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 8 programme.

"Hazelhurst" was on the Southern Region and our model is as it was in 1956. We have tried to follow the prototype in the building of the layout and in the drawing up and laying of the scratch built track. Some foreshortening of the trackwork was necessary and 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.

The graphic is a screen grab of what the operator sees. On the right you can see the various routes which have been programmed, e.g. 1. FY to Passenger Main. Clicking on this and then confirming will set the route and signals. Obviously, you can do this for any of the routes given in the right hand panel. The route then shows on the track diagram.

However, you can also set up a timetable, and this is shown in the bottom panel. As each move is completed, you just click on the next one and confirm. At any time you can go back to using the right hand panel routes and then return to the timetable. Again, the route is shown.

This is just a brief outline of how the system works. I haven't gone into details of how, for example, signals are returned to on.

Some explanation is in order for this part of the site. We've returned from the Bristol MR Show and now it is the turn of the P4 layout "Belle Vue" to be put up in the club rooms. So Hazelhurst has to be stored on the bottom level of the storage rack/layout support that we have. Consequently new photographs of the 7mm layout are going to be thin on the ground for a while.

However, as a consequence of an outbreak of common sense we have decided to scrap the present fiddle yard arrangement of 8' traverser et al, and rebuild the whole lot not as a series of fixed sidings with kick backs as we originally proposed, but as a continuous run. This will use part of the test track which was recently purchased. It means that we can speed up operation, run more locos, but more importantly still have the yard sidings under DCC control. The yard man then will have little, if anything, to do and the speed of progression through a timetable will not depend on how fast and adept he is. It also means that we can use proprietary Streamline Track and yours truly won't have to make all those B6 single slips which were an integral part of our first thoughts.

So what I propose is this. I'll put up a series of photographs showing Hazelhurst at various times in its development, but I'll also put a sort of diary which will indicate progress made on the new fiddle yard. I'll also put in some snaps from time to time showing how the actual yard track work is progressing.

So, first things first. How about some new baseboards? We'll need thin ply, 25mm (or thereabouts) square timber, staples, glue and effort to make two boards about 3' wide. Near enough the same width as a panel door? Nah! Bespoke baseboards to do the job, not a botch up for convenience sake.

Evidently as a result of Bristol, we've been invited to the GOG Show in Telford 2009, as well as one other, perhaps, so we'd best get a move on and do something about it.

By the way. Here's a poser for anyone who is willing to respond. Do the public prefer to see big Black, or big Green Engines on an exhibition layout? Addresses on the contact page.

Nothing much to show you really. Things have been happening but it's only boring violence towards timber, and that's not exciting. One or two evenings have been spent watching P4 Belle Vue doing its best to upset us and an attempt is being made to do what I did to the 7mm Hall pick-up only in 4mm. Help is at hand in slitting axles for I've purchased a small milling machine, but using a 4mm P4 wheel that is totally insulated apart from the rim is causing a few head scratching moments. Fixed wheels are sort of ok but the compensated ones need a bit more acquired skill on the miller. And I've decided to use common sense, a thing seriously lacking, and use a razor saw to cut the channels in the back of the wheel rims and spokes. Such is life!

No wood this week, but a bit about how the pick-up is arranged on some locos. This is the tender underpinnings for an Acorn "Modified Hall". It's going to run on Hazelhurst, so I suppose it's OK to use that tenuous link to put it on this section of the site.

The system is, of course, our old friend, the split axle and was first done in this way a long time ago, a year or two before the last dinosaur became extinct and a day or two after Araldite was generally available. It's a clever trick if you can do it, and this particular reincarnation is by Steve Neill who wanted to play with his new lathe and turned up the bushes. The rest is my attempt to put theory into practice and if you look at the photographs with a less than jaundiced eye you will appreciate what an amazing armoury of modelling skills ooze from my fingers, with solder dripping everywhere and Araldite and Superglue migrating inevitably to my armpits.

Unlike most of my locos, this one is built rigid. Consequently, all the axle holes have been reamered (reamed?) to give the new bushes a proper fit and the centre hole has also been elongated vertically and eased so that the wheels can go up and down and prevent the tender from see-sawing along. The bushes themselves have flats on them and a piece of copper laminate is soldered to the frame to prevent them turning. These bushes are posing at the front of the photo being supported by engineering grade Blu-Tack.

As said, bushes are Tufnol (directplasticsonline.co.uk) top hat turnings with a piece of appropriate 3/16th ID brass tubing shoved up the middle. The brass bit extends beyond the Tufnol and has the pick up wire soldered to it. The top hat bit is obviously on the outside of the frame.

This wondrous thing is the split axle and it really does advertise my ghastly modelling prowess. In essence it's simple. Drill two holes through and join up with a piercing saw. Fill the gap with proper Araldite, not the 5 minute toffee, and put in a warm place to cure. Remove the Araldite from your hands and wrists . When cured, saw two slots across the axle to join with each hole. Fill with Araldite. Put in a warm place to cure. Scrape Araldite from armpits. Test to see that no electricity can leak from one end of the axle to the other. Spin in some sort of minidrill and remove excess Araldite with a rough bit of something or a file. Then polish with some just-rough paper. There you are. Simple!

You can see the long slot and the two cross cuts, one on the top left and the other on the bottom right.

Take one slitting disc and cut a slot just into the boss and just into the wheel rim along the back of a spoke. Hah! That's another council of perfection. You will probably melt a little of the back of the spoke and if you're like me you won't be able to cut the slot centrally down the spoke. See the photo. Nil Desperandum.

Get some thin, stiffish wire, solder into place in the gaping chasm you've made in the wheel rim, run along the slot in the back of the spoke and encourage into the matching canyon in the boss. Solder here, too. If you're fussy you can put some superglue onto the wire in the spoke slot. My elbows were glad that I had some superglue release agent handy when I did this. The solder should have filled the rim/boss gaps so rub off smooth and that's it.

Assemble wheel on axle, put in appropriate spacing washers and fit to bushed chassis. Fit other washers and wheel.

Repeat whole procedure for other axles, solder wire to each of the brass tubes poking through on the inside of the chassis and take them somehow to motor. Add a drop of Lectrolube(?) to each bearing and be amazed at how your loco runs.

But if you have a lathe you've probably done all of this already and if you haven't you think you can't, so this little homily is probably a waste of time. Such is life!

Hooray! Trestles finished! Ray and Tony T finished the baseboard sides too. Lots done.

Where on earth can we put fourteen of these things? And the baseboards which will be following in short order. Computer monitor has been replaced by a flat screen, and will now be disposed of. Computer runs GPP's SSI Software, the screen grab appears above. The work bench to the left is hawked around to all the exhibitions we attend and is probably older than many of today's generation of modellers.

I've said that we are going to utilise the test track to make Hazelhurst into a roundy-roundy, of sorts, so I've included a shot of the whole thing as it stands at the moment. Or rather, as it rests on tables.

It's only the ends that are needed for Hazelhurst, and will produce a layout about 44'x16'. Otherwise, it will still be a test track. The intention, possibly, is to put a couple of P4 tracks down the middle, too. Notice the elegant sag in the middle sections of the baseboards. Something else to be pondered about.

The hall, by the way, is not part of the clubroom but is part of the same building and is within feet of us. However, just before these photos were taken it was full of the local ladies playing Bingo. Enter then at your peril!

The hall itself is well used. Saturdays it hosts the local bagpipe band and is best avoided by sensitive souls, as we know to our pre-exhibitions cost. It gives the impression of being just the job for a small exhibition, but there are many circumstances which mitigate against this otherwise sound idea.

This next photo is not put in to criticise the constructors of the test track, for their method of connection was different to the more robust system we have substituted.

You can see that there is quite a track step at this particular baseboard joint, but it is equally obvious that it will be a relatively easy job to fix it. Straightening the track should also be possible. Don't be misled by these two photos, this test track has given hours of fun and entertainment both to its builders and other folks who used its facilities and did the job for which it was intended. But now its going to have to do another job as well and will be subject to even more hurley-burley when it's shifted about, so we have to try and make it fit for purpose.

The point of putting these photos in here and not in the Club Goings On page is that elements of the test track do form part of the additions to Hazelhurst and that it was actually up and running. I'm sure that Mike will have put photos of some of the locos that were trotting about on that page. He also made a point which was that he's been a member of the club for Donkey's Years but it's the first time that he's played trains just for the hell of it without an exhibition being in the offing. And do you know what? He's right.

Shame we have to wait until all the Bingo players have gone. Ten o'clock-ish is a bit late to start.

No photos again. Timberwork is hardly exciting. Seen one piece of wood, you've seen 'em all. At any rate, all trestles have now been finished except for putting in the cross piece which determines the splay of the legs and therefore the height of the trestle trough. That won't take too long as Ray has already ferreted out some suitable timber. Then, it's on with the baseboards again. First job is to rip some timber down to 5" width. This is for the baseboard ends. Then we can contemplate assembling the things and consider a minor problem. Where are four baseboards nominally 7'x3' going to go? Now that's a question. Even more of a question is where are the new build baseboards for "Little Mill" going to go when that gets underway? Sky Hooks or the purchase of a Tardis?

Dave has written the Club's Going's On part this week which leaves me with nothing new to report. Ray and Tony T shifted more timber and turned them into trestles, so we are gradually getting there. Some of the trestles were used by Steve who was renewing the wiring in the test track. At least, at the moment, they are high enough to work at a very sensible height!

I've had to write the "Club Goings On" bit this week, so progress on Hazelhurst is mentioned there.

More pictures further down page. These were taken by Jeff when we were at Bristol and the colour cast is a consequence of the lighting in the exhibition hall. It proved to be difficult to remove.

As I mentioned, the six trestles have been built, but we have decided to build the remaining eight. This will be cost effective for they will support the test track, the new extension to Hazelhurst and the new project which the club is aiming to produce. Ray has taken on this extra build and fourteen of the twenty-four extra legs have been cut. He would have done more but we ran out of another £14's worth of timber. I said the stuff was expensive.

At any rate, enough of that. We have started the fiddle yard baseboards for Hazelhurst, too. There's a few snaps which show the way we do things. Not very exciting, woodwork! But our methods cribbed from Barry Norman (with adaptations) allow us to build big baseboards which are strong but light. A necessary geriatric consideration that lightness bit.

Here's the basic bits for producing the baseboard sides. Two strips of 4mm ply, pre-cut to a 5" width by our friendly timber supplier and chopped off, by us, to a 7' length. We also need 2 of the 4 lengths of nominal 18mm x 18mm square section timber, some glue and staples, or in this case panel pins.

And this is what we do to it. The timber is glued and stapled or nailed to the outside edges and filler pieces of 70 x 18 mm are put in. You can see several of these along the length of the embryo side. The ones at the ends are there so that clips, hinges or whatever can be screwed into something solid. The other ones are positioned so that we can put in folding legs - if necessary, and have a proper chunk of wood for the pivot to fit in. You can just see the drawings for what we are doing behind the glue pot. Let's hope that I didn't make a mistake with these 'cos when the other piece of ply which is resting on the glue pot is fitted then that's it! You can't get in to make alterations.

Well, it was fitted and guess what? I left a panel pin inside so it's rattling about with no hope of escape. Never mind, I've left the side upright so the damn thing might find some squeezed-out glue and get itself stuck.

And that's our baseboard side. A strong, but light, beam, and only another seven to do before we consider the ends. Then there's the tops. 4mm ply again, but with some extras. But the ends of two of the boards have to fit the test track. That particular model railway bridge has been pondered upon and in theory crossed, but time will tell.

We said we have adapted Barry Norman's ideas. He uses nominal 1 x 1 as the filler pieces regularly spaced along the baseboard length. Glued and pinned filler pieces are obviously necessary to prevent the thin plywood from bellying outwards and allowing the side to flex along its length. Make no mistake, these flimsy appearing beams are seriously strong pieces of kit and two of them can support a considerable weight (me!) - far in excess of what we really need.

I haven't tarted up these photos, so verticals aren't, and parallax rules, OK?

Six trestles now built. Roll-on four baseboards for fiddle yard. The two end ones are going to be slightly different for they have to fit the test track. We might as well utilise the over-centre clips and electrical connectors to connect test track and new baseboards together. This means that the test track end of the new baseboards will have to be inset the width of the square secti......................... well, that's our worry. The more you ponder things the more problems you can see looming. Best not to think, and cross model railway bridges one by one when you get to them.

No report last week because nothing of real interest was done, just putting together the tops of the trestles. I managed to get it right this time. However, this week Ray and Tony T put a jig together which allows us to make the trestle legs easily. And the result is:

Sorry the image is a little blurred. A combination of shaky hands and a smeared camera lens.

But there you have it. The square sectioned timber on the ends of the test track baseboards (seen in Club Goings-On) fits in the trough, the trough stays level because it's hinged, the height is adjusted by moving the legs and the legs will be kept in position, finally, by the very sophisticated use of a bit of 1x1 and some Velcro. In conclusion, it's a tripod so that it'll stand on any hopefully not too rough floor. The cross brace seen on the pair of legs has been inset by 20 mm from the edge of the "uprights" so that if the legs do start to bend we can put on a strengthening and straightening strip of suitable 18mm timber. Only another five to do.

But, I was in the garden with our granddaughters last week and the weather was beautiful. Just the job for a barbeque with all the fellas from the club. And the test track up on the lawn running some choo-choos. Happy Days? It's not really my test track and Steve has a large garden, too. But let me see, another eight trestles would make the thing totally free-standi.............

Weeeeelllll. Progress of a more abstract but important nature this week. The designs for the Fiddle Yard folding-legged baseboards (including a free-stander) and trestles have been done and thought given to how all this is going to fit in a van. Some of the wood for the trestle tops was cut on a chop saw and I hinged two pieces together- and got it wrong. My drawings were OK, just my practical stupidity. At any rate a simple addition (courtesy of Steve Neill) to the test track support part of the trestles makes the finished job even better as a Test Track locator as well as support.

We may make more of these trestles than are necessary for the Hazelhurst project so that the whole Test Track is free standing and does not rely on tables as it does at the moment. The idea that a Test Track should be supported on tables isn't a silly one because it means that it can be set up by anyone, anywhere that has tables of similar height. It's worked this way in the past. Having trestles, however, steps up the transport problem. The amount of space needed, you see.

It’s said that a week in politics is a long time, and sometimes it’s the same in a model railway club. Someone was daft enough to have pondered on our club’s future and came up with a set of observations and proposals and, as is the way with our club, every one was entitled to their opinion. At any rate as far as this part of the site is concerned Hazelhurst is to be changed into a continuous run, just as the prototype was originally planned. However, the track plan, which existed when Hazelhurst was a terminus, makes a continuous run not impossible but quirky. The trackplan cannot easily be altered and in any case it would be purely fictitious and no longer be Hazelhurst. So, off we go. Four new baseboards, six new supports, a little bit of track and some more effort.

Thought. Our club room may be 40 odd feet long but it’s only 8 feet wide. Where can we put this thing up in its entirety?

Nowt much to report this week. As can be seen in other areas of this site, Friday evening was spent in lowering the lighting frames above the workbench so that they could be used as storage space for the new 7mm test track which arrived last week. The track was temporarily erected in the main hall of our Community Centre for a look see, and then taken down and put on the aforementioned lighting frames.

I wonder if it's a feasible option to think in terms of test track and Hazelhurst in the same neuromoment? Needs a lot of discussion at Club Level, that one.

Perhaps it would be a good notion to give an idea of what we are proposing to build, so I'm putting in a much reduced plan of the turnout arrangement on the actual yard. This was produced for us on Templot by Raymond Walley, and I lost the argument. All the single slips are B6's. The whole lot is about 11 foot long, but is extended by plain track ( to the right) to about 15 feet.

Not as good a picture as I was hoping for, but it was a screen grab and I did try to include all the vital bits. At any rate, the entrance to the yard from the scenic side of the layout is bottom left. We have actually altered the pointwork slightly here to allow us to store a long loco (eg. Merchant Navy) and enable us to bring it out onto the yard proper and back down onto its train in Siding 1 (from the bottom) without poking its flattened little smokebox door onto the visible portion of the layout.

The basic idea is that at the start of a session a complete train and loco is in the right hand part of the ladder and another engine is to the left. As the time table progresses the train ends up being drawn by the two locos. Of course, some of the left hand sidings are long enough to take short trains themselves, eg. EMU's, Push-Pulls and the like. If you are interested enough - and I'm not being sarcastic - you can work out that this is quite a flexible scheme and will allow trains of a substantial length for a 7mm Fiddle to Station layout to run. At least six coaches-perhaps even more.

So that's the plan. I've churned out the Templot working templates, the rail and copper clad sleeper strip has been purchased, so off we go. Baseboards first probably, but it'll all have to wait until the upheavals in the workroom have been finished. See other parts of the site to see what I mean.

First of all, I thought we'd have two photos showing how we transport the layouts, both 7 & 4mm. This is the 'flat-pack' frame that is erected inside the Hire Van. It's just been plonked down here. If you have to use a large van like this to transport your layout then it's worth thinking about something like this. It's not rocket science to design and only needs a bit of thought and measurement of the interiors of a few vans. The layout boards slide into position on the "shelves" when the whole things been put up and can't move because there are side and end stops on the frame. We've had no problems yet from transporting the layout.

Here's the frame erected, and you can see that the four scenic baseboards have been slid into position. Remember that these boards are 7' long by 3' wide. There's room underneath the rack, as you can see, for other boards, supporting beams, legs, lighting and so on, and plenty of room at the back (front?) for bulky stuff. There's our workbench, stockbox, seats etc. to go in and there's still more room if we want it. This is for a total layout length of 44'.

Both of these photographs were taken by Mike Garwood. I was lazing around at home with my feet up at the time.

Right back at the very beginning, the design was drawn accurately using 10:1 templates. The above are copies of just two parts of the wallpaper lining sheet with the templates glued to them. This allowed us to decide on baseboard sizes. The whole lot was then redrawn full size using the Templot Computer Program from Martin Wynne (85A MODELS). You will notice that the station building has been shown and also dimensions necessary to take a "Merchant Navy" in the Main, and an N1 in the Bay: a necessary and important set of dimensions for run-round purposes.

We're on to the next step here, and I guess that at some time most of us have done just this, although not necessarily with scratch built track. Pointwork has been built on templates off layout, some plain track (some fully soldered, some 25/75% soldered/glued) has been built as half track and some as straight panels. All is now laid, glued and pinned into position. You can see that the Brooke Smith style soldered pointwork still has to be chaired, and what a joyous task that was with each chair having to be split etc.,etc. Because we used Slater's plywood sleepers, rivets and C&L Chairs and rail it was best to glue the chairs in with a good splodge of Mek to "weld" it into the wood grain. Using superglue usually terminally damaged the sleeper if adjustments had to be made. Mek fixed chairs simply 'sprung' off, usually into oblivion.

Most of the trackwork is in now, and the curious structure on the left was a little bit of whimsy to see if clearances were OK in the Slaughterhouse and Meat Factory area. As it says ' No cow too big, no lamb too small' and 'Abaa-baandon hope all ewes who enter here'.

And another pretty picture this time looking towards the station area. This gives an indication why we can only have one layout up at a time. The layout room may be 40 odd feet long but it's only 8 feet wide. Thank goodness we have another adjacent work room handy.

Try to ignore the coats hanging up in the background. The real purpose of this photo is to show that the carcasses of the buildings were built from thin ply and then clad. To give the effect of concrete a thin mixture of fireclay and Evo-W did the business. In other areas PlastiKard or its equivalent was used. Using 4mm ply like this stopped warping problems that can be troublesome in laminated plastic constructions.

Platforms were also built from 4mm ply but were supported along their whole length by polystyrene foam sheet. This provided more than ample support and caused few problems even when we had to dig some of it out to install point motors under the platform area itself.

There's a dearth of photograph's showing stock on this layout. That's down to me I'm afraid. For one reason or another it wasn't possible for me to take pictures when the good stuff was about, so I put in this one as an example of the sort of thing you could expect to see. Nowadays it's properly painted. Both the "Schools" and the "U" are David Andrews kits.

The point of this photo is to show that we are not averse to using good quality cardboard as a building medium but also that the bogie lurking to the left of the photo played an important role, as you might expect, in track construction. It's a 7mm version of Mike Trice's 4mm torsion bogie. It was club made and as built showed certain limitations for 7mm use.

As you can see the model station building at Hazelhurst is inset into the platform and has been wired for lights. As yet these have not been connected. The meat cannery has been 'painted' with fireclay and Evo-W, and the brickwork and windows inserted. A broken pane was converted into a ventilator. The fencing at the front was jig-bent up and soldered together. It seemed as if yards of this stuff was necessary and the treasurer let us know how pleased he was when the last soldered joint was made.

The model on the right is now a plywood shell clad with plastic sheet. It looks a bit more like the Spong Leather Products Factory (on the right) and the Glue Works (Tiger Glue - Holding The Empire Together) to the left, which were at Hazelhurst in 1956. Painted wall adverts are in the process of being applied which explains the film on them. These were club produced using Decal Paper.

The Slaughter House and corrugated iron Bone Shed providing the raw materials for these businesses are behind the wagons

There's a 2-Bil at the platform end. What's obviously missing is mentioned with the close up photo of it later on. The back of the Engine Men's Warning Board is prominent, too, and the trackwork and ballast has been sprayed overall, in some parts a "tracky" hue, and in others where locos might stand, a more greasy, dirty black sludgy colour.

I was away from the club for some time when this took place and when I returned it was this which grabbed my attention first. The difference it made to the layout was tremendous. Notice that I did say spraying overall, and not simply picking out the chairs with rusty paint. Our guides in this matter were the coloured photographs in Michael Welch's "A Southern Electric Album". Worth a look, if you can.

I'm putting in graphics for the Tiger Glue and Spong's Leather Products. Tiger Glue is for printing on the decal paper & Spong's is shown as applied to SE Finecast brickwork. There is only a small amount of deliberate distressing.

Both the Tiger Glue and the Spong's motif were produced using information found in "Kelley's Directory" for 1910 and both are certainly a bit "off". ("Kellys Directory" was basically a black and white publication). Certainly the font for Spong's is marginally wrong, but the text is correct.

These two photographs show the Warehouse at Hazelhurst. This is the only completely original Belle Vue & South Coast Direct Railway building found in Hazelhurst in 1956, and lasted beyond the railway's closure. It's listed, now, and can be found behind the Tesco 24 hr. Store.

I've put in two photographs here, and to be honest neither one is too brilliant, but they do show a peculiarity. It's obvious that the tank is not the original because it doesn't fit! The LSWR replaced the original when it was only 30 years old with a tank made from standard LSWR cast iron panels. We know this to be so because there's an LSW plate on it saying that it was made in

But, and it's a big but, there was only one water column at Hazelhurst and you can see it in this photo. This served the shed. They say that hope springs eternal, etc, so was the water tower/tank built in expectation that the line would continue on to the South and that Hazelhurst would become a watering stop with columns on the platforms? All very confusing!

The next photo shows the tank in its weathered condition with the very chunky, wooden coaling stage and hand powered coal hoist that sufficed for the small engines that visited this shed. There is too much flare really for this photo to be of any great value, and the light from one of the club's fluorescents has done a good job on burning out the detail on the lamp top and the top of the hoist, but you still can see the off-set of the tank to the tower.

The next photo, obviously taken in the other direction gives a slightly better view of the thing. Actually, the prime mover is not attached to the traverser deck at the front, but by the rods which you can see coming from the back. The photo was taken before the standard Southern 4'6" Panel Fence was put in to the left of the traverser pit.

The distance shows the off-set tank and the Gresley Full Brake. The Tank is mentioned in another set of pictures, but the Gresley Brake is there because older local railwaymen said it appeared at the carriage works during the war after being damaged in the same York bombing raid which destroyed A4, "Sir Ralph Wedgewood". The damage was too structurally severe to allow further railway use and it replaced an older LSW Van. Don't believe it myself.


	What do you do?