HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !! 49 YEARS AND COUNTING

30th April 1969 - 2018
Another year passes and what have I learned ... nothing as usual, my consistency is amazing. Having another slightly self indulgent post, as this week I am on leave and will kick things off with Monday celebrating "my birthday" as the late great Rik Mayall once said (TV episode, Bottom) and aside from a card from "All the lads on the Ark Royal" I will probably have to find something to do myself today since no one else really cares (and why should they).

Will be having a few days out during the week the first of which is Wednesday off out to Ascot races which has been an annual event now for a long while. Also have a few days away to Bognor Regis on the south coast to not only enjoy a bit of sea air and peace, but to meet up with a dear old friend and have a good old fashioned catch up. Anything else I manage to get up to will be a bonus and might well depend on how we do at the races first though. 

Used to plan a nice "present" to myself, alas that seems unlikely this time around, though as long as I find a way to go out to Ascot on Wednesday that will do for me. I am still collecting railway items such as these wagons below; 

PUGH, PUGH, BARNEY McGREW, CUTHBERT, DIBBLE AND GRUBB.

Can always look for something nice next month perhaps, things have been a bit up and down of late over the past twelve months although as I write this there are positives and perhaps as I enter my 50th year can improve things a little more going forwards. 

Happy Birthday !! 
Try and have a fun time mate. 

HAMPTON AND DISTRICT MODEL RAILWAY SOCIETY OPEN WEEKEND

Saturday 21st April 2018 - Sunday 22nd April 2018

LOCATION:
Kempton Park Waterworks, 
Snakey Lane, Hanworth, Middlesex TW13 7ND

OPENING TIMES:  
10.30am - 4.00pm

ADMISSION:  
Adults £7.00 
     
Hampton & District Model Railway Society and Hampton & Kempton Waterworks Railway present a Railway and Museum Open Weekend. There will be a normal passenger service, and chance to view areas that are normally out of bounds, including watching shunting operations from a viewing area. 

Our 1000 ton engine will be in steam on both days, with FREE guided tours of our other engines. Admission to the museum includes the model railway show, and costs £7.00.

List of Layouts Attending :
Thornhill Town - 00 Gauge
Magic of Clockwork - 0 Gauge
Tube Station - 00 Gauge
Sept-Meules - 00 Gauge - SNCF
Y Glas - OO9 Scale
Live Steam - 32mm & 45mm Gauges
Charlton - 00 Gauge

UK RAILTOURS -- THE EBOR FLYER [TORNADO]

This weekend is an exciting opportunity to join TORNADO on her maiden 90mph rail tour from London Kings Cross to York via Doncaster. Following a successful test run in April 2017, when Tornado reached a top speed of 100 mph, passengers are now invited to join the locomotive on ‘The Ebor Flyer’. This will be the first public train when Tornado will be authorised to operate at speeds up to 90 mph on the East Coast Main Line. The destination for this exciting excursion is York, where passengers will have up to four hours to enjoy the sights and sounds of this fascinating and historic city. This is one train not to be missed!


Recreating the glory days of express steam travel, this train will follow the LNER route out of the capital heading north to collect passengers from the popular M25 railhead of Potters Bar, before roaring onwards past the historic rail hub of Doncaster to York.

Passengers visiting York can take time to explore the city centre with the historic Minster and Shambles, or enjoy the many riverside bars and eateries. For a real rail adventure, The National Railway Museum stands close to York station and passengers may wish to visit the steam giants of the past.

Steam hauled throughout, the return journey promises to be as thrilling as the outward. On the route south passengers can be assured of a swift journey as the train travels down Stoke Bank, the location where Mallard broke the world steam speed record of 126mph in 1938. This service is scheduled to depart London at 08:07 and the return journey should arrive about 20:40.

FORDINGBRIDGE MODEL RAILWAY EXHIBITION -- SATURDAY 14th APRIL 2018

LOCATION;
Avonway Community Centre, 
Shaftsbury Street, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 1JF

OPENING TIMES:  
10.30 -- 16.30

ADMISSION:
Adults £5.00    Children £1.00    Family £10.00  

This event is supported by many local model railway clubs, along with other model enthusiasts from the locality displaying their skills. History display from the Fordingbridge Museum. Trade stands will also form part of this event.

List of confirmed layouts;
Aldermouth
Jim Edwards

A fictitious layout portraying a GWR branch line terminus (left). Set during the period 1930 – 1940 this ‘O’ gauge layout celebrates both GWR and Southern Railway locomotives together with passenger and goods stock. It has a scenic frontage which includes factories, warehousing and a canal scene. 

The motive power is a mixture of kit built and ready to run locomotives. Some of the buildings and road vehicles are scratch built.

American Railway
Reg and Mary Hunt

This American layout set in farming countryside is presented in G gauge. It has 2 CHE logging locos and a 12-8-0 consolidation for the circus train and LBG tank together with coaches.

Barrack Way
Dave and Rene Lear

Barrack Way is not based upon any particular Army Camp but it has plenty to see with a large camp to one side and living quarters on the other including five blocks of flats for Army personnel, houses for the Officers and of course shops. On the camp you will see where the tanks are loaded and unloaded from the train. In the top corner you will find a group of soldiers on manoeuvres with tanks and guns.

Camlas
Chris Thomas

Camlas (Welsh for canal) depicts a GWR branch line based mainly on Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire. The station and goods yard have now disappeared but in its heyday, goods and livestock traffic were heavy. Typically it handled between 2000 and 3000 tons of coal and 800 trucks loaded with livestock per year. The road system was poor and so most goods were brought into the area by rail. Cattle trucks and fuel tankers are evident along the railway and to emphasize the rural character of the area, a farmer may be seen ploughing his fields with sheep grazing in the nearby meadow.

For the technically minded, the track-work is Peco Code 75, the station building and goods shed are laser cut wood from Timbertracks with Metcalfe buildings in the industrial area alongside the wharf. The butty boat is made from a Langley kit as was the wharf walls. The cattle dock is from Ratio with animals mainly by Preiser.

Children’s Have a Go
Alister Linford, Fareham and District MRC.

A 6ft 6ins x 4ft layout featuring famous trains from television. Includes a ‘Scalextric’ controller for children to operate.

Demonstraton Layout
Sonny Hamid Burbage and District MRC

This club display includes two working layouts, one will be set at a height suitable for viewing by young people and the other is a shuttle layout demonstrating use of simple electronic train control. Members will also demonstrate construction of layout buildings.

Elmbridge MPD
Tony Parker, New Forest Model Railway

A modern image N gauge depot that services locomotives from various operators in the South of England. The layout incorporates a small high level passenger station that links to the main national network. Many of the buildings in the depot and yard can be illuminated. This layout shows just how much detail can be created with N gauge in a layout only 5ft x 18ins.

Gorpeton Blymee
Wimborne Railway Society, Chief Engineers Gordon Edgar and Peter Wilson.

Gorpeton began as a 7ft by 1ft 3ins ‘practice’ layout but just like Topsey ‘it grew’. In brief, it is a fictional double fiddle yard to terminus layout with a number of opportunities and challenges.

Gorpeton Blymee represents a GWR branch line at the end of the Company’s existence in the late 1940’s just as the new British Railways took over. It would have been an intermediate stop on a through line but it became the inadequate terminus of a branch when the owner’s funds ran out. The line was given a new lease of life with the development of the manufacturing company Wilgar and Edson. In the early 30’s Wilgar and Edson expanded rapidly and later, during the war, Wilgar and Edson undertook increasing amounts of MOD work. All the work is ‘hush, hush’ and so secret that we, (its creators) have no idea what they make. To shunt, the factory Wilgar and Edson made some astute purchases of second-hand motive power. What with the entrance to the factory, the station area and goods yard, it can be a challenge to work and drivers and signalmen are kept on their toes.

Horton Road
David Round and Barry Moorhouse, Wimborne Railway Society.

Horton Road is a 7mm scale fictitious Southern British Railways club layout. It is a terminus station with normal railway facilities including a goods branch. This layout has recently been upgraded to DCC operation.

Ins and Outs
Stuart Farmer

Presented in N gauge this layout was originally built by the Romford Model Railway Club in 2001. It was purchased by the present entrant in 2015 and recently renovated and expanded. This ‘layout is a great example of what you can fit into a very small space. It has two interweaved figures of eight with two stations. The rolling stock is varied with some old, some new and even the odd visit from someone Blue (Thomas).

Longmoor Military Railway
Ray Oliver

This layout has been previously featured in the Railway Modeller, Model Rail, Backtrack, Steam World and Locomotives Illustrated.

This ‘N’ gauge layout takes its inspiration from The Longmoor Military Railway which consisted of 70 miles of sidings in an area 8 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. Although thoroughly researched from an historical point of view, because of scale it is only possible to give an impression of this vast complex. The left hand end of the layout represents Oakhanger, the first station after the interchange at Bordon. The middle part shows some of the siding complexes and the right hand end, the main camp workshops and barracks.

Parracombe
Peter Hollins

Situated a few miles south of the preserved Woody Bay station in North Devon, Parracombe Halt was on the 2ft. gauge Lynton to Barnstable railway that ran 19 miles across the edge of Exmoor to connect Lynton with the standard gauge LSWR network at Barnstable Town station. This layout is modelled in 4mm scale and set in the 1920’s when there was a change of ownership from the independent Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Co to the Southern Railway.

After 60 years of disuse the Lynton and Barnstable Railway is now operating again. The line is being reopened in stages and will be extended as funds permit. Literature promoting the preservation society is available to whet your appetite.

SGK-bahn
David Ward

Layout featured in the February 1982 edition of the ‘Continental Modeller’.

The Saxeten Gemeinde Karren-bahn is set in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland around the village of Saxeten. It is a metre gauge rack railway built to a scale of 5mm to one foot – very close to S scale.

The origins of the railway lie in the end of the 1890’s, when the villagers of Saxeten saw the Berner Oberland Bahn (opened in 1890) bring increased prosperity to the villages of the Lutschinen valleys. Accordingly a plan was developed to link Saxeten with Grisalp and Kiental, with a railway running towards the Rengglipass. To leave their options open the promoters only registered the initials SGK but as so often happens with railways of fancy, the funding ran out before any tangible mileage was built. The villagers were left with a few metres of track and a desire to make something useful of a questionable legacy.

The annual rainfall in the Saxeten valley provides the means via hydro-electric generators to run an electric railway and the villagers used this resource to provide themselves with local transportation. In the tradition of under-funded railways, the railway made use of stock cast off by the other mountain railways in the region. The railway adopted the slang name ‘Saxeten Gemeinde Karren-bahn’ from its initials, which translates as Saxeten Community Barrow Railway.

The model uses rack assistance to negotiate the steep inclines. All the stock is scratch built, and the locomotives use Fleischmann, Hornby or hand built chasses. The track is a mixture of hand built and proprietary.

Please note – in the real world, there isn’t a railway in Saxeten. However other similarly fanciful railway schemes in the region were proposed in all sincerity.

Solent Summit
Bob Norris, Gosport Club

This large ‘N’ gauge layout was built by members of the Gosport American Model Railway Club. It has passing loops, a station, industrial sidings, coal mine, power station, tunnel, steel viaduct, chemical plant, switching yards and countryside including canyons and desert. It was built in modules and because of available space only about half is exhibited today.

Shillingsford
Ron Randall

Set in the early 1960’s Shillingsford is a fictional terminus branch station loosely based on Shillingstone, part of the Somerset and Dorset railway. The layout is DCC controlled and almost all of the locomotives on the layout are fitted with DCC sound. All the rolling stock is fitted with Kadee couplings, giving a very pleasing operational and viewing experience.

Model Engines
David Tiller, Salisbury and District Model Engineering Society


A varied display of model engineering and model making at its best. It includes amongst other models, a beam engine, locomotives, horse drawn vehicles and marine applications.


Trade Stands
AAR Models
Andy and Ryan Lamb, aarmodels@yahoo.co.uk
Sellers of die-cast, N – OO gauge railways, base toys, uni-model loads and scenics.

Ron Lines
Ron Boreham and Annmarie Stallard, r.lines@hotmail.co.uk
Stockist of a good selection of new and quality pre-owned railway models. Also purchase unwanted model railways.

Wheels of Southsea
Jeff Purslove, jeff.purslove@talktalk.net
Purveyor of new and preloved model railways, die-cast models of all railway scales. Airfix kits, spares, books etc. We want to buy your collections.

Rotary Bookstall
A good selection of pre-owned railway books, magazines and DVDs will be on sale at very reasonable prices. All proceeds to Rotary charities and good causes.

Railway Cinema
Take a break and enjoy our vintage railway show.

Refreshments
A selection of hot and cold snacks, drinks and delicious cakes are available in the café area.

MAP (Sat Nav - Use SP6 1JF)

HILLINGDON RAILWAY MODELLERS 2018 OPEN DAYS -- SATURDAY 7th APRIL

http://www.hillingdonrailwaymodellers.co.uk/

Hope you enjoyed your Easter break and now it's time for the second Open Day of this year at Hillingdon Railway Modellers, these are popular regular events and the next one will be held on Saturday 7th April 2018.

Although it feels like a while since the last one it's good that they are here again, the open day is a great chance for myself to give a few of my Dads O Gauge models a bit of a run out as I've no room for a layout at home and I don't want them to live in boxes forever. Will hopefully get there for the afternoon with a few items in my bag to try out and given them a run as it's always a popular day and doors open to the public at 10:00am. 

Club Events For 2018

Date	Description
7 April	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)
9 June	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)
25 August	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)
27 October	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)
15 December	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)

Address 

Yiewsley Baptist Church

74 Colham Avenue
West Drayton  UB7 8HF

* the entrance is at the side of the church down a path and the doors at the end should be open, don't try and enter the main doors of the church. 

Owing to rental costs of the hall there is a cover charge of £4 but there will be two extensive O Gauge and OO Gauge Test Tracks available and have recently added a three track N Gauge circuit too (Pic Below) all up and running so if you have anything you wish to see get a good run do please come along.

N GAUGE TEST TRACK 

There are always plenty of refreshments available, Tea, Coffee and cold drinks for the youngster, in addition the freshly made bacon rolls are highly recommended. (just don't scoff them all before I get there!!)

It should be stressed that these ARE NOT exhibitions, so please bring your own locos and rolling stock to run. At busy times we may have to introduce time slots so that everyone can get a chance to operate their stock. Here's a short clip of one of the earlier open days YouTube LINK

Below you can see a busy picture of their 8 road yard in O Gauge it's a very extensive track and will give your models a very good run. A few photo's taken from the previous open days are below, if you read back to some of the earlier postings in this blog I have tried to show the variety of excellent models on show, these guys are truly experts in their craft I only wish I had some of their talents and skills.

People will bring a wide variety of stock to run, nearly all are kit built though and the skills / detail is incredible.

Everyone will get their turn I promise.

I hope that these pictures give a good indication of the size of the O Gauge test track, you can give your models a really good work out here. This formation can also transform into an exhibition layout called Grindley Brook a scenic section replaces the long straight down the back.

This layout was shown at the Warley show at the NEC Birmingham in November last year and will no doubt be available for display during 2018 again. 

A few more pictures from some of the previous Open Days, though they mostly focus on the O Gauge track there are also Test Tracks available for OO and N Gauge too. There are many society members on hand who are both extremely friendly and knowledgeable too so if you have any problems with modelling or questions they will be more than happy to try and help i am sure. 

THE BUSY OO GAUGE TEST TRACK

LONDON UNDERGROUND STOCK MAKE A WELCOME APPEARANCE

N GAUGE TEST TRACK

BRIGHTON BELLE IN "N". SOON TO REAPPEAR ON MAINLINE TOO

HOW TO GET THERE:

If you are Travelling by Car

Check here for Parking Options.

Nearest Railway Stations :

West Drayton [0.34 miles]