Blog 2012

Tuesday 12^th June ‘12. Club members commenced building the first of six 2 x 4 foot baseboards required for the new and as yet to be named “OO” layout

Tuesday 19^th June ‘12. Working hard we were able to produce two new “OO” layout boards. See the Club layouts page picture gallery for some images.While the baseboard construction was happening the remainder of the group enjoyed a ‘Railway Signalling’ talk given by club member Bob Bushell. Seen below during his talk.

In answer to the question raised to Bob he has confirmed that the Steam days shed plate 8F was allocated initially to Warrington CLC (Cheshire Line Committee) and finally moved in 1960 to Wigan Springs Branch.

Tuesday 26^th June ‘12. Club members produced a third baseboard and the legs were made for board No 1. While the ‘carpenters’ of the club were busy, a small group of ‘Track Planners’ meet and started designing the track plan for the new “OO” layout.

Tuesday 10^th July ‘12. “OO” Baseboard 3 has its legs attached and one of the new add-on baseboards has been produced. The ‘Track Planners’ are still working on final “OO” track design.

Tuesday 17^th July ‘12. With two more baseboards built this evening the “OO” layout is progressing well. Alignment dowel and fixing bolt holes drilled and the dowels fitted to three boards. Track planning still continues with the possibility of making the scenic main lines into four tracks - Two up direction -fast & slow and two down lines fast & slow.

Tuesday 24^th July ‘12. All the existing six baseboards assembled together and locating dowels fitted to the last couple of pairs of board joints. Track planners have a detailed remit and are busy making the track plan fit the baseboards.

Tuesday 31^st July ‘12. Work began on constructing the two right-hand end infill boards and these are almost completed now.
That just leaves the main two right-hand end boards and their legs to construct. Track planning has now all but been completed. The full sized plan will be trailed at next weeks meeting when all the boards are erected.

Tuesday 3^rd July ‘12. A fourth baseboards construction commenced and the legs for boards 1 and 2 now completed. The ‘Track Planners’ met again and finalised a basic design. It was felt that the existing arrangement of baseboards would not be adequate for the proposed initial design. So it has been suggested two ‘add-on’ small board units are produced and fit to the main loop boards.

Tuesday 7th August ’12. Six baseboards erected and the trials of the radius 3 & 4 Setrack curved track to be used for the main loops test fitted. Decision made to increase the right-hand end add on board width to 18 inches.
Below is a drawing of the proposed track plan…

Tuesday 14^th August ‘12. All six boards of the completed baseboards erected. Work the two right-hand end ‘add on’ boards is all but finished. One of the larger 2’ x 4’ foot end boards constructed. Two cross-over points on the track plan above are to be replaced by a Double Slip, this will save some much need space.

Tuesday 21^st August ‘12. All the baseboards nearly constructed with just two boards legs to be produced. All the boards sealed with a coating of dilute PVA. Track all obtained and test fittings carried out on the left-hand end boards.
Prize raffle sales commenced. A proposed visit to the N gauge show being held on the 8^th & 9^th September in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Kelvin has sent an email to all club members to see who is interested in going on the 8^th Sept

Tuesday 28^th August ‘12. Final carpentry work on the last remaining baseboards all but completed. The ‘dog bone’ loops track sections have had their dropper wires solder to the rails undersides in readiness for track laying to commence.

Tuesday 4^th September ‘12. The very last infill baseboard is almost ready, with it just needing the cause resolved of the plywood tops curvature. All other baseboards are now ready for track laying and wiring. This task should be underway at next weeks meeting.

Saturday 8^th September ‘12. Visit to N gauge show at Warwickshire Exhibition Centre
Six Faversham MRC members visited the International N Gauge show on Saturday 8 Sept 2012. Travelling in two cars Ernest and Paul set off from Ashford while David, Kelvin, Bob and Alan started from Faversham. The Faversham group had the more eventful journey, missing the M40 turn-off on the M25 due to conversation but not worrying as the M1 is a viable alternative. Unfortunately after a breakfast stop the M1 became very congested and David's sat-nav later took the group to a remote country lane somewhere in the general area of the Exhibition Centre. The two groups met for lunch inside the exhibition.
The exhibition had about 30 layouts and was very well supported by trade stands (Bob made particularly good use of these). The standard of the layouts was high and varied in size from a layout in a small travel case to the large NCI/AMC German/Austrian layout which included a very impressive fiddle yard. This writer’s particular favourite was St Ruth because the overall effect is very evocative of an out-of- season early 1970's seaside terminus, although the exhibition brochure gives the period as mid 1960s. Other UK layouts of note included Annston (Midlands Industrial 1990s), Sheaf Valley (fictional preserved South Yorkshire), Nine Mills (South Midlands MPD 1960s) and Burnham on Sea (S&D terminus).
The fine weather, rural setting, quality of the show and good company combined to make a very enjoyable outing.
Report kindly provided by David Phillips.

Tuesday 11^th September ‘12. A milestone is passed with the first sections of track being laid! The first of the the two reverse loops track work was cut and fitted. The rails being soldered to small brass screws at the baseboard joints. The last infill board has been further worked on to remove the cause of the bowing in the top of the board and is now ready to have the final pair of alignment dowels fitted.

Tuesday 18^th September ‘12. Track laying on the left-hand loop board nears completion and the first point has been laid. The right-hand in fill board after much work has now unfortunately had to be scrapped! Mainly due to de-lamination occurring in the top boards plywood. Luckily a slightly narrower board was available to be used and this just needs some internal timber bracing added to complete it.

Tuesday 25^th September ‘12. Tonight all the “OO” layouts baseboards were completed. Track laying continued with two live frog points being pre wired and installed and the first lengths of flexible track laid too. In the picture below the full length of all baseboards can be seen together with some of the club members whose hard worked has enabled us to gain this achievement.

Tuesday 2^nd October ‘12. The recently produced right-hand end boards were all dilute PVA sealed. More track was then laid along the front of all the boards and one track now reaches the right hand end loop boards. Some of the clubs ‘N’ gauge modellers met after the coffee break and started discussions on a proposed new club ‘N’ gauge layout track format. A letter is being issued to all members advising of the need to increase the weekly attendance fee as from the first week in November.

Tuesday 9th October ‘12. Right-hand end boards loop tracks now laid and a parallel track laid part way along the front boards. The ‘N’ gauge group meet again after the mid evening tea break and made the decision that whatever track plan is finally decided upon, the actual track used will be to Code 55 (Finescale) standard.

Tuesday 16^th October ‘12. More track laying undertaken, with the two parallel front lines all but completed. Packing and alignment work to the track was carried out at the left-hand end loop board. Layouts control panel seen in its under construction state. ‘N’ gauge group held another meeting after the coffee break. A pre Christmas dinner announced formerly at a cost of £21.95 per person for a three course meal.

Tuesday 30^th October ‘12. The OO layout track laying continues and several damaged track ends were re soldered to their locating screws along the baseboard edges. Pre wiring of the Seep point motors is well underway and these will be fitted once most of the points are fully laid.
A blog update report has been supplied by the N gauge sub group and follows - Many thanks to Kelvin for this. -
Those interested in n gauge held another meeting to further discuss baseboard construction and it was decided to follow the oo gauge in using 9mm plywood for the top and sides of the actual boards but, instead of using integral legs, a trestle system would be tried. A total of 4 trestles are thought to be required at this juncture. A drawing of the boards was presented for discussion which showed 3 boards in total, the left hand end was 4’ x 2’ and the centre and right hand boards were 4’ x 3’. It was thought that a differential was necessary between the through station and the terminus and as such the left hand board and the front 6” or so of the other two boards would be at a lower height of approx 1”. It was also recognized that this proposal may need to be adjusted slightly as far as part of the centre board was concerned as construction and further planning was developed. Potential new member Doug advised the group he had a well equipped workshop and may be able to pre cut timber and ply for us prior to assembly. Ernest will obtain a sample of ply from his source as the group was worried over the delaminating issues experienced on the oo layout resulting in one of the boards having to be discarded.
Following on from last weeks meeting the actual track plan had been further developed along the lines Bob Impett had suggested in order to allow both arrival and departures from the terminus station to be carried on the appropriate prototypical tracks. Our thanks to Brian for originally pointing out this problem.
The group now feels it has the necessary planning completed in order to apply to the committee for funding approval. However it recognized that the oo layout was the priority as it is necessary to get a layout working and preferably before Christmas. The group required approx £60 to enable the timber and ply to be purchased and to involve themselves in a project.

Tuesday 23^rd October ‘12. The first double slip laid and further track laying undertaken The left-hand ends loop track is well underway with one line laid across three boards on the OO layout. Some pictures of the baseboard assembly and the track laying can be seen on the clubs layouts picture section. The ‘N’ gauge group held a third meeting to discuss baseboards and how trains would be able to return and enter the proposed terminus station section.

Tuesday 6^th November ‘12. More track and point work laid the OO layout. The N Gauge group met again to discuss their proposals for a new layout. Chairman reminded those present about the forthcoming club Christmas meal to be held on the 14^th December asking those wishing to attend to book their places!

Tuesday 13^th November ‘12. Track and point laying continues on the “OO” layout. It has become apparent that the far sides station platform wouldn't be long enough to accommodate all but the shortest of trains, so a decision has been made to extend the layouts length by 3 feet by adding a new baseboard section between two existing front sections.

Tuesday 27^th November ’12. More track laying undertaken and a complete circuit has this evening been completed. Fitting of the first of the many multi pin plugs and sockets to the baseboards has begun. These will transfer the rail and point motor feeds across the baseboard joins.

Tuesday 20^th November ‘12. The new extension three foot long board, having been pre built was fitted into its position. This necessitated adding an addition pair of support legs onto one of the abutting boards. New lengths of flexible track started to be fix across the new board.

Tuesday 4^th December’ 12. Track laying across the new link span board continues and wiring under the left-hand boards has commenced. At 21:00 the layout construction was halted to allow the clubs prize raffle and buffet to commence. A magnificent £248 has been raised from raffle ticket sales, the post raffle auction together with the large amount of prizes donated. The two major prizes of a Hornby 08 digital sound shunter loco and a pass for two to be able to drive a high Speed train on the SouthEastern trains HS train simulator. The top two prizes were won by Club members Ernest who won the Hornby 08 loco and Colin who won the SouthEastern trains HS train driver simulator prize. Club chairman Brian thanked all those who gave prizes and the club members for purchasing tickets, he also thanked club Treasures wife Carole for arranging the buffet.
Below are Colin (left) receiving his prize from club Chairman Brian.

Tuesday 11^th December ‘12. One loop board is now fully wired, loop board 3 is now some three quarters wired and link board 2 has still to be completed. Track laying on the right-hand end loop boards almost reaches completion.

Friday 14^th December ‘12. Seventeen diners made up from club members, many with their partners, descended on The Alma pub at Painters Forstal near Faversham for an evening Christmas meal. A three course meal followed by coffee or tea and mints was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.
Plans are now to be considered by the committee for a summer barbeque.

Tuesday 18^th December ‘12. The last meeting of the year saw a second left-hand baseboard fully wired and the first point motor installed. Track laying for the station and sidings area has started.