Newport Model Railway Society

I think we are entering the dogs days of summer (is there an astronomer in the house who can confirm or deny?) as progress seems to be getting a little sluggish. "Too hot for soldering irons" said our Chairman.

Luke has been working on this Slaters L&B coach still needs painting and the details added but Luke was relieved that it fits closely with the loading gauge of his other stock.

The week ended in our Zoom meeting, which included LBH droning on about the northern section of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway.

We also can report some progress on Mike E's Midford layout - in the first picture is the station building - roof now fabricated, chimney built but not painted, valance started, initial painting completed but needing careful touch-up.  The second photo shows a plasticard fabrication for the poster boards - there were seven around the station, and should provide a nice touch of colour. 

The week ended in our now customary Zoom meeting, which included an illustrated talk from Wagonman returning to his old stomping ground with a potted history of the MSWJR.

The week ended in our Zoom meeting, which included illustrated talks from Mike E with the second part of his Somerset and Dorset series, which took us from Midford to Midsomer Norton and Stephen B on the Wrexham 0-4-4T tanks of the Cambrian Railways. 

Mke E has started the station building for Midford S&D (above). It's a combination of card and embossed plastic construction - the original was wood siding. It'll be a fairly major project to complete. Also bridge works have proceeded (below left) - should be able to nearly complete this next week - except for stanchions and railings, the materials for which are on order with Eileen's Emporium.  The last image shows a couple of on-line purchases for road vehicles for Midford. Both are Oxford diecast. One is an Austin Somerset, the other an Army AEC Matador "wrecker" - something very like this can be seen in some photos of Midford's goods yard. So Mke will have to see if I can find any details of  its livery in the 1950s - not doubt bought as surplus after WW2.  Rather nice and remarkably inexpensive models...... An MG TC is on order.....  (1:76 scale, not full-size alas.....)

The week ended with our new-normal virtual club meeting on Zoom and our Chairman gave us an excellent illustrated talk on rope- and chain-worked inclines and followed it up with a link to this fascinating video of the preserved Bowes railway handling wagons including and detaching the rope and chain coupling. 

Meanwhile Mike E has been working on his home S&D 4mm layout Midford. Here we  see some (mainly) cardboard engineering going on for the abandoned Camerton branch line that passed on bridges under the Midford viaduct and over the Cam brook. He hopes to get this erected next week. Strange, but he's looking forward to laying some rusty, grass-grown track on it.......

And don't forget to catch up with progress on the Coronalayouts on their own page 

And by Sunday Wizard Fred had completed the weathering on Tony's E1 with this fabulous result.

First up this week is Mike G

Meanwhile our Wizard and TAFKATYS have combined forces to complete an ex-SECR Wainwright Class E 4-4-0, as rebuilt by Maunsell into a Class E1. The loco was mostly build by our former Secretary Tony Bennett, who sadly passed away a few years ago, with it almost complete. TAFKATYS has done some restoration work;  a few touch ups, and a new  motor and gearbox, then passed it on to the Wizard for weathering. The final step will be to fit her with batteries, in this case DCC with a wireless receiver. We are waiting Frecclesham's next exhibition (remember exhibitions?) to have one of Tony’s locos with us.

And don't forget to catch up with the latests progress on our Coronalayouts.

TAFKATYS has continued to weathering locos and this time has provided the world with 'before and after' shots. A great step forward we're sure you'll agree. And (below left) he's contrasting his own efforts with our Wizard's .

Wagonman's progress this week has been confined to clearing items from the active workbench - the LSWR wagon has been painted whilst in addition a container (Skytrex resin) which had become resident in the boxes of bits on the table has finally been lettered, weathered and loaded onto a Conflat which was waiting in the display cabinet - meanwhile the roof vents fillers and pipes have been added to the Q13 saloon........

Wagonman is still forging ahead, but a rather quieter week since the soldering frenzy on the Q13 saloon.....

Q13 saloon has indeed had its bogies completed - roof detailing and preperation of internal furnishings to be continued later....

In the meantime a 'quickie' build of a 3-plank dropside wagon from a POWsides resin body kit has been completed and will be painted in LSWR livery - no need for etching primer of course.....

Wagonman has made excellent progress on the Q13 saloon project - work concentrating on the bodyshell and underframe.

First the basic floorpan and shell with ends fitted - all checked for squareness etc before proceeding - then door hinges, bumpstops and droplights - only six to do on this coach.....

Next the brasswork of the underframe and various sub-assemblies including the four sets of end steps and the step operating levers on the guards compt partition...

After the steps are added the coach stands on blocks yesterday - with a close-up of the undergear including the whitemetal castings added now.......

The saloons with big windows all round will require full detailing - the kit includes the necessary furnishings so no excuses!

Next weeks plans are to build the bogies and complete roof detail and drawgear - sadly he's out of etching primer so the complete project will then be on-hold for the moment........

Another productive week from Wagonman (above and below):

The big mink, horsebox and Speech House PO wagon  have been largely completed although the horsebox has yet to have couplings fitted as the clearances behind the headstocks are too tight for the usual spring-and-split-pin fitting - the pics are rather cruel as the patch varnishing over the letterings shows up far more than on the real things! Weathering is to be left for later at the moment......

And so to the shape of 'things to come' ...... Q13 district engineer's saloon.... 6 of these were built in 1948 - delivered in GWR livery but without company insignia - survived in BR service right though to relatively recent times - one even received 'intercity - APT' style livery it is believed and all are preserved - our nearest example being at Norchard while another is on the Severn Valley..... The kit is from Orion - not much to see yet but progress should be fairly quick as this is a good quality kit (famous last words!)

The second week of isolation and we've heard that our clubrooms have been padlocked up. Nevertheless work goes on as we see below. 

Wagonman has been productive as ever:.

As promised  last week the O2 (above) has had its chassis painted and been re-assembled - all now complete except for some light weathering in due course - and he must do some of those SR type headcode discs...

Large Mink van and GWR horsebox both now ready for painting - horsebox handrails only temporarily positioned in photo -they will be properly fixed later......

Also another Forest of Dean P.O. wagon ready for final completion of painting..

We have suspended club meetings while world comes to grips with COVID19, but nevertheless work continues as we all slave away in our own private garrets and  we'll make updates to keep our reader abreast of what we're up to.

Having a virtual club night on Friday we of course needed appropriate refreshment.

Busy at the club on Tuesday but inclement weather and flooding kept numbers down to three on Friday. Nevertheless we made progress and here we have a couple of examples.

Left we see Dave's pig sty, rabbit hutch and other facilities installed in the cottage garden while on the right we see point rodding laid (bottom) an ready to lay (top).

Quite a busy week at the club this week with an unusual ten coming through the door on Tuesday

Bernie returned with a pile of lengths of prepared sections of point rodding and stools having done his planning last week.

LBH has decided that he wants to run his Manning Wardle Class battery-powered radio-contolled (BRRC). There is no room in the firebox/boiler but there is limited space in the bunker for a relatively modest battery with just a little gentle modification (hacking with a scalpel) which hopefully shouldn't be too obtrusive once a crew has been installed.

Bernie made the journey along the M4 to start preparing the point rodding on ABB - and of course to know where the rodding is required you need to know the signalling arrangements. To this end he prepared this signalling diagram - which includes a trailing crossover which is 'off-scene' on the model itself but we shall have to install the rodding to it.

Mike E and Martin have been progressing with the 'thirties semis, with guttering, kidney bean poles (it's October so the beans themselves are long gone) and a garage.

On Tuesday TYS brought a just finished Y6 (showing just a little bit of its Battery-powered radio-controlled (BPRC) gubbinary and his E4 showing a bit more of its BPRS innards.

Until now the platform on ABB has only had a temporary surface, simply painted and in too-dark-a shade-of-grey to boot (see above, left)

We have been experimenting with a couple of possible finishes. We have a fine grit of unknown origin at the club, which we tried in two ways, left above sprinkling it onto PVA and, right onto a grey undercoat. The latter looks the better and can be darkened later.

Well, the graded coal (see 20th Ult.) has been put to use in the new coal cells on ABB. Our chosen season is Autumn 1954 so we suppose that the local merchants will have stocked up on cheap summer coal for sale over the winter. 

Above we have two views of our Wizard's other WIP, a Bulldog called Chaffinch (or was it a Chaffinch called Bulldog? I'm easily confused)

More views of ABB showing coal cells (with the sub-base for the coal, which is yet to be applied) and fencing following weathering.

And Mr Chairman and LBH's endeavours on the coal cells and fencing are starting to bear fruit.