Richard Hall

If this looks like it might get off the ground I'll try to get something in the next Newsletter. Meanwhile I'll reacquaint myself with VAG, thanks for the suggestion. Cheers, Richard

Not sure how reliable local exhibitions are as a guide, but I don't get the impression that Norfolk is a hotspot for fine scale modelling. We're world-class for Thomas the Tank Engine layouts though. As you say, Norfolk is a big area and away from Norwich it's quite sparsely populated. Still worth trying to get something going though. What's the worst that can happen? Richard

I was talking to someone at the Derby exhibition about getting started in 2mm and mentioned it was a shame there wasn't an area group close to me in mid Norfolk. "So why not start one?" he replied. Fair point. Anyone out there who might be interested in helping to get something going? Many years ago in a previous attempt at 2mm I went to a couple of the Essex meets and got a lot out of them. Richard

That was well worth a seven hour round trip, finally had a chance to see some remarkable layouts that I have only read about. After hovering around on the fringes of 2mm for years I came away with a chassis kit and other bits for a J39. Time to get out the RSU and ruin my eyesight. Richard

Two months on...

Slow progress due to other commitments (or possibly laziness) but my N gauge "inspired by" Midford Yard model is starting to come together. I've done horrible things to the geography at the northern end, with Tucking Mill viaduct vanishing altogether putting Midford Yard a couple of hundred yards south of Combe Down tunnel. I never said it was going to be an accurate model.

I have the sad task of disposing of my father's extensive and rather random collection. Sitting on a dusty shelf was this rather sorry-looking O gauge coach, a Collett Brake Third. Handbuilt with wood veneer sides, Bonds bogies with pivoting side frames for compensation, and an inscription hand lettered underneath: "Made by The Oxford Model Co, Park Town Garages, Oxford" It's a nice old thing although needing full restoration. Has anyone heard of this company, and could someone hazard a guess at roughly when this was made?

Hopefully this will be of some interest here: Midford Yard in N gauge, a new project just started a couple of weeks ago. It is just a glorified test track really, but I thought that if I was going to go to the trouble of constructing baseboards and laying track I might as well make a layout of it. Then I found a photo of Midford Yard and it was absolutely perfect. The S&DJ has always been one of my favourite lost railways: hopefully I will be able to capture at least some of the atmosphere of the place.

Looks good, that last photo with the 105 DMU does it for me. I spent far too much of my teenage years in those things, trying to get from Lincoln to somewhere more interesting. Class 25s weren't really part of my Lincolnshire childhood except on the summer Saturday excursions to Skegness: it was all Immingham 31s and 37s around Lincoln. Seemed very boring at the time but I wish I could go back now.

Scratchbuilt from brass and Plastikard. Sine I finished it, Tiny Underground Models have done a 3D printed body to fit a Farish C class chassis. https://www.shapeways.com/product/M67BBQCK5/nbr-c-class-lner-j36-n-gauge?optionId=189926414&li=shops

The wheels are Farish coach wheels I had lying around. Hard to get hold of at the moment apparently. You may have to rob them off a Mk1 and hope they come back into stock later. The Chivers kit has a couple of issues partly due to its long wheelbase. I buried 2mm Assoc bearing cups deep in the axleboxes but still had to push the solebars right out to get the wheels to fit, Farish axles are quite long. Then the thing wouldn't sit square and I had to carefully twist the body, using a sheet of glass to check the wheels, until it didn't wobble, at which point I glued the roof down. It still rocks slightly: three point compensation with rocking W irons would be better but I can't find anyone who makes them in N gauge. I might have to get the CAD software out again and design an etch myself. Richard Richard

I reckon I will need about 120 wagons for Stobs, up to around 60 at the moment. Mostly N Gauge Society kits. You're not wrong about the variety of colours, but there is also the mix of different van designs, a big jumble of heights and roof profiles. I found a photo of one class 4 freight where the first fifteen vehicles were vanfits of fifteen different types. I have been poring over photos to try and ensure I have the main freight flows covered - banana vans, fish and meat, Presflo / Prestwin cement wagons, oil tanks, grain hoppers etc etc. I would say about half the vehicles were vanfits, about another quarter either Conflats or Highfits (often sheeted). I'm aiming for that kind of mix. The CCT is a Roger Chivers kit, just been made available again by his son and is available on Ebay. It's a Waverley "must have" based on this photo alone: https://railphotoprints.uk/p741678313/h163BDDD7#h163bddd7

Summer of '63. 2.43 pm Edinburgh - Carlisle slows for its booked stop at Stobs, with a St Margarets B1 substituting for the usual Type 2 diesel.

Clayton on the Waverley: D8560 heads north with what looks like a set of freshly overhauled and painted wagons ready to be fed back into the wagonload network at Millerhill. (In other words I haven't got round to weathering any of my kit built wagons yet.)

The moorland is advancing steadily across the hills and has now reached the viaduct. 60882 heads south on yet another Millerhill - Kingmoor Class 4.

If it's a Digitrains Activedrive project, full instructions are under "Description" on their website: https://www.digitrains.co.uk/shop-by-product/sound/digitrainsound/digitrainsound-zimo/class-26-activedrive-sl.html I have one of these in an N gauge class 26 and it is great. Richard

Couple more photos for Iain Mac: Unusual motive power for a Kingmoor-Millerhill freight: a "Crab" clanks over the viaduct towards Hawick. BRCW Type 2 on a Carlisle-Hawick local passes a typical North British platelayers hut. Banking to Whitrope: a J36 gives a sturdy shove to a southbound freight.

That sounds very interesting and I would certainly like to try it. Please let me know how I can order one.

I'm building a model (in N gauge) of a station on the Waverley route, which means lots of three cylinder Gresley beasts - A3s, K3s and V2s. The layout was actually inspired by the Peter Handford sound recordings made in 1961, and I reckon DCC sound will play a big part in creating the atmosphere I am looking for. One problem. I've watched lots of videos, listened to lots of sound clips, and none of the sound projects out there sound remotely like the Handford recordings. All the sound projects have their exhaust beats in nice even groups of three. A typical hard-worked St Margarets V2 sounded more like a jazz band. Five beats, with a heavy emphasis on the second or third, then a pause as if the engine is drawing breath. Also absolutely outrageous amounts of rod knock, bearing clearances so big you could put your hand through them. Carlisle Canal's A3s weren't a lot better, no surprise that they were among the first A3s to go for scrap. They had a very hard life. Here's an example, a V2 on the long 1 in 70 through Steele Road towards Riccarton: I believe there are a few sound project developers on here. Does anyone fancy the challenge of creating a sound project for the three cylinder Gresley locos as they were back in the day, rather than the pristine, barely run in and perfectly set up examples of the preservation era? If anyone can come up with something that sounds "right" I'll take several.

Seeing how much WR atmosphere I can create without any scenery: 60969 on a Millerhill-Kingmoor Class 4 passes D5316 on the 1300 Carlisle-Edinburgh all stations. About time I stopped fiddling with locomotives and got on with ground cover, trees and stuff.

I ordered a Q class decoder from Locoman and can say two things: 1. The service is excellent, decoder arrived within two days of ordering. 2. The product itself is very, very good indeed. I actually wanted it to go in a Dapol N gauge "B1" (as far as I am concerned, one mid-sized two cylinder loco sounds much like another) and it is the first decent steam sound simulation I have come across. I really can't fault it. Even has a slight "blow" on one of the cylinders which sounds far more authentic for the last years of steam. Here's a short and poor quality video of 61099 departing from Stobs station. Layout is very unfinished and the video is cut short as I only have the scenic section available for running trains, but there's still a bit of atmosphere about it somehow.

Pleased? I'm absolutely furious. I spend two years trying to assemble an appropriate loco fleet for June 1961, and then that happens. Just kidding, it's a great model but has forced me to change direction a bit. Rather than pick one moment in time I will now aim to run a representative selection of trains from the last ten years of WR operation. Meanwhile here's another fragment of Super 8 cine footage: filmed from beside the platelayer's hut to the north of the viaduct a St Margarets B1, looking nice and clean but with a "blow" on one of the cylinders, ambles away from Stobs with a Carlisle-Hawick local.

Still no progress on scenery, but I have a new D53xx shaped toy... (crank up the volume)

Modellers in larger scales might be unaware that an N gauge "Clayton" appeared in shops this week, completely unexpected and unheralded. Here are D8585 and D8560 hammering upgrade past Stobs on a summer Saturday Dundee-Blackpool excursion. If an N gauge RTR Clayton doesn't get people modelling the WR, nothing will. Scenic work on the layout is progressing at glacial speed. I blame the weather.

I never knew such an animal even existed. My life will now be incomplete without one (in N gauge). I should imagine this was the last regular working for a six-wheeler on a class 1 passenger train: the WR was a wonderful railway but perhaps a little too rustic to survive in the modern world.