BEACONSFIELD MODEL RAILWAY CLUB 51st EXHIBITION [SAT 7th JULY]

LOCATION:
The Beaconsfield School, 
Wattleton Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire   HP9 1SJ

OPENING TIMES:  10.30am  -  5pm
ADMISSION:  Adults £5.00    Children £2.50 

This will be the clubs 51st Exhibition, being held once again in it's now regular 'first weekend of July' slot. As usual there will be full signposting to guide you in from whichever direction you are travelling from. Generous free car parking capacity. Free programme (while socks last). 

There should be 18 layouts on show, covering all the popular gauges and as well as the usual UK railways, representing both the American and European Continents . We should also have at least 14 Traders, offering a wide range of products, who should be able to cater for most of your needs. The club's popular own secondhand sales stand will also be in full swing. Because we are using the stage area this year, wheelchair users will be admitted free to recognise their lack of access to the stage (reached via steps). Access to the rest of the exhibition should not prove to be a problem. We have links with the Bekonscot Model Village (the oldest model village in the world) which has an extensive Gauge 1 outdoor railway. This will be open all day on 7th July and is only a short drive away from the exhibition, allowing a full day out for the family by visiting both events. Discount available for those visiting both the exhibition and model village. Our extensive professional catering is well known for it's quality and wide choice of food on offer.

List of Layouts Attending :

Avon Junction (Above) -- OO Gauge layout set during the 1940's on a cross country line in the Gloucestershire / Wiltshire area, the layout represents a typical GWR junction station. Through trains from the Southern frequently make an appearance due to wartime requirements.

Brighton East "Em" 
Canute Road "00" 
Clara-Zetkin-Stadt "H0" 
Kidmoor Light Railway "009" 
Little Histor "O" 
Midway "N" 
Oak Lane TMD (right)
00 Gauge Small TMD (Traction Maintenance Depot) layout with many features including very clever track plan to allow multiple movements of Diesels or OTMs (On Track Machines). Layout is DCC operation with working lights and signals.

Nippon Tetsudo "Z" 
Porlock "00" 
Portsea "3mm" 
Radlington "00" 
Roundhouse "Ho" 
Shellsea Harbour "00" 
Thornfield "00" 
Thunders Hill "3mm"

Tidworth "00” -- Network South East layout, plenty of varied stock of that period many in the NSE livery. This layout evolved over several years and you can see the start to finish in detail here at this LINK.

MAP

O GAUGE MODEL -- BR (ex - LNER) CLASS N5 0-6-2 [No. 69307]

Gladiator Model Kits sell a 7mm scale (O gauge) kit that builds the N5 or N4 0-6-2T. And I have to presume that it must be one of those as my father made a number of different models using Gladiator kits and I have seen at least 2 or 3 different styles of N2, N5, N7 models that he created all having slightly different unqiue fittings included with them. 

Have found some information about this class;
Built 1898, Withdrawn December 1960

Parker introduced the 0-6-2T arrangement to the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR, later GCR) in 1889 as the N4. The basic design proved successful, and in 1891 he revised the design to produce the LNER N5. The MS&LR would classify the N5s as 9F, and used class 9C and 9O for two variants (see below). The revision replaced the original Joy valve gear with Stephenson link motion. He also replaced the round-topped firebox with a Belpaire firebox. In fact, the N5 prototype MS&LR No. 7 was the first locomotive built for a British railway to use the Belpaire design. The neighbouring Beyer Peacock & Co had been using them for a few years, but all of these locomotives were built for export.

Due to the experimental nature of No. 7's firebox, eleven months elapsed before the second locomotive (No. 47) was built. This was followed shortly afterwards by a third, No. 171. This experimental batch of three became class 9C. This length trial period appears to have proved useful because a weakness in the valve gear layout was identified. The valve rods were supported by tubular slide bars fixed to the motion bracket, with the motion bracket positioned in-front of the rocking shaft. All of the production locomotives had a slightly different arrangement and were classified 9F. These had suspension links fixed in-front of the motion plate, supporting the valve rods. The rocking shaft was also behind, and this gave an indirect drive to the valve via a spindle link. This arrangement proved highly successful and was used on virtually all subsequent MS&LR/GCR locomotives and Gresley's J38s and J39s.

The design was also ordered by Parker's successors, Pollitt and Robinson, resulting in a total of 131 N5s being built between 1891 and 1901. A total of twelve batches including the experimental batch were built.

Four of these locomotives worked with other railways. Nos. 754-5 were sold by the MS&LR to the West Lancashire Railway in 1894 and painted purple. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway took over the West Lancashire Railway in 1897 and retired the two 9Fs in 1914. The other two were ordered by the Wrexham Mold & Connah's Quay Railway (WM&CQR) in 1896, and were numbered 17 & 18. The Great Central Railway (GCR) absorbed the WM&CQR in 1905 and renumbered these two engines 409 &. 410 respectively. This brought the GCR's total roster to 129, all of which entered LNER ownership in 1923. It should also be noted that the WM&CQR hired three further 9Fs from the MS&LR/GCR between 1896 and 1901.

Class N5/3 No. 9311 at Lincoln in 1948; Larger side tanks, Ross pop safety valves, and footsteps at front
With construction occurring over eleven years and twelve batches, they were built with a number of boiler of variations. 

The main trend was a general reduction in the heating surfaces of the boilers. The last six locomotives were built with what would become LNER Diagram 21. This boiler design was eventually fitted to all of the N5s. This boiler was one of the first that Robinson experimented with superheating, and a total of ten N5s had superheaters fitted between 1915 and 1923. All of the superheaters would eventually be removed. The last was removed in 1943, although No. 5410 was withdrawn in 1936 before its superheater was removed.

The first N5 to be superheated was No. 771 (LNER No. 9311) in November 1915. This was also rebuilt to increase the coal and water capacity. The smokebox was extended to take the new superheater, but the side-tanks were also extended to be inline with the front of the new smokebox. The tanks had openings to allow maintenance of the valve motion. The sides of the coal bunker were raised, and the back was curved at the top. The radial trailing axle was replaced by a pony truck, allowing tighter curves to be negotiated. When the superheater was removed in 1930, the extended bunker, tanks, and smokebox were retained. The GCR classified No. 771 as 9O, and the LNER gave it the sub-class of N5/3 in 1938. It is thought that the modifications were to allow No.771 to haul a shuttle service between Chester and Connah's Quay. However, it only worked this service for fourteen months before being re-allocated and never hauled another passenger service.

In common with most of the GCR locomotives, the original chimneys were replaced with shorter chimneys and domes to fit within the LNER Composite Loading Gauge. Unmodified locomotives were given the sub-class of N5/1, whilst the modified locomotives became N5/2. These modifications occurred between 1925 and were completed in 1938. The N5/2 designation was eventually dropped.

The N4s and N5s became the GCR's standard shunting and trip working locomotives. After finishing the last N5, the GCR only built specialised shunting locomotives, e.g. for dock and hump shunting. At Grouping, the N5s were distributed amongst twelve sheds, with large allocations at Gorton and Mexborough. Shortly after Grouping (1923), the LNER purchased large numbers of ROD O4 2-8-0s which displaced older J11 0-6-0s onto the Mexborough trip working duties. This dispersed Mexborough's N5 allocation throughout the GC system. The displaced N5s tended to take over J58 and J59 saddletanks which were being withdrawn at the same time.

In the late 1930s, the J11s also displaced many of Gorton's N5s to other duties. Some moved to Trafford Park where they hauled passenger services, and replaced J10s on their shunting duties.

During the 1940s, a number of N5s were allocated to the GN Section. N5s allocated to Bradford hauled passenger trains to Halifax via Queensbury. Copley Hill had an allocation that acted as the Leeds Central station pilot, but also hauled a number of local services during World War 2. Retford and Newark also had allocations for shunting work.

Withdrawal

The first withdrawal occurred in 1936, but only eight had been withdrawn by 1945. The remaining 121 locomotives all survived into British Railways ownership (1948). The rapid introduction of diesel shunting locomotives during the 1950s took their toll and withdrawals of the surviving N5s in the late 1950s was rapid. Many were stored during this time. Two of these stored locomotives were moved to Tyne Dock for banking duties, but this appears to have been unsuccessful as they were moved to New England after a few months.

Sheffield (Darnall) had the last large allocation, and these were replaced in 1959 by diesel shunters. Nineteen N5s survived at the beginning of 1960, and all were withdrawn before the end of the year. The last N5 was withdrawn from Gorton in December.

Preservation

The last N5 was withdrawn at the end of 1960, and none of these pioneers of the Belpaire firebox survived into preservation.

PATHFINDER TOUR -- CLASS 50s MAZEY DAY CELEBRATIONS CORNWALL

Mazey Day Cornishman

23/06/2018

Saturday 23rd June, 2018

IT’S THE MAZEY DAY CELEBRATIONS IN PENZANCE SO JOIN OUR MERRY TRAIN FOR THE ANNUAL MID-SUMMER TRIP TO CORNWALL. THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS AS WELL!

No one quite knows how long ago it was that the Cornish started to celebrate Midsummer (Golowan in the Cornish language), but it was noted as ‘an antiquity’ in 1754. After the festival was banned on the grounds of ‘health and safety’ in the 1980s(!) it was revived in 1991 and is re-established now as a leading annual event.

To get there is an absorbing journey close to the longest day of the year, being light almost from start to finish, so that you can sit back and enjoy crossing the Somerset Levels to Taunton, over the Blackdown Hills and down to Exeter. At the water’s edge we run along the Exe Estuary and out onto the famed sea-wall, then inland to Newton Abbot and steeply up and down along the edge of Dartmoor to Plymouth before the crossing of the River Tamar using Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge into Cornwall.

There is little straight or level track right through the county to journeys end, but there are deep valleys and lofty viaducts amidst delightful scenery, past Liskeard to Lostwithiel and through St. Austell to Truro, where you may alight for a four hour break. Continuing west we reach St. Erth, where we set down passengers for the branchline train (local return fare around £4) to picturesque St. Ives, a small town that offers something for everyone - beaches, specialist shops, harbour and even a Tate Gallery.

Five miles west is lines end at Penzance, where the Mazey Day festivities will be in full flow, including colourful parades, music, stalls and the like. For something different, the bus station is adjacent to the railway station and offers local journeys to Lands End, Mousehole and Marazion (for St. Michael’s Mount).

MOTIVE POWER IS EXPECTED TO BE A PAIR OF CLASS 50 LOCOMOTIVES WORCESTER TO PENZANCE AND RETURN, WITH A DB CARGO CLASS 66 NORTH OF WORCESTER.

Estimated Timings
Joining Stations	Depart	Return
Tame Bridge Parkway	0510	2340
Birmingham New St.	0530	2320
Stourbridge Jn	0555	2255
Kidderminster	0610	2240
Droitwich Spa	0630	2220
Worcester Shrub Hill	0700	2150
Cheltenham Spa	0725	2125
Cam & Dursley	0745	2105
Bristol Parkway	0805	2045