ullypug

Good point! It's at Wells Town Hall in the market square. Same venue as Railwells. Now edited original post

4mm Modellers Workshop Saturday 4th November 2017 Wells Town Hall 10.30 am - 4.30pm Admission: Visitors £5 - EMGS Members FREE This event is organised by the North West Somerset Group of the EM Gauge Society, for modellers of all abilities, as part of the EM Gauge Society Members Day and AGM. The EM Gauge Society’s AGM will be held in a separate room, at 2.0pm so will not impinge on the workshop. Come and learn, chat and socialize with fellow modellers. The aim of this 4mm Modeller’s Day is to encourage all modellers (be they 4mm of any gauge or other scales) to come and spent a pleasant day watching, talking and doing the things that make model railways such a wonderful hobby. The demonstrators will be very happy to discuss any problems you may have and, depending on the problem, give you hands on experience in sorting the problem out. Alternatively you may wish to discuss the pro’s and con’s of various gauges and if you have any rolling stock give them a run on the test track. At no time will there be anyone telling you that you are in the wrong scale or gauge. With the trade attendance here you should be able to stock up on essentials before the next exhibition. Demonstrators Dave Burnett Loco Building Tony Gomersall Track Building Dave Barrett Model Buildings Roger Sawyer Learn to solder Doug Richards, Barry Larkin & Paul Lewis: Weathering locos, rolling stock and buildings Peter Everett & Allan Jones: DCC Thomas Petith 3D Printing. Andrew Ullyott Modelling in EM and P4 Gerry Beale Detailing RTR stock and locos. Traders Branchlines Eileen’s Emporium Bill Hudson Transport Books EMGS Trade Officer Gas Cupboard Models Layouts Cheddar SDJR P4: Simon Challis Maiden Newton EM: Gerry Beale Vintners Yard EM: Eric Gates Wookey EM : Malcolm Jones M Shed EM: John England

That's a damn sight neater than my wiring!

It's just over a week to go. Eeeek!

I've edited the original blog post to include disassembled photos. Now with added smokebox wheel/dart and springs. I've also turned up the tank filler on the lathe.

Hi Mike only just noticed your question. I use High Level horn blocks for everything these days. They just fold up and only require minimal amounts of fettling. Their standard size horn block will be adequate.

Didn't manage to get too much done this weekend, but the odd evening here and there has seen some progress. I'm now adding bits of pipework and body fittings to the loco. The smokebox has been made from tube and the saddle added, the old Finney T9 lost wax smokebox door casting ground down to fit and the chimney soldered on. I think I may need to replace that with something finer as it's not completely accurate. Depends if I think I can get away without telling anyone. Oops... Handrails have been soldered up and left removable for the time being; the engine was a dark green with full lining and I want that bit to be as easy as possible. The good news is the smokebox, boiler and cab all separate and are joined with a few screws. I can take a disassembled shot if anyone's vaguely interested. The injectors have been fabricated from bits of brass, split pins, wire and the odd handrail knob. Remember this is EM and the 3 foot rule applies. There'll also probably be a wheel jack in the way! That said I think there'll be a fair bit of tweaking and twiddling to get a few things properly into line. Photos are great for showing up the blemishes. I've a load of solder to scrape off by the looks of it and a bit of filler will be required. The nice thing about these prototypes is they were completely battered by the end, so the odd dink here and there is completely prototypical. Still to do: Springs, smokebox door dart/wheel, buffers, cab roof, whistles, sandboxes, pipework and the tank filler are still to do too. Chassis wise it's the brake gear, pick ups and couplings. I'm probably not going to make it am I? Edit. Disassembled photos vaguely attached.

Keep it coming! I don't care if it's the same old scenes. They're lovely!

As the car was in for a service today, I worked at home. This means I didn't have my usual 'joy' of commuting into Bristol. By the look of the state of the M5 again, I'm glad I stayed at home. What this really meant was a couple of hours that I would normally have spent gazing at the back of the car in front was put to better use. Much better use. I'd finished fretting out the cab sides and had soldered up the basic pieces last night after I updated the blog. Today was all about cutting and soldering the tank and boiler. I'm pretty much doing exactly what I did when I built the first Manning Wardle (No 3 Weston), except thankfully No 5 doesn't have any rivets to worry about, being all welded. So really it's all about forming pieces of metal with a scrawker and a piercing saw, then soldering them. This means I can make quite quick progress. The tank starts with a number of formers, made by sweating together 4 layers of Nickel Silver, then cutting out the outline and a semi circular inner edge for the boiler. The formers are soldered to two strips of scrap etch which form the tank bottoms, then the tank wrapper is added from 5 thou brass and the whole thing tidied up. The boiler is a length of brass tube cut to length, the upper half (under the tank is cut away) and soldered in. The motor should fit inside but if not I can remove some of the inner tank formers now the tank and boiler effectively form a box. I've a selection of brass tubes which telescope over each other which will make forming the eventual smoke box fairly straight forward. The smoke box door came from the spares box and is cut down from something left over from a Finney T9. The stove pipe chimney will also come from this source I hope. So, here are a few photos with the assembly roughly held in position with some strategically placed blu tack. Don't know how much more I'll get done this week, but we'll see.

I was wondering if I'd have time to build a coach as well... :-)

Yes, it's one of the interesting things about the line. I guess it's because most of the stock was already knackered when it arrived, the terriers and the second Manning Wardle not withstanding.

Managing to make a little progress with No 5 in-between getting Weston ready for the Portishead show in 3 weeks' time. Good news is the layout is now fully working, has a new temporary power supply rigged up (it shares the power box I use for all my layouts) and has had one or two running repairs. In the meantime, I've assembled the chassis using my Avonside jig and High Level horn blocks. As you can see it's simply compensated with a fixed rear axle. The footplate has been cut from 15 thou nickel silver and valences added from brass angle. The gearbox has been built, though I may yet change it for another type if it's noticeably visible through the cab sides and I've made a start on the wheels. The prototypes were sold disks, presumably to add weight. Trouble is in reality they made the engine prone to having hot boxes. I've had to remove some of the spokes from the Gibson wheels as there'll be 4 semi-circular holes through each one, then I've pressed super fine milliput filler into the spokes and then sanded flush with the wheel rims. Blutack keeps me from putting filler where I shouldn't. To break the monotony of doing the wheels (the first two took ages), I've also started to prepare the cab components. These are fretted from a single piece of nickel silver again, with the aid of a scrawker where I can. Results so far are shown below and I'm quite happy with how it's going. I know I could have used CAD and etched everything, but where's the fun in that?! I think I'll be lucky to have the engine finished by 22 October, but I like a nice deadline! edit: grammar

WC&P Railway Anniversary Exhibition Celebrating the 120th Anniversary of the original opening of the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway Sun 22 October 2017 10:00 to 4:00 pm Parish Wharf Leisure Centre, Harbour Road, Portishead, BS20 7DD A unique one-off event Top class layouts: ▪ WC&PR – Andrew Ullyott’s Ashcombe Road – EM gauge and ▪ WC&PR – Andrew Ullyott’s Clevedon – EM gauge ▪ Bleadon – fictitious WC&PR extension – O gauge ▪ Rolvenden – Col Stephens’ K&ESR - P4 scale ▪ Rye Town – fictitious K&ESR extension – EM gauge ▪ Severn Mill – fictitious light railway from Thornbury – O gauge ▪ Corris Station – narrow gauge Welsh – 009 ▪ Portisend – layout from Germany inspired by Portishead – OO gauge ▪ River Yeo – WC&PR with bridge and wharf – N gauge ▪ Canterbury Gate – East Kent Railway station – O gauge Original WC&PR Artefacts on display Displays of WC&PR Models – various scales ● Historic photos slide show Demonstrations – model painting Trade stands: ▪ Art in Motion – Stuart Booth ▪Aspire Gifts & Models ▪ Mainline & Maritime ▪ Antics Models ▪ Lester Harrison memorabilia Societies including: ▪ Colonel Stephens Society ▪ Portishead Railway Group ▪ Sandford Station Railway Heritage Centre ▪ Lynton & Barnstaple Railway ▪ Festiniog & Welsh Highland Railways ▪ Gordano Civic Society ▪ The Mendip Society Light Refreshments – Free parking Alongside Portishead Marina – attractive location. Not to be missed ! Adults £4. Children £2. (under 6 free) Details subject to change For the latest info see www.wcprgroup.org.uk

In 4 weeks time, Weston and Clevedon will again have a service provided by the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway, albeit in 4mm scale (EM Gauge) at the Portishead WCPR group show. With the looming deadline, I've spent the day clearing a space in the garage so I could retrieve Weston from the dark recesses where it's been residing for the last 6 years since it was last out. After much effort ( I can see why I switched to lightweight foam baseboards ), I managed to remove the spiders, woodlice and other insects, put it up and assess the damage. The good news is that there's no major structural damage and that trains run from one end to the other. The bad news is none of the point motors work, which kind of suggests that there's a loose wire or a shorted connection on that circuit somewhere. Overall I'm not too disappointed as I was expecting to have to service the Tortoise point motors anyway as I was expecting an oxidisation of the contacts. So hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get it sorted. For those of you who can't remember what the layout looks like, here are a few photos with Weston on track testing duties.

Yes, there'll be a top stretcher. Bottom too for fixing the pick ups and L shape front and rear.

That's superb. I'm still not convinced you've used any solder though!

Having redrawn the engine to what I think is a more accurate outline, I've set about making the chassis. I'm using 10 thou nickel silver for the rods laminated with three layers and 15 thou for the chassis mainframes. All were marked out with the vernier and cut with a scrawker into rough shapers before tidying up with files. The chassis frames were sweated together before I fretted out the outline and drilled holes for the brake gear hangers and compensation beam. The rods are hinged on the middle crank pin. Next step is to assemble the chassis using the jig and some old EM frame spacers I've got left over from previous kits. The chassis mainframes are only 11mm deep to give you a sense of scale!

Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate your viewpoints! I've redrawn a couple of times. The latter quoted dimensions from the museum must be a standard as they just don't get anywhere near scaling against the drawing. Let's see if I can edit and upload the new drawings. Oh and the wheels are about the only thing that's probably right! I'm using Gibson and will infill either with etched nickel silver or plasticard . I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel...

Thanks for the replies folks. Adam - It's interesting because I thought I used those dimensions: Wheels - 3ft 1/2" Wheelbase - 10ft 9 1/2" (5ft 5" + 5ft 4") Grate Area - 7 and a 1/4 sq ft Weight - 17t 7cwt and full 21t 6cwt Height - 10ft 9 1/4" Width - 7ft 6 and 1/8" Length (over buffers) - 22ft 4 1/2" The curator of the Colonel Stephens Museum has since quoted the following: Manning Wardle records (per Fred Harman) show No 5 as a standard L class but fitted with 3 ft 0 1/2 in cast iron solid wheels, a larger 650 (against 475) gallon water tank, stovepipe chimney (reported subsequently shortened) and steam brake. Key dimensions of the L class were Wheelbase 5 ft 9i n + 5ft 6 in Length over buffer beams 20 ft 3 in Width over buffer beams 7 ft 1 in Boiler 3 ft 2 in diameter , 8 ft 2 in long I'm not sure about the latter set of dimensions though. I think I'll have to have another go. Yes Tim paper and pencil. I'd have used tracing paper and ink if I'd had any!

During the rather enjoyable exhibition at Expo EM Autumn this weekend, I started to think about the gap in my loco fleet, namely no 5. It was one of the engines that didn't have a name. This was one of the two engines the line purchased from new, the other 'Walton Park' being too heavy for the line was transferred to the East Kent Railway. No 5 as far as I have deduced was a Manning Wardle class L, modified with disc wheels. I'm still trying to find out whether an accurate drawing exists as the one published in the Colonel Stephens Society newsletter many moons ago has a number of errors. Assuming nothing will be forthcoming and armed with some decent photos and some known critical dimensions, I've sketched up a first draft of a working drawing. It's going to have to be a scratchbuilt job of course but I have wheels, motor and the gearbox so I should be able to start cutting metal soon. It's not terribly big, scaling out at 90mm and it sure is an ugly spud, but it had a certain charm! Also attached are a couple of photos from the weekend exhibition.

Good journey back. Managed to break the 3 hour barrier (just). Great show. Really enjoyed it. Well done to Derek for putting on another superb expo. You can take a well earned rest. Step forward Mr Jones! As promised, some more pictures. Apologies for missing some layout out. The presentation of Tackeroo was something that made a lot of people smile. Very clever. Cornwallis Yard Clarendon Sandon Goods Lovely North Yorks Rosedale branch Some dodgy light railway thing

Really good day today. Lots of great layouts ad a good selection of traders. Worth making the trip if you're undecided. Grabbed a few photos, mainly Black Lion Crossing but also North Holderness Light. Really liked the presentation of Tackeroo. Will take more photos tomorrow.

There are a few haggard faces this evening. 7.5 hours from Bristol. Still I've seen some interesting parts of Staffordshire and Cheshire I wouldn't otherwise have seen!But show will be open as planned and it looks fantastic. Worth the trip.

Is there a bring and buy at the show this year?