Newport Model Railway Society: What do you do?

The majority of photographs in his section were taken with an Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom Camera. The aperture was fixed at its minimum setting (f8.0) and the shutter speed was automatically adjusted. No flash was used. The camera was placed on the layout for stability and it was fired using the push button thingy supplied. The photos were digitally "got at" (straightening, doing away with perspective problems, cropping and some image enhancement) using the Paintshop Pro PHOTO X2 Ultimate programme.

The original Belle Vue & South Coast Direct Railway "Hazelhurst" was on the Southern Region . We have tried to follow prototype dimensions in the building, drawing up and laying of the scratch built track. We have standardised on B8 turnouts. A D14 and a C12, together with a B6 Y are also there somewhere. The track is laid to 31mm gauge to provide better running and appearance, whilst allowing standard Slaters wheels still to be used in the rolling stock.

Most, if not all, locos are either sprung or compensated and are chipped, for the layout is DCC controlled. All available routes are programmed into the computer programme running software compatible with Lenz DCC.

When we put the layout up a week ago last Saturday the track joint between the test track board and the Carriage Works end of the scenic bit of the layout was cobbled together so that things would run.

Not exactly a thing of beauty! There were various faults (for which I naturally got the blame as I was the one who tried to make it work). The two most significant of which were that the gauge on the joint was nearer 34mm than 32mm and that the joint formed a nice apex which upset rigid vehicles no end. The kink that you can see in the track on the scenic board is where the gauge widened from 31mm.

To cut a long story short, the test track baseboard was raised, the apex flattened as much as possible and the gauge and alignment sorted. Steve’s Merchant Navy, which is as rigid a chassis as you could find AND fitted with S7 profile wheels now runs through, so fingers crossed.

Ray also commenced ballasting the track on the new scenic end. Most of us have done this sort of thing at one time or another so there’s no need to say much about it.

A good game played slow(ly), this ballasting malarkey, and not the most interesting of jobs either.

Finally, a shot down the layout showing a new engine getting ready to appear on Hazelhurst.

This Beattie Well Tank was built from a Roxey Kit and is off to the Steve Neill paint shop to be made black. He didn’t build it though. More information when finished.

Well, Saturday’s come and gone and Mike has put up photographs showing what happened. I took some too. However, apart from a few they would only duplicate what Mike has already put up for viewing.

This first photograph shows a view up the layout looking towards the station. Taken early (!) in the morning the photo should show that the mist hasn’t quite cleared. (WOT! INDOORS!) The Carriage Works is the large building to the right with the Traverser Pit in the centre. The windows of the building are Bill’s (Bedford) etchings and what appears to be railway rubbish at the trackside top left are the exposed point motors. These will be replaced with servos.

That Kisssing Gate still hasn’t been toned down. It’s supposed to be a standard Southern concrete one.

It’s a wonder you can’t hear Lionheart the Pannier doing its stuff. Yes, there is DCC sound on board and Lionheart huffed and puffed its way around the layout hauling a shortish train of those very nice wagons. Alastair built the wagons and owns the whole train and very nice it looked, too. I think that everybody enjoyed the sight and sound of his train, all except for one dedicated curmudgeon who enjoyed the sight but expressed doubt as to the sound. Yes, I’m still not convinced!

Steve also gave his “Schools” the chance to stretch its legs hauling a rake of Slater’s Maunsells. Allegedly, this Loco has the ability to compensate in four planes at once. Now that’s a good trick if you can do it.

And finally, my own personal favourite. Not only were the 4-4-0’s the archetypal British Passenger Loco for many decades (my opinion) but many were beautiful lookers as well. Beautiful “Beatrice” on the Midland, later Johnson Locos, the “Dunalastairs” up in the great northlands, the later Adams 4-4-0’s down South and these Wainwright D’s; and this list is not exhaustive.

But this D of Steve’s and its short Train of Birdcages makes a handsome train. Only the PLV is missing, and that’s available.

Firstly the area for the woodyard on the left has had its scenic base completed, Widger's Furniture Depository has had the possible position of windows and doors sketched in on a paper overlay and now has the carcase of a roof. The base for the road sweeping down to the station, and the commencement of the bedding down process for the building, has been started using bits of polystyrene packaging and tiles and the retaining wall has the appropriate batter to it.

Camera couldn't really cope with the degree of contrast/brightness created by all that highly reflective white polystyrene close to the lens.

Next, a photograph of a Wainwright P on a Goods Train. This shows just how massive these engines were. More info is on the Locos of Hazelhurst page.

Steve also brought down his nearly completed unrebuilt Merchant Navy. This loco has serious gravitas, not only in its sheer presence but also in its weight! Big but nice though, don't you think? I'll put the information up about it when it's complete.

It seems a long time since any additions were made to this part of the site, but that doesn't mean that nothing has been done.

I hope you can see that the scenic base seems to be more coherent - and permanent. Wood yard to go on the left, Two rows of buildings to give depth behind one of the two bridges and a large building (Widger's Genuine Reproduction Furniture) to the right. The gap between this building and the railway will be the road sweeping down to the station.

And then a view in the other direction. The Furniture Factory is deliberately at an angle to hide an "exit". Wonderful model of a bridge, don't you think? Holding the camera is the other half of the Widger Dynamic Duo - Young Widger, son of Relic. These two are primarily responsible for most of the effort at this end.

No pictures this week, for you can only take so many photographs of track laying, or arrangements of cat-food boxes that represent scenery. Needless to say, problems have arisen and hopefully been sorted, efficiently (I hope) if not exactly elegantly.

The development of the scenic end continues with the basic support shell now being put into place. Although the supports appear to be vertical they are placed far enough back from the track to allow the actual model retaining walls to have the correct batter.

Dave has fettled the trackwork a little, and fishplates (the etched variety) have been put in to improve some dubious track end alignment. Also some overly large gaps at rail ends have been filled with solder and filed into a rail-like profile.

More track laying. This time the coaches are there to see if calculated clearances in the fiddle are really there. They are, thank goodness. But; there’s a skill in laying flexi-track and I’m told that it’s faster than making and putting down your own. It’s a skill that I don’t think I possess. Steve seems good at it, though. All that gluing and pin walloping seems to be calming for his soul.

Not exactly a flattering photograph of an industrious worker, but all my photos are time exposures so some blurring of movement is certain.

I’m sure that you’ll be glad to know that these are the final photographs of the servos that I’ll put on this page until we have progressed further along this particular element of boys and their toys effort.

This photo shows the tools needed to fit the servo. Viz, a sharpish knife and an 8 BA clearance drill. This last piece of precision kit is an “about right”. Because our boards have a 4mm ply top, supported underneath by more 4mm ply set on edge, a sharp knife does the business with the hole. The actual servo fixing holes are then used to mark where the holes are drilled through the ply. Would you believe that the servo is then fixed by screwing the 8BA bolt down through the ply, the blind fixing hole, tapping its own thread in the plastic, and then a nut is screwed onto the bolt.?Job done, with only attachment to the turnouts and the adjustments to throw and speed of throw to be done.

This magnificent, architectural design shows how we think a low level Goods entrance to the station may be affected. The Station Gates seen in another photo will be taken from their present site and used to plug the gap next to the cat food box. You’ll have to use a desperate amount of imagination to picture the thing in its finality, but we’re assured by young Widger that it’ll work.

Here we have a bit more of a “thisiswotwethinkwewant” type shot. The pub fits into the triangle formed by two of the roads so our version may be called “The Isoscles Arms” or something similar.

Using cat and dog food boxes for the mock up introduces a degree of irony. The centre of the layout features a slaughterhouse and meat cannery, to the right is a glue factory and leather works so it’s only right that the factory forming the backscene at this end should be a pet food manufactory.

And finally a view down the layout. You can see the station gates in their present position. Heaven knows what the grey boxes represent, but the open space bottom right may end up with a wood yard on it.

Well, two important developments tonight. The first one is that we are now some way towards firming up the scenic arrangements for the end. I enclose a rough (very rough) sketch of the sort of thing that Dave maybe has in mind and two photographs which show the haphazard way, but empirical, way the scheme was arrived at.

The first photo shows the road to the station in the foreground together with the other roads sort of in position. The houses immediately to the front represent some sort of factory, Furniture, Agricultural Machinery or probably something else. This mock-up is all a hotchpotch, probably makes little sense to a casual viewer and in all honesty makes less sense to me, but there again I’m a philistine over this sort of thing. The important point is that Dave seems to think it shows promise.

The next Photo shows the arrangement from track level. It shows that the bridge could, if necessary, be brought even further forward, and that if there is either a steep embankment or a retaining wall in front of the road to the station then these two things will combine to help disguise the sharpness of the end curve. That’s the theory anyway.

Next we have the second and even more important thing. Not a tremendously exciting photo but an exciting outcome. Our Servo point motors. This piccie shows two servos mounted next to Peco Turnouts. It gives an indication of the small size of the servo itself and how easy it is to mount. This photo was taken early in the evening before three more were fitted. The necessary Module was fitted, electrically connected to the four servos which it controls, the moving arm of the servo connected to the point tie-bar with a length of 0.8mm Nickel Silver wire and the necessary throw and speed of throw for the four units programmed in. Result! Four operating turnouts without any of the fixing hassle associated with conventional point motors. All ready to be linked into the DCC System, although they are test-controlled by simple switches at present. Outcome justifies considering replacing point motors on front of layout. Cost per turnout is less than £6. Well done, Steve.

Well, now that I’m back at the club again I suppose we’d best get back down to business and give some indication of what’s going on with Hazelhurst.

First picture shows the preliminary track setting out at the Carriage Works end of the Fiddle Yard. What is obvious from this is that, unlike the other end, it is just a single line entry. This single/double line entry or exit arrangement provided a few headscratching moments with regards to the design of the fiddle yard to make it possible to carry out the train movements that we wanted, but I think it’s all been settled now.

In the background you can see the baseboard from what is also the test track starting to curve around towards the scenic front of the layout. I think you can assume that the tasteful shade of green might be due for replacement and that the wiring will be tidied up. The boards are aligned with Red Dogs and clipped together with over-centre clips.

We have also made a rather fundamental decision which will affect future projects as well as Hazelhurst. All turnouts are to be operated by Servo motors. These have distinct advantages provided you can get your head around the electronics involved, but even this isn’t too complex because groups like MERG provide the wherewithal. The advantage of Servo motors is that not only are the cheap ones small enough and powerful enough for our purposes but they can be programmed to give accurate throw. This isn’t the place to go into it in any detail, but a servo can be tailored to suit a turnout, both for throw to the right and throw to the left. This means that a point motor no longer is a “one type fits all” jobby and has to be carefully fitted in position and fiddled with, but can now be fitted in the approximate place and made to custom fit the turnout in a matter of moments using software. Great! Especially in P4!

This next picture shows some more tentative arrangements for the “scenic end”. I did go onto the internet and found some rather nice Georgian Terraced Houses (pictures and plans are on the beautifully modelled grass) which might have fitted along the back, but they just didn’t look right. None of this work is mine, it all belongs to Dave, and its gradually getting there. Steve brought along his unrebuilt MN to see if it would go around the curves without binding. Seems OK and the pictures which go some way to proving this were taken by Mike and are probably on the "Goings On" page.

What with one thing and another it's been some time since this part of the site was updated. It's been pretty obvious, though, that things haven't been standing still and that a lot of important, non-glamorous ground work has been done. This can all be seen in the Goings On section.

Well, here we are, looking down the length of the scenic side of the layout from the start of the end curves. These curves aren't quite the generous radii that we would prefer them to be, but you cut your suit according to the cloth, or so I'm told. There is still a minimum amount of transition there - enough to avoid the straight/bend/straight syndrome.

The shiny finish to this new baseboard top shows that at one time in its life it was a fiddle yard board fro Belle Vue. We waxed it to give a good slidy surface on which to glide the cassettes holding the 4mm trains. That was the idea at any rate.

The charming and attractively placed pieces of hardboard give an indication where the platforms will finish. That's a considerable length of train.

Obviously looking in the other direction. You can see where some of our existing track has been adjusted to take into account the 31/32 mm change of gauge. The lack of super-elevation on the curves is deliberate. The very basic wiring is all above baseboard, and the chunky, gray blocks do represent something or other but at present are simply shapes that can be shoved around to give a convincing (hah!) representation of the basic scenic content. Sounds good, though.

In this photo you can see Ray painting glue onto the already existing sides of the test track. The new deeper side with its notched ends is waiting to be nailed, glued and screwed into position. The holes in the square section timber are the female end of Red Dog Alignment dowels.

Here, the new deeper side has been clamped into its correct position on top of the pre-existing, but shallow, side and fixed with annular nails. You can see their heads following the marked line. The next job was to use 4x1/2" screws to fix the two sides together. In this photo only the one side has been fitted. The other side can wait until next Wednesday.

To the left of the photo you can see the way that the boards can now stack. They still need some extra bits added. eg, some solid timber fillers of the correct size to go on top of the end square section and up against the sides both to bring everything square (see top of stack) and give a proper, solid bearing area for the stacking boards. You can't really rely on two strips of 4mm ply, albeit that they are on end.

And of course, some bits need to be taken away; namely the bits of the screws which are sticking through the ply sides.

I think that Mike has lost the roll of linoleum he was carrying under his arm. Either that or he's posing, hoping that someone will cast him as the new Ronald Coleman. Some hope!

More woodwork this week. There's a proper production line going now on the modifications to the test track. I'll probably take some photos of the progress and what the end result is next week. I will say that the individual boards now seem much more rigid and that they do stack.

If I mention a ratio of 1 to 12, I wonder if that will mean anything to anybody in this baseboard context?

No piccies this week as Mike has covered this in The Goings On Section. In any case, I'm not sure that adapting the test track ends so that they can stack is really rivetting stuff! However, the evening did show that when a degree of accuracy is required cutting an 8' length of 4mm ply then a hand saw beats a jig saw, even when it has a substantial piece of timber used as a fence.

Of course, this stacking business is just the start process in the refurbishment of the ends. They are being strengthened so that they won't sag so much along their length and a support will probably have to be incorporated to prevent them drooping across their width. We'll see.

And then of course we can start to look at the actual trackwork - smooth curves, uneven baseboard joints and all that.

No report for last week as all we did was to work on the rack. Mike took some photos of it and it appears in the Goings On section.

However, this week some important work was done on the new baseboard which forms the scenic section at one end of the layout. This was originally one of the end fiddle yards for the P4 Belle Vue layout which used a cassette storage system, which is why it is trackless. The board has been delicately, and carefully altered, the surgery being performed with a large hammer, a brutal circular saw and a jig saw with a blade having a tooth pitch suitable for cutting down Giant Redwoods! And there are some who still insist that railway modelling is an Art-Form.

Well, there it is in position and you can just see the very roughly drawn track alignment swinging off to the right. Obviously a hole has to be cut in the backscene to allow the tracks through. The end facing you has to have a ply front put on, too. Any ideas about scenery?

We also erected the fiddle yard to see if the new boards and trestle system worked. It did, thankfully, although to make it fit the height of the front of the layout which is supported on beams, we'll have to shorten the trestle legs. This was expected and the legs were made overlong to take this into account. So here's the article, all 28' of it. The baseboard ends aren't our usual construction but are solid timber, although the sides are our normal Ply/18mm*18mm sandwich.

More wood butchery this week. The ply has been cut into strips and the ten new supporting strips made. These have been put to one side to let the glue set: however, the already made up ones have been fitted to the underside of one baseboard.

We have found that perhaps it is possible to use -with some surgery- baseboards that are already made, to make up the new boards needed to turn Hazelhurst into a roundy-roundy. We'll see. No photos of wodworking but a photo of the entrance to the Carriage Works. That Kissing Gate still needs toning down a bit!

No pictures from me this week, but I'm sure Mike will have some on the Club's Goings On page.

The problem with the rack has been fixed and we can now get the side into the club room. We carried on building the other side but ran out of enthusiasm. It also needed to be assembled in the main hall and that was being used by the ladies playing Bingo. Enter there at your peril.

The remaining two yard baseboards were assembled from the already fabricated component parts, so we now have the shells of the baseboards needed, all 28' of them. We need the supporting strips fitted under the tops to stop them bowing. Ray and Paul made up six, but we will have to get some more ply cut because we need sixteen. Although it doesn't seem much, I feel that a lot of progress was made tonight.

Building the new cupboard, and filling it, in another nearby part of the Leisure Centre has certainly freed up a lot of space in the main workroom. It looks indecently empty although I'm sure a visitor would not think so. Enough space to build 7'x3' baseboards at any rate.

Update. You remember the old story of the man who built a boat in his bedroom and then couldn't get it out? Well, for boat, think new rack. For bedroom think clubroom and for getting things out think putting things in.

Still, a few hinges should ease the problem. As I've told some of the rest of the club, the damn thing is hanging from sky hooks shoehorned into the end of the layout room.

You would think that after all the years spent drawing schemes on the back of crisp packets I wouldn't have neglected what is perhaps the most important point. Getting it in and out of the clubroom!

Just to show that we are up to something there are a few pictures. These are the embryo sides for the new rack. Not exactly exciting, are they?

And the following photos show where the present layout ends and the new bits have to be tacked on.

This is at the right hand end of the layout where the single track disappears underneath the walkway connecting the disparate parts of Tom Phillips' Carriage Works. The left hand track is the station Goods Yard Headshunt. Presently, the world ends just after the white electric cable. The public is to the right of this picture so would never see the mess under the walkway. Frankly, neither have I, and it's only because I shoved the camera into a totally unviewable position that it has become apparent.

This is the other end of the layout and shows where the new scenic section has to go. Captivating, isn't it? No? Well removal of what passes for scenery shouldn't be too difficult. The wall in front of the station building's just gotta go!

You can see that even the ends of our baseboards are made from our normal plywood beams.

This really is the place where it's all going to happen. The wall to the right will go, the small tump of "earth" removed and the dog should be able to see the rabbit as far as the new scenery is concerned. The bit of Chepstow Castle wall must go. Paddington is supposed to be thinking about what form the scenery will take. Suppose we'd best get in some more marmalade and a few loaves of bread.

The purpose of this photo is to show that we did consider using the left hand track of the Bay as the new Main Up Line. This would have meant sweeping away the station building, and frankly, making the curves at the end of the layout a bit iffy with regard to radius.

At any rate, Steve's D is there in all its Dingham coupling glory and just out of shot is the Birdcage Set which runs with it. The couplings (and uncoupling) seem to work very well.

Last photo for now. Once again the D is up against the station blocks. This is the wall that will be swept away, the left hand track becomes the Down Main and the right hand track the Up Main. A new "half" platform will go to the left of the Down Main. That's the best we can do without having a bolt-on piece to the front of the layout and build a complete platform on it.

The stop blocks on the wall, placed over the adverts look pretty convincing don't they? Yeah, right.

No photos because nothing really exciting happened last night worthy of the name. We spent loads of money on timber etc and brought it to the club, then started to make new bits for the enlarged transport rack. Dimensions are tight on this!

At any rate, after this, the test track ends were laid on the floor of the main hall in our premises and, using the floor tiles as templates and a totally unmanageable powered tape, critical dimensions such as track radii, etc. were measured off. We can now produce drawings showing just how the new scenic board, test track ends and fiddle yards will actually fit. More wood butchery looms.

Still, Hazelhurst has been put up as in its previous guise, some sticky point motors freed (what do you expect after not being used for over 12 months?), a few tie bars come unsoldered and the layout is now talking to the computer. We could have run it, I suppose, but we didn't have the memory stick with the appropriate software on it. Instead we ran it manually using the Roco unit and trundled a G6 up and down. Steve also brought his under construction Maunsell Push-Pull Set, so we pulled and pushed it along the layout. As expected, it ran smoothly like practically all of our other 7mm stock because not only is it compensated (in this case with Wayoh bogies) but also benefits from having flanges on its wheels. I suppose I'd best show willing and surprise the ungodly by taking my Beattie Well Tank along next week. Now this is definitely cousin of clunker for it's rigid and has no compensation or springing of any sort. It'll be interesting to see how it runs. At least the pick-up should cause no problems as it's split axled throughout.

I've cleared out this page except for a couple of photos, which give the merest hint of what Hazelhurst may be about, because of recent, kind comments, and also that work is now starting in earnest on the reconstruction of the layout.

Hazelhurst will no longer be the terminus that the Belle Vue & South Coast Direct Railway originated but will become a through station with a most idiosyncratic track plan. Why, I don't hear you ask? Simply that we are fed up with trying to operate end to end jobbies and secondly exhibition managers ask for a roundy-roundy. So, bearing the fact that these last gentlefok are cost conscious we are going to try to keep to the same size van that we used to transport the previous incarnation of Hazelhurst and Belle Vue (R.I.P.).

2. Refurbish both the construction and the trackwork of the curved ends from the test track, shown below, both to make them more robust but more importantly allow them to stack.

5. Lay the track in the fiddle yard after mating up the test track ends with it.

7. And on the seventh day we'll have a rest. And think about the scenery. And think about timetables. And think about everything else that comes to mind.

And finally, the notice at the end of the platform warning enginemen not to use the track to get to the Loco Yard. This doesn't refer to the poky little Loco Shed at Hazelhurst, but to the much more important Loco facilities which were based a couple of hundred yards up the track at Hazelhurst Junction.


	What do you do?