locoman Sounds Range. Both locos are installed with a double sugar cube speaker and a Thunderchuff speaker wired in series.

One small update is that I have upgraded the the down platform waiting shelter. When first built, the layout had what I think are Hornby resin Settle & Carlisle Station buildings and waiting shelter that have been painted into SR green. Recently Kernow/Bachmann have released a prototypical NCR waiting shelter. I was going to scratch build one, but this model is so nice that there just isn't any point in doing so. One of the large jobs coming up is to build a prototypical NCR Station building to match it. Mind you, what is the bet that as soon as I have built it, Kernow/Bachmann will release a model of an NCR Station building. Its the only one of the typical NCR buildings that they have yet to produce.....

Not quite, for the purpose of getting all of my stock out to check what rakes I could create, I put 8 rakes facing one way at one end and 8 the other. In reality, when it goes to exhibition, I will only have 14 rakes at the back so that either a half or full road is free to ensure that there is always space to run trains in. At least one of the freight sets will be out on the front of the layout in various sidings to allow shunting to occur. The fiddle yard roads will be set up so that 4 roads are set up for down direction running and 4 in the up direction. The fiddle yard operator will ensure that the trains are moved up each road to allow space for next train to enter as well. Thanks, Josh.

Hi Ray, Yes I have done a decent amount of testing now. A couple of the locos jumped slightly, I have have adjusted the back to backs on them and all seems to be well now. I have two roads out of the 8 that I can't fully test until the control panel is installed because they are only part/ temporarily wired, but all of the signs show that they shouldn't be a problem. Thanks, Josh.

Many Thanks for you kind comments. I am also following your outstanding work on London Bridge. A truly wonderful project in N gauge!

Great progress has been made and I can now officially say that Ashlands is a 'Roundy Roundy'! There is still work to do in order to finish of the wiring and I currently I don't have the point motors working whilst we work out a solution with James from DCC Automation to allow route setting to used. However, all of the track is now allow and I can easily change the points my hand until a solution is found. The since the last update, the been wired up, albeit temporarily on some boards to allow a running day to take place. All of the point motors and Gaugemaster autofrogs have been fitted as well as the Yamorc boards to control the point motors. I got out all of my stock that is appropriate for the layout in the period between 1956 and 1964. It's scary that my collecting over the past few years only just provides enough rakes to fill up the 16 spaces on the fiddle yard. The next jobs will be to tidy everything up, add the fiddle yard side boards on the inside of the layout and install the control panel once we have a route setting solution. So, plenty to be getting on with. Away from the layout, I have renumbered one of my Original Bulleid Pacifics. I bought 2 examples of 34078 222 Squadron, one to stay as is because that loco was a regular on the NCR and the other to renumber to 34072 257 Squadron which was another well photographed on the route. It is also a favourite of mine for various reasons, but mainly because I had my first driving turn on her at Swanage after passing out in 2022 before she sadly left the railway. To do this, I used my usual method of using a fiber castell pencil to gently rub off the old numbers. I then applied the new fox transfers numbers with some water and Johnsons floor polish. The crests and name plates are also etched examples for Fox and these were applied with Deluxe Materials Roket card glue which does not damage the paint like super glue does. It also gives more time to get them into the right place. The finished product which I am very happy with! I had better sound fit it now. Finally, I have been working on a good friend of mines DJH SR U class model. It has been sound fitted with the excellent Locoman Sounds SR Q class soundfile on a DJH chip. To fit the chip, speaker and stay alive, I needed to cut out the coal and brass on the top of the tender. Now that the sound installation is complete, I have started the process of 'boxing' it back up. A new removable brass sheet has been made and painted. I will shortly be adding the coal, fire irons, buckets and a shovel for the tender. Other detailing work in progress is the fitting of lamp irons, discs, wheel rim painting, draw hooks and the fitting of couplings, which it currently does not have. The last addition will be the fitting of a Modelu crew.

Progress on Wadebridge has been quite slow in recent weeks due to various commitments, but Keith has been doing a sterling job changing the rest of the point motors over from Peco solenoids to slow action MTB 1 motors. This has necessitated a number of cuts to be made in the baseboard tops to slide the MTBs into and these have been secured using pieces of right angle metal bracket. A couple of motors have been mounted so that they can be removed from underneath the layout due to the mounting for the backscene being in the way. This has a plug in it do that we can un-plug and remove them easily. I have taken the time to continue with the backscenes so that by the end of the year we will have everything working the scenic section clearly identified and the track fettled so that 2024 will solely focus on the scenery. The curves have been made using my usual method of scoring lines in at 1 inch intervals and then pour hot water on to help create the curve. Finally, my other half is responsible for this one. I was coerced in to purchasing these three 'for the kids' so that when we take the layouts out to exhibition Thomas the Tank can make a sneaky appearance for the younger viewers. I suppose we can't be serious all of the time now can we. At least my bulleid pacific is going off to be weathered shortly.

Bournemouth West has been set up for the first time since it was taken over by Kevin and the Salisbury & South West Railway Society. As our current premises don't allow us to set up the layout, Salisbury Methodist Hall was hired by Kevin for 3 days to allow us to get to grips with the layout, test it and make some repairs/improvements. The first set of work has been to change the packaging system for the 9 scenic boards. The trolleys that the boards live in have been strengthened and the two large station end boards have had a brand new trolley made so that they are much easier to transport. Once the layout was set-up and tested, all was working well which was pleasing. We then started testing all of the stock that was either purchased from the previous owning group or purchased new. Most worked without fault, but it was very noticeable on some rakes that the back to backs needed adjusting to get them running through the hand-built points correctly. Doing this has improved the running quality massively. There are now only 2-3 rakes that now need to be obtained to correctly use the same operating sequence that came with the layout. The stock will now be weathered and detailed where required to ensure that they all reach the required standard of detail. On Day 2, Kevin set to on upgrading the static grass on the layout which over time has become very dusty and discoloured. This has really brought the layout back to life with more vibrancy once again. You can see the difference halfway down the left handside cutting side. I replaced a switch in the control panel that had become stuck. This, we believe was the route cause of the failures in the previous two shows where the points failed. Post replacement everything has worked without fail which is a huge positive. Now we have proved that this is the problem, I'll change the button to black. I also soldered the safety railings of the carriage wash back together. Over the years they had become damaged. Finally, I resoldered 3 point blades that had become detached from their tiebars and also adjusted the throw of the tortoise point motors to reduce the stress on the tiebar. Other work included, Peter making a box that goes behind the scenic break bridge to reduce the light coming in from off scene. Jeff has removed the station car park wall to make a new system for securing it as the screws were quite unsightly. On the final day, a number of the group ran the layout through a couple of sequences to get used to running the layout. Measurements have been taken so that a new backscene can be made up. The old ones are tired with damaged corners on many of the backscene boards. Now that the layout is packed away and back in storage. Our thoughts are now turning back to the stock to fill the gaps that we have. Overall, a very successful few days and some great progress made.

Lots has happened since the last update a few months ago. Ashlands is now a tail chaser (roundy roundy) layout! The main reason for this is that the layout uses DCC sound operated locos and there wasn't enough space to realistically have trains get up to speed before coming on to the viewing scene. This ruined the effect for me. So, over the past 2 months I have been busy building 8 new baseboards. The 4 boards on the fiddle yard side of the layout are 18 inches wide, the two at the ends are 13 inches wide and the two on the viewing side and 24 inches wide. The fiddle yard has been designed to have 8 roads which are a minimum of 10feet long each road. This allows for 16 scale length North Cornwall Railway trains Each board is made out of 5.6mm ply that is 73mm in height. They are made in a geo-deck style subframe design. Once complete, the fiddle frames were joined together and aligned using metal dowels. The tops were then glued on using 6.5mm birch ply and any adjustments necessary made. Cork laying and track could then be added to make the right alignment. As the layout is going out on the exhibition circuit, I needed a system that allows me to move the boards around regularly and still have consistent track heights. Using a design that a good friend of mine and I designed for use on our 2mm layouts where track height at joints is even more important I set to work on the next phase. Using 22mm copper clad strips laid right across the baseboard ends, I placed 9mm springs underneath the clad between where the rails sit and then a screw is put in further into the wood which allows the clad to spring up and down in relation to turning the screws. Track was then fully laid to give the current view. More to follow shortly

You certainly have Peter, next update is incoming. Look out for the update on the Bournemouth West thread too.

We are enjoying a fantastic first day of our 2023 show. Those who couldn't make it today, we hope you can tomorrow!

Set up for the show has gone well tonight. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all over the weekend.

We are sorry to announce that Great Bardfield has had to be withdrawn from the show due to poor health of the owner. This has been replaced by Woodlands in 00, by Steve Fackrell.

The next locomotive to get an upgrade is an old Graham Farish original Bulleid Light pacific. I renumbered this loco to 257 Squadron a while back as it was a Wadebridge regular and the loco that I had the privilege of my first driving turn on after passing out at Swanage last year. I wanted to upgrade one of these models to see how much I could get out of them, especially with the new Dapol models supposedly being a year or so away. The biggest issue I have with these models apart from the overall lack of detail is the bogie. the wheels are too small and it plainly just looks wrong. I looked at putting in one of the new Farish Merchant Navy bogies, which will fit, but I needed to make up a new pivot arm as the one supplied is too small to fit the older model. I therefore decided to try the N brass replacement bogie, which needed making up, but it had to pivot arms supplied and was a detailed example. Upon arrival, it was made up fairly quickly. the most challenging part was the addition of the bulleid firth etch design on to the wheels as you needed to be absolutely sure that they were central otherwise it would look like the wheel doesn't run true. After bending up the pivot arm and painting the bogie, this was then end result. I also painted the main driving wheel rims as per the T9, this makes such a difference to the overall look of the locomotive as it blends the wheels in and makes it look more of a model than a toy. Next, I decided to add the Stones generator which is seen on all light pacifics under the driver's side cab door. This provides the power to the front and tender lights as well as all of the lighting in the cab which can be seen below: This was a tricky fit as it initially fouled the bogie. I had to file of the bottom of the generator and push it up into the cab floor using the hole I had drilled as much as possible. you can see it in the photo below before painting. Finally, I have painted the top of the slide bar red which in reality holds and oil pot as well. The coarse nature of the model made it look worse, but adding the red paint has improved this area as well. The rear bufferbeam also received the same treatment. The next set of work will be to replace the coal with the real thing, add a fall plate, vacuum pipes and potentially add some of the pipework using the Farish Merchant Navy examples which I have ordered from Bachmann spares. If I can find some appropriate loco foot steps, then these will be added. SR route discs are also on order from Modelu. A photo of the two locos in their current condition. More to do on both, especially the T9, but progress is being made.

Another month has gone past. Where does the time go..... Anyway, this last couple of week's focus has mostly been the locos that will run on Wadebridge. My Union Mills T9 has been the first to get 'the treatment'. Looking at my 4mm model of 30313, I felt I could extract more potential out of the model. Union mills Models were a small company up in the Isle of Man the owner of which has sadly now retired and closed the business. Each model had great haulage capacity, but lacked the fine detail of modern releases. I set to by filing off the old moulded handrails. Once smoothed, I then drilled holes for the N brass handrail knobs and bent a 0.25mm piece of wire to the correct shape for the handrail. Next, I added the cab roof supports which are also not supplied. I filed off a little bit of the cab side and then cut the wire to the correct shape which was 0.3mm if I recall. These were then glued in. The loco also needed lamp irons and vacuum pipes, so again, I used N brass vac pipes on the tender and a Dapol M7 example on the front. LSWR lamp irons were also from N brass, these were cut down a little to make a more scale representative height. On the tender, I have added a proper handbrake stand and filed off the original moulded one. The coal door has also been drilled out. A shovelling plate will be added shortly. I have made a fall plate out of thin brass chequer plate to make the gap between loco and tender less noticeable. The vacuum and steam pipes that run along the running plate have also been added and finally, I have made a start on the brake rigging using blocks from a Worsley Works T9 kit. The job which has made the biggest difference so far is the blackening of the wheel rims. It makes the loco look so much more pleasant to look at. The next jobs are to drill out the coal and replace with real coal. I will also add clack valves and separately fitted delivery pipes. New safety valves and a whistle will be installed as well. The model will then be painted and I will attempt to line it if I can and it looks right. Next loco post coming right up.