Chuffer Davies

Only on the basis it could also have been a BR Western Region layout. You are correct that a GWR diesel railcar was tried out on the line but this was post the period we are modelling. Disappointingly the trial was unsuccessful because of the severe gradients, Mr Brunel's GW lines were generally much flatter by comparison. As to the stock required for Clayton, if I recall correctly the fiddle yard has been designed for around 28 distinct trains each of which will require a locomotive, plus we have the additional storage on the turntable for up to another 10 locomotives. I don't know the exact ratio of passenger versus goods trains we plan to operate but I'm guessing at around 50/50 of which probably only 6 passenger sets are already spoken for and we have around 8 locomotives built or being built so there is still plenty to go at. Frank

Hi, In answer to your question: of the 10 or so members involved in building Clayton we have quite a variety of circumstances. To my knowledge three of the group have 'OO' layouts at home. Only one of these has been featured on RM Web - Bacup. Two of our members have built 'The Mill' which is their first EM layout but whilst this is a private layout it is currently housed at the club rooms as neither has the space for it at home. Three of us own 'Hungerford' which is a Great Western EM exhibition layout also stored at the clubrooms. The goods stock and some of the parcels stock on Hungerford has been built by someone who is primarily an LNER modeller which is why there is so much NE goods stock running on Hungerford although no one to my knowledge has ever queried this at exhibitions. Hopefully this goods stock will form the basis of the stock for Clayton. The locos and coaching stock will be built by several of us and will be bespoke to the layout because we have researched the specific stock that operated over the Queensbury lines. I'm sure some of the stock will find its way onto other EM layouts from time to time but that is not the primary reason for building it. I believe Clayton (as with Leicester Goods and Hungerford before it) will be a great example of the benefit of belonging to a club where members with a variety of backgrounds, specialisations and skill levels come together to achieve something that would be extremely challenging for a single individual. For instance very few individuals will have the space to house a 30ft long layout and very few would have the time to build the quantity of stock needed to populate it even if they spent a lifetime doing so. Our ambition is to build the best layout that we can collectively, in around an 8 year time frame, including the stock although unlike the layout the stock will remain the property of the individuals who built it. I am confident that all of us will be better modellers at the end of the project than we were when we started irrespective of our skill levels at that time and we look forward to sharing our achievements with subscribers to RM Web. It is also our intention that some of our achievements may benefit the wider modelling community through our development of kits for rolling stock required for Clayton where no kit exists currently. If there is anyone out there who would like to become involved in the Clayton project then all they need to do is become a member of the Shipley club. Frank

A couple of weeks ago we completed the temporary wiring of the main line to allow the running of demonstration trains for the first time over our forthcoming 2017 exhibition weekend (Sept 16/17). Chris and I took some stock in order to check things would run OK through the point work. That evening one of our members was taking some video of things happening in the club rooms including our test running session. This has now been loaded to YouTube and so I am including this link for your enjoyment: . Since taking the video we have now completed laying all the rail (on the scenic section of the layout). We have worked out that there are over 10,000 individual chairs all of which have had to be threaded one at a time onto the rail prior to installation onto the previously laid sleepers. I now have to go back over all the track work to complete the installation of the rail over the board joints. This entails soldering the bullhead rail to brass pins previously set into the last couple of sleepers either side of the joint. Next I cut through the rail with a razor saw, narrow the heads of the pins with a grinding disk in a mini drill to align with the edges of the rail, and finally glue cosmetic chairs to match the rest of the track work and to hide the pins. It appears to be taking around an hour per track joint and I have around another 50 to go so I'll be at it for a while yet. Russell and John (Smart) meanwhile have started painting/weathering the sides of the rail. We calculated that on the basis it will take at least 2 coats of paint to complete this work it will require them to paint for a quarter of a mile. Given the choice I think I'll stick with the board joints. Please come and say hello if you are visiting the Shipley exhibition so we get to know whose reading the blog. Frank

I thought it would be useful to clarify the position with regards the bespoke etches that are being produced to enable us to plug the gaps in the stock we would like to have running on the Clayton layout. First and foremost these are being prepared to meet the needs of the Clayton project and where necessary the design is optimised for EM gauge modelling. In reality this only impacts a small number of areas and the etches are in the main equally suited to 'OO' and 'P4'. The artwork has been prepared on TurboCAD and the etches have been commissioned from PPD Ltd. The coaches have been designed to compliment Dan Pinnock's (D&S kits) range which we were already planning to use extensively on the layout. We are grateful to Dan for providing us with the castings and roof mouldings needed to complete these coaches. As I am primarily a loco builder I am also grateful to Russell Whitwam who has painstakingly built the prototypes from the etches and who has then provided feedback on where the etches were either fundamentally wrong or could be improved upon. The first coach etches therefore took several attempts to get to the final configuration but the 2nd coach was much easier to produce because it was basically a reworked copy of the first. The railway modelling grapevine is very efficient and before long we were being approached with requests from other modellers for copies of these coaches which we have been happy to provide. I now keep a small stock of these etches specifically to meet this demand and anyone wanting a set of etches can contact me via RMWeb. I have also included the necessary components to enable the coaches to be built in their original rigid axle format as well as the articulated form required for the project, but castings and roof mouldings must be sourced from elsewhere. Having completed the missing coaches we turned our attention to the locomotives and the Q2 was the first to be attacked because we had a GA drawing from which I could work. As I stated previously first and foremost the etches are being produced to meet the needs of the Clayton project and the design is optimised for my own use. I have endeavoured to take advantage of those elements of kits I have built in the past that I have appreciated and I have tried to omit those elements from kits that have frustrated me. Other modellers may have differing opinions on such matters. I have attached a photo of the prototype build of the Q2 in its near completed state. I was fortunate enough to be able to run this model on Retford a few weeks ago on which occasion it successfully pulled the longest goods train with apparent ease around the layout. I was told that this train is the equivalent of 60 wagons so it should be good for pulling goods trains up the 1:50 bank on Clayton. At the time the photo was taken I had not incorporated the working inside valve gear that the model has recently acquired. Having approached John Redrupp of London Road Models to provide me with the necessary castings to complete the model, John expressed interest in adding this to his range and so at the time of writing it is anticipated that the Q2 will shortly be launched as a new LRM kit. I have now completed the initial design of the Q1 etches and so that I can concentrate on laying track and wiring up Clayton Chris has volunteered to test build the Q1. This will also give me someone else's honest opinion on the design and quality of the etches just as Russell has done with the coaches. In the future we may look at producing etches for a J1, J2 and a J7 all of which ran on the Queensbury line within our time period. You never know, if the Q2 kit is successful Mr Redrupp may decide to add these to his range, but all this is for the future.

I can confirm Mike was in the RAF and an inspirational modeller. I met him and his wife Hilary through St Brendan's College's (Bristol) annual cadet camp. My father was a teacher at the school and an officer in the cadets. I believe Mike was a school liaison officer and this led to his annual attendance at the camp. Although I have had model railways for as long as I can remember it was only when Mike's EM layout was featured on the local television news (Points West) that the penny dropped and I took the first opportunity I could to reacquaint myself to him. I was 15 at the time so this would have been 1969. To my absolute delight Mike invited me to help him to exhibit at the next year's York exhibition when the show was still held at the Assembly Rooms. Mike and Hilary were the nicest couple you could hope to meet, and Mike talked me through all sorts of techniques which was the impetus I needed to start building my own models and was also my introduction to EM. Mike made significant use of tin cans (yes they were made of tin in the 60's). His use of K's motors was because they were small enough to fit inside his diminutive models. I don't know how but he turned the commutators in a lathe and that is why they ran so much better than the off the shelf motor. I tried this once and instantly destroyed the motor. The complex control of the layout was achieved through the use of his 'Great Wurlitzer' which was a revolving arm in the control panel with a set of wipers that swept over a series of studs connected to the H&M point motors under the layout. Having selected a route using several rotary switches a press of a button would trigger one revolution of the Wurlitzer and the points would be set accordingly - absolute magic to a sixteen year old. It was soon after this that Mike launched Mike's Models. I seem to recall that the EM layout was eventually sold to an enthusiast in America along with a significant proportion of the stock. Mike then moved on to modelling a mixed gauge layout to P4 standards and subsequently he did some 7mm modelling. Sadly I've lost contact with Mike and Hilary now but I believe and hope that they are still growing old together somewhere in the south of England. If you read this Mike or Hilary my very best wishes to you both... Frank D