Newport Model Railway Society: What do you do?

A really good evening had by all...yet more wood butchery and not a mechanical cutting device in sight! We are months ahead of schedule with the new boards and test track upgrade, which is great news. The bad news is that we have a substantial leak in the layout room. This room has a flat roof and we have now got water ingress, unfortunately it is very near to the layout and computers that we use to control Hazelhurst, and in the past Belle Vue. Hopefully, today TFC is meeting with some of the people responsible for the upkeep of the premises to get this sorted.
We had a few members missing - other than those in poor health - the Chairman was out proving that it is possible to be as silly as those he teaches (for another 5 working days), Lazy-bones Hall or should that be Cassidy Hall (hop-along) was out enjoying himself, Paddington, who seems to have forgotten that the marmalade has now been restocked and Widger the younger, still having to earn a crust with the NHS.

Ray and Alistair getting stuck into board 4 of 6.

The next photo is for all supermodels everywhere, be jealous, be very jealous. I just hope that the club relic is not starting a new career once this picture has been viewed.

Claudia Schiffer eat your heart out...

The youth section popped in for a brief visit, having been to the dentist to have a wisdom tooth out. It was pointed out that now one has been removed, he'll actually think like the rest of us, on a mere mortal plane and not be reaching the lofty heights of thought, that he usually does. The latest thought to emanate from Steve is the use of glass for laying the track on for the new P4 layout, not as surreal as it sounds if you really think about it. I'm in the minority of members who's quite taken with this idea, to the extent that I've managed to source a cheap supply of polycarbonate glass. Virtually indestructible, but can be sawn and drilled...hmmm, worth thinking about this! Especially as there's a test track to build - for which we have a track plan, thanks to Rod - once the 7mm boards are complete.
So, nearly all the corner boards are done and then we have to do the same proceedure to 4 of the straights so that it will all line up. Couple more weeks and that'll be the lot done and then its on to track laying. We've already bought all the points that we're going to need and a bit of a result here, we have not paid over £25 a point, fabulous! August the 8th is a date for your diaries, this is when we are going to put it all up and align everything.

A fair old few missing this week...disappointing, considering the amount of progress that has been made.

Last night we started strengthening the sides of the test track that will form the corners of Hazelhurst mk2. TFC the wise had made a jig to cut out the strips required to strengthen the existing sides. Why strengthen the sides I hear you ask...I shall tell you...when the test track is erected and joined up it was noticed that the corners of the layout had a tendancy to sag...badly! So we needed to apply some more wood (4mm ply) to the sides. It was also an opportunity to modify the sides of the track to allow it to become stackable in the frame that we've already built. As usual, things didn't go to plan...when you start off with a strip of 4mm ply eight foot long and two feet wide, and you want 90mm strips, that's 90mm strips not 94 or 93 or 88, but 90. After twenty minutes cutting with a jig-saw and fence, you have accumulated, well, sawdust and scrap! Ohh and one strip the right width! But the wood butchers carried on regardless and got the job done...by hand, mechanised cutting stuff is so over-rated, don't you think?
It was about now that the Club Relic joined the thralled masses, noticed what was going on, spied the pack of nails on the workbench and realised there was hammering to do. With a turn of speed that Linford Christie would have been proud of, Ray had got himself a hammer! From them on there was no stopping him! Fortunately these days Conan gets tired quite quickly.

Ray gets stuck in...

Elsewhere in the club, life was a little more sedate. Cue one Rodney Hall, back fresh from this lecture tour of outer Newport leisure facilities. See the NAGNAG website for details on this. Rod was back at the wagon chassis building, I have to say he's now stockpiling them quite nicely and really getting through the work.

A picture of concentration...

I was having a torrid affair with a new kit. A BR Standard class 5 from the 'late' Mr Gibson. I was having all sorts of fun putting the tender together, having formed a number of other parts to help in the construction of the tender, the whole thing went together pretty well.

Nothing Mickey Mouse about this tender.

So, at the end of the evening we had one board restored, cut a lot more strips - accurately - had seen that the stacking system works and enjoyed ourselves by laughing away the goofs and gaffs that happen along the way.

Widger the younger in action...

I've left this photo 'til last, as I know how excited people get when they recognise someone who is famous...Widger the younger figured quiet heavily in one of the heavy weight modelling magazines. GQ or was it Cosmopolitan, one or the other. Anyway, Paul agreed that I could reproduce his likeness on the web and waived his appearance fee at the club last night!

And if the youth section is reading this, my pewter bits have turned up...wink, wink!

That's it for this week, more fun next week...when hopefully one or two more members may show up!

Not much of a report to give this week as it involves more wood butchery...however the back of this work is now well and truly broken! The youth section and myself completed the remaining fiddle yard boards. These need to be proven, that its make sure they sit correctly and butt up properly, so there are no horrendous gaps between boards. However, we did cut down to size one of the old fiddle yard boards from Belle Vue. A certain amount of tension ensued as a jealous club relic watched as the youth section got to play with the circular saw, and ripped the sides and ends off.

Dave and TFC were busying themselves with putting together the now finished rack for the van to transport 'Hazelhurst mk2' about. If we'd had a couple of 6 year olds around they'd have a great time swinging off this lot.

In the course of putting this up, we found a few mistakes from the old frame had crept in...sometimes you just can't get rid of bad pennies! The errant pieces of this particular jigsaw have now - eventually - been binned, and good riddance! You can see the folding legs at the bottom of the picture. What this picture doesn't show is the centre supports, the ones we fitted were from the mk1 version and wrong dimentionally!

In between finishing jobs off, Dave was pondering building a kit, having cut the frames out and read the instructions, put it all back in the box, for when he was feeling braver! Lazy bones Hall, was having a field day, not only had he succeeded where a whole drawing office had failed, but he was also in the throws of organising another trip to Mick Wakefields, which reminds me Widger the younger has agreed to get Hammy up and completed by the time we go...Deltic HAH!!. Getting back to this drawing office thing...Rod has produced the template for a test track which he manged to print off with no problem. I took the same file to be printed off a 5 foot printer and would it print, would it heck! Took 3 CAD experts an hour and a half to present me with a 3 foot picture - when it should have been 14 feet long. This plan will need club approval and then a costing to be submitted to the planning committee, who will pass this on to the club accountants after they've added their 10%! And you thought polotics was dirty! Actually we'll just build it and see how much it costs...

Dave studiously reading the instructions, before turing into a well known white meat!

The usual gang were missing, Paddington did pay a visit on Wednesday evening, but he was just checking the marmalade situation - still none - Tall Tony T still very unwell and Nobby and Big Bill...who knows! Good news on the Chairmans wife, feeling much better and taking orders for breakfast in bed. Personnaly, I think Dave just took one tablet too many and was seeing things! A woman... serving breakfast... to a man ...in bed, nah it'll never happen!

So there we go, another great evening of fun and closer to starting the real work on Hazelhurst...track laying and scenic stuff.

Plenty of wood engineering again this week on the baseboards. The youth section and I put in the longitudinal supports on baseboards, well one actually before I ran out of steam - thats' my excuse and I'm sticking to it! Dave joined in for a few more, before we'd run out of these supports and we had to make another batch.

TFC, ever mindful of health and safety, watched from a safe distance. Unfortunately, Ray - club relic - had found the paint brushes and was giving the doors to the new cupboard a good seeing to, with paint. After an hour or so TFC rescued the brushes from any more savagery! You just can't trust these old engineers with any tool but a glass hammer!

Lazy bones Hall scampered in late, well not so much scampered...more hobbled in, to unveil his weeks work on 'Templot', the modern day answer to the Spanish Inquistions comfy chair! Rod has done amazingly well and produced a full scale track plan of Little Mill Junction as it was in 1955. This was a real step forward, however and there is always a 'however' at these moments, it is a huge undertaking. We may have wanted to make a statement with our next P4 layout, but I think I'd like to be able to play with it in my lifetime. Some serious thought will have to be given to which parts are removed, squashed and generally shortened. But, for now I can show you the proposed track plan for LMJ (at one-tenth full size)...

Another really good week, with lots done to the baseboards and should see them complete in another week or so.

Missing in action again this week, Paddington - no marmalade in the club to attract him, Nobby and Big Bill. Still unwell is Tall Tony T, whos' off to the hospital on Monday for more pulling about and the Chairmans' wife Chrissy (who makes very good cakes), still recovering from having been pulled about. So pretty please, get well soon! There has been a mention of a club BBQ, I just have to work on my wife a little longer...a year should see it done!


	What do you do?